Wichita State Athletics

CAREER RECORD (entering 2020-21 season)

• Overall: 525-204 (.720), 23rd Season 
• At Wichita State: 331-121 (.732), 14th Season

TITLES:

• NCAA Tournament Bids: 14 (1999-02, 2005-07, 2012-18)
• NCAA Final Four: 1 (2013)
• Other Postseason Bids: 4 (2009 CBI, 2010 NIT, 2011 NIT Champions, 2019 NIT Semifinalist)
• Missouri Valley Conference Titles: 5 (2012, 2014-17)
• Big South Conference Titles: 6 (1999, 2001-02, 2005-07)
• MVC Tournament Titles: 2 (2014, 2017)
• Big South Tournament Titles: 7 (1999-02, 2005-07)

AWARDS:

• National Coach of the Year: 2014
• Mid-Major National Coach of the Year: 2007
• MVC Coach of the Year: 3 (2012-14)
• Big South Coach of the Year: 4 (1999, 2003, 2005, 2007)
   

Gregg Marshall has built Wichita State into a monster of the Midwest and, in the process, ascended as one of college basketball’s elite head coaches.

Under Marshall, WSU is one of just four programs that have won at least 22 games in each of the last 11 seasons, joined by Gonzaga, Kansas and Duke.

Marshall recorded his 525th victory in the 2019-20  finale, becoming only the eighth head coach in NCAA Division I history to reach that milestone before the end of his 22nd season. In addition, Marshall ranks among the nation's active leaders in career winning percentage with a 72.0 percent success rate.

Already WSU's all-time wins leader (331-121, .732), Marshall recorded his 300th Shocker victory on Feb. 28, 2019 against UConn. The 2020-21 campaign will be his 14th at WSU, surpassing Hall of Famer Ralph Miller (1951-64) for the longest tenure in program history

Under Marshall, WSU finished the most-recent decade as one of the nation's top programs with seven NCAA tournament appearances and four 30-win seasons. Between Jan. 1, 2010 and Dec. 31, 2019, the Shockers 280 wins and .789 percentage both ranked No. 5 nationally behind only Gonzaga, Kansas, Duke and Kentucky.
 
Marshall had WSU on track for its 12th-straight postseason appearance in 2019-20 before the COVID-19 pandemic forced an early end to the season. The Shockers were a consensus pick by bracketologists to make the NCAA tournament field as an at-large selection.

Under Marshall, WSU made seven-straight NCAA tournaments from 2012-18, highlighted by a Sweet 16 appearance in 2015 and a run to the 2013 Final Four. In 2014, WSU ran the table in the regular season, becoming the first team in 23 years to enter the Big Dance with an unbeaten record and the first in NCAA history to open 35-0. The feat earned Marshall consensus national coach of the year honors.

WSU has twice reached the NIT semifinals under Marshall. The 2011 Shockers steamrolled to the tournament title, winning five games by an average of more than 16 points. The 2019 Shockers became the first team in NIT history to upset the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 seeds in its region on the way to Madison Square Garden.

WSU's success on the national stage opened the door for a 2017 move to the American Athletic Conference. The Shockers fell a point shy of the league's regular season title in their inaugural year and finished sixth out of 12 teams in year-two, despite playing with the one of the nation's least-experienced rosters.
 
Prior to joining The American, WSU dominated Missouri Valley Conference play, winning four-straight MVC regular season crowns with a combined 68-4 mark. No team in the 120-year history of the conference had ever won as many league games over a four-year span.
 
In his 22 seasons as a head coach, Marshall’s teams have captured 11 regular season conference titles and advanced to the NCAA Tournament 14 times. He’s won seven conference coach-of-the-year honors, including a run of three-in-a-row from 2012-14.
 
Marshall is the all-time wins leader at both WSU -- where he surpassed  Miller with his 221st victory on Feb. 3, 2016 -- and at Winthrop, where he won 191 games in nine seasons from 1998-2007.
 
Marshall has proven adept at spotting talented prospects and developing them into high-level college basketball players, with many moving on to play professionally.

