MILWAUKEE – Before he nearly punched out a referee, before he and the fourth-seeded Butler Bulldogs did punch out No. 12 Middle Tennessee State 74-65 Saturday night in the NCAA tournament, Butler scoring leader Kelan Martin was in pain.
Turns out, he’s been hurting for months. We didn’t know. He never told anyone outside the program. But Martin was hurting Saturday night, hurting so bad it was apparent. He was grabbing at his back, clawing at it, as if something back there was biting him. And something was: His lower-back muscles were having spasms, severe ones that bit deep and didn’t let go and sent him to the end of the bench shortly after the game began, where he could get more treatment from a trainer.