Get to know Gregg Marshall

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A LASTING IMPRESSION -

THE CHANGING FACE OF GREGG MARSHALL

State, The (Columbia, SC)

February 27, 2005

Author: STEVE ARGERIS

ROCK HILL - Timothy Shaw remembers the first time Gregg Marshall walked into his Charleston tailor shop 15 years ago, and how different he looked then: huge glasses, cheap tie, gym teacher's sportcoat-and-slacks combination.

"He was looking rough," said Shaw, owner of 319 Men. "We had to - and how can I say this politely? -take him out of the khaki pants, the crumpled sportcoats and TJ Maxx ties, and put him in Italian clothes."

Marshall is the men's basketball coach at Winthrop. His is a profession in which style speaks volumes. But there is substance as well: In his seventh season at Winthrop, Marshall is on the verge of a fifth trip to the NCAA Tournament.

In a profession in which one NCAA trip can be enough to propel an unknown coach into a big-time job, why is Marshall still at Winthrop?

In his early years as a head coach, Marshall was involved in a job search nearly every spring. But his competitiveness and emotion, two of his greatest strengths, led to a reputation for arrogance within the coaching community. Essentially a self-made man, without the pedigree of a Tobacco Road degree or a father in the business, he knew how good he was and acted accordingly.

But as he has mellowed and matured during the past two seasons, making him a more composed and attractive job candidate, Marshall and his family have grown more comfortable at Winthrop.

He is the university's highest-paid employee, with an annual salary listed at $140,000. He has dominated the Big South Conference, winning more than 85 percent of his league games.

"The way I look at it, I'm not going to take a job in the Ohio Valley for $25,000 more than I make here," said Marshall, referring to one of the upper-tier midmajor conferences that conventional wisdom would consider a necessary stepping-stone. "I've got a great situation here. Unless it was a significant move, a significant jump (in salary), other people might not see what I see, but I'm not going to do it."

THE FIRE WITHIN

He looks the part: The glasses are gone due to laser surgery, the hair is slicked back Gordon Gekko-style, and the suits are exquisite. His posture is immaculate, and he walks the sideline with long, smooth strides, leaving no doubt who is in control.

He no longer gets technical fouls, unless it's on purpose. He no longer stalks the sideline as if he were looking for a fight, living and dying with each whistle and shot.

But every now and again, his old ways come out. He will scream, then compose himself quickly, smoothing out his hair and suit, adjusting his shirtcuffs, those simple actions serving as a mantra, cooling him down.

But if that trip to Shaw's shop was the first step in Marshall's makeover, it is also proof how little has changed. At heart, Marshall is still the gym rat who has been outworking and outsmarting those with more talent and better pedigrees since his days as a skinny high school point guard with one college scholarship offer.

He is a grinder who looks like a natural.

"I don't see any reason to change," Marshall said. "I had to play defense to play college basketball. I had to work harder. I look for qualities like that in players. That's not to say I want a team full of Gregg Marshalls - if I did, I'd get my butt kicked. But I want guys who have that will to win."

A half-dozen of Marshall's former colleagues consider him the most competitive person they know. Shaun Golden, who was Marshall's assistant for six seasons at Winthrop before becoming Newberry's head coach this season, recalls a trip to the Bahamas for a coaching clinic years ago.

In an idle moment, Golden challenged Marshall to a game of ping-pong, figuring his boss was an easy mark. Golden won- barely. Marshall demanded an immediate rematch, and the two played "until the last possible second before we had to do something else," Golden said.

John Kresse, Marshall's boss for seven seasons at the College of Charleston, could not recall another assistant reacting so strongly to each loss.

"Every practice and every game is a war to Gregg," Kresse said. "He couldn't stand losing, even at the College of Charleston. He'd almost throw up after close games that we lost. So instead of the assistant coach calming down and appeasing the head coach, it was the other way around. I'd tell him, 'We're going to lose some games, and you have to learn to accept that.' "

If that competitiveness takes its roots in his formative years, those roots are hard to find. Marshall describes his childhood as solidly and happily middle class. His parents divorced when he was 9, his mother taking her two sons to Roanoke, Va., while his father stayed in Greenwood.

But his father made the 12-hour round trip every second weekend to pick up Marshall and his younger brother, then drove them back at the end of the weekend.

"I'm sure more went into it than I'll ever know," Marshall said.