In 13 seasons in Wichita, Marshall has produced 36 professionals, including six NBA players. The latter group's most recent addition, Landry Shamet (26th overall pick in the 2018 NBA Draft) made the NBA's All-Rookie Team and carved out a niche as one of the league's best distance shooters in 2018-19 while splitting time between the 76ers and Clippers. Point guard Fred VanVleet helped lead the Toronto Raptors to the 2019 NBA title, scoring 22 points in the decisive Game Six. Other Marshall Era Shockers who have logged time on NBA regular season rosters include Ron Baker (Knicks), Cleanthony Early (Knicks), Toure’ Murry (Knicks, Jazz and Wizards) and Gal Mekel (Mavericks and Pelicans).
 
In Marshall’s 13 seasons in Wichita, a total of 28 Shockers have earned postseason all-conference honors, including 16 first-teamers since 2010. VanVleet was a two-time winner of the Larry Bird MVC Player of the Year Trophy.
 
Under Marshall, the Shockers have become a top destination for some of the nation’s premier junior college talent. Twelve NJCAA All-Americans have worn the black and yellow since Marshall’s arrival, including the NBA-bound Early - a two-time national player of the year prior to his arrival at WSU -- and the most recent, 2020 signee Trevin Wade.
 
Marshall has also had big success developing coaching talent, with a rapidly expanding tree of eight former assistants who have gone on to accept Division I head coaching positions: Chris Jans (New Mexico State), Steve Forbes (Wake Forest), Earl Grant (College of Charleston), Dana Ford (Missouri State), Donnie Jones (Stetson), Barclay Radebaugh, (Charleston Southern) and Zach Spiker (Drexel). Jans and Grant made their NCAA Tournament debuts in 2018. Forbes made his first trip in 2017 while leading the program at East Tennessee State.
 

AT WICHITA STATE:

Wichita State's 2019-20 season will most be remembered by most for the way it ended, but there were a number of milestones along the way. The Shockers returned to the national rankings with six weeks in the top-25 and posted three wins over teams ranked in the USA Today Coaches Poll (Oklahoma State, VCU and Memphis).

The Shockers reached the 23-win mark, despite the cancelation of both the American Athletic Conference and NCAA tournaments due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Though the selection committee never unveiled an official draw, WSU was a consensus at-large selection among the many "bracketologists."

Senior center Jaime Echenique -- the team's leading scorer (11.3), rebounder (7.1) and shot-blocker (1.6) -- earned second team all-conference honors. Defense became the team's calling card. WSU held 22 of its 31 foes under 40 percent from the field, and finished the year ranked No. 8 nationally in defensive efficiency by KenPom.

Marshall joined an exclusive club on Mar. 20, 2019 when he recorded his 500th career victory at Furman, becoming just the 10th Division I head coach to reach that milestone before the end of his 21st season.

While the Shockers missed out on the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2011, the 2018-19 season will go down as one of Marshall's most-impressive coaching performances. His Shockers returned just three scholarship players from the previous year and only 11.2 percent of minutes (fifth-fewest nationally) yet came together late in the year to reach the NIT semifinals.

After opening the year 8-11 (1-6 in conference play), WSU won 14 of its next 17 games. The Shockers rallied from the cellar to finish sixth (10-8) in the 12-team American Athletic Conference and took down ECU and Temple to earn a surprise berth in the conference semifinals.

That momentum was enough to convince the NIT selection committee to use one of its last at-large bids on the Shockers, and their faith was quickly rewarded. WSU became the first in NIT history to upset the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 seeds in its region on the way to New York, defeating No. 3 Furman, No. 2 Clemson and No. 1 Indiana on the road before falling to Lipscomb in the semifinals at Madison Square Garden.

Senior Markis McDuffie was named second team all-conference after averaging 18.2 points-per-game, and Dexter Dennis made the all-freshman team.

In 2017-18 Marshall led Wichita State into a new era. In their first foray in The American, the Shockers (25-8, 14-4) recorded a ninth straight 25-win season, finished tied for second place in the league standings and advanced to their seventh-consecutive NCAA tournament. They were ranked wire-to-wire in the national polls.

