Former Lion ready for shot at March Madness with Boise State

Mar. 13—Cam Martin played in the Division II national tournament during the 2018-19 season with Missouri Southern State University. Now he's trying to get there at the Division I level as a part of the Boise State Broncos' men's basketball program.

"The big reason I decided to go to Kansas is because I wanted to play in March Madness in Division I," Martin said. "I got experience in it at that level, but it's not the same as playing, so I'm super excited to be able to play in it."

Martin spent the two seasons prior to this one at the University of Kansas but was redshirted in his first year and then earned a medical redshirt last year with a shoulder injury. He's is in his final year of college basketball and leads Boise State in assists in the midst of a successful campaign.

He's averaging 2.5 assists per game with a total of 75 dimes in 30 games. He's also averaging 5.2 points per game and 4.4 rebounds a contest while playing 17.5 minutes per game off the bench.

The Broncos are 22-9 overall — 13-5 in Mountain West Conference play — and earned the third seed in the MWC tournament this week. They have won six of their last seven games as well.

Martin talked about this year being a struggle for him despite being a part of such success.

"From an individual standpoint, it's definitely been the hardest year of my basketball career," Martin said. "I separated my shoulder last year at KU. I didn't get surgery. Tried healing it without the surgery. I found out when I got to Boise (Idaho) in August that I needed surgery."

Martin knew that would cause a setback and force him to miss some games in the early part of the season. He says the shoulder has gotten worse throughout the year, but he's still holding off until after the season ends to have surgery.

The seventh-year veteran has not been able to shoot the ball much due to his injury. He noted that the pain and discomfort has led to inaccuracy when he does shoot.

"I can't even shoot the ball anymore because of pain and accuracywise," Martin said. "My whole career, I feel like what's separated me from others is my work ethic and being in the gym more than the next. This season I haven't went to the gym once outside of practice because I can't shoot without pain."

Martin is in an unusual spot right now. He averaged 23.7 ppg at MSSU while pulling down more than nine rebounds per contest for a near double-double average. Being a pass-first player is what he's learned to do through this injury.

"That's been a big thing for me this year, knowing that I can't score the ball like I could, I can't shoot it like I could, so I've been impacting the game with my defense, rebounding and assists," he added.

Martin said midway through the season he considered sitting it out and having surgery. He could have gotten a medical redshirt and been granted another year of eligibility if he went that route, but he spoke with head coach Leon Rice and was convinced to stick it out.

Rice encouraged Martin to take the pressure off and stop trying to be the player he was with a score-first mentality. The coach saw value in having Martin be a part of the team and playing as a role player and knew he needed him for that.

There isn't much season left at this point. There's the conference tournament this week and then March Madness after that and however long Boise State can last in that tournament will determine how much longer the season is for Martin.

"There's a lot of excitement. This team has a big chip on its shoulder," Martin said. "We've been overlooked all year. ... It gives us that chip on our shoulder, and we want to keep playing with that chip on our shoulder and go surprise some people."

BSU is projected to be an eight-seed in the East Region by ESPN's expert Joe Lunardi in Tuesday's most recent projections of Bracketology. That would put Martin and the Broncos up against nine-seed Nebraska in the first round in Brooklyn, New York.

Martin says the team, including coach Rice, feels as if its spot in the NCAA Tournament was secured with its last win at No. 21 San Diego State in overtime.

But that's just a projection. Boise State will still be battling to earn that seeding or better.

"Our mindset for the conference tournament is to prove our seeding and get a few extra quad 1 wins," Martin said.

A quad 1 win is a victory over a team that is labeled in quadrant 1 of the NCAA Evaluation Tool. That is how experts grade team's wins and losses. Quad 1 wins are important, and avoiding quad 3 and 4 losses is equally important.