Ro Martinez gets ready to take his last run into Pit

Roman Martinez wasn’t supposed to be a part of such a special season.

In his senior year, the UNM men’s basketball team was picked to finish fifth in the Mountain West Conference. Repeating as MWC regular-season champs seemed to be long shot and an NCAA Tournament berth was almost out of the question.

But the Lobos, with the help of Martinez’s leadership, have exceeded all expectations, marching to 27-3 overall and 13-2 in conference and earning the Lobos the No. 1 seed in the MWC Tournament in Las Vegas.

Tonight, when the Lobos look to clinch the MWC regular-season title outright, Martinez will run down The Pit ramp one final time.

“(It’s going to be) bittersweet, and it’s a privilege to play Wednesday night in a great facility with a great atmosphere — the best fans,” Martinez said. “Also, it’s kind of sad that it’s my last game here, but it’s going to be a great one and a lot of fun. I am going to take advantage of every moment out there.”

In his four years, Martinez has filled the Lobos’ basketball coffers, turning in, arguably, one of the greatest careers in the 107-year history of the program.
This will be his 100th career start and his 31st straight of the season. He’s seventh all-time with 189 3-pointers made, having hit 83 3-pointers this season, and 11th in 3-point percentage (40.9).

Among his other accomplishments, Martinez was voted to ESPN’s Academic All-American team this season, named MWC Player of the Week at season’s start and will likely be voted first or second-team All-MWC next week.

With Saturday’s thrilling 83-81 win over BYU, Lobo head coach Steve Alford said Martinez cemented his legacy by winning in Provo, Utah, a place the Lobos hadn’t won since 2000.

“There are not a lot of players that go through their four-year career and they end up winning in everybody’s building,” Alford said. “He has won in every opponents’ building in the conference, and that doesn’t happen all the time. I didn’t do that in college. (I want to) present the championship trophy and cut down the nets, because that is something that doesn’t happen every year and that’s something Ro and I have talked about.”

Still on Martinez’s mind, however, is earning his second MWC regular-season championship — an accomplishment which would make this season that much sweeter, he said.

“This is really incredible and we are all on an incredible journey,” Martinez said. “I have said it before. We are playing really good right now, but we want to be great. And, if we want to do that, we are going to have to stay focused and hungry.”