In typical Marshall fashion, the Shockers performed well on the road, fashioning a 9-2 record. The team reached the championship game at the prestigious Maui Invitational and surged to No. 3 in the polls in mid-December after winning back-to-back road games at No. 16 Baylor and Oklahoma State.

On Dec. 30, 2017, WSU made its official American debut, winning 72-62 at perennial power UConn in a game that aired nationally on CBS. A Feb. 18 victory at No. 5 Cincinnati snapped the Bearcats' nation-best 39-game home winning streak and set the stage for an epic finish to the conference season.

WSU finished 14-4 in conference play but fell a point short of the regular season title after a 62-61 setback against Cincinnati on the final day of the regular season. The CBS-televised showdown between two nationally-ranked teams drew the highest overnight television rating in league history.

The league's overall strength worked to WSU's advantage on Selection Sunday when the chronically under-seeded Shockers landed on the No. 4 line in the NCAA Tournament bracket -- the second-highest seed in program history.

Sophomore point guard Landry Shamet earned honorable mention AP All-American status after leading The American in assists (5.2) and assist-to-turnover ratio (2.5). Both Shamet and center Shaquille Morris landed first team all-conference honors. The 6-foot-8, 270-pound Morris -- once a foul-prone freshman playing limited minutes -- completed his evolution with a standout senior season in which he averaged 14.0 points and led the conference in blocks (51).

The sharp-shooting Shamet (84-of-190, .442 from three) caught the attention of the Philadelphia 76'ers who made him the 26th overall pick in the June NBA Draft -- the first Shocker drafted in the first round since Xavier McDaniel in 1985.

The 2016-17 season will go down as another of Marshall's greatest coaching performances.  Despite losing two guards to the NBA, Wichita State’s so-called rebuilding year exceeded the expectations of the even the most optimistic pundits.
 
The team reached 30-wins for the fourth time in five seasons and claimed a share of its fourth-consecutive Missouri Valley Conference regular season title.
 
Helped by a 16-game winning streak that stretched from mid-January to mid-March, WSU (31-5) finished with the second-highest win total in program history. Victory No. 31 came against Dayton in the NCAA tournament opener, launching the Shockers into the Round of 32 for the fifth year-in-a-row.
 
Victory No. 30 in the MVC Tournament title game was also significant, giving WSU just its second crown since 1987, while guaranteeing a sixth-consecutive NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship bid. The 70-50 win over Illinois State also avenged the Shockers’ lone conference blemish. Both squads had finished the regular season at 17-1, with their lone setback coming on the other’s home floor.
 
Four WSU regulars landed All-Missouri Valley Conference honors. Shamet and McDuffie were first team selections, and Morris and Conner Frankamp earned third team status. Shamet (who was also the league’s Freshman of the Year) became just the fourth frosh in MVC history to make the first team.

Marshall hit several milestones during the 2015-16 season. A win over Emporia State on Nov. 21, 2015 was his 400th, and a Feb. 3 win over SIU was his 221st as Shocker head coach, passing the legendary Ralph Miller (220 from 1951-65) atop WSU's all-time list.

The SIU game was also the Shockers' 43-straight victory at home, highlighting a two-week stretch during which WSU owned the nation's longest home winning streak. The school-record run (which ended Feb. 13, 2016) ran for just shy of three years and nearly doubled the previous mark.

WSU overcame an injury plagued start to log its seventh-consecutive 25-win campaign, breaking Cincinnati's half-century old conference record.

History will remember it as an extended farewell tour for All-American seniors Ron Baker and Fred VanVleet. One of the most versatile performers to ever play for Marshall, Baker finished out his WSU career with 1,636 points (eighth on the school's all-time list). Point guard VanVleet ended as the school's career leader in steals and assists and logged time in 121 wins over his four years.

