Their Favorite Martin

Maylana Martin, a junior forward on the UCLA women’s basketball team, can play through pain.

She proved that last season, when she rarely practiced because of a back injury but led the Bruins in scoring and rebounding for the second consecutive season and was a repeat selection on the All-Pacific 10 Conference team.

Martin carried the Bruins to a 20-9 record, their best winning percentage in 17 years, and their first NCAA tournament appearance since 1992.

The question she hopes to answer this season is: How much better can she play without the searing pain that shot down the back of her legs last season?

Martin says that three degenerative disks in her back were aggravated when she overextended herself while leading the U.S. team to the junior world championship in Brazil during the summer of 1997.

Last summer, she turned down offers to try out for international competition and stayed in Westwood to rehabilitate.

The result: She’s stronger, in better shape and, most important, the pain in her legs is gone, though her back still flares up at times.

Her scoring average of 18.5 points is down slightly from 18.8 last season, but she’s averaging 11.6 rebounds, up from 7.4. She remains the team’s best post defender and has emerged as a vocal leader for the Bruins, who are 6-2 and ranked eighth after beginning the season at No. 6, their highest ranking in 17 years.

The only problem is that she seems to have left her shooting touch in the trainer’s room.

After making 54.6% of her shots during her first two seasons, she has made 46.5% this season.

“I didn’t really play any basketball last summer,” Martin explains, “so when practice started in October I hadn’t really touched a ball for several months. So I’m still trying to work on my shot, still trying to find my rhythm.”

She hopes to find it in time for what could be a telling trip for the Bruins--games tonight at Texas and Monday night at No. 2 Tennessee, the three-time defending national champion.

“Playing Tennessee will give us an indication of how good we really are,” says Martin, whose teammates on the U.S. junior team included four Tennessee players. “It will be interesting to see how our team reacts--whether we get scared or whether we look at it as a chance to show everybody what UCLA basketball is all about.”

UCLA has won six consecutive games, two over ranked teams en route to the championship of the Hawaii tournament, after opening the season with losses to No. 6 Notre Dame on the road and No. 1 Connecticut at Pauley Pavilion.

The Bruins’ lineup, including two-time All-Pac-10 point guard Erica Gomez and burly center Janae Hubbard, was described by a national magazine as “the best starting five west of Knoxville.”

It is led by Martin, a 6-foot-3 post player whose streaky shooting has resulted in some wildly divergent performances but has not diminished her value to the team.

She made 12 of 20 shots, finishing with 30 points and 18 rebounds, as UCLA handed No. 7 North Carolina its only loss, then made only two of 12 in a victory over Kentucky. She was four for 11 against Connecticut.

“I’ll have some really good games, then some games where I’ll really struggle,” says Martin, who has nevertheless maintained the on-court work ethic of her role model, Dennis Rodman. “But when I get the rhythm back in my shot, I’ll be a better player than I was last season. I’ve gotten stronger in all other areas. I have more rebounds, a lot more steals. I’m playing better defense.

“I’m playing a lot more complete game, where last season it was more about scoring.”

Her coach agrees.

“She’s been incredible,” says UCLA Coach Kathy Olivier, whose recruitment of the four-time Riverside County player of the year from Perris High was a key development in the Bruins’ rebuilding effort. “She has always scored and always rebounded, but she’s doing more this season than I ever dreamed she would do. . . .

“Last season, for her to put up those numbers when she was not 100%, was amazing. But this season, she’s done even more.”