Bob Huggins and Kenyon Martin. Photo Credit: Twitter

Kenyon Martin chatted on Scoop B Radio with Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson about his playing time at Cincinnati with Coach Bob Huggins. Press Play Below to Listen

Two things that go together like peanut butter and jelly is Kenyon Martin and Bob Huggins. Currently head men’s basketball coach at West Virginia, Huggins guided Cincinnati to a 399–127 record during his 16 years as coach of the Bearcats. Huggins directed Cincinnati to ten conference regular-season titles and eight league tournament titles. He’d coach future NBA players like Lance Stephenson, Ruben Patterson, Danny Fortson, DerMarr Johnson and Nick Van Exel.

One of his gems was NBA vet Kenyon Martin, the greatest power forward in Cincinnati history. K-Mart holds school records for field-goal percentage (.586) and blocks (292). Drafted by the then-New Jersey Nets in 2000, Martin lived his best life catching alley-oops from future Hall of fame point guard and current Milwaukee Bucks head coach Jason Kidd. The two would make two trips to the NBA Finals.

Martin relished in how influential Bob Huggins was to his career. “It was great for me,” Kenyon Martin told me on Scoop B Radio. “A lot of people’s experience with Hugs is not the same; because I play basketball the way Hugs wants you to play basketball,” Kenyon Martin told me on Scoop B Radio.

Martin says the thing he learned early was just to go out there and stay on your grind under Huggins. “Go out there play hard get better and don’t complain,” he said. “Go straight forward. That is the way that I came to Cincinnati and that is the way I left. All he had to do was coach me, he didn’t have to get on me about playing hard.”

An emotional Kenyon Martin hugs Bob Huggins before his last game at the Shoemaker Center. Photo by Lisa Ventre.

Martin was both a Wooden and Naismith Award winner in his senior year despite breaking his leg in a collision with a St. Louis player that kept him out of the NCAA tournament. He was the big man on campus and it magnified on the basketball court under Huggins. That didn’t mean that there weren’t some enjoyable and funny moments too! “Oh s*** that is a laundry list,” Martin said.

Martin recounted a time that Huggins literally barged in on Ryan Fletcher while he was in a bathroom stall. For those keeping score at home, in 1998, Fletcher threw a length of the court pass to Kenyon Martin, who passed to Mel Levett for the game winning dunk in the final second of the game to beat #1 rated Duke University.  

“Fletch played hard but Huggs used to be on him all the time like riding him riding him riding him,” said Martin.

“So one day Hugs was on Fletch, like he knocked the bathroom stall door off the hinges. I heard it so I went and looked I came back around the corner and told Hugs: ‘you might not want to f*** with Fletch today.’ So he started laughing. Huggs is one of those guys if you let him get to you, he is going to be on you daily. He wants you to play harder and if he gets to you, he wants you to be annoyed, he doesn’t want anybody that he can break. I have seen a few guys quit and I have seen a few guys cry from the tongue lashing. They can’t take it, it’s like transfer. Its real. If you have thin skin man, it’s not for you.”

Bob Huggins is the winningest coach in terms of victories and percentage in the school’s basketball history. The Bearcats appeared in postseason play in each of Huggins’ 16 seasons. They appeared in the Final Four in 1992 and advanced to the Elite Eight twice.

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The post Kenyon Martin Recounts The Time Former Cincinnati Bearcats Coach Bob Huggins Stormed A Bathroom Stall While A Player Was In There To Motivate Him appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Williams is a huge fan of the Minnesota Timberwolves’ Karl Anthony Towns.

Williams was the second overall pick in the 2002 NBA Draft by the Chicago Bulls and ACC Rookie of the Year while playing for Duke University.Before leading the Blue Devils to a 2001 NCAA National Championship under head coach Mike  Krzyzewski, Williams was a student athlete at St. Joseph’s High School in Metuchen, New Jersey, Towns alma mater.

“There are a lot of peeps that you see when you’re going through TV and you’re like ‘alright that guy needs my lending hand.’ KAT never needed me,” Williams told me.

The NBA’s reigning Rookie of The Year, Towns is a special player because he’s a modern big man that has a solid back to the basket game, a consistent face-up game, a 3-point shot and slick dribble too.

All of that is cool, but what impresses Jay Williams the most is Towns’ maturity at 20 years old. “The way he handles himself, the way he speaks, the way he thinks through the game, the way he acts off the court, he doesn’t act like a teenager, like he acts like a grown man and that’s how he should act. I’m proud as hell of him. I don’t think there’s a lot of young dudes in the league that have all of their head together and KAT definitely does so.”

Towns and the Minnesota Timberwolves are a young team on the rise with players like Andrew Wiggins, Zach LaVine, Ricky Rubio and Shabazz Muhammad gracing that roster alongside Towns.

Towns credited Williams especially during his NBA Draft process in 2015 for helping him stay focused.

During last season, Towns leaned on now-retired forward Kevin Garnett for his guidance in getting acclimated to the NBA. “He continuously told me to be patient,” Towns told me. “Being patient on the court, everything will begin to slow down. I mean, just how to be a professional, how to be a professional in this game on and off the court. Just to do my best to lead, and that’s the biggest thing.”

As for Jay Williams, his book, Life Is Not an Accident: A Memoir of Reinvention is worth a read. The book highlights his NBA career and the terrible head-on motorcycle accident that severely damaged himself and ended his career. “I know where that lifestyle can take you,” he said. “The glitz and the fame and all of that, it’s addictive. “You know, you want more of it. The only thing I’m worried about is my bank account and the kind of legacy that I leave with my family. If I can take care of those two things, I’m a happy man.”

Check Out Jay Williams On The Breakfast Club

A former Chicago Bull, Williams still keeps his eyes on his former team and the offseason additions of Rajon Rondo and Dwyane Wade. “Don’t know how I feel about Rajon Rondo,” he said. “I think that he’s a brilliant point guard. Everything that I’ve heard or seen says that there have been difficulties with him in the locker room. I love that D-Wade came home. I still don’t see nobody beating Cleveland though, no matter what they do.”

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The post Jay Williams on Karl Anthony Towns: “I’m Proud As Hell Of Him” appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

You never thought that hip-hop could take it this far, eh?

9th Wonder is co-teaching “Sampling Soul” at Duke University along with Mark Anthony Neal. Peep the vid below to hear about how 9th teaches sampling and the history behind it. Can you try to imagine 9th Wonder as a professor of one of your classes?

The post Video: 9th Wonder Teaches Hip-Hop at Duke University appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.