His intensity, then as now, was confined to the hardwood. He starred at point guard for Cave Spring High School in Roanoke, mostly out of grit, and earned one college offer: a partial scholarship to play for Hal Nunnally at Randolph-Macon in Ashland, Va.

Marshall's scouting report of himself: "A 6-foot-3, 145-pound point guard who couldn't shoot very well."

In Nunnally, a lifetime bachelor and loveable curmudgeon in Virginia basketball circles, Marshall found a kindred spirit.

After graduation, Marshall spent two years as an assistant to Nunnally, a few months as a management intern at the Amelia Island, Fla., resort -"I was basically a cabana boy for the rich and famous," he said - before deciding for certain the coaching life was for him.

STARTING FROM SCRATCH

When Marshall arrived at Winthrop in 1998 after two seasons at Marshall University, the school was less than three decades removed from co-education (it was an all-female teachers college until 1974) and had one Big South title since moving to Division I in 1985. The Eagles had won seven or fewer games in four of the previous five seasons.

Marshall was not guaranteed the full allotment of 13 scholarships, or a full coaching staff. He was hired in April, during a live recruiting period, and knew he needed players. So he asked Anthony J. DiGiorgio, the school's president, for two things: a car and a cell phone.

"He came back three hours later with a Ford Taurus station wagon and a phone that looked like a World War II walkie-talkie," Marshall said.

It was good enough. He left immediately, hitting all-star games in Ohio and West Virginia, working his way back through Maryland and Virginia. He ultimately landed four players.

Marshall admits now that he had no idea whether his team would win three games or 30. It ended up closer to the latter. The Eagles went 21-8, 9-1 in the league, and steamrolled their way into the NCAA Tournament.

From that point, the success snowballed. Three more championships followed. The expectations grew to the point that success almost became a trap. Marshall, not yet 40, came to define his worth as a coach by one almost impossible measuring stick: making the NCAA Tournament every season.

"He was just so tense," his wife, Lynn Marshall, said. "When we were winning those titles, he just was never able to exhale."

No coach had won his conference tournament and advanced to the NCAA Tournament his first four years as a head coach, as Marshall did from 1999-2002. But the run ended against UNC Asheville, on a near-fluke buzzer-beater in the 2003 tournament semifinals.

"I think Gregg felt a tremendous amount of pressure to do that every year," said Barclay Radebaugh, then Marshall's assistant, who now works at Miami. "That was an extremely tough loss. But it did maybe take some of the pressure off Gregg. I know this: He became a better coach because of that day."

The loss, in combination with an injury-plagued 2003-04 season - the Eagles missed eight of their 10 players at some point in the season and finished 16-12 - gave Marshall perspective he had lacked as a younger coach.

Freed from the pressure of winning every season, he has become more self-assured as a coach. During the early years, Golden said, Marshall would spend half of a timeout talking to his assistants. Now he spends perhaps 10 seconds speaking with his assistants before entering the huddle. That is no knock on his assistants. With Paul Molinari, who has 16 years in the profession, and Randy Peele, a former head coach with almost 25 years of experience, it is one of the most veteran staffs in the country at this level.

"I'm more confident in myself as a head coach now," Marshall said.

THE FUTURE

His first contract was one page.

"It had the number of years, my salary, the signatures of myself, the president and the athletics director, and that's it," Marshall said.

Since then, DiGiorgio and Marshall have worked together to transform Winthrop's program. The concourse on the 6,100-seat Winthrop Coliseum has gotten a facelift. Marshall has a formal press room for his postgame and weekly news conferences. His compensation package has tripled since he started.

"He turned Winthrop into a good job," Kresse said.

His first few seasons, Marshall interviewed with nearly anyone who called. He was a finalist at Tennessee before the Vols chose Buzz Peterson, who is on the hot seat after four seasons.

At the time, "it was all new to me," Marshall said. "Tennessee flies me to meet them on a private jet. It was the first time I'd ever been on a private jet. I couldn't believe it. They had these great chairs, papers for me to read. Then my cell phone rings. I had forgotten to turn it off. So I quickly turn it off, and the pilot leans back, and I'm thinking that he's going to yell at me, that I just put us all at risk. He said, 'Don't worry about it. Talk all you want to.' "

He talked to American, Middle Tennessee and South Alabama, among others. At the time, he was eager to tell reporters he was interviewing. Now, he plays it cooler, offering nothing other than a "no comment" when speculating on his future.

