Kelan Martin leaves as a Butler all-time great, and that's not all

DETROIT – Picking an all-time team is a water-cooler topic for college basketball fans and historians. Yet let there be no misunderstanding.

On any such Butler team, Kelan Martin is one of the five. To hear those around the program tell it, his improved play as a senior is not even his legacy.

“I watched Kelan play before I got here, and he’s a completely different player,” freshman guard Aaron Thompson said. “His whole attitude, his whole demeanor toward the game, mind-set between games, is completely different. Proud of him, the way he’s grown. He did big things for us this season. It’s the reason why we’re here today.”

One regrettable element of Butler’s 76-73 loss to Purdue in the NCAA East Regional is that Martin loses the stage that could have supplied attention that he has inexplicably lacked. In two NCAA tournament games, he scored 27 points against Arkansas and 29 against Purdue.

Doyel:In one final workout, Mathias, Purdue send Martin, Butler home

He is one of five finalists for the Julius Erving Award as the nation’s top small forward. Otherwise, he is absent from any All-America lists or other postseason honors.

Martin, Villanova guard Jalen Brunson and Xavier forward Trevon Bluiett were unanimous All-Big East selections. Brunson and Bluiett are everywhere, and Martin nowhere.

Nowhere, that is, except on the Purdue bus. He hopped on that Sunday to congratulate the Boilermakers and wish them luck in Boston.

In the postgame news conference, Martin said he had matured from “a little boy to a man.” If you think calling himself a little boy is harsh, you have not met his parents, who were both college basketball players and are their son’s harshest critics.

Which explains a lot.

He and Tyler Wideman are the last Butler players linked to Brad Stevens. They were recruited by Stevens, signed with Brandon Miller, and coached by Chris Holtmann and LaVall Jordan.

Jordan made it a priority to develop the two seniors as leaders, and the coach was successful in doing so. The two made “big jumps” in leadership, according to the coach.

“I think they leave a legacy of the same as the classes that have been through Butler before them, that they showed toughness, that they showed resiliency, grit,” Jordan said. “They went down fighting to the very last possession.”

Coincidentally, Martin and Wideman finished with 91 career victories, tying them with Jordan, who played at Butler from 1997-2001.

Martin scored 743 points this season, second in Butler history to the 770 by Darin Archbold in 1992. Darrin Fitzgerald scored 734 in 1987, when he set an NCAA record for 3-pointers. Billy Shepherd scored 724 in 1970, becoming Butler’s most recent All-American.

Martin’s career total of 2,047 is second to Chad Tucker’s 2,321 from 1983-88. His 95 3-pointers tie for No. 8 for a single season, 56 of them in the final 15 games.

“I love every single person on this team,”  said Martin, who did not want to elaborate on his post-college career or the NBA draft.

Most mock drafts do not include him, although he remains a second-round possibility. He led the Big East in scoring and pushed a team picked for eighth in the league to the brink of the Sweet 16.

Records for Wideman

Wideman shot 3-of-4 against Purdue and set Butler records for field goal percentage in a season (.672) and career (.623). He was 121-of-180 this season and led the Big East in league shooting percentage.

Previous Butler records, both by 2004 graduate Duane Lightfoot, were .657 for a season and .594 in a career.

Etc.

Kenpom.com breaks down strength of schedule by offense and defense. Including the NCAA tournament, Butler has played the nation’s No. 1-rated schedule of offensive opponents. Defensive opponents are 35th, yielding a schedule strength of No. 8 overall. . . . Butler is one of eight schools to have won at least one game in each of the past four NCAA tournaments. . . . This was the third season since 2006-07 in which Butler was never ranked in the Top 25 of either major poll. Records in those two other seasons: 22-15 in 2012-13 and 14-17 in 2013-14.

Call IndyStar reporter David Woods at (317) 444-6195. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.