It’s well past 10 p.m., hours after a recent men’s basketball practice, and Miami Dade College assistant coach Brandon Martin is still putting in work.
He is running athletes through game situations and helping players get shots up.
Fellow assistant Eric Rodriguez knows that commitment all too well. He spent much of the summer working in anonymity with Sharks’ point guard Julian Crespo to improve his shooting.
Such is the life of being an assistant basketball coach at a two-year basketball program. You put players through individual workouts, watch extra film sessions and have lengthy conversations about what it takes to reach the next level.
They are responsibilities Eric and Brandon, who were born with basketball in their DNA, do not take lightly.
Eric is the son of Marcos “Shakey” Rodriguez, coaching basketball royalty in local high school basketball circles; Brandon’s dad is Frank Martin, who followed Shakey in the coaches seat at Miami Senior High School.
“They’re really good basketball coaches,” said Sharks’ head basketball coach Jorge Fernandez about his two assistants. “They’re young, but they’re very intelligent.”
Basketball and family have always been connected for Eric.
His father led Miami High to five state championships between 1987 and 1993 before coaching at Florida International University from 1995 to 2000 where he was the first Hispanic NCAA Division I head basketball coach.
At FIU, Shakey compiled a 79–66 record, including a 21–8 record in the 1997–98 season when he coached future NBA players Carlos Arroyo and Raja Bell.
He later coached at Dr. Michael Krop Senior High School and Mater Academy High School.
Eric grew up watching his father coach at Miami High, played for him at Krop and eventually worked alongside him at Mater Academy.
“I grew up in the gym watching him coach, so his day to day was my day to day,” Rodriguez said.
After Shakey died on Nov. 4, 2020, he took over at Mater Academy. Four months later, Eric led the Lions to their first state championship game, earning him the 2021 Miami-Dade Boys Basketball Coach of the Year honors.
For Eric, the lasting lesson from that run was watching his players push through grief to pursue something beyond themselves.
“He taught me how to think, how to work,” Eric said of his father. “Opened up a lot of doors and I’m just trying to pay forward.”
Eric’s coaching career has included stops at Broward College and Florida National University and professional basketball work in Belgium and Puerto Rico.
Working with pros reinforced the importance of precise instruction and adapting to different personalities. At MDC, he values coaching players still chasing a college roster spot or a Division I opportunity.
“They’re hungry to get better, hungry to grow,” Rodriguez said.
Freshman guard Dior Anderson described Rodriguez’s workouts as intense, emphasizing the coach’s attention to detail.
“He’s always finding ways for us to get better,” Crespo said.
Brandon Martin’s path took him from Miami to Cardinal Newman High School in South Carolina and a postgraduate year at St. Thomas More in Connecticut.
At the college level he spent three seasons at the University of South Carolina Upstate then a year at South Carolina with his father. He followed his dad to the University of Massachusetts for the 2022–23 season.
Brandon has watched as his dad has held head coaching gigs at UMass, Kansas State University and South Carolina. And he’s heard how Frank Martin won three consecutive state titles at Miami High from 1996-98.
Those experiences molded him.
Martin emphasizes the routines that support good performance: getting enough sleep, staying hydrated, recovering and balancing school life with basketball.
“You have to find your routine and schedule,” Martin said. “It’s just a sacrifice you make to be a Division I athlete.”
His work as an assistant video coordinator with the Windy City Bulls, Chicago’s NBA G League affiliate, also reinforced the importance of film. At MDC, he studies game footage with players individually and as a team, showing them how positioning, preparation and decisions affect their minutes.
Brandon has drawn on his father’s emphasis on defense, rebounding and versatility. His message to players is to embrace whatever role the team needs you to play.
“Just be a basketball player,” Brandon said.
Returning to Miami offered him a chance to teach those lessons near family and alongside Fernandez, a longtime family friend.
“Everyone picks up each other’s weaknesses,” Rodriguez. “Everybody helps each other out.”
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