K-State notebook: Martin savors Grant's success at Alabama
Kansas State coach Frank Martin expected the usual talk radio banter when he agreed to an interview Tuesday morning.
To his surprise, the voice on the other line belonged to Anthony Grant, Martin’s longtime friend and the new head coach at Alabama.
“Some radio station set it up where neither he or I knew we were both going to be on the air at the same time,” Martin said. “He’s a dear friend and has been one for 28, 29 years now. I couldn’t be happier for him. Alabama’s lucky to have him.”
If you dig out a Miami Senior High yearbook from 1983, you’ll find senior pictures of both Martin and Grant. Twenty-five years later, they’re part of the relatively small fraternity of major-conference head coaches.
Grant was, by all accounts, the superior basketball player for Miami Senior. As coaches, though, they share some striking similarities.
“If you watch his team play and you watch us play, we (emphasize) the defensive side of the ball first and we believe in depth, pressure and all those things,” Martin said. “I think we’re somewhat similar.”
Grant and Martin coached together as assistants at Miami Senior before moving to the college ranks. Grant worked for Billy Donovan at Marshall, then spent 10 seasons on Donovan’s Florida staff before replacing Jeff Capel as the head coach at VCU. Grant led VCU to a 76-25 record and two NCAA Tournament appearances in his three seasons, notching a first-round win over Duke in 2007.
“I know he’s got an unbelievable work ethic and an unbelievable passion,” Martin said. “I’d like to think that mine are up there with his. I wear my emotions on my sleeve a lot more than him, but I think we coach the game the way we learned it when we were young, and it stuck with us forever.”
Martin, Clemente to talk NBA
Martin said he will meet with point guard Denis Clemente sometime in the next week, and Clemente’s pro prospects will be one topic of conversation.
As of right now, though, Martin said there has been no discussion of the junior point guard testing the NBA waters or exploring other pro options.
“His whole mindset is to just remove himself from this season and rest his body, because he took a beating this season,” Martin said. “I’m sure sometime in the next week or so when I huddle up with our players individually and meet with him, that’s a topic we’ll talk about. For me to comment either way right now, I’d be lying to you, because I haven’t talked to him about it.”
The NBA draft rules make it relatively easy for juniors to test the waters and then return for their senior seasons. Martin said he has an opinion on Clemente’s situation, but he’ll wait to share it until the two meet one-on-one.
“I don’t need to share my opinion with him until he has a feel for what he wants to do,” Martin said. “We’re a week removed from losing our last game. He invested a lot of himself into helping us become a good team. He’s just kind of relaxing and separating himself from this season.”
Clemente averaged 15 points per game this season, and his scoring average climbed to more than 18 points in Big 12 play. He also was named the league’s newcomer of the year. NBAdraft.net and draftexpress.com do not list Clemente among their top junior prospects.
Cousins on the market again
Kansas isn’t the only school that stands to benefit from John Calipari’s departure from Memphis. Calipari’s move could put K-State back in the running for DeMarcus Cousins, the No. 2 player in the 2009 class according to Rivals.com.
Cousins, a 6-foot-9 forward from LeFlore, Ala., was committed to Memphis but had not signed a letter of intent. He told reporters at the McDonald’s All-American game that he now will re-open his recruitment.
“They would be back in the picture because I have a great relationship with the coaches at Kansas State and Washington,’’ Cousins told Scout.com.
Cousins previously committed to UAB but refused to sign because the school would not allow him to sign elsewhere if coach Mike Davis did not return.
Austin Meek can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org