Editor’s note: Longtime Baton Rouge sportswriter, author and television host Lee Feinswog takes his unique approach to sports to dig deeper into LSU Athletics. Look for these features online and in official athletics department publications throughout the 2014-15 season.
Heck, he didn’t even make the ESPN broadcast.
No, the network was finishing another game and when it finally switched over to LSU at UMass 33 seconds into the 2013-14 season opener, Jarell Martin was already on the bench, nursing what turned out to be a pretty badly sprained ankle.
The highly touted freshman never returned as LSU lost, 92-90, failing to win its first season opener in 18 years.
And the Tigers were suddenly without the 6-foot-10 product of Baton Rouge’s Madison Prep who was penciled in for immediate stardom.
“Being from here, I had a lot of expectations,” Martin said. “Sometimes a lot of that pressure got to me, and I was rushing things a lot. I realized that I had to settle down and block out everything and just play.”
Indeed, stardom doesn’t come as easily as most freshmen think and especially not when you get hurt in the first few seconds of the season.
Accordingly, it took a long time for Martin to recover and show the flashes of brilliance that now, a year later, make most observers think he’s ready for a breakout sophomore season.
First the freshman numbers:
Martin averaged 10.3 points and 4.6 rebounds while playing 26 minutes a game, but it wasn’t until the latter half of the season that he seemed comfortable and adjusted to the college game.
“When we took Jarell we thought he might play the four for us,” LSU coach Johnny Jones said.
But another highly touted freshman, Jordan Mickey, emerged in a hurry as an inside force. For that matter, the product of Dallas sparked talk about whether or not he should leave after last season for the NBA. So he played inside; Martin got sent outside. They knew each other from the AAU circuit as prep players but had never talked about going to LSU together.
“But I was pretty happy to see it happen,” Mickey said.
So were his coaches, but it changed things for Martin.
“That put Jarell in a situation of him playing out on the perimeter where he wasn’t comfortable, because that wasn’t where he played in high school,” Jones said. “So we tried to get him to adapt to playing the three. It took him a while to get over his ankle injury, too, and when he came back he wasn’t 100 percent. It took him a while.
“But I have to commend him, because even as a freshman he had to learn two positions that were really opposite … But he was really able to pass that test.”
Indeed, because Martin has a nice stroke from the outside. He shot 33 percent from 3-point range, not the least of which was a 4-for-5 performance outside the arc against Texas A&M.
But his season was marked with inconsistencies, especially on offense. Martin only hit more than half his shots in eight of the 32 games in which he played, and if you made a graph of his scoring totals it would look like a roller coaster. But he saved his best for last, averaging 12.3 points in LSU’s last 10 games, including the NIT.
“When he came into his own and really grasp what he had to do and not think of it as much,” Jones said, “I thought he became one of our best players at the end of the season.”
At LSU media day this week, Martin reflected on the past year, starting with that fateful moment at UMass.
“I had a fast break,” he recalled. “I want to say (Anthony) Hickey kicked it out to me and I was going up for a dunk and one of the players on the UMass team went under me and I landed wrong.”
At the time, it didn’t look that bad nor feel that way to Martin, the Louisiana Sports Writers Association’s top prep player in 2013 after Madison Prep won the Class B state title.
“My adrenaline was rushing at that time (the ankle) didn’t feel like it was a major injury,” Martin said. “I thought I was going to be able to play through it, but after I went to the sidelines and sat down, it started getting stiff and I couldn’t play on it.”
He missed two games after that and returned, not without pain.
“It definitely was a disappointment,” Martin said.
He said it was at least three weeks before it felt right and a look back at his performances in December reflect as much. For example, he had 15 points against St. Joseph’s, three against Louisiana-Monroe and two against Texas Tech.
“I ended up tweaking it a couple times, too, but eventually it got better. I wasn’t able to cut on it, make sharp cuts.
Now, he says, the ankle couldn’t be better. But that’s not why we should expect to see an improved player this season.
“I’m quicker. I lost a lot of weight. I’m more flexible and that definitely helps.”
He lost between 15 and 18 pounds, he said, by simply working out more, not by eating less or changing his diet.
The sports administration major admitted that Jones was right, it was hard to learn two positions in college.
“It definitely was a big challenge, learning how to play on the wing and down low,” Martin said. “I definitely had to try not to rush things and let it come to me.”
Easier said than done, of course. But now, with a team that features three experienced sophomores who will factor in – Martin, Mickey and guard Tim Quarterman – plus first-year sophomore Brian Bridgewater, has high hopes. Throw in a couple of freshmen who should make a big impact and two transfers that surely will in guards Josh Gray and Keith Hornsby and Martin should be able to settle in from the start.
“He’s a great player,” Mickey said, “and he has skills people don’t even know he has.”
“We’re going to be real good this year,” he said. “We worked really hard in the offseason and preseason and I’m very confident in my team. We’re just going to go out there and leave everything out on the floor.”
Mickey said that one reason he didn’t leave for the NBA was to make it to the NCAA Tournament, something LSU hasn’t done since 2009 and only five times since 1993, when it made it 10 years in a row.
Martin’s done his part. He said because of his dedicated offseason he’s more explosive and ready to improve on LSU’s 20-14 record last year that ended with a second-round NIT defeat to SMU.
“My shooting percentage has gotten better. I’m knocking down a lot of shots in practice,” said Martin, who made 47 percent of his shots from the field last season. “And I’m attacking the goal better.”
By the way, Martin’s name also came up as a possible player to leave college after his freshman year. Does he see the NBA in his future?
“Yes sir, with my versatility and stuff, I definitely feel I can play in the NBA.”
Perhaps, but not last season.
“It came up, but I had to block that out because that was another thing that put pressure on me and made me not being focused for the games and stuff. I had to block all that out and stop worrying about it and focus on the games and what was happening right now. And worry about what was going on later in the future.”
With the 2014-15 season opener a month away, that future is now.
“I think you’ll see a really improved Jarell Martin and we’re really excited about that,” Jones said. “He showed some glimpses last year, but unfortunately he was hurt and trying to learn new positions on the floor.
“I thought he excelled in it and made the all-freshman team in our league with all the great freshmen we had and we’re looking for some big things from him this year.”