After witnessing Martins Igbanu's freshman season at Tulsa, it is hard to believe he has only been playing basketball for five years, or that he was mostly a perimeter player in high school.

Igbanu is coming off a very promising freshman campaign where he played almost exclusively in the post, displaying low post moves that looked like he had worked on them for years.

“The low post moves, all of that was really from working with Coach (Frank) Haith and Coach (Shea) Seals and with different coaches in different workouts,” said the 6-foot-8 Igbanu. “That is when I really learned how to post up.”

Igbanu started to come on during the second half of the season when the coaching tips really began to kick in, averaging 7.8 points and 4.7 rebounds in AAC play, while posting season averages of 6.3 points and 4.0 rebounds overall. Over the last nine games of the season, he averaged 10.8 points and 5.1 rebounds, including 19 points at Tulane.

“He didn’t have that,” Haith said of Igbanu not having strong low post moves at the start of the season. “You saw as the year went along how he progressed. We’ve got to get him the ball on the blocks. We feel pretty confident in what he can do.”

It has been an amazing learning curve for Igbanu.

“The adjustment coming in from high school was really big, because coming in from high school I played the three and the four, and here I play mostly the five,” Igbanu explained. “In high school, I was shooting a bunch of threes. I changed from a perimeter guy to a post guy in one summer. And I thank the coaches for that because they have taken a lot of time working with me.

“And I wanted to do that, too, so that’s why it took me a lot of time to get fluid at that position throughout the basketball season."

Haith was glad that Igbanu played on a very tall Covenant Christian Ministries Academy team in Marietta, Georgia that had a much bigger front line than the Golden Hurricane.

“Martins didn’t look as good playing the three as he does inside because you didn’t see what he was actually capable of doing, being a force,” Haith said of why some schools didn’t recruit Igbanu. “Because of playing on the perimeter, he does have the ability to do some things like drive the ball. He is a fierce driver.

“When you are big and strong like he is, you don’t always have to get two feet in the paint. You can face up and attack people off the bounce. He has that ability because he has some experience playing away from the basket.”

What Igbanu didn’t show a lot of as a freshman was shooting three-pointers. Since his focus was on his low post game, he wasn’t looking to shoot when he did step out to catch the ball.

However, when Igbanu did shoot threes, he showed he can hit them, making five of nine for the season.

Not bad for a guy who didn’t pick up a basketball before he was 15 years old. The amazing part is that he took to basketball so well that within six months, he had offers from three different high schools in the U.S. to play for them. Some coaches had seen him play at a basketball camp in his home of Lagos, Nigeria.

“When I started playing basketball, I liked it after the first day,” said Igbanu, who previously played soccer. “So I just started spending a lot of time with it, me and my younger brother. And I started working with this coach back home. So I would work with him in the mornings before school and in the evenings after school. I felt like that was how I got comfortable with the sport.

“It was just the feeling I got from being on the court. I had played soccer a lot. But it was a different feeling playing basketball. When I was on the court, it was like I had nothing else to worry about. There was nothing else in my head except playing basketball. So that was the feeling I loved from it, and that was the feeling that kept me going."

When Igbanu’s younger brother realized that Martins had quit playing soccer, he suggested basketball. Martins first saw his brother play basketball, then soon afterward wanted to play. The rest is history.

Coming to the United States was not easy for Igbanu. But it did help that Igbanu already spoke English, although it was not his first language.

“It was the biggest adjustment ever. It was like a whole different world for me. I had to start over again,” Igbanu said. “It was kind of hard because of the accent, and I spoke really fast when I got over here. People had a hard time understanding what I’m saying, but after a while, it got better.

“I was speaking a lot of English back home because my mom really emphasized that in the house. That was our one rule. She spoke our native language. My native language is Ibo, but my mom is from a different tribe. She speaks Benin. So I had to learn that, too. And I had to learn Yoruba, because I had a lot of Yoruba friends. There were a lot of tribal languages, but my mom made sure we spoke English, too.”

With his English going well now, and with his adjustment to playing in the post, Igbanu’s performance could rise exponentially in the next year or two.

Another area he has had to adjust to in the college game is on the defensive end. In high school, his team played zone defense all four years.

“Even though we played a zone in high school, it was a 2-3 matchup zone, so you still got a little glimpse of playing man. And in AAU, we played man all the time, so I was pretty much used to playing man.”

Igbanu has looked good in the open scrimmages to the public and in the exhibition games. By looking at him, you wouldn’t know he is coming off of a knee injury.

“I had a really good summer strength wise, athletic wise, and speed wise,” Igbanu said. “Even though I got hurt towards the end of the summer and missed a lot of time between summer workouts and the official first day of practice, I feel like I've made a couple of strides since practice has started for someone who has been out.

“I was out for like four weeks. I slightly tore my meniscus in my right knee. I had surgery on that. Compared to where I was last year, I’m still better than that. All we’re trying to do right now is working with the strength coach and getting back to where I was in the summer. It’s feeling really good. I’m back to 100 percent playing and practicing.”

Igbanu and senior Junior Etou are the only two post players on the team, and both weren’t post men before coming to Tulsa. Tulsa’s lack of size has some fans worried, but Haith is not sweating it. He cites his first team at Missouri where the Tigers went 32-5, won the Big 12 Tournament, and he was the USBWA and the AP national Coach of the Year, as well as winning the Henry Iba Award.

That team, Haith said, was much smaller than this year’s Tulsa team.

“Basketball has changed so much. In the college game, you don’t have to have that true center,” Haith said. “Even in the NBA, you don’t have to. Offensively, it’s not going to be an issue for us, whatsoever. People are going to have to decide do they size down and guard us or do some things differently.

“Defensively is where we’ve got to be really good. Our rim protection now has to be taking charges, good rotation, do your work early, do some different things, but we’ve got to block out, be fierce and close out.”

On offense Igbanu’s versatility is a big reason Haith is excited about the season.

“Being able to have five players on the court who can step out and shoot the three makes it really hard on opposing defenses,” Haith said. “Martins has worked hard on his game. He’s always been a strong kid, but I think he’s made great strides. He’s ready to have a great sophomore year.”

A great sophomore year for Igbanu could get the Golden Hurricane dancing in March. Haith believes that is the case.

“I think we are capable of being in the top half of our league,” Haith said. “And if you’re going to be in the top half of the league, I think with the league as good as it’s going to be this year, that can get us into the NCAA Tournament.”