Cruz is the nickname for Martavius Adams, the guy Sidorakis felt sure "would be the first one to get up (off the bench) and go out there.” So the freshman from Jenks sought out the freshman from Georgia and held him back with all his might. It took a lot — Adams outweighs Sidorakis by 80 pounds — and as he admitted later, Adams definitely wanted to get out there.
"Because that's who he is,” Sidorakis said. "He'll fight for his team. He'll fight for anything he cares about.”
Occasionally, he also fights with his team and people he cares about. Particularly on the practice court, Adams talks trash "more than anybody I've ever played with,” senior Marcus Dove said.
"He has a great ability to talk stuff,” Dove said. "We like it, but it can get on your nerves sometimes. It makes you want to shut him up, and it's very hard to do.”
His talking and attitude were problematic early this season, as Adams couldn't contain his temper and didn't deal well with authority. Coach Sean Sutton suspended him for the Pittsburgh and Oral Roberts games in December, and for a couple days his status with the team was in jeopardy.
But since then, and after a long talk with Dove in Oklahoma City, Adams has adjusted more to college and college basketball. He understands the plays, so he's less frustrated. He's contributing on the court, so his confidence is higher. His trash-talking is still ever-present, but he mingles in words of encouragement.
"He's so much different now than he was,” OSU assistant coach Mike Hatch said. "He went from not being very happy to frustrated to now he's one of our hardest workers every single day.”
Said Sutton: "I think he's grown up a lot. He's got a lot of enthusiasm on the practice court. He's really competitive. He wants to be a good player at this level and he's made a lot of improvement.”
In a lot of ways Adams' transformation mirrors that of the Cowboys. A team that was frustrated a month ago has come together in an impressive manner, breaking its losing streak on the road and winning four straight games. Suddenly, with three regular-season games to watch, the Cowboys are making a late, desperate run at the NCAA Tournament.
In several of those critical games, Adams has played a large role. He played 31 minutes against Kansas and scored seven points against Baylor and at Texas A&M. His style is bruising and physical – in most ways the opposite of starter Ibrahima Thomas.
"He can step out and shoot the 3 and make it pretty,” Adams said. "I just get it done.”
Sutton said Adams will likely get significant minutes in today's game against Nebraska because of Huskers' center Aleks Maric.
"I think he's got a chance to play a lot in this gamebecause Maric is such a strong post presence that we have to keep somebody fresh on him,” Sutton said. "Martavius has got the strongest body on our team”
Adams doesn't just jaw with guys his own size, like the infamous tangle with Taylor Griffin in Norman that sent Adams to the bench.
"Me and him get into it all the time,” point guard Byron Eaton said. "In practice we talk noise to each other. I love it. When I go to the lane, he says ‘Don't come in here. Don't come in here, this is my lane.' Cruz wanna stand there and block and body people up and bow people around.”Adams' squabbles with Eaton come during scrimmages where Eaton is on the black team (starters) and Adams is on the orange team (the second team). They are seriously competitive, but mostly good-natured. His attitude toward playing on the orange team has changed dramatically, coaches said, and he's a primary reason practices have been so competitive the last month.
"It's an ongoing, constant rivalry,” Hatch said. "He wants to be on the black team and he used to take it a little personal that he wasn't on the black team and felt like he deserved to be over there even though he hadn't done anything. Now he takes it as his own personal challenge every day for the orange team to compete.”
When guys are in the locker room getting ready for practice, Adams starts.
"Let's go orange!” he'll yell. When someone asks him what he's doing, he'll respond: "Getting ready to kill black.”
Adams said he talks less trash in actual games, and he points out that he doesn't get into foul trouble. But he brings the energy to OSU that he brings to the orange team in practice.
"Before games I say, ‘Cruz when you come in you gotta give me energy,'” Dove said. "He always does. When I hear him talking mess it gets me going.”
