Smart in familiar territory with Nevada duo
Former VCU recruits have blossomed into leaders for Wolfpack
AUSTIN — Not too long ago, the Martin twins, Caleb and Cody, were viewed as the crown jewels of Virginia’s high school basketball scene. Caleb, delivered one minute after his brother, was the state’s No. 4 player in the class of 2014, according to 247Sports. Cody was No. 5. They were the twoheaded monster of Oak Hill Academy, a private school and high school basketball power that in the past housed the likes of Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant and Jerry Stackhouse.
The ones that got away
They were, college recruiters discovered, a package deal, much like the Kansas-bound Morris twins were a few years earlier. Woo them both or woo neither, there was no negotiating past that.
Shaka Smart wanted that package delivered to Virginia Commonwealth, where he coached from 2009-2015. Instead, in October 2012, the duo chose to play at North Carolina State, about two hours east of where they were born and raised.
“The Martin twins, two of their better players, Caleb and Cody, have known those guys for a long time,” Smart said. “We recruited them at VCU. They ended up going to NC State and then transferring to Nevada.”
Smart will get reacquainted with the brothers Friday when 10th-seeded Texas (19-14, 8-10 Big 12) meets seventh-seeded Nevada (27-7, 15-3 Mountain West Conference) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
They possess identical measurements — 6-7, 205 pounds — matching haircuts, duplicate bushy beards that look like a modern take on Abraham Lincoln’s famous facial hair. There are subtle aesthetic differences, like different tattoos and a birth mark here or there, but a surface glance makes it seem like geneticists finally perfected human cloning.
Where they differ most is on the court. Caleb has a lead-scorer personality and a sweet outside shooting stroke. Cody is more like a Draymond Green-type jack-of-all trades, able to slide into different roles as needed, whether it be as a lock-down defender or playmaker (team-high 4.6 assists per game) or proverbial “glue guy.”
After sitting out the 201617 season due to the NCAA’s transfer rules, the twins wasted no time earning recognition around the Mountain West. The Wolfpack opened the season 18-3, with narrow loses coming on the road in overtime to Texas Tech and to TCU at the Basketball Hall of Fame Classic in Los Angeles.
Red Raiders coach Chris Beard reached out to Smart and offered some advice on how to deal with Nevada. Surely, the Martins, now redshirt juniors, are at the top of those scouting reports.
Thanks in large part to the pair, Nevada claimed its second straight regular-season conference title and earned the program’s best Tournament seed since 2007. Caleb, who paced Nevada with 19.1 points while hitting 89-of-218 (40.8 percent) 3-pointers, was named Mountain West newcomer of the year. Cody averaged 6.3 rebounds, 1.7 steals and 1.5 blocks during
his defensive player of the year campaign.
Ready to make a run
And they certainly don’t lack for confidence.
“Bet on us,” Caleb told the Reno-Gazette Journal. “You have to have that type of confidence going into these types of things, and I’m sure every other team is saying the same thing. We’re in a good position and in a good bracket. If we just go there and do what we know we can do and play the style that we know we can, we’ll be in good shape.”
Smart isn’t out to exact any sort of revenge on the ones who got away. He’s been happy to witness their progress and development from afar. On Friday in Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, he’ll get a much closer look.