By LARRY VAUGHT
Martels Carter is going to play defense at Kentucky but if he gets a chance to contribute on offense, he would love to do that also.
The 6-0, 195-pound freshman had 20 solo tackles, 12 assists and four tackles for loss in 13 games at Paducah Tilghman High School last season along with three interceptions. On offense, he ran 15 times for 127 yards and two scores and caught 44 passes for 659 yards and six scores. He also returned a kickoff for a score.
Carter doesn’t mind playing in the defensive secondary but also feels he is “incredible with the ball in my hands” when he gets the opportunities.
“I’m just taking it one day at a time, being real strong, going defense, and making my wishes known. Hopefully, they see what I’m doing on defense, and they start to roll me in on offense, too,” Carter said.
Carter was MVP of the Class 4A state championship game win over Franklin County when he had nine catches for 169 yards, five solo tackles, two assists and one tackle for loss.
“Winning state was our goal and I was so blessed to receive the MVP,” Carter said.
He was a four-star recruit who picked UK over Auburn, Clemson, Oregon, Tennessee and 50 other offers. Carter committed to Kentucky early but there were consistent rumors that he might flip his commitment when UK’s season did not go well.
“People talk, start rumors,” Carter said. “I knew this was home because I am a family guy and this felt like family. When my mom and dad also said this was the right place for me, I had no doubt in my heart.”
Carter didn’t make a lot of social media posts about his recruitment because he’s not a big “publicity guy” who spends a lot of time on social media.
“I didn’t talk about what people said to me, who offered me, things like that,” Carter said. “I just stayed quiet and made sure the main thing was to go out and ball out. But I was never going to change my commitment.”
Kentucky junior safety Ty Bryant, a state high school champion at Frederick Douglass his senior year, likes what he has seen from Carter, the state’s top-ranked recruit last year.
“He looks good. He’s got a drive about himself. A lot of people say that he reminds them of me when I first came in, but he’s much more talkative than I was, and that’s a good thing,” Bryant said. “He asks a lot of questions. I didn’t really ask too many questions.
“I kind of just tried to get it and if I went on the field and messed up, I messed up. He wants to get a good grasp it in the meeting room before we go on the field. He goes and flies around and makes plays.”
Carter played for his father at Brainerd High school in Chattanooga. His father played football at Austin Peay (1995-2000), his brother Deno Montgomery played football at Eastern Kentucky (2011-15) and his sister Kimia Carter played basketball at North Carolina Central (2019-23).
The Kentucky freshman and his family moved to Paducah for his junior season so his father could be closer to his doctor after suffering a stroke.
“It was a blessing playing for my dad but he was never easy on me,” Carter said. “If anything, he was way harder. He held me to a different kind of standard than other players and that made me a better player. But I do feel blessed I had that moment and chapter in my life with him coaching me because it made a big impact on my life.”
Carter said the move to Paducah was “one of the hardest chapters of my life” and that he ordinarily does not cry, he did shed tears over having to make the move.
“The move made me stronger,” the Kentucky defensive back said. “I had to step up as the young man of the household. It built my character and helped make me the man I am today. When you come into a new atmosphere (Paducah), you know zero about what to expect. I knew I was just going to play ball and God was going to be with him and make sure he bounced back.”
Paducah Tilghman coach Sean Thompson not only turned out to be the football coach Carter needed but also a mentor he needed.
“He just took me in. He talked to me and it was just more than football. He still calls me and checks up on me but it’s now how football is. It’s more how are you mentally,” Carter said. That’s one thing I can say about all the coaches at Paducah Tilghman. It’s more than just football. They really accepted me and they brought me in and it is a real brotherhood that I needed.”
Kentucky coach Kenny Brooks’ biggest fan might be All-American guard Georgia Amoore and she made that clear after he was named The Sporting News Coach of the Year.
“I’ve been with this man for five years and I think that what he’s done has been phenomenal,” Amoore, who also played for Brooks at Virginia Tech, said. “People really don’t realize how much he does. I think it’s one thing to see how he coaches on the court, the wins and the runs that we’ve made, but like I don’t know anyone that does player development the way that he does.”
She said Brooks “covers all aspects down to the minuscule details” with players.
“He teaches us so many off-court lessons as well as on-court. I think that he just — his love for the game, you can’t even quantify it. You can’t put a limit on it,” she said. “The way that he bet on himself to come here and within a year completely turn it around and be competitive, be in a position where Kentucky is back in consideration for top recruits.
“We’re ranked high again. He did that recruiting 11 new girls, girls he’s never coached before. His ability to create greatness out of what he has is something that’s truly amazing.”
Liberty coach Carey Green competed against Brooks at Virginia Tech and James Madison.
“He’s very competitive. His strategies are excellent. Coming to Kentucky, I think that’s sort of a dream job. He’s, what I would consider, reached a pinnacle in one of the best programs in the country, and he’s already, already, got that team there,” Green said before losing to UK in the NCAA Tournament.
“That indicates his skill set as a coach, his ability to be relational, not only with his players, but with the media and the community. I just admire him.”
