Kansas basketball coach Bill Self says forward Cam Martin will pursue a medical redshirt
LAWRENCE — Kansas men’s basketball coach Bill Self revealed Thursday that Cam Martin is going to pursue a medical redshirt for the current campaign, and that means the super-senior forward won't return in any games the rest of this season.
Martin had suffered a shoulder injury prior to the start of the season. After rehabbing, he made his first of what would be four appearances Dec. 10 during a victory on the road against Missouri. But the fourth appearance, Jan. 3 during victory on the road against Big 12 Conference-foe Texas Tech, is set to be his last.
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“He’s not healthy,” Self said about Martin. “He still has days where he doesn’t, can’t, go, and that kind of stuff. And so, yeah, he’s not 100% healthy.”
Martin, who a medical redshirt would provide another year of eligibility for, first joined the Jayhawks as a transfer from Missouri Southern State ahead of the 2021-22 season. He redshirted that year as he made the jump to the Division I level from Division II, while Kansas went on to win a national championship. And this season he had a chance to compete for minutes in the rotation as the Jayhawks attempted to defend that title, prior to that chance being derailed by injury.
It is sophomore forward KJ Adams Jr. who’s been the big, albeit an undersized one, Self has turned to with Martin out and other young bigs still developing. So far No. 3 Kansas (25-5, 13-4 in Big 12) has done well for itself, winning the Big 12 regular season championship outright — before the regular season finale Saturday at No. 7 Texas — and positioning itself for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. But it’s not how many outside the program, or even Self himself, initially envisioned the rotation working out.
Across the four appearance Martin was able to play in, which included wins at home against Indiana and Oklahoma State, he averaged 1.8 points and 0.5 rebounds per game. His season-high in points, three, came in that victory Dec. 17 against the Hoosiers. The most he played was the 3:52 in that early January victory against the Red Raiders.
“If he was 100% healthy you could — you put him out there and he may get some reps, but it’ll be limited without question. He hasn’t played all year,” Self said. “But that’s not the reason why he’s not playing. The reason why he’s not playing is because he hasn’t been healthy enough to actually put in position where he could get those reps.”
Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.
This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: KU basketball's Bill Self says Cam Martin will pursue medical redshirt
