Tuesday, November 30, 1999
No man is island, but Kenyon's close
UC center clear tourney MVP
BY MIKE DeCOURCY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HILO, Hawaii — When Iowa State coach Larry Eustachy asked his two big men which of them planned to defend Bearcats center Kenyon Martin in the championship game of the Big Island Invitational, he might as well have asked for someone to step forward to disarm a land mine. No volunteers.
Marcus Fizer and Martin Rancik looked at each other and looked back at their coach. “Usually a guy will jump in and say, "I've got this guy,'” Eustachy said. “So I said, "Fizer, you've got him.' I'm not sure he was too excited about that.”
Martin wrecked each of the opponents who attempted to defend him during the tournament, which the No.1-ranked Bearcats (4-0) won Sunday with a 75-60 victory over the Cyclones. In three games, he averaged 20.3 points, 7.7 rebounds, 3.7 blocks and .657 shooting from the field. He was a unanimous selection as the tourney's MVP.
In the title game, he found a reserve of energy when his teammates were wilting in their third game in three days. The other Bearcats shot 5-of-14 in the second half, but Martin made half of his eight shots and scored 14 points.
They began to grow sluggish on the perimeter defensively, and power forwards Ryan Fletcher and Jermaine Tate labored to contain Fizer, one of the nation's top power forwards, who scored 26. Martin blocked six shots and grabbed eight rebounds in the final 20 minutes.
“He's quite a talent, Martin is,” Eustachy said. “We tried to tell our team, if you take it in there, it's going to be thrown back. And he threw nine of them back.”
Through four games, Martin is averaging 17 points, 7.3 rebounds and 3.5 blocks and shooting .634 from the field. He has become accurate as a turnaround jump-shooter from 14 feet and closer, hitting .634 from the field despite dunking only seven of his 26 baskets.
“You can't say enough about Kenyon. He really dominated underneath,” said teammate Ryan Fletcher. “He sets the tempo for us every time. It's not so much blocking shots but contesting shots. I think that's bigger, because a lot of times we don't get the blocks back. If he contests them, we're in the position to rebound them.”
The numbers don't say as much about his play as the fact he performed best in UC's first genuine test. Iowa State is not the best team in the Big 12 Conference, but the Cyclones ought to be competitive in the league and certainly better than the sub-.500 outfit they were a year ago.
“They control the tempo of the game,” Huggins said. “They make it a possession game and they rebound the ball so well. They're a very, very good rebounding team.”
Martin performed better against the Cyclones than against the mid-major opponents who faced UC in its first three games. They tried to match the Bearcats' physical style, and Martin believes that provided him an advantage.
“I think it takes away from what teams ordinarily do if they try to be physical with us,” Martin said. “We got better as the competition got better.
“We didn't play all that well, but we held our lead, sustained it and got a victory out of it.”
Huggins insists UC's perimeter defenders have not been adequate; they've allowed too many ballhandlers to penetrate the lane. Iowa State's Jamaal Tinsley scored eight points and passed for five assists with the Bearcats tiring in the second half.
At least part of that may be Martin's fault, though not his responsibility.
“Those guys have to move their feet better,” Huggins said. “They do it for a while, and then they kind of get tired and stand up. And, to a degree, they see No. 4's back there, so he kind of erases a lot of problems.”
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