Jaxson Robinson gave up a chance to see if he could start a professional career to follow coach Mark Pope from BYU to Kentucky. He figured to be Kentucky’s best offensive player and leading scorer while honing his skills to enhance his professional future.
Instead, he played in just 24 games this season and finally had to call it quits because of a painful wrist injury. He averaged 13 points per game and shot 43 percent overall from the field and 37.6 percent from 3-point range. He had a 2-to-1 assist/turnover ratio.
“Jaxson Robinson is an unbelievable leader and unbelievable translator for our team. He’s a great motivator. He’s a guy with quiet confidence. He adds those things to our team even today when he can’t step on the floor,” Kentucky coach Mark Pope said before UK started NCAA Tournament play.
Pope believes there is an NBA career in Robinson’s future.
“What NBA teams will get is an elite, elite, elite shooter who is growing in his game, has tremendous length. With the right match-up, he can be an unbelievable defensive player, have a huge impact on the game with his length,” Pope said. “A guy who’s been through it, who has dealt with misfortune, who has dealt with weeks and months where he’s had to sit on the bench when he’s young and kind of worked his way through that.
“He’s a really incredibly resilient guy, a guy that will blend in beautifully in a locker room. He’s a guy any NBA team would want to have in their locker room as a rookie because he’s got an unbelievable upside. He’s going to grow into a great player. Those games as a young player where he was spending most of his time watching, he’s going to be an incredible asset to a team. He’s a winner’s winner. He’s a special guy.”
Pope said Robinson took on a “leadership/coaching role” and even pointed out something Pope was missing to the coach during a late-season game.
“He’s so different than the person he was three years ago (when he came to BYU). He’s different as a human being. He’s different in how he sees the world. He’s different in how he takes in all this information and how he’s able to respond to it. It’s like the best thing ever,” Pope said.
Rick Pitino became the first Division I men’s basketball head coach to take six different teams (Boston College, Providence, Kentucky, Louisville, Iona, St. John’s) to the NCAA Tournament.
At age 72, he’s already a Hall of Fame coach but the former Kentucky coach certainly was as motivated as ever this season with St. John’s, a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament that was eliminated in the second round by Arkansas and former UK coach John Calipari.
“I have been blessed for a long period of time. Fifty-plus years of coaching, and I think I look at it this way: I don’t know if God will bless me with two, three, four more years, but if he does, it’s going to stop. So why not have a blast? Why not get the most out of it? Laugh, have fun, get great experiences,” Pitino said before the Arkansas loss.
“Early years it wasn’t like that. You’re trying to accomplish certain things collectively with the team yourself. Now I don’t have to move up the ladder. I don’t have to look for another job. I don’t have any dreams of coaching elsewhere, so it’s just fun. You have fun with your guys. It’s laughter, it’s all the great things, but I do know it’s coming to an end.”
Pitino lets himself enjoy coaching more now than he did at his other collegiate and professional stops.
“I revel every single day in all of it,” Pitino said. “A long time ago when I started coaching, college basketball and college football were even. The NBA and NFL were even. Today, a bad Saturday football game, not even a top power four or five opponent, will outdraw an NBA playoff game. But this is our month. This is what college basketball lives for, March.”
Pitino left Kentucky for the Boston Celtics and then went to Louisville where off-court issues cost him his job.
“When I went away to Greece after being… any time you get fired, it’s always a traumatic experience, but even more so when I went through it, it was more traumatic,” Pitino said about reviving his career coaching a pro team in Greece after being fired at Louisville.
“Felt a little betrayed in a lot of areas, but I took off for Greece by myself. Never been to Greece, didn’t know the Euro league, didn’t know anything about it. I stopped hanging my head that night because I had to coach against CSKA, and then I had the most wonderful two years of a learning experience of my life at 65, and became the Greek National Coach.”
Pitino said he learned there was a “major silver lining” in the clouds for him and he learned valuable lessons in Greece.
“It rejuvenated me. It stopped me from being bitter at all. Just said, let’s get on with it. It’s just adversity. You can look adversity square in the eyes and piss all over it if you’re smart. So don’t hang your head, pick yourself up, get on, become the best Euro league coach you can possibly be and move on,” Pitino said. “Then I came back and tried to be the best coach (for Iona) in the MAC conference I could be. So it’s been fun. It’s been a blast.”
Quote of the Week: “People down there, all they do is bleed blue. They watch the games, watch the replays, watch the highlights. The shot was for them. It was really cool,” Kentucky freshman Trent Noah on his first NCAA basket being for fans in eastern Kentucky.
Quote of the Week 2: “We have no complaints. The university has taken care of it. They really have made my son feel at home and welcome. Financially and fan-wise, definitely no complaints,” Lamont Butler Sr. on his son, point guard Lamont Butler, being at UK this season.
Quote of the Week 3: “It’s benefited me so much. I think that I’ve learned so much and I have to credit her. She’s taught me, not only things on the court, not only things about being a better player, but to be a better leader and to use different ways of my personality to lead the team,” Kentucky sophomore center Clara Strack on playing with point guard Georgia Amoore.