Though the Shockers opened the year ranked in the top-10 in the preseason AP Poll, the team suffered a disastrous start. A hamstring strain slowed and eventually sidelined VanVleet during a rough November stretch that saw the team's record dip to 2-4. Following his return to the lineup in early December, the team won 21 of its next 24 games, helped by a 12-game winning streak that stretched from Dec. 22 to Feb. 3.

The Shockers rolled to a 16-2 conference record -- with 11 of their MVC wins coming by 20+ points -- and became just the second MVC team in the last 46 years to three-peat as regular season champion. Baker and VanVleet earned first team All-Valley honors for the third straight year, and VanVleet won his second Larry Bird trophy as the conference player of the year.

A talented supporting cast filled in the gaps. WSU's reserves, led by Anton Grady and McDuffie, ranked among the national leaders in bench scoring. McDuffie was named MVC Freshman of the Year. Morris and fellow sophomore Zach Brown stepped into starting roles, and wily veteran Evan Wessel again provided the glue. The team's calling card was its defense. Wichita State was the only team in the country to allow less than 60 points per game, and ranked second nationally in turnover margin. 
 
Though the Shockers were clearly an at-large quality squad, their resume didn't show it. VanVleet's injury and the team's early struggles had robbed them of a chance at many of the marquee wins valued by the committee. Pundits placed Wichita State on the bubble following a Valley semifinal loss to UNI. Though the Shockers made the field on Selection Sunday, their fifth-straight NCAA Tournament trip came with a slight detour through Dayton, Ohio for the First Four. 
 
Unfazed, WSU rolled over fellow 11-seed Vanderbilt in a 20-point win. Then it was on to Providence, Rhode Island, where the Shockers trounced sixth-seeded Arizona in the First Round by holding the high-scoring Wildcats to 26-points below their season average. Two games of suffocating defense took a toll on the Shockers' legs. In their third game in a five days -- a Second Round date with third-seeded Miami -- WSU found itself in a deep, 21-point hole. Though they would stage an incredible rally to take the lead with 10 minutes to go, the Shockers ultimately fell short, bringing the season -- as well as the Baker/VanVleet Era -- to a close.

Despite adding eight new scholarship players to the mix, the 2014-15 campaign was business as usual. Marshall and the Shockers (30-5, 17-1 MVC) never dipped below 16th in the national polls and closed out their third MVC title in four years.

As a No. 7 seed in the NCAA Tournament, the Shockers landed in a loaded Midwest Region, featuring four of the 10-winningest programs in NCAA history. WSU took down two of those blue bloods in the first weekend, dispatching 10th-seeded Indiana (81-76) and second-seeded Kansas (78-65) to advance to the Sweet 16 for the second time in three seasons. In Cleveland, they led No. 3 seed Notre Dame with just over 16:00 to play before a sizzling, second-half shooting performance helped the Irish pull away, 81-70.

The team hit several milestones along the way, shattering modern MVC records for consecutive conference wins (27) and consecutive conference road wins (13). A second-straight unbeaten home record helped extend the team’s active home winning streak to a school-record 32 games, shattering the old mark of 23.

In February and March, Baker, Tekele Cotton and VanVleet all joined the Shockers 1,000-point club, becoming the sixth, seventh and eighth Shockers to record that milestone since Marshall's arrival. VanVleet  also became the school’s career assists leader in early February.

WSU’s already stingy defense took it up a notch, holding opponents to 57.4 points-per-game. That figure ranked seventh nationally and was the lowest mark by a WSU team in 65 years.

Baker and VanVleet were honorable mention AP All-Americans and each landed First Team All-MVC honors for the second-straight year. Cotton was a Second Team selection and retained his Defensive Player of the Year title.

Northern Iowa mounted a challenge to WSU’s conference supremacy, dealing the Shockers an upset in Cedar Falls, but the Shockers earned some sweet revenge in the regular season finale. Both teams entered with identical 16-1 records in a winner-take-all battle for the conference title.

With ESPN’s College GameDay broadcasting from Charles Koch Arena, the 11th-ranked Shockers surged to a 74-60 victory over the 10th-ranked Panthers. Afterward, they cut down the nets.

