Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — In basketball vernacular, a "dog" doesn't care what the score is because each possession is personal. A "dog" believes loose balls are his property and that his body is just a vessel to launch across the floor or bang against others of all sizes to make a play for the team. A "dog" stays in character on offense and defense. He is confident and unafraid to fail. 

To a "dog," all that matters is winning. 

Behold, Alijah Martin, the fifth-year pitbull that Todd Golden pulled from the college basketball kennel known as the transfer portal to help transform the University of Florida defense into a pack of rabid hounds, as the Gators, who open fall practice Tuesday, look to take the next big step in the program's rebuild. 

"I came here for a fresh start in a better conference and to play in a system I can evolve and fit. A system that needed a dog like me," said Martin, who was asked to describe that canine quality. "In practice you compete and do everything you can against the guy across from you to make the team better. On game day, you have to kill the person in front of you and do whatever it takes — within the rules — to win." 

Well doggone it, then.   Anyone who paid attention to college basketball the last two seasons got glimpses of Martin, the 6-foot-2, 215-pound Dobermann of a guard who was a centerpiece for a Florida Atlantic team that won 60 games and shocked the nation by reaching the 2023 Final Four. In four seasons with the Owls, Martin scored 1,476 points, shot 37 percent from the 3-point line, grabbed 616 rebounds, dished 171 assists and tallied 155 steals. All that while unleashing a relentless brand of defense the Gators have sorely lacked of late, particularly last season when they set a program scoring record (85.6 per game) but undermined it with a defense that too often was late on close-outs, surrendered maddening straight-line drives and did not fight hard enough through ball screens. Who knows what even an incremental improvement on any of those fronts might have meant for a team that went 24-12 — the most wins by a UF team since 2017 — and reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time in three years, only to lose to Colorado in a defenseless 102-100 track meet.

So Golden and his staff went hunting for defensive difference-makers and made Martin, a three-time All-Conference USA selection, the priority on the perimeter. 

"We were looking for someone just like Alijah. Someone with great experience, a track record for success, who would come in here with maturity and intent with goals for himself that aligned with the goals for this program," said Golden, whose second UF team ranked 19th nationally in offensive efficiency but 94th on defense. "At FAU, he was known to be a bulldog on the ball, a guy who is incredibly competitive and takes pride in limiting the players he's going against and not getting scored on. His winning pedigree and maturity was something we missed on the wing last year."

And as the aforementioned statistics suggest, that pedigree was not limited to the defensive end. Martin started 84 of the last 103 games at FAU and averaged 13.4 points, 5.5 rebounds and dropped 37 percent from the arc along the way. He was MVP of the 2023 C-USA Tournament after hanging a career-high 30 on Alabama-Birmingham in the championship game. Three weeks later, in the Owls' crushing at-the-buzzer loss to San Diego State in the national semifinals, Martin poured in 26 points and was named to the All-NCAA Tournament Team. He can score at all three levels and has folded quite well into the Florida offensive system. 

But, again, his greatest impact will be on the other end. 

"He's going to raise the level of defense for everybody," UF assistant coach and director of player development Taurean Green said. "Starting with that guy, right there!"

Green was pointing at Walter Clayton Jr., the senior and focal point of the Florida offense after averaging 17.6 per game last season, the highest by a Gator since 2005. Clayton transferred to UF in the spring of '23 and paired alongside another fifth-year, transfer point guard Zyon Pullin, with both players garnering 2024 All-Southeastern Conference. Both also logged high minutes and may have worn down late on defense, as UF opponents averaged 86.8 points over the final eight games. The hope is Martin can not only take pressure off Clayton off the ball, but be an influencer when it comes to defending on the ball. Defense, after all, can be contagious. 

"Everything he does, he goes hard, and does it with an edge to him," Clayton said. 

Martin, despite his newcomer status, also has been one of the most vocal players on the team, with no hesitation to speak up when something — be it encouraging, critical or constructive — is on his mind. 

"I like to have a voice," Martin said. 

Call that the leadership dog in him. Kind of like a quarterback. As a matter of fact, … 


"DANDY" DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH 

Martin and Clayton have never talked about their football backgrounds. Martin, actually, was surprised when told that Clayton was a four-star safety prospect who had offers from the top football programs in the country.

