N.C.A.A. Men’s Championship Live: North Carolina, Kansas Play for Title
It has been only a few months since Remy Martin, Kansas’ star transfer guard, bumped knees with an opposing player, crumbled to the court and had his promising season turned on its head.
Martin, who was diagnosed with a bone bruise, was rendered largely unproductive for a while. He failed to reach double digits in scoring in January and February, and he spent lengthy minutes on the bench as he dealt with soreness.
Before his injury, Martin had been one of the biggest transfer acquisitions of the off-season, arriving after four seasons at Arizona State, and bringing the accolades of a co-Pac-12 Sixth Man of the Year and several All-Pac-12 selections with him.
Kansas appeared fine without him as it shared the Big 12 regular-season title with Baylor and earned a No. 1 seed in the tournament.
But since he has been healthy, Martin has been key to the Jayhawks’ run to the national title game as one of the most dynamic teams in the tournament. He averaged 17.5 points in Kansas’ first four games, powering Kansas past Creighton in the second round in a game that was much closer than the No. 1- seeded Jayhawks would have wanted.
“Remy deserves a lot of credit,” Kansas Coach Bill Self said after that game. “One, Remy doesn’t make excuses. Remy doesn’t like to tell anybody’s he’s hurt.”
He added: “I think we’re seeing what our team can be, if in fact, Remy is healthy. And it’s a different team than what we had a month ago.”
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/04/04/sports/unc-kansas-score