Former Arizona State guard Remy Martin to withdraw name from NBA Draft, play at KU
Former Arizona State point guard Remy Martin has decided to remove his name from the 2021 NBA Draft and play a final season of college basketball at Kansas.
“I was blessed with the opportunity to put my name in the draft. The main objective was to learn what I needed to do to get better and try to be the best player I can be. It was pretty easy when it came to Kansas, playing for such a historic program and a Hall of Fame coach. I want to be a part of it. I want to be part of the brotherhood and help the team win as much as I can,” Martin, a 6-foot, 175-pound senior from Burbank, California, said Tuesday afternoon in announcing his future plans.
Martin revealed plans to transfer from Arizona State to Kansas on May 17, only if he ultimately withdrew from the draft. His dad, Sam, told The Star a key reason for exiting the draft was the fact Remy was not invited to the G League Elite camp or the NBA Combine. An NBA front office official told The Star it was unlikely Martin would have been taken in the July 29 Draft.
Sam Martin told The Star that Remy has been working out at Impact Basketball in Las Vegas the past several weeks, making the final decision to drop out of the draft on Monday.
“After recent conversations, we have anticipated that Remy would withdraw from the draft and come to KU,” KU coach Bill Self said. “Remy is a guy that had great success at Arizona State being preseason first-team AP All-American last year, first team all-conference the last two years, and sixth man of the year in his league his freshman season. We saw him up close on two different occasions where he got the best of us. I’m certainly glad he’s on our side moving forward. I think those are all reasons to be excited about him coming here and helping our basketball team achieve special things this upcoming season.”
The deadline to withdraw from the draft pool and retain college eligibility is 10:59 p.m. Central time Wednesday.
“The positive of this is Kansas basketball, Rock Chalk Jayhawk, Martin’s dad told The Star. Sam Martin indicated his son, “has been working out the past several weeks with the understanding he’d probably be moving on to the next level. He’s been working out twice a day, every day. Right now he is really looking forward to the opportunity of playing at KU.”
KU redshirt sophomore Jalen Wilson announced Friday that he would return to KU to continue his college career and senior guard Ochai Agbaji decided to remove his name from the draft on Tuesday.
Martin averaged 19.1 points a game in each of the past two seasons.
He averaged 3.7 assists a game last year and 4.1 his junior season at ASU. He hit 47 of 136 threes in 2020-21 for 35%.
He earned first-team all-Pac 12 honors the past two seasons.
As a senior at Sierra Canyon High School, he was ranked 128th nationally in the Class of 2017 by Rivals.com. KU recruited him at that time with Kurtis Townsend the lead recruiter.
Martin is 2-0 versus KU in his college career.
He hit a two-point jumper to give ASU a 78-76 lead in an 80-76 win over the Jayhawks on Dec. 22, 2018 at ASU. ASU was ranked No. 18 at the time and KU No. 1. In that game he finished with 10 points 4-of-10 shooting with four assists. That was his sophomore year.
In his freshman year he had 21 points on 8-of-11 shooting in the Sun Devils’ 95-85 win over KU at Allen Fieldhouse. KU was No. 2 and ASU No. 16 at the time.
Martin’s 19.1 points per game last year led the Pac-12 in scoring. He had a season-best of 31 points in a win over Grand Canyon. In that game he hit a game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer.
Martin currently ranks sixth on ASU’s career scoring list (1,754 points) and is second in assists (466), tied for 10th in threes made (176) and eighth in steals (151).
He was named the winner of ASU’s Kajikawa Male Athlete of the Year which goes annually to the top athlete from any sport based on athletics, academics, leadership and community service.
This story was originally published July 6, 2021 at 3:00 PM with the headline "Former Arizona State guard Remy Martin to withdraw name from NBA Draft, play at KU."
