WICHITA, Kan. -- Earl Grant has joined the men's basketball staff as an assistant coach at Wichita State, Head Coach Gregg Marshall announced today.

“Earl is a wonderful communicator,” Marshall said. “He's a great person, and a fine, fine basketball person and coach. He's an All-American player and an All-American coach.”

A native of North Charleston, S.C., and a former assistant coach at The Citadel, he just completed his third year as an assistant on Marshall's coaching staff at Winthrop.

“I'm excited and looking forward to the challenge,” Grant said. “Coach Marshall is a great coach who will bring a lot of excitement to Wichita State basketball. I have a great relationship with Coach Marshall, and the players will love playing for him here because he is a winner.”

Grant earned his Bachelor's of Science degree in psychology in 2000 from Georgia College in Milledgeville, Ga., where he was a two-year member of the basketball team and led that school to two appearances in the NCAA Division II national tournament, including the Elite Eight in 2000, and Peach Belt Conference championships in 1999 and 2000.

Grant earned All-Peach Belt Conference first team honors as a senior. He also attended Spartanburg Methodist College in 1997 and 1998 where he earned an Associate of Arts degree.

While on The Citadel staff, Grant was responsible for developing the skill level of the guards, served as assistant director of the summer camp, prepared scouting reports and was responsible for recruiting the Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama area.

Grant and his wife, Jacklyn, are the parents of a son, Earl Grant, III.

On the emotional rollercoaster he has been on the past week...
There has been a lot of things going to be honest with you. It's been a very, very hectic, tragic, exciting and all in the span of several days. We're continuing to think about Guy (Alang-Ntang) and what happened. We've certainly been in contact with his mentor and his coach. It's a sad, sad thing. At the same time, we're continuing to have business as usual, but that's always in the back of your mind.

On Marshall witnessing the recruits fall...
I'm not a doctor, but I saw everything that happened. Basically, he fell backwards and hit his head and I thought he was joking around. But then when he hit the back of his head on the floor, it was obvious that it was not natural when it hit the ground. It wasn't the most strenuous workout I have seen. It was just some pick-up ball, in the second game, I believe.

It was his time. You know, when something like that happens because he was in a great mood, he was happy and excited. He was a wonderful kid.

On getting perspective after a tragedy like this...
Without a doubt. It definitely puts things in to perspective. Tomorrow in not guaranteed. It makes you want to hug and tell the people you love that you love them. It's just a very, very sad, sad and tragic thing that happened. And not just that happened, but to witness it and not be able to do anything about it. We were all sitting there watching him expire and it was very, very sad. It was a helpless feeling.

On if he has been able to contact Guy's parents...
Believe it or not, this is how tragic this is. They don't have any records of his parents' numbers or anything like that. They are attempting, last I talked to Coach Arsenault, to contact his parent's back in Cameroon.

On Guy's excitement for coming to Wichita State...
He was very excited. I can't say that for all of the early signees. This young man was excited. First of all, Jamie Arsenault, his coach, is a friend of mine. I have recruited players from New Hampton before. In fact, Winthrop had a freshman walk-on player this year from New Hampton. Several years ago, we had an all-conference player from New Hampton. We had a relationship, which helped. Guy had talked to Coach Turgeon earlier in the day. Coach Turgeon sang the praises of what we could do here, now at Wichita State. He was excited. He told me before he went out and worked out that he really wanted to be there. I had spoken to his mentor, Mike Brant in Cincinnati, earlier in the day and Mike Brant had confirmed that he was excited when I was hired. He had done all kind of research on me and my previous work at Winthrop and was gung-ho. I was there just to reaffirm our commitment to him and the fact that we were excited for him to come.

On his other trips to visit recruits...
We've had a couple of other trips on the east coast. We've got one or two guys that are waivering that had signed letters of intent early. That's there prerogative. We also have had some guys that we can't really mention that we've had really, really good meetings about. We will field a roster. It will be a roster filled with guys who want to play at Wichita State, want to win championships in the Valley, want to hang banners and cut down nets and do it in the right way. So, we're out there right now. Today is the first day I have been back, but it's been a whirlwind. There have been many stops on those planes the last several days.


On if he is getting closer to completing his staff...
I've got one in the office today, Earl Grant, is in the office with me today. He has come with me from Winthrop. Love Earl. And you will love him as well. He's a wonderful communicator, a great person, and a fine, fine basketball person and coach. He's an All-American player and an All-American coach.

I've got a couple of other guys that we will hope to have on board either this afternoon or tomorrow.

On if he has had any meetings with current WSU players...
I haven't been here since I last saw you guys on Saturday. I just got back in here last night at midnight. I'll have a meeting with them on the basketball court at 2 o'clock ? three by three by three. We're going to do individual workouts.

On the whirlwind of activity that his life has been since accepting the WSU job on Saturday...
There have been a lot of plane trips; cleaning out the office on Sunday. Nine years of coach clutter. Basically just recruiting non-stop, hiring a staff, doing interviews and just the normal things that you have to do when you have a transition like this.

On meeting with the Winthrop players...
I didn't get to meet with them on Saturday night because we had some problems with the airplane leaving Wichita so I didn't get back until way after midnight.

I had not met with them as a group because they were obviously there, and I couldn't get there. I just had to do that with them individually, as best I can. That's also been a challenge.

On if Evann Baker and Denzel Bowles are still considering coming to WSU...
I'd say Evann is pretty much still considering it and we're still recruiting him. Denzel is less likely to come, but it's still not over yet.