"I think he was looking to conquer the world, make it to the SEC or NBA in a giant leap right away," Kresse said. "I think he was looking to go right to a major conference school, an ACC or SEC-type school. I don't think he understood that you probably have to take an intermediate stop, at a higher midmajor."

If his desire to skip an intermediate job was rooted in ego in the past, it is now rooted in maturity. Marshall realizes Winthrop is a good job, and not one to leave lightly. Most of the traditional stepping-stone leagues are in the Midwest, making a job there a considerable risk for a slight increase in pay.

"I'd also be moving to an area of the country I'm not familiar with," Marshall said. "Why put myself in that position?"

Despite his track record, which includes success at every stop, Marshall is aware of how quickly things can change. What he leaves unsaid is how critical his judgment has to be on his next move.

If things went poorly for four seasons at Tennessee, he would have made enough money to put his children (and likely his children's children) through college. If things went equally poorly at an upper midmajor program, he would be scrambling for an assistant coaching position that likely would not pay half what he currently makes.

And so, for the first time in his life, Marshall is in no hurry.

[Guest BasketBull.]

WINNING EVERYTHING BUT FANS -

EAGLES ARE 3-0 AT HOME SO FAR, SO WHY ARE MOST SEATS EMPTY?

Charlotte Observer, The (NC)

December 26, 2004

Author: DENNY SEITZ, STAFF WRITER

His team had just claimed a convincing victory over Siena College, but Winthrop men's basketball coach Gregg Marshall didn't want to talk about jump shots or rebounds.

He wanted to talk about fans.

In particular, he wanted to talk about the ones who did NOT show up at Winthrop Coliseum Dec. 5 when the Eagles beat the Saints 67-58.

The paid attendance was 1,051 in the 6,100 capacity Winthrop Coliseum.

Now, as his team prepares for a Thursday home game against Georgia State and a Jan. 2 home contest against Division III Ferrum College, from Ferrum, Va., Marshall wonders how many people will show up to watch his team.

By most standards, the Eagles have done their part to entice fans to the games. The team has won four Big South Conference championships in Marshall's first six years as coach. This year, they've beaten Providence and East Carolina en route to a 7-4 start.

Since Marshall arrived prior to the 1998-99 season, the Eagles have gone 69-14 at home, including 3-0 this year. Of the 13 highest-attended games in the 23-year Winthrop Coliseum history, 10 have come since Marshall arrived and turned a struggling program into a contender.

But the team still plays to a coliseum less than half full most nights.

Last year, the Eagles averaged 2,168 fans per game, second best in the Big South. In three home games this season, they've yet to hit that mark.

Other Big South schools are less-than-stellar draws at the turnstile. Of the 31 Division I basketball conferences in the country, the Big South ranked 27th in attendance last season averaging 1,643 fans per game. Many Big South schools are far smaller than those in other conferences.

When the Eagles played Siena, visiting coach Rob Lanier commented on the sparse crowd in a post-game interview. In a Nov. 27 victory over Weber State, Wildcats coach Joe Cravens made similar comments.

"Rob Lanier told me he'd have 4,500 people at their next home game," Marshall said after the Eagles beat the Saints. "And they're 0-6."

Lanier and Cravens marveled at the home-court success enjoyed by Winthrop because both coaches said the Eagles had to generate their own exciting environment at Winthrop Coliseum.

"There's really not much of a home-court advantage there," Cravens said. "Their advantage was that they were a very good team with a very good coach. It wasn't a crowd that was difficult to play in front of."

Marshall agreed with the comments. And they didn't make him happy.

"Sometimes, I think we'd be better off playing on the road," Marshall said. "Even if we made it to the Sweet 16 this year, we'd only get 2,000 people for our opening game next season," Marshall said.

Cravens said he'd rather play at Winthrop than other schools that have a much more rabid fan base because it gives his team a better chance to win.

"I'd rather go to Winthrop than to (tiny) Gardner-Webb," he said. "I've heard that's a tough place to play."

Winthrop tickets are priced at $4, $5 or $7. Students get into games for free with their student IDs. Shuttle buses transport students for free from the dorms to the coliseum for every game.

Every season, Winthrop will play five or six games against teams from premier conferences, like the Southeastern Conference, the Atlantic Coast Conference or the Big East.

