Basketball is a sport where players have to get used to the constant, fluid motion of play.

An example of that fluidity is senior guard Romain Martin unexpectedly hanging up his sneakers Tuesday afternoon after playing three-plus seasons for the Eastern men’s basketball team.

The leading scorer for the Panthers three years running, Martin was slowed down from a knee injury that lingered from last season.

He decided to have a knee scope on Nov. 18 instead of red-shirting this season.

Despite this, he did not play as well as he wanted, not able to run like lightning as in past games.

However, Tuesday he ran quicker than a pick and roll set up by senior center Ousmane Cisse to just being an average student who wants to heal and finish his degree.

His absence was a complete shock to his teammates as No. 10 did not voice his frustration with his injury.

“I don’t think anybody can take his spot,” senior guard T.J. Marion said.

Martin was healthy the first year and had a wrist injury at end of freshman year and had a foot injury his sophomore year. He was healthy last season.

“(The injuries) certainly did have an impact on him,” head coach Mike Miller said.

Junior guard Tyler Laser was a backcourt mate with ‘Ro’ for three years and noted the intangibles he brought to the team.

“He’s silly in the locker room,” Laser said. “I think that is where we are going to miss him the most, being someone who makes us laugh in the locker room and keeps us loose.”

While it is true Martin was an important part of the Panthers throughout his solid career, his team has to move on without him whether they like it or not.

“We played well without him,” Laser said. “We are coming together. We are going to be stronger. We’re going to be a closer team. We’re still looking for that OVC championship.”

In fact, the Panthers were 7-4 without Romain playing and 3-4 since he came back. They still have a chance to compete for the league title.

Eastern has played well offensively despite not having Ro’s 13.8 points per game this year. The club is averaging 68.3 ppg, opposed to 64.5 last season and 63.2 in 2007-2008.

Players like Laser and sophomore guard Jeremy Granger are stepping up as the leading scorers now, with Laser pouring in 14.4 ppg and Granger 8.8 ppg.

“From last year, he was a big shot person,” Marion said. “Whenever we needed some, he’d do it. But I know we got a lot of other people like Tyler and Jeremy can step up and hit big shots and we’ve been playing all right.”

Miller said the rotations changed a bit when Martin returned from injury, but he can now return to the first ones that worked well.

Right now, Eastern has to move ahead as one unit in order to continue its trek to the conference tournament.

“We can still win and play our best without him because we already have,” Marion said. “I think we need to get passed this right and get closer together and like play together more.”

Martin may not be on the court bolting for the bucket on a screen, but players like Laser and Granger can pick up the slack on Cisse’s picks as they try to roll to victory.

Bob Bajek can be reached at 581-7944 or [email protected]