In 2013-14, Wichita State won an NCAA single-season record 35-straight games before losing to eventual national runner-up Kentucky in the NCAA tournament's first weekend.

Marshall was named Naismith National Coach of the Year, NABC National Coach of he Year, AP Coach of the Year and Henry Iba National Coach of the Year. He was also awarded the Adolph Rupp Cup, given to the coach "who best exemplifies excellence in his dedication to the game of basketball and to his student athletes."

In addition, Marshall was named MVC Coach of the Year for the third-straight season, after leading the Shockers to their second conference championship in three years.

The Shockers spent the entire 2013-14 campaign ranked in the Top 25, rising as high as No. 2 in both the AP and Coaches Polls – the school’s loftiest ranking since the 1981-82 season.

WSU swept all 18 conference games, becoming the first Valley team in nearly three decades to finish with an unblemished record.

The Shockers continued their dominance during the MVC Tournament in St. Louis, winning all three games to capture their first Valley Tournament title since 1987.

After cooling off No. 16 seed Cal Poly Pamona, 64-37, in their first NCAA action, the Shockers played one of the great games in NCAA Tournament history, losing an epic clash to Kentucky, 78-76. Eight of the 17 players who saw time in that game went on to play in the NBA, including the Shocker trio of Baker, VanVleet and Cleanthony Early.

WSU ruled the conference’s postseason awards, placing three on the All-MVC First Team and one more on the Second Team. Early became the first Associated Press All-American of the Marshall era, landing consensus second team status, while sophomore point guard Fred VanVleet – the MVC’s Player of the Year – was a second and third team choice in several publications.

Momentum for the WSU’s historic 2013-14 season actually began the previous spring with a trip to the NCAA Final Four. The 2012-13 Shockers entered the year with lowered expectations, having lost much of their firepower from the previous year’s MVC Championship team. Early season injuries to three starters furthered that narrative, but on the court, the Shockers continued winning. They opened the year 9-0 and took the MVC race down the final night of the regular season before settling for a runner-up finish.

Early – a high-scoring JUCO transfer – was named First Team All-Valley, and senior forward Carl Hall took home Second Team honors.

WSU was given a No. 9 seed when the 2013 NCAA pairings were released and quickly went to work busting brackets across America. The Shockers tripped up Pittsburgh and No. 1 overall seed Gonzaga to reach the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2006. The following weekend, they used quick starts to dispatch La Salle and Ohio State and earn the program’s first Final Four berth since 1965.

WSU led eventual NCAA Champion Louisville most of the way in the National Semifinal before falling 72-68.

While the Final Four run gained national attention, the previous year’s squad may have been just as talented. The 2011-12 Shockers earned a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament but were upset by a VCU team coming off of its own FInal Four run. WSU posted a 27-6 mark and cruised to the MVC regular season title with a 16-2 conference record. Seven-foot center Garrett Stutz and point guard Joe Ragland became the first Shocker tandem in 30 years to both land on the All-MVC First Team.

With a Feb. 18, 2011 win over Davidson, Marshall notched his 300^th career coaching victory.

The 2010-11 team fell painfully short of an NCAA bid but laid the ground work for the program’s future success with a 29-win season, capped by an exhilarating run the National Invitation Tournament title. Following victories over Nebraska, Virginia Tech and College of Charleston, the Shockers won back-to-back games at New York’s Madison Square Garden against Washington State (75-44) and Alabama (66-57) to bring home the trophy.
 
Marshall’s teams showed steady improvement in each of his first three years in Wichita. After winning just 11 games in his first season, he set to work revamping the roster. His first full recruiting class included a talented JUCO point guard in Clevin Hannah and a pair of freshman bookends in Stutz and Toure' Murry -- another all-conference player who was briefly the school's career assist leader before playing parts of two NBA seasons.

The 2008-09 Shockers improved to 17 wins, with victories in nine of their last 13 regular season contests, and advanced to the second round of the CBI. The 2009-10 team made further progress, earning votes in the AP poll, advancing to the MVC Tournament title game and locking down a spot in the NIT.