Surprised, but not all that impressed.

"I'm the better athlete," Martin said.  

His Mississippi prep resume as a first-team all-state selection in football, basketball and track just might back that up. He also was a great baseball and soccer player as a youth, but eventually pared down his activity to concentrate on one sport in each season, with football garnering him the most attention.

According to Martin, he was a QB combination of — get this — Lamar Jackson and Cam Newton. Of course, he was. 

"Best of both worlds," he said. "I could throw it over you, but also juke you or run your ass over." As a senior quarterback at Summit (Miss.) North Pike, Martin passed more than 2,100 yards and 20 touchdowns, while rushing for 1,300-plus and 13 more scores. After the season, he was named MVP of the Alabama-Mississippi All-Star Game. Martin had football scholarship offers from Southern Miss, Tulane, UAB and Arkansas State, but the big schools wanted him to move to wide receiver or defensive back. Recruiting services even said they'd change his rating from a three-star to a four-star prospect if he changed positions. No dice, Martin said. He was a quarterback. 
 

"We definitely had more buzz with football," said Tina Martin, his mother, a middle school teacher and youth basketball coach. "I had a friend who coached at McComb [High] and he was so mad at his team after we played them. Said he told 'em after the game, 'You let that Martin kid beat you single-handedly.' Yeah, they did."

In basketball, Martin averaged 25 points, nine rebounds, five assists and three steals his senior year and was named to the state's prestigious "Dandy Dozen" squad. His mom remembers when that all-star team was announced, a local player from rival South Pike popped off on social media about facing Martin in an upcoming matchup. 

"He said he was going to find out what this 'Dandy Dozen' was all about — and he found out, all right," Tina recalled. "When we got to the gym there was so much talking going on. Alijah was ready."

Then she added this: "He got that dog in him."

So they say.  

Did Alijah remember it the same way? 

"Yeah, I hung 42 on that guy," Martin said. "He might've had eight."  Not long after that, the Covid pandemic shut down sports in Mississippi and, in turn, impacted recruiting options (while also killing Martin's chances to defend his state titles in the high jump, long jump and triple jump). He had settled on basketball as his sport of choice, with McNeese State the hottest suitor. 

Martin was about 24 hours from signing with when he got a call out of the blue from FAU assistant coach Todd Abernathy. The Owls had shown interest early in the recruiting process, but did not have a scholarship at the time. The pandemic changed that — "The portal was going crazy back then," Martin said — and the interest was mutual.

Covid restrictions, though, prohibited an official visit. Instead, FAU coach Dusty May and Abernathy grabbed an iPad, hopped in a golf cart and drove around the Boca Raton campus, giving Martin and his mom a virtual tour. 

"We knew we liked him, but this was our one shot and we didn't know what other schools were involved," May said. "I asked them, 'So where do we stand?' They just started laughing and said, 'You guys are in front.' What timing, right?"

Added Martin: "I remember looking up [FAU's] schedule on my phone and seeing they were played a road game at [Southern Miss]. That was enough for me." 

That and the beach on the Atlantic Ocean. 

Little did any of them know the basketball paradise that awaited. 


CINDERELLA STORY 

Martin's Magnolia State confidence didn't translate to the Sunshine State right away. As a freshman on May's third FAU team, he played just nine minutes a game. The problem? 

"Honestly, he just wasn't tough enough," May said. "He and I butted heads to the point where I wondered if he was going to be there. We wanted a power type guard and, looking at him, we thought he should have been one of the most physical guards in our league. He had to grow into that." 

Sophomore season was better, with Martin averaging what turned out to be a career-best 13.9 points while shooting 40 percent from deep. The Owls went 19-15 in '21-22 and basically returned their whole team the following season, a fact that was not lost on Golden when he saw FAU as the third game for his first UF team.

"Who scheduled that?" Golden asked. 

The Owls came to Exactech Arena/O'Connell Center and handed the Gators a 76-74 loss on Nov. 14, 2022. They did not lose again until Feb. 2 — winning 20 straight — on the way to capturing the C-USA title, sweeping the league tournament and taking a 31-3 record into the NCAA Tournament as a No. 8 seed.

