Ingredients to the Success of Kate Martin
What are some words that can describe or show a recipe for what positive team chemistry looks like? Determination, belief, selflessness. It helps to have a group of people who have stuck around long enough to cultivate a supportive culture amongst the players.
This season, the Las Vegas Aces added a player who fits their team culture seamlessly, and that player is a rookie by the name of Kate Martin.
Las Vegas selected Martin in the second round of the 2024 draft. Before the draft
Martin was coming off a second consecutive national championship game appearance with Iowa, and there was a cloud of uncertainty surrounding the future of her playing career.
She may not be the team’s most productive player on the court, but she has gained valuable experience from being around great players over recent years. This can be traced back to the start of her collegiate career at Iowa.
The 2018-2019 season marked Martin’s first year at Iowa. Before she had the chance to play a regular season game, she suffered a torn ACL and meniscus and was unavailable to play that season.
Her first year happened to coincide with the final collegiate season of her teammate Megan Gustafson, who earned National Player of the Year honors and led Iowa to the Elite Eight.
According to Her Hoop Stats, Gustafson averaged 27.8 points per game (PPG) and 13.4 rebounds per game (RPG) that season.
With a total of 1,001 points scored in her final season
Gustafson currently stands as one of six different players in NCAA Division I women’s basketball history to score more than 1,000 points in a season.
After her legendary collegiate career, Gustafson was drafted in the second round of the 2019 draft. For Martin, spending a season closely watching Gustafson “instilled a little bit of what it takes to get to that level.”
Martin saw very little playing time in her first season of action after her recovery from the ACL and meniscus injuries. However, over the next four seasons, she was a mainstay in the team’s starting lineup; she started all 139 games that she played.
