Senior tri-captain Dan Martin entered Tufts as a highly touted recruit. He left as the best player on the best team in Tufts history.
Martin led the Jumbos during their historic season with 17.1 points and 6.9 rebounds per game. He will graduate this spring after anchoring the team with the most wins in Tufts history. He was rewarded for his efforts with All-NESCAC First Team and D3hoops.com Third Team All-New England selections.
"He's literally everything to us," senior tri-captain Brian Fitzgerald said. "He's been a leader. He's our best player on the floor. He gets guys going. He's our rock."
After earning an honorable mention for the McDonald's All-America team as a senior at Philips Andover High School, Martin was recruited by every school in the NESCAC, except Trinity. Martin was also recruited by several Div. I schools, including Yale.
Martin chose Tufts because it was close to Boston and his home in Sandwich, Mass. Joining a team that was a few years removed from a 21-win year, Martin expected a big season.
Things did not go as planned for Martin or for the team however, as the 6'8" freshman injured his left ankle and missed his rookie season, while the Jumbos stumbled to a 12-13 record.
Martin looked for a fresh start as a sophomore, but despite playing in 25 games and starting 12, he watched as the Jumbos had their worst season since the 1970-71 campaign with an 8-17 record.
"[My career] started off really slow with injuries and a tough sophomore season, but last year coach did a good job of picking up new players and putting together a team that really likes to play together," Martin said.
With the team hitting rock bottom, things could only get better. And improve they did. Indeed, Sheldon's recruits, then-freshmen Ryan O'Keefe and Jake Weitzen, mixed well with key returnees, and the Jumbos began to experience success, going 16-10 in 2004-05 and winning seven NESCAC games. The team would lose leading scorer Reggie Stovell to graduation, but he left a lasting mark on the program.
"Reggie was the type of player that you wanted on your team because of his work ethic," Martin said. "He would go out during practice going as hard as he could and he would work after practice to the point that it was almost hindering him. He was the kind of player who wanted to win so much that he put it all on the line."
Under Stovell's leadership and guidance, Martin gradually improved as the season went on. In the first round of the NESCAC Tournament, Martin paced the Jumbos with 26 points and 15 rebounds in a 99-88 thrashing of Colby at Cousen's Gym.
Martin began working with a personal trainer and lifting weights religiously, and maintained his workout program over the summer.
"I realized what you need in this league to be successful is to be tall, strong athletic and have a knowledge about basketball," Martin said. "I figured what I really was missing from that was my strength."
The investment paid off quickly. After entering Tufts as a self-described "scrawny" freshman, listed at 6'8" and 195 pounds, Martin bulked up to a listed weight of 225 pounds.
"He's been lifting a lot," Fitzgerald said. "He's really made an effort to get a lot stronger and I think that's really helped his game a lot."
Martin's scoring average nearly doubled from nine points a game to over 17, and he became a much bigger player in the team's offense, as the Jumbos started trying to get the ball in Martin's hands on every possession.
"Our whole offense is surrounding him and feeding off him, emotionally too," Fitzgerald said. "You can't say enough about him."
As Martin started to take over the team, the Jumbos started to win games and finished the regular season at 19-5. After pounding Williams at home, the Jumbos traveled to Amherst and upset Trinity for the third time in two years to set up their first-ever NESCAC Championship appearance.
A long three with 30 seconds left in regulation by Amherst's John Casnocha dashed the Jumbos' title dreams, but the Jumbos recovered, winning two NCAA Tournament games and earning their first-ever bid to the Sweet 16.
Again, the Jumbos had the Jeffs on the ropes with a late four-point lead. Deja vu took over, however, as the Jeffs hit another big three, this time an improbable buzzer-beater, to send the game to overtime, where the Jeffs ended the Jumbos' season.
Martin struggled in his last game as a Jumbo, shooting three of 15 from the field, but he handled the sour ending with a sense of humor, recalling his 3-12 performance in the team's season opener, a 69-55 loss to Wittenburg.
"It was kind of like a full circle," Martin said. "It's tough going out that way knowing if I could have had a better game, could have put the ball in the hole a few times, we could've won."
Martin's departure leaves the Jumbos with a big hole in the middle. Sophomore Pat Sullivan appears to be the heir apparent, but the 6'9" center is untested. The team could get a big boost if senior-tri captain Brian Fitzgerald, who joined the Jumbos as a sophomore, uses his last year of eligibility to play for the Jumbos as a grad student.
"If he comes back, I think that's going to be what the team needs next year," Martin said. "They just need that one banger."
If not, the team will have to rely on the legacy of Martin's leadership to ensure that the momentum accrued over the past two years does not fizzle. His teammates will remember him as a great player, but also a great person.
"First and foremost, he's really just a great person," Fitzgerald said. "He had an amazing year. It couldn't have happened to a better guy."
