Ryan Martin Chooses UMaine

In a long awaited decision, Ryan Martin of Maranacook has choosen to attend the University of Maine and try to walk on to the basketball team. The mens team only had one scholarship to give away this year(which went to Jon McAllian of Bangor). Many people have tried to cut down Martin, saying things like "He's too small" or "He has a terrible attitude" but the numbers don't lie. As a 5'8" shoot first player, Martin shot 50% from the field, 60% from behind the three point line, 90% from the free throw line. Martin won 2 gold balls throughout his career at Maranacook and lead the Bears to 3 straight #1 seeds including this season when the Black Bears went 22-0. He averaged 23.1 points a game this season, finishing his high school career with 1,899 points. Martin also took home the "Mr. Basketball" and Gatorade Player of the Year awards his senior year. He drew Div. 1 interest from Quinnipiac, Maine and Vermont, with Maine and Vermont only offering him roster spots.
I feel that this isn't the right move for Ryan, not because of the height or attitude, but because he had many great D-2 schools looking to give him full scholarships for basketball. Obviously Martin isn't going to make a career out of basketball, so I don't see why he wouldn't have chosen to get a better education and a more prestigace school for free. Also, he won't be a regular contributer at UMaine until around his junior year.
I feel like maybe Martin should have played a year of prep school basketball to see where he stands against D-1 athletes.
However, he's based his entire career on proving people wrong, and I'd be more than happy to see him prove me wrong as well.

Brad Thibeau