DePaul Recruiting, Louisville Recruiting, Matt Whitfield, Notre Dame Recruiting

CATCHING UP WITH JUSTIN MARTIN

Former Louisville verbal commit preparing for a busy month of July

by MATT WHITFIELD

Lawrence North of Indianapolis is known as one of the most prestigious high school basketball programs, not only in the state of Indiana, but nationally. Greg Oden and Mike Conley have come through these halls, as has Eric Montross and 2009 Louisville signee Stephan Van Treese.

This coming year, like 2006 all over again with Oden and Conley, Lawrence North will be graduating another pair of premier basketball recruits in Dominque Ferguson and Justin Martin, not to mention underclass stars Michael Chandler and Ryan Taylor, who are both verbally committed to Louisville, make the nucleus of one of the nation’s premiere teams.

Martin looked like he would be another headed from Indianapolis to Louisville as he made an early commitmed to Rick Pitino’s program last year. However, that might no longer be the case as he recently decommitted from the Cards about a month ago. NBE caught up with Martin rcently at the NBA Top 100 Camp at the University of Virginia to see where things stand as far as his recruitment.

“Ever since I decommited I haven’t had any contact with Louisville,” the 6-foot-6 small forward told NBE. “I told them I want them to still recruit me, but I’m not going to hold that against them. I still like Louisville and their coaching staff.”

Martin stated to NBE his decomittmernt was a ‘family decision’ and had nothing to do with Jeremy Tyler going overseas. Since reopening his recruitment, he has not hear from the staff at U of L, who used to be in contact at least once a week prior.

“Before I committed to Louisville it was between Xavier and Louisville,” and now “I just try and take it slow,” stated Martin.

As far as other schools go Martin told NBE, “so far I’m just hearing from schools. They want to see me play this summer, so I haven’t really received any offers, except for Miami (Fl), Arizona and Xavier.”

Martin also indicated at the NBA Top 100 camp that he has heard from Notre Dame and DePaul in the time since his de-commitment, as well as schools from several other conferences.

For Martin, who dreamed of going to North Carolina, but now sees that as an unlikely destination, there’s no real conference of choice with him.

“I just want to play in a good conference with good basketball, compete, and I wanna win a championship and just come in (and) play right away and contribute to my team and make them better right away,” stated Martin.

Martin who told NBE he thinks he’ll grow to 6’8 or 6’9 said he hasn’t taken any visits yet either, even still though he is already aware of what’s most important to him during his recruitment process.

“The relationship with the coaches, playing time, and the people around me,” stated Martin.

Coming off his teams hard loss to Franklin Central in the Indiana Regional Championship game, Martin added to NBE what he wants to work on for the upcoming basketball season and before he gets to college.

“Becoming a more complete player, you know ball handling, rebounding and playing better defense,” Martin said.

For now Martin is preparing for a busy summer period, which has already taken him to France for five games, where college coaches will likely be following him closely as he looks to re-start his recruitment that has been on hold in the months he was committed to U of L back in November. Since coaches were not on the road in April at AAU events, they will likely use July to get re-acquainted with the small forward with loads of potential.

Big East Football Season Ticket Links

2009 Cincinnati Bearcats Football Tickets – Season Package


2009 Connecticut Huskies Football Tickets – Season Package


2009 Louisville Cardinals Football Tickets – Season Package


2009 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Football Tickets – Season Package


2009 Pittsburgh Panthers Football Tickets – Season Package


2009 Rutgers Scarlet Knights Football Tickets – Season Package


2009 Syracuse Orange Football Tickets – Season Package


2009 South Florida Bulls Football Tickets – Season Package


2009 West Virginia Mountaineers Football Tickets – Season Package

All individual games on sale too

Be Sociable, Share!

•