TSN/Monte Carlo's All-America Basketball Team

Sporting News, The, March 20, 2000

The national race for college basketball player of the year ended weeks ago. The race for freshman of the year had a few more contenders. But the field has been wide open for coach of the year, as reflected by the ballots of the Division I coaches from the nation's top 12 conferences who were surveyed for the TSN/Monte Carlo All-America basketball awards.

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

MARTIN

Kenyon Martin sat two weeks from the beginning of his final season with the Cincinnati Bearcats when he started the most curious conversation.

He mentioned he had seen the list of nominees for one of the major player of the year trophies, on which his name was included, and that no particular player seemed to be well ahead of the field. This just wasn't like Martin, who so studiously avoided stardom he entered the season with a career average of fewer than six shots a game.

"It's up in the air," Martin, a 6-9, 230-pound center, said that afternoon, "so I've got a legitimate shot of winning."

He then took care of it. Martin's frenetic February, during which he averaged 24.3 points and 12.9 rebounds and set a career scoring high twice, made Martin and the Bearcats an NCAA Tournament favorite. There was little doubt among the nation's coaches for THE SPORTING NEWS/Monte Carlo Player of the Year. Martin got 53 votes from the 65 coaches who returned ballots.

But even more abruptly than his rise to prominence, Martin's season ended when he suffered a broken right leg in his first game in the Conference USA tournament.

Martin, 23, admits he frequently was "passive" his junior year, when he averaged 10.1 points. But he was so dominant defensively, he still made first-team All-Conference USA. But when he was placed in the company of some of the nation's best players--Michael Redd and Scoonie Penn of Ohio State, Chris Mihm of Texas and Chris Carrawell of Duke--to compete in the World University Games, he broke out offensively. Martin led the team in scoring, earned a gold medal and began to understand what he could accomplish.

"It started in Spain," says teammate Pete Mickeal. "That got his confidence going."

Martin averaged 12.9 shots this season, more than twice his career average, and his shooting percentage remained high at .571. All along, Martin's coaches knew it wasn't about what he could do but what he would do. He became extremely adept at establishing post position at the 8-foot mark, then elevating for nearly unblockable turnaround jumpers or making a one-dribble move to the goal.

Coach Bob Huggins always says Martin's most appealing quality as a player is not his leaping ability, which allows him to jump higher and faster than most players his size, nor his timing in blocking shots. "He is," Huggins says, "maybe the greatest listener I've ever coached."

This season, Huggins asked Martin to become a star. So he did.

--Mike DeCourcy

First Team

Pos.   Player             School             Ht./Wt.       Year

G      Mateen Cleaves     Michigan State     6-2/195      Senior
G      A.J. Guyton        Indiana            6-1/175      Senior
G/F    Chris Carrawell    Duke               6-6/215      Senior
F/G    Morris Peterson    Michigan State     6-6/215      Senior
C      Kenyon Martin      Cincinnati         6-9/230      Senior

Second Team

Pos.   Player             School             Ht./Wt.      Year

G      Scoonie Penn       Ohio State         5-10/185     Senior
F      Troy Murphy        Notre Dame         6-9/225      Soph.
F      Shane Battier      Duke               6-8/220      Junior
F      Marcus Fizer       Iowa State         6-8/265      Junior
C      Chris Mihm         Texas              7-0/262      Junior

Others receiving multiple votes: Courtney Alexander, Fresno St.; Erick Barkley, St. John's; Ed Cota, North Carolina; Khalid El-Amin, Connecticut; Tony Harris, Tennessee; Eddie House, Arizona St.; Dan Langhi, Vanderbilt; Desmond Mason, Oklahoma St.; Mark Madsen, Stanford; Eduardo Najera, Oklahoma; Chris Porter, Auburn; Michael Redd, Ohio St.; Quentin Richardson, DePaul; Pepe Sanchez, Temple; Brian Scalabrine, USC; Stromile Swift, LSU; Etan Thomas, Syracuse; Loren Woods, Arizona.

Fans' All-American Awards

How do your votes compare to the coaches'? Sportingnews.com and yahoo.com asked users for their picks for the college basketball awards. Here is how 12,505 voters responded:

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

1. Kenyon Martin, Cincinnati              3,364
2, Eduardo Najera, Oklahoma               2,091
3. A.J. Guton, Indiana                    1,791

FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR

1. Jason Williams, Duke                     957
2. Jason Gardner, Arizona                   776
3. DerMarr Johnson, Cincinnati              752

COACH OF THE YEAR

1. John Brady, LSU                        2,617
2. Larry Eustachy, Iowa St.               1,163
3. Mike Krzyzewski, Duke                    909

FIRST TEAM -- Pepe Sanchez, PG, Temple; A.J. Guyton, SG, Indiana; Morris Peterson, F/G, Michigan State; Stromile Swift, PF, LSU; Kenyon Martin, C, Cincinnati.

SECOND TEAM -- Scoonie Penn, PG, Ohio State; Monty Mack, SG, Massachusetts; Chris Carrawell, G/F, Duke; Marcus Fizer, PF, iowa State; Chris Mihm, C, Texas.