AT WINTHROP:

Marshall was formally introduced as 25th head coach in Shocker men's basketball history on April 14, 2007, following a nine-year run at Winthrop, where he earned seven NCAA Tournament bids and averaged over 20-wins per season while leading the Eagles to seven Big South regular season titles. He saved his best for last, downing No. 6 seed Notre Dame for the school's first-ever NCAA tournament win.

The 2006-07 Eagles finished 29-5, earned a No. 22 national ranking in both major polls, and became the first team in Big South history to go undefeated in loop play (14-0).

For his efforts, Marshall was voted Big South Coach of the Year for the fourth time (1999, 2003, 2005, 2007) and also took home a pair of mid-major national coach of the year honors (Collegehoops.net and Collegeinsider.com’s Hugh Durham Award).

Marshall was named head coach at WInthrop in April, 1998. In his first year (1998-99), Marshall led the Eagles to a 21-8 record, their first-ever Big South Conference regular-season championship, the conference tournament title and the school’s first trip to the NCAA tournament. Winthrop’s improvement of 14 victories over the 1997-98 season was one of the nation's biggest turnarounds.

In 1999-00 Winthrop returned to the NCAA tournament as a No. 14 seed, the highest ever by a Big South Conference member. Tyson Waterman (who would later serve as a Marshall assistant at Wichita State) earned first team all-conference honors for the second-straight year, and the Eagles soared to another 21-win season and a return to the Big Dance.

Marshall made it three-peat in 2000-01, sweeping the Big South regular season and tournament titles on his way back to the NCAA tournament, even as his coaching skills were put to the test. Winthrop was bitten by the injury bug but still managed an 18-13 mark.

His 2001-02 team also overcame a series of injuries to win a fourth-straight conference title and earn the right to face top-ranked Duke in the NCAA tournament and finished 19-12. The following year, Marshall again reached the 20-win plateau but missed the NCAA Tournament after dropping an 81-80 overtime semifinal game to UNC-Asheville in the Big South Tournament.

Winthrop went 16-12 in 2003-04 before returning to the NCAA Tournament in 2004-05 with a 27-6 record, after defeating Charleston Southern to win the BSC Tournament.

During the 2005-06 season, Marshall became the winningest coach in Winthrop men’s basketball history, passing Niel Gordon’s mark of 161.

AS AN ASSISTANT:

In 13 years as an assistant coach, the schools that Marshall was associated with compiled a record of 255-118 (.689).
 
During the two years leading up to his arrival at Winthrop, Marshall served as an assistant coach at Marshall University where he helped guide the Thundering Herd to the 1997 Southern Conference championship.
 
He also had a hand in the program’s standout 1997 recruiting class, ranked by ESPN as the best in the MAC and among the top 40 nationally. Two of Coach Marshall’s recruits landed on the Mid-American Conference All-Freshman Team, with Travis Young also earning conference freshman of the year honors.
 
In the eight years prior (1988-96) Marshall was an assistant on John Kresse’s staff at the College of Charleston when the Cougars made the most successful transition ever from NAIA to NCAA Division I with an NCAA tournament at-large bid in 1994 and consecutive NIT invitations in 1995 and 1996.

While at the College of Charleston, Marshall was instrumental in the recruitment of NBA-caliber student-athletes from the state of South Carolina, including 13-year NBA veteran Anthony Johnson, Marion Busby and Thaddeous Delaney. All three players were voted Trans-America Athletic Conference Players of the Year.

Before joining Kresse’s staff in Charleston, Marshall spent one year as an assistant at Belmont Abbey College (1987-88), and two years at his alma mater, Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Va., (1985-1987).
 

PERSONAL:

Marshall received a B.A. degree in economics/business in 1985 from Randolph-Macon and earned the Master’s degree in Sport Management from the University of Richmond in 1987.

He is married to the former Lynn Munday of Bellingham, Wash., who earned her master’s degree from the College of Charleston. They are the parents of a son, Kellen, and a daughter, Maggie.