Prospect Spotlight: Martaz Robinson (2020)
2020 New Town/Team BBC guard Martaz Robinson is no stranger to the Baltimore area. Since he was a freshman, he has caught people’s eyes with is mature style of pace and play. Fast forward to today considering that he has grown a couple of inches and continues to develop his body overall, this winter could be a breakout period for him.
Robinson plays the bulk of minutes as the floor general for Team BBC’s 16U team.
“Spring has been going good, as a team we’re always in the gym and working hard,” Robinson said as he reflected on the past couple of months. “Personally for myself, I’m just trying to get bigger, faster and stronger and just improve my overall game every single day.”
As for his sophomore campaign, Robinson was the lead guard of a talented New Town squad that finished 17-8 overall and was viewed as a top team in Baltimore County. Like his body developed, so did Robinson’s game, but he credits his physical development as reason for his improvement in production.
“I’ve studied my game a lot from last season by watching film,” Robinson claimed. “But really I’ve been spending a lot of time in the weight room. I was just little and had to get quicker by jumping rope. Once I got faster and stronger the game came easier to me.”
Looking forward to this November, the southpaw guard has a solid mindset for his team after losing some key seniors to graduation.
“We gotta come in and work. We have a lot of rebuilding to do, so it’s important we all get on the same mindset so we can win both the county and state championships.”
Robinson’s strengths are being able to beat his man off the dribble, get into the paint and either finish around the rim himself or find open teammates. At 6-foot-2, he has good size that usually allows him to oversee the defense. On the defensive side of things, Robinson is a good on-ball defender. When focused, he can be really good, but has stretches where he falls asleep off the ball. He is a plus rebounder for his position and is effective as using his frame to box out.
“I’ve been working on my jumpshot, my ball handling and just running a lot,” Robinson told Prep Hoops. “I noticed this past season I struggled to stay in the whole game, so I’m focused on getting in shape and getting my body right.”
I caught up with Marcus Wise, one of Robinson’s coaches for Team BBC and he had this to say about his overall game:
“Very crafty.. Floor General.. Poised… Enjoys harassing defenders with his on ball defense. Needs to become more vocal and score the ball more.”
There are times where Robinson defers to his teammates too often when he has an open look himself, but this upcoming season for New Town, he’ll have to be aggressive if the Titans plan on putting any banners in their gym.