Martin earns NCAA waiver

Tyrese Martin, who transferred to UConn from Rhode Island in April, has been granted a waiver by the NCAA to play right away.

Martin, a 6-foot-6 junior wing, averaged 12.8 points and 7.1 rebounds per game for URI last season. He shot 43.3 percent from the floor and 32.1 percent from the 3-point line in 30 games. A tough, hardnosed, confident player, he can score at any level of basketball — and the Big East is certainly up a level from the Atlantic 10.

“He wanted to challenge himself to compete at the highest level,” said James Johns, who coached Martin for two seasons with the We R1 AAU team that won consecutive Under Armour national championships, in April. “When it came down to it, it doesn’t get much higher than UConn, especially going into the Big East.”

Martin told Hearst Connecticut Media in April that the reason for his transfer was “the history behind UConn, the relationship I have with Coach (Dan) Hurley. The Big East is always a conference I dreamed of playing in as a kid.”

Typically, underclassmen transfers have to sit out a season before suiting up for their new school. However, the NCAA has been granting numerous waivers over the past couple of months, likely in large part due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Martin is a super-athletic wing and strong rebounder who can also play twoguard or small-ball fourman. He figures to battle for minutes with Tyler Polley, freshman Andre Jackson and Brendan Adams, but could play alongside those players, as well, depending on what sized lineup head coach Dan Hurley wants on the floor. Indeed, other than super sophomore two-guard James Bouknight, the Huskies will have stiff competition at every position this season.

Martin was recruited to URI by Hurley before he left to take over the reins at UConn in March, 2018. Brendan Adams, who just finished his sophomore season at UConn, switched his commitment from URI to UConn upon Hurley’s move. Now, Martin, who started every game this past season for the Rams, will make the same 60-mile trip.

“The relationship with Coach Hurley, it made it all easy,” Johns said. “He loves those guys at URI, Coach (David) Cox and those guys. They gave him a chance after Coach Hurley left. But he wanted to continue to develop, and he thought he had more in the tank and wanted to challenge himself.”

After the pandemic hit in mid-March, Martin return to his Allentown, Pa. home and worked eight hours a day in a warehouse, packing boxes and shipping them out, while also taking online courses and working on his basketball game at night.

It’s something he’s had to do to make some money for his family, after his mother, Pamela Rynearson, was laid off from her job as a restaurant manager due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“That’s the kind of work ethic we’re talking about,” Johns said.

As a freshman at URI in 2018-19, Martin started 19 of 33 games and averaged 8.1 points and 5.2 rebounds per game. But one anecdote from that season demonstrated how he is mature beyond his years, even if he can be a high-level trashtalker on the floor.

URI was on a a twogame road trip through Saint Louis and Richmond during the holiday break, so the team didn’t return to campus between games. The Rams lost to Saint Louis, their third loss in their last five games, on Sunday, and the next day the staff was going to take the team to the movies.

Director of operations (and current URI assistant coach) T.J. Buchanan told Martin to be ready to leave the hotel for the movie theater at 1:30 p.m. But Martin said, “No.”

“I mean, coming off a loss, a movie should be the last thing on our minds,” Martin recalled. “I’m there to win a championship. That was the point I was getting to there.”

The trip to the movies was canceled, and URI won three of its next four games.