Romain Martin has been letting his skills on the court do the talking for him since second grade. As an 8-year-old he was playing on a fifth-grade Minneapolis Hustlers/K.O.T.C. AAU team.

The season before his freshman year of high school he earned a spot in the NCAA Mentor Program, a program that takes the top 50 basketball prospects in the Midwest and puts them into a starter program for the NCAA.

At Minneapolis High School North he was the “go-to” guy on his team.

Now Martin is at Eastern continuing his success.

He was named Ohio Valley Conference Freshman of the Week this week after his efforts in the Wisconsin-Green Bay and Murray State game. He averaged 17 points per game in the two games and made the game winning layup in the last 36 seconds of the game against UWGB. At Murray State, Martin was the leading scorer with 21 points.

Martin now averages 8.7 ppg and has a team-high 11 3-pointers this season.

“Eastern Illinois has gotten one of the top guards in the country, and he’s going to start getting noticed,” said Brad Barber, Martin’s former coach from his AAU days. “People are gonna start to see the real Romain emerge.”

Barber said the numbers Martin has been putting up this season doesn’t surprise him.

“I’ve never coached a kid that could shoot the ball like him, even in fifth grade,” he said. “They have really gotten one of the cream-of-the-crop of the top guards in the country. The things he’s doing now don’t surprise me one bit.”

Teammate, junior center Jake Byrne is happy with the new addition.

“He’s great to have on the team,” he said. “He brings a lot to the team that we need, like outside shooting.”

Byrne said Martin’s 3-point shooting has caused problems for teams and continues to open up other things inside because the defense has to go out and guard Martin.

The freshmen’s family doesn’t let the success go to his head though.

His younger brother, Dominique, said Martin still needs some work on his rebounding.

His mother, DuRonda Martin, has her own methods.

“I always joke with him, I was hitting 3-pointers when they was only worth two points.” she said.

She is the person responsible for introducing Martin to basketball. She played in high school and at a junior college in Minneapolis.

“My hero is my mom,” Martin said. ” Working hard, raising three kids and helping us stay focused.”

Martin’s mother said it hasn’t always been easy raising her three sons, but she is proud.

“Romain is a good listener and has followed everything we have tried to teach him,” she said.

She credits Dennis Schapiro, Martin’s volunteer from the Big Brothers/Big Sisters and coaches like Barber, for helping make her son into the success he is today.

“I’ve seen him just really take off as far as really focusing on his grades, becoming a better big brother, and becoming an all-around great kid, and focusing,” Barber said.

Barber said his goals for Martin are to graduate with a degree and go far in life.

Martin has some shorter-term goals in mind.

He would like to follow in the footsteps of George Tandy and Mike Robinson and earn the OVC Freshman of the Year. Tandy won the award in 2004 and Robinson won the award last season.

Eastern head coach Mike Miller said it’s too soon to talk about those kinds of goals, but with hard work on being a “complete player,” he does expect Martin to continue to evolve into an important part of the team.

“Offensively, he has a really good skill package,” he said. “He’s a young guy that I think really loves to play basketball, that’s one thing when we recruited him, I always thought it was really important to him. Some people like to play. I think he really, really likes to play.”

Fact box:

We asked his Mother (DuRonda Martin) to dish the dirt on “Ro,” here’s what we got:

“He’s a good listener and very positive person. He likes bowling and has been bowling since he was very young. He was on the honor role in high school, used to play the drums, likes French – he can speak and read and write it since 7th grade. Oh and he’s a good artist, I’ve got lots of his work in our house.”

How does she feel about all of the tattoos?

She went with him for the first one, she is very proud of her son and has no problem with them as long as “what he puts on his body is going mean something.”

Does she she anymore in his future?

“I don’t think he’ll get more, Romain doesn’t like pain,” she laughed.

Jay Grabiec/The Daily Eastern News Freshman guard, Romain Martin outside of Lantz arena after practice on Wednesday evening. Martin led the men’s basketball team with 21 points against Murray state Saturday in his second collegiate start.

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