Saturday, April 01, 2000

Martin wins 3rd player of year award

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BY MIKE DeCOURCY
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Kenyon Martin is the first UC player to win the Adolph Rupp Trophy. (AP photo) | ZOOM |

        INDIANAPOLIS — There will be more than 40,000 spectators at the RCA Dome for today's Final Four basketball games. Kenyon Martin will not be among them.

        If his Cincinnati Bearcats teammates had made it to the RCA Dome, he happily would have watched them play. But even though he's in town for a busy weekend of award-accepting and public-appearing — he picked up the Adolph Rupp Trophy as the Associated Press player of the year Friday — Martin cannot picture himself in the stands this evening.

        “I'm staying away on purpose,” Martin said. “I'm going to the Pacers game.”

        Martin was the overwhelming winner of the Rupp award. He is the first UC player to win.

        To accept the Trophy, Martin had to lean against the table in front of him to keep from putting weight on his broken right leg.

        Martin was injured March 9 in UC's first Conference USA tournament game. In his absence, the Bearcats lost in the NCAA Tournament second round.

        He was voted the Rupp award on the basis of his regular-season dominance. It was his third player of the year award; the last to be announced, the John R. Wooden Award, will be revealed April 7 in Los Angeles.

        “I'd trade all of these in if I could play,” Martin said.

        DJ SPIN: Martin said he told former Bearcats teammate DerMarr Johnson to do what he thought was best for himself in regards to declaring for the NBA draft. Johnson announced this week he will not return to UC.

        But now that Johnson's going to be a pro, Martin plans to stay on top of Johnson in helping him to train for the draft and his NBA career. The two will work with the same agent, Los Angeles-based Dan Fegan, and Martin said he will spend time in California while Johnson is there.

        MISSING PIECE: The Associated Press is keeping secret the identity of the one voter who did not name Martin a first-team All-American, although it will say that person will not be asked back for another year as a panelist choosing the weekly Top 25.

        So whom did that person vote in Martin's place as an All-American center? Auburn's Mamadou N'diaye.

       

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