New Lobos player
Due to NCAA rules, Martin will have to sit out 2018-19 season
The Lobos basketball team added Townson transfer Zane Miller, but he has to sit out the 2018-19 season.
The reloading project is complete. Again. For the second time in about five weeks, the University of New Mexico men’s basketball team has announced it has reached the NCAA maximum of 13 scholarship players. The latest vacancy was made possible when TaJuan Agee, a 6-foot-8 junior college transfer from Texas, was released from his commitment late last week in order to make room for guard Zane Martin, a Division I transfer from Towson.
A 6-4 point guard from Philadelphia, Martin played two seasons at Towson and must sit out the 2018-19 season before joining the Lobos’ active roster as a junior in 2019-20.
He averaged 19.8 points last season as a sophomore, grabbing 3.5 rebounds and dishing 2.7 assists. He shot 38 percent from 3-point range and was a 70 percent shooter from the freethrow line.
He had 15 points and a teamhigh four assists in a December win over future NCAA Tournament darling Maryland-Baltimore County, then had three games of at least 32 points during a one-month span late in the regular season. That included a team-best 36 in a game against Hofstra in the final game of the regular season, a game in which he buried seven 3-pointers.
He was named to the second team All-Colonial Athletic Association, helping the Tigers to an 18-14 overall record.
“I chose New Mexico because I felt as though this was the best [decision] for my game,” Martin said in a news release issued by UNM. “Coach [Paul] Weir and the staff at UNM welcomed me in with open arms during my visit and I really felt like I belonged.”
The Lobos will have just four returning players from last season; senior guards Anthony Mathis and Dane Kuiper, and sophomores Vladimir Pinchuk and Makuach Maluach. The other nine are newcomers, although two of them — juniors JaQuan Lyle and Vance Jackson — were on the roster last year but were sitting out a season as Division I transfers.
Martin comes to UNM after exploring his options with the recent NBA Draft. He never signed with an agent but chose to leave Towson and sit out a year. During the recruiting process for a new program he explored, among others, transferring to Gonzaga.
“Zane has the type of personality that fits perfectly with our program,” Weir said. “There is a need on next year’s team for an immediate impact guard and he is that. I can’t think of a better prospect for our style of play, and we look forward to Zane having a significant impact on Lobo basketball.”