With a wink and a smile, Esmery Martinez has quickly shown she’s a Wildcat through and through.
The West Virginia transfer has wasted no time making her presence known on both ends of the court. The forward has grabbed 40 rebounds so far this season. She leads the nation with a 78.6 field-goal percentage, hitting 22 of her 28 attempts. She’s averaging 16.5 points and 10 rebounds per game, a double-double.
To put it simply, Martinez is a stat-sheet stuffer.
“I’m the type of player who likes to be around everything,” Martinez said. “I like to do everything. I don’t want to just jump for every rebound or score, I like to be everywhere. I’m an energy player.”
Her teammates hope she brings the energy on Friday, when No. 15 Arizona (4-0) opens up the USD Thanksgiving Classic against Cal Baptist (2-2). The Wildcats play USD on Saturday evening.
Besides the scoring and the rebounding, Martinez also senses the right moment to set up her teammates to score. Over the last two games, she dished seven assists to both posts and guards. She is building trust with fellow post players Maya Nnaji and Cate Reese.
“Esmery and Cate have really good chemistry,” Arizona coach Adia Barnes said. “They had some good passes to each other. They look for each other, Esmery really looks high low. I think they have good synergy together. I think they’ll continue to get better and better. …
“I think what separates Esmery for rebounding is (that) she’s really strong and she creates space before the rebounds. She reads the rim really well, has quick hops, and she gets her body in the areas where she anticipates a rebound. She does it better than ... anybody her size and height in the country.”
Esmery Martinez is averaging a double-double so far this season for the 15th-ranked Wildcats, who will take on Cal Baptist on Friday in San Diego.
The Star talked to the Dominican Republic native before she left for San Diego. Here’s what she said:
On learning Arizona’s system: “I am getting comfortable now because it’s different than where I come from. I am trying to learn everything that is new. We press the whole 40 minutes. At West Virginia, we didn’t do that. We played man-to-man, but here we have to press the whole time. That’s why sometimes I’ve gotten confused.”
On teammates like Shaina Pellington driving through traffic to score or Lauren Fields doing a spin move get a basket — the latter going viral: “I have great teammates. When they get going, I trust them because I know they can do their own moves, their own stuff. It makes me happy and comfortable because I know I have a great teammate.”
On what she’s focusing on improving right now: “I’m working hard. I feel like my defense is getting better. Right now, I am working on my passes and I’m not too comfortable with my shot. I don’t know why I am consumed with making things crisper, but the coaches are trying to help me with it.”
On changing a bad habit: “I drank Coke before games. I don’t know why; it was my thing. If I didn’t drink Coke, I never liked to play. I don’t know why. But I stopped before our second game.”
On settling into the Tucson community: “For me, it’s easy. I’ve been meeting a lot of Latino people. I really feel like it’s home. It’s not difficult for me right now. I’ve been eating good food, because there are good restaurants (her favorite is The Hub). It’s been great. It’s like home. We have great people here.”
