Will Martell, grabbing a rebound for the Rams, wasn’t taken seriously when he said he wanted to play Division I basketball.

The Providence Journal / Glenn Osmundson

SOUTH KINGSTOWN — One of the coaches from the Hoop Group was telling a story about Will Martell as he watched the URI basketball team play Penn State at The Palestra earlier this season.

The coach, whose organization was sponsoring the tournament, came looking for someone from Rhode Island to give him information about Martell. He related how, when Martell was getting ready to begin his senior year at Rumson-Fairhaven High in New Jersey, he had coached him at one of the camps run by the Hoop Group.

“I remember him telling me he was going to play Division I,” the Hoop Group guy said. “He was about 6-foot-7 at the time and really skinny.”

The coach told how he tried to discourage Martell as nicely as he could.

“I told him,” the coach said, “that he didn’t have to go to Division I. For some players, it’s better to go to a Division II or Division III school. Back then, he didn’t look like a Division-I prospect. But he told me he was going to play Division I. He said he was willing to work for it and I do remember how hard he worked.

“It’s great,” he concluded, “to see that he made it.”

This was six weeks ago, when Martell was just beginning to make an impact with the Rams. After playing only 27 minutes and scoring a grand total of three points in his freshman year, Martell had become a part of coach Jim Baron’s rotation.

The Hoop Group coach would be even more surprised if he saw what was happening now. Martell has kept improving, to the point where he has become the Rams’ starting center.

In the last four games, Martell, now 7-foot and 228 pounds, has averaged 12.3 points and six rebounds. He has become a key player for the Rams, a guy with a bright future.

When he was told about the story of the Hoop Group coach, Martell laughed. He said he did not know who it might have been, because a number of people tried to tell him the same thing. Back in his days at Rumson-Fairhaven High, Martell said, almost no one gave him a chance to play at the top level of college basketball.

“I was going to Muhlenberg College when my senior season was ending. I was all but headed there,” he said. Muhlenberg, in Allentown, Pa., plays in Division III.

It was a combination of his own determination, and help from his AAU coach, Mike Cavalino, that led him to URI.

Martell is more than capable of helping himself with whatever he wants. The son of an engineer and an author, he is bright and articulate. A finance major, he earned a 3.66 grade-point average last semester, lifting his cumulative average to 3.44. Jim Baron, his coach, talks about how Martell spends time reading the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.

Even though he had tentatively agreed to go to Muhlenberg, Martell hesitated.

“I looked into prep schools. I felt I was better than that. I felt I could play,” the lefty said. “I did some research, and then my AAU coach, Mike Cavalino, agreed to help me. He basically opened every door for me. He’s the reason I’m at Rhode Island.”

After graduating from Rumson-Fairhaven, Martell changed his plans.

Cavalino helped arrange for him to attend a prep school, the Hun School in New Jersey, for a year. It was while he was there that URI coaches saw him.

“I remember he was playing behind another big kid there and he didn’t play all that much,’ Baron said. “But we saw some skills. He’s a kid that can shoot the ball. He’s a kid that can run the floor. He has good hands and a good feel for the game. Sometimes you have to take a chance on a kid.” Martell averaged nine points and nine rebounds in that prep year.

“I heard from some teams in the NEC (Northeast Conference) and some teams in the MAAC (Metro Atlantic Athletic Association). I heard from Winthrop and the College of Charleston. URI was the highest offer I received, so I decided to take it,” Martell said. “I’m happy I did. I wanted to go to a winning program. I look now at some of the schools that had talked to me and they’re really struggling.”

Baron is happy, too.

“Sometimes kids make themselves better because they want it so much,” Baron said. “They overachieve because they work at it — they have a chip on their shoulder. They want it. I’ve had a lot of kids like that. Will has worked hard to develop his game. He went to the Pete Newell big man camp last summer. He wants to be good.”

Now, instead of being told to cut back on his aspirations, Martell is being pushed to go even higher.

“I tell Will he really can be as good as he wants to be if he keeps working at it,” Baron said. “He’s come a long way. I know when we were at FDU, I was speaking to his father [Claude], and even he seemed a little amazed with how far Will has come. But he can do more. He’s just got to keep working.”

“The game is starting to come easier for me,” Martell said. “But I feel I have to get in better shape than I am now. I’m starting to understand what I have to do to help the team win. My teammates keep telling me that I should be more aggressive, demanding the ball. I know I’ve got a lot of stuff to work on and I’m going to do it.”

pkenyon@projo.com