Playing Purdue no big deal for Notre Dame’s Scott Martin
By DOUG GRIFFITHS
ISL Assistant Editor
Notre Dame guard Scott Martin is approaching today’s game against his old team Purdue like just another game.
That might be hard for some to believe, but the Valparaiso native, who has already graduated from Notre Dame, says playing Matt Painter’s Boilermakers is really no big deal.
Why?
For starters, Robbie Hummel, JaJuan Johnson and E’Twaun Moore, who were all part of Martin’s freshman class in West Lafayette, in what seems like years ago, have all graduated. Plus, other than Painter, the entire Purdue coaching staff is different than the one that recruited Martin and who he played for as a rookie.
“There are still some people around, but in terms of their personnel playing wise, it’s a pretty different group there now that I’m not familiar with,” Martin explained. “Even offensively and defensively they’re doing some different things than when I was there. It’s a completely different look. It has changed a lot since I’ve been there.”
Notre Dame coach Mike Brey expects Martin to be amped up about playing his old team, but to keep it in check.
“I think he’ll be excited to play, but the veteran guy that he is and the demeanor he has, I think he’ll be stable,” Brey said. “If it was a younger player in this situation, I would be more concerned, but Scott has a lot of experience. He also knows that he has to be rock solid because he’s our captain and our guys really look to him.”
Even though Martin elected to transfer after his freshman season with Purdue becoming nationally prominent again back then, he admits to having many fond memories of his days in West Lafayette.
“Obviously I’m friends with Rob,” Martin said. “There were definitely some good times and big wins. I had a lot of friends that went to Purdue from high school. There were definitely some good days at Purdue and I enjoyed myself there.”
According to Martin, there are no hard feelings whatsoever with Painter or anyone connected with Purdue for that matter.
“It didn’t work out,” Martin said. “I don’t think anyone was too thrilled, but it’s just the way things happened and I don’t think anybody is bitter about it.”
Through the years, Painter admitted how difficult it was to replace Martin with another quality big man, especially when you consider Martin took the last scholarship available in that year’s class and Matt Howard, who Painter recruited heavily that year, eventually ended up at Butler.
Brey admitted that he should’ve exclusively recruited Martin instead of both he and Hummel.
“Obviously Rob was a great player,” Martin said. “I don’t think he (Brey) had much of a choice. You have to recruit Rob Hummel. Rob was a hell of a player.”
Martin, who enters today’s game against Purdue 24 points shy of 1,000 in his collegiate career, including 272 he scored in a Boilermaker uniform, still stays in contact with Hummel, who is now playing professionally in Spain. This week he didn’t hear from him though leading up to the Purdue game.
Had Martin chose Notre Dame out of high school, it’s no telling whether or not Howard would’ve ended up in a Boilermaker uniform, but he might have. Just think of what might have been …
