Tyrese Martin awarded waiver, will play in 2020-21

At his press conference on Sept. 4, head coach Dan Hurley said there would be an update on Martin’s waiver in the coming weeks. Now, it has finally come.

UConn men’s basketball announced that transfer Tyrese Martin will be immediately eligible for the 2020-21 season after receiving a waiver from the NCAA. The junior will have two of eligibility remaining in Storrs. The news was initially reported by CBS’ Jon Rothstein.

Martin transferred from URI in April after being initially recruited by Hurley when the coach was still at the helm in Kingston.

The NCAA has been generous in recent weeks, with high profile transfers Landers Nolley and Jalen Carey receiving immediate eligibility as well this summer. Rothstein has reported over 40 waivers in total since July 1, according to his Twitter.

The 6-foot-6 wing should provide some solid bench scoring for the Huskies after averaging 12.8 points per game with URI in 2019-20.

His shooting efficiency is solid, at 32.1% from three and 43.3% from the field overall, but his rebounding could really be a boost for UConn.

The Huskies didn’t have a single player in the top-10 in defensive rebounding percentage in the American last season, per KenPom. Martin’s 15.6% defensive rebounding rate would have been second-best for a UConn guard last season, behind Christian Vital’s 18.1%. The next highest guard on the team was James Bouknight’s 11.3%.

Bouknight was the only guard to best Martin’s offensive rebounding last season, 6.8% to 6.2%.

Martin’s 7.1 rebounds per game at Rhode Island also came in 34.2 minutes per game, so that’s likely to fall a bit, but it would have been the best mark at Connecticut, regardless of position, by nearly a full board per game.

He will be competing for minutes alongside freshman Andre Jackson, junior Brendan Adams, sophomore Jalen Gaffney and redshirt junior R.J. Cole – who didn’t even apply for a waiver after transferring from Howard.