Teams from those conferences would likely draw large crowds to Winthrop Coliseum. But teams from those conferences rarely play nonconference games on the road.

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'Debit or credit?' Winthrop's Marshall serves, sweet-talks Wal-Mart shoppers

Herald, The (Rock Hill, SC)

October 13, 2006

Author: Andrew Dys

Gregg Marshall showed Thursday he can do two things besides turning Winthrop University's men's basketball team into a top program: Count change and bag groceries.

Oops. Another thing Marshall can do. He can schmooze. A carnival barker who missed his calling, Marshall will talk to anybody who will listen and even those who won't.

Even those shoppers at Wal-Mart on a Thursday afternoon who just wanted some pantyhose or a bottle of bleach, Marshall sweet-talked them all.

Winthrop's basketball program was the second hearse in a two-car funeral when Marshall took over nine years ago. Since then, he's guided the Eagles to six NCAA tournaments and a huge spike in attendance and excitement.

He single-handedly made the Winthrop brand a hot commodity.

Before Marshall came and winning came with him, Winthrop couldn't give away school merchandise. Thursday, Marshall and women's basketball coach Bud Childers - who has resurrected the women's program - spent an hour at Rock Hill's Wal-Mart promoting the upcoming season by signing autographs on Winthrop merchandise now available at the store.

Marshall ran the joint like he owned the place.

"Do you have children?" he asked one couple, promoting Winthrop's fan-friendly atmosphere at games.

They didn't, so Marshall asked if they like the Eagles.

They did, so Marshall asked if they had been to the games.

They hadn't.

"Come on out, we would love to have you," he told Eric and Elaine Dunning.

The Dunnings, who moved to town three years ago, have watched Winthrop on television. But Marshall the showman had them on the hook in minutes for two Winthrop ball caps, one winter cap, two T-shirts and a promise to go to the games.

Autographs sealed the deal, and Elaine Dunning said she loved meeting Marshall.

"Great guy," Eric Dunning said.

Marshall and Childers switched a few minutes later to running the registers.

"Debit or credit?" Marshall asked like an old pro.

Yet Marshall was all about the smile and the slicked-back hair and the huge Big South Championship ring on his finger. Several people said they recognized him from his picture in the paper.

'The man' waits on all

He hustled the shoppers and even the Wal-Mart workers.

"Love your shirt," Marshall called out to worker Gail McClain.

McClain had on a Winthrop shirt.

"Little man, I looove that shirt, " Marshall said to little kid, Andrew Griggs, who was wearing the Winthrop Gregg Marshall basketball camp T-shirt. Andrew, 11, had waited in Marshall's line just to get checked out by the coach.

"Cool," Andrew said. "He's the coach. The man."

Marshall didn't stop the charm at kids. He packed away a brassiere and pantyhose for a blushing lady without so much as a snicker. He bagged the canned green beans, the bleach, the bananas and the milk and talked up his team.

He urged people to step right up to his register and typed in code number 4044 for Red Delicious apples and 3151 for tomatoes.

Store manager Chad Guest herded over his most famous trainee like an expectant mother for a few transactions, but Marshall held his own.

Marshall wore his Wal-Mart name tag that said, "Our people make the difference."

The tag is true. Marshall wins. He accepted the coaching job at College of Charleston this summer, but changed his mind the next day when he tearfully told the world Rock Hill was home.

Why? Because Rock Hill and York County have taken to Winthrop in unprecedented numbers. Fan support went from a few hundred for home games when Marshall came to Winthrop to an average of more than 3,000 fans. Practice starts tonight for this season, with the first game in about a month for a team that came within two points of winning its first NCAA game in March. Expectations are Winthrop will not just go to the tournament this year, but win a game or more.

One national magazine has the Eagles ranked in the top 30 in the country.

Season tickets already are above 1,300 - the highest ever - and money from business sponsorships is up 25 percent, said Jason Capel, assistant athletic director for marketing and promotions.

But the dapper Gregg Marshall in razor-creased dress slacks and pastel yellow-green shirt did not do one thing Thursday. Management had a blue Wal-Mart vest for him hung on a chair. The vest never left the chair.

Marshall has developed a reputation as a snazzy dresser. He buys his suits from the finest Charleston tailors. Off the rack? Maybe the undershirts.

Maybe.

No blue vest covered the yellow-green Marshall midriff.

Even for promotion, Gregg Marshall refuses to clash.

[SRQ]

Sounds good.