"Nobody saw that coming, not even us, to be honest," Martin said. "We weren't thinking about NCAA tournaments or Final Fours, we thought about winning today. Next game. Next thing we knew it was 20 in a row and when we got to March Madness we were clicking, on fire and hard to beat."  It wasn't just Martin, obviously. The Owls had different stars every night, with the likes of Johnell Davis, Vladislav Golden and Michael Forrest stepping up big during the season and into the tournament run that ended the seasons, in order, of Memphis, Fairleigh Dickinson (which had shocked No. 1-seed Purdue), Tennessee and Kansas State (with Keyontae Johnson) in the East Region title game to punch their improbable ticket to the Final Four. 

Martin, though, had some of the loudest moments of the journey, going 10-for-23 from the arc in the five tourney games. His jumper with 45 seconds to play against SD State put the Owls up by three and two defensive possessions away from playing for the national championship. The Aztecs, though, closed to one with 36 seconds left, then won the game at the buzzer on a jumper by Lamont Butler. Martin's 26 points led all scorers and put him on the All-Tournament team. 

That was little consolation. The Owls were so close to playing for it all. 


[Check out what Alijah Martin did to C-USA rival Wichita State in a game last February.] 

A preseason injury in the fall of '23 got Martin off to a slow start to his senior season, but he and the Owls found their stride, won 25 games and made a second straight trip to the NCAA. The season — as the hunted and with unrealistic expectations — was a grind, though, and the team chemistry from the year before wasn't the same. 

FAU lost to Northwestern in the first round of the tournament. Two days later, May bolted for Michigan and the transfer portal exploded with Owls. The Gators took immediate notice of Martin and pounced.

"We were very familiar with him, obviously," said Golden, who had May's oldest son, Jack, as a walk-on for four seasons. "It was a situation where we both had what the other was looking for. He wanted an opportunity to play in more ball screens and in an up-tempo offense and I wanted a guy who had experience and knew how to win. There was a lot of synergy in our communication." 

On their official visit, both Martin and his mother were blown away by the UF coaches' preparation when they made their pitch. The Gators promised Martin more opportunities with the ball to work out of their ball-screen offense; his 3-point shooting would thrive in their transition offense; his defense would change theirs.  

"He had his eyes on a couple other places, but once we came to Florida it was most definitely a treat," Tina Martin said. "We were so impressed by their game plan for him, which spoke volumes for Coach Golden and his staff. They'd definitely done their homework and knew how Alijah would be in their system."

Martin, already pining for a chance to play against the best competition, was sold. 

"They told me they needed a two-way player who was a dog," Martin said, invoking that word again. "I came here to uplift the program." 


GATOR-KILLER TURNED GATOR 

Florida led FAU by nine early in the second half of that game in '22. To that point, Martin had missed all four of his field-goal attempts. Over the final 12 minutes, he scored eight points on 4-for-5 shooting, nailed all three of his 3s, grabbed four rebounds and dished a pair of assists. 

Martin's dagger 3 with 1:38 to go iced the game. 

"He punished us," Golden said.  Senior wing Will Richard is the lone current Gator who was on the floor that day. He had a pretty good game, too (14 points, 7 rebounds), and for the last four months has been lining up alongside Martin and Clayton (as well as junior Denzel Aberdeen) and building chemistry both in the backcourt and away from the gym.

"He's just a mature and experienced player who loves to compete and not only wants to win but has won at a high level and knows what it takes to get to that point," Richard said. "He brings so much competitiveness every day. He's a dog." 

So we've heard. 

Clearly, it's a popular term with a meaning that applies universally. 

"A 'dog' is a guy who gives you everything on the defensive end, who doesn't care if he makes a mistake — on to next play — and wants to defend the best player on the other team," said sophomore backup point guard Kajus Kublickas, who hails from Lithuania. "You never want a dog to guard you. And out here, you do not want Alijah guarding you."

But you want him on the team. The Gators wanted him desperately. He's exactly what they needed in the backcourt. "He's fast, explosive, athletic, gets up and down the floor, hits shots and plays great defense," Clayton said. "There's nothing he doesn't do well. Yeah, he's a dog."

Martin's track record for performance and winning speaks for itself. When it comes to everyone speaking about Martin that same word always seems to come up. 

So, to review, what's the definition of a dog? 

Alijah Martin smiled. 

"Me."