Martin among this weekend’s elite freshmen
By: Justin Feil
When the Princeton University men’s basketball team travels north to face Brown 7 p.m. Friday and Yale 7 p.m. Saturday, it will put some of the Ivy League’s top freshmen on display in the same arenas.
And that’s fine with Dominick Martin, the Princeton freshman center who has started nine games for the Tigers. He came to Old Nassau as highly touted as Jason Forte was for Brown and Edwin Draughan was for Yale.
"It’s got to be motivation," said Martin, who was recruited by Stanford among other schools. "Especially with these games. You hear how good they are. You want to prove that you’re better."
Forte has been named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week four times and even the league’s Player of the Week once while Draughan has three times been the Ivy League Rookie of the Week. Princeton has yet to have a player be named Rookie or Player of the Week this season.
More important than that to the Tigers is the one-game Ivy League lead they have over Yale and two-game lead they have over Brown, Harvard and Pennsylvania. Princeton is 9-7 overall, 4-0 in the Ivies. Brown is 13-6 overall, 4-2 in the Ivies. Yale is 13-7 overall, 5-1 in league.
"This is probably the hardest weekend for us," Martin said. "Being on the road and all, and with these teams having their backs against the wall. We have to match their intensity. We have to since we’re on the road."
Princeton is 2-0 on the road in the Ivy League after opening the season 0-6 away from Jadwin Gym. Princeton swept both Brown and Yale last season, but it has had its problems with both teams on the road in the past. The Tigers have won the last 13 games with Brown, but before that, the Tigers had lost three straight at the Pizzitola Sports Center in Providence. Princeton had dropped two straight at the John J. Lee Amphitheater before winning last season over the Bulldogs.
"Every place you have to find a way to win on the road," said PU head coach John Thompson. "In our league, every place is difficult. Brown and Yale, we were fortunate to win there last year. But there was a stretch where we lost three or four in a row at Brown in the early ’90s. We lost at Dartmouth and Cornell last year, so road games are difficult. I don’t think any one guy or one trip is more difficult. It just takes a higher level of focus."
Princeton comes off an impressive weekend that made Jadwin into a house of horrors for Columbia and Cornell. Neither team topped 41 points in losses to the Tigers, who are now first in the nation in scoring defense. This weekend will test that ranking.
"I think both teams want to push the ball and want to get up and down the floor," Thompson said. "They try to create easy baskets in transition. Once again, our defense will be the key. What’s important is that we stop their transition baskets and play solid half-court defense."
Thompson does not worry so much about the offense. The Tigers don’t have one active player who is averaging even nine points per game, but Princeton has found a different top scorer in eight of the last nine games.
"That’s been consistent the past two years," Thompson noted. "The guys have confidence in each other. They’re doing a good job of figuring out who has the mismatch, figuring out where we might have an advantage. I feel comfortable with any number of our guys being that person."
Martin has come in to fill a hole at the center position. The 6-foot-10 freshman is averaging 3.6 point per game to go with 2.3 rebounds per game. But he’s helping the Tigers in ways that statistics don’t always show.
"His presence is important," Thompson said. "He takes up space. He clogs things up on defense. Offensively, he’s progressed with each weekend. He’s getting more comfortable with our guys and they’re getting more comfortable with him.
"He’s not ready to be that dominant center yet, but we do expect that of him. He just needs time and experience. He needs to play. He’s going to be a very good center."
This weekend, he won’t be matching up against Forte or Draughan, both who are guards, but instead he’ll face some smaller centers. Brown has 6-foot-7 Alai Nuualiitia, who is averaging 11.8 points and 6.0 rebounds per game. Yale has 6-foot-8 T.J. McHugh, who was Ivy League Player of the Week last week as the Bulldogs swept Harvard and Dartmouth.
Brown has three players who average more than 11.3 points per game, while Yale, a team without a senior, has five players who average 9.6 points per game. But Martin is confident that the Tigers can slow down both teams.
"We’ve been working on getting back on defense," he said. "I think we’re playing better as a team. We’re jelling as a team. We’re peaking at the right time. There’s always room for improvement. We need to work on our zone defense. In the past weekends, we’ve played a lot of man, but we might use more zone.
"These are big games. In these situations, teams have to play their best. The next couple games are going to be really important."