On finding recruits to fill the roster...
We're doing the same things that we have been doing for the last week. Making many stops. We didn't have time to eat yesterday. From one small spot in Texas to another, from Washington, D.C., to east Texas to West Texas to Wichita. We got about as much done as could in the last 48 hours. We were in New Hampton on Monday afternoon and we'll continue to do that. We'll have workouts today. I have three prospects coming in today for unofficial visits this afternoon.


On the University's policy to not grant releases to signees...
That's what Jim has indicated to me, that that's our policy right now. I'm not here to chance policy on my fifth day on the job. I'm just going to do the best I can to get people that can help us win championships, want to get degrees and be quality people in this community that want to be here. That's my job.

On describing the challenges he faced when beginning his job at Winthrop nine years ago...
It wasn't quite of this magnitude. I had my first assistant coach, Damon Stephenson, who I knew very well, came to Winthrop to help me and for the first month, we basically ? because we didn't have the jets to fly around and see so many people, as many as we have seen the past couple of days ? we just hunkered down in the office and answered 7,000 calls and e-mails...well, we didn't have a computer at that time so we didn't get e-mails. We did get calls because we did have a phone. And they said,”We can play for Winthrop.” and we told them to send us a videotape. So we hunkered down in the bowels of the coliseum and we watched videotape after videotape after videotape and sometimes around 11 or 11:30, we would say, “Are you hungry? Have you eaten lunch?” Then we'd go out and grab a bite to eat and come back and watch video, work out our players. I actually found a kid that started for us the next year in an intramural game. I recruited out of an intramural game.

On the fan interest at Winthrop when Marshall took over...
There were probably several hundred fans a game. It was a very apathetic community towards Winthrop basketball at that time. It wasn't like they didn't like Winthrop basketball, but they just didn't care or even knew it existed.

On his favorite genre of music...
I'm a good singer? Wow...I don't know about that. I guess my wife doesn't like to hear me sing in the shower, I can tell you that.

On what he likes to do the most as a coach...
I like to work with kids. And I can tell you I met a kid yesterday. I felt like we bonded and hopefully we're going to get some good news from him today. That was a lot of fun and I look forward to coaching this particular young man. Just working with them and taking the individual pieces that will be here eventually and trying to formulate those individual pieces into something that is greater than all of us individually and can be larger than the individual pieces. That is something we really enjoy.

Hiring a staff is one of the least favorite things you do as a head coach, in my experience. I haven't had to do that very much. I've had a lot of guys, I'm not able to pay them a lot of money at Winthrop, but I've had guys that have wanted to stay. I haven't had a whole lot of turnover in nine years and I think that's very important.

On local recruits...
I can't say a whole lot. We do know several prospects in this area, in fact, that will be here within a couple of hours. The two guys that I'm bringing on board will both have some Midwest ties; Texas, Kansas, Illinois, Iowa, Oklahoma. That's the area that we're going to focus on with the next two hires and we're close to having that done.



On while at Winthrop, going out and selling the basketball team as a great experience...
I hope we don't get to the point where I'm going to have to go out and be P.T. Barnum here at Wichita. I did have to do that at Rock Hill. I have a business/economics degree from Randolph-Macon, which is not Harvard, but it's not a tech school either. So I've got a pretty good education and used it. I found ways to get people in the stands. And last year, we were selling out our building. I think it's more about the product you put on the floor. We hope to continue to put a product on the floor that will have a demand that will exceed facility capacity. That's our goal. They've done a great job here, marketing this program and winning enough and with such a deep affection for the Wichita State basketball program that those are things that now, I can do a little more coaching, rather than going and handing out tickets, which is what we used to do. I actually started a campaign one year where I bought everyone's first ticket. Anyone that wanted to come to a Winthrop basketball game, I would buy their first ticket. If they didn't like it, they didn't have to come back. I bought about 50 tickets. Most of our guests came back.

On being able to compete against Winthrop at the Paradise Jam next season...
I can't wait to go. I've spoken to the people at Paradise Jam. This will be my second trip. I know it's Wichita State's second trip. I said, “Do not put us in the same bracket. I don't want that to happen.” If we meet in the finals, then that will be great, but don't put us in the same bracket because I want to be cheering for those guys and supporting them. I'm just ecstatic that my assistant coach was hired who I recommended. I hope that they are going to continue with their great success that they have had recently.

On a Marshall University recruit, J.R. Vanhoose...
That was 10 years ago, my last year at Marshall University. He was Paul Bunyan of eastern Kentucky; 3,000 points, 2,000 rebounds. He led little Paintsville High School to the Sweet 16 in Lexington at Rupp Arena. I think that every year from his freshman year on up, they won at least one state championship and that's one of those states where you only have one classification like Indiana. He had 30 schools in his home from Indiana and Bobby Knight, Roy Williams at Kansas. I think everyone except North Carolina, Duke and UCLA. He had Mississippi State, Virginia Tech, you name it, Purdue, I guess...all of those Midwest schools. He did not have Kentucky. I kind of had an “in” with Tubby Smith's staff, a friend of mine, Shawn Finney, I kept asking Shawn if they were going to take this kid and he was very doubtful that they were going to take him. So I knew that I had inside information because you're not going to beat Kentucky on a Kentucky kid. It was 60 miles...60.6 miles from Marshall University's arena to his front door and every time I wrote him, it was 60.6 at the bottom. We developed a relationship. The head coach, Greg White, did a wonderful job going into the home. We were 28th going into the home, according to J.R., and were fifth coming out. We got one of his visits and he ended up being a great player. He hurt his back or he would have had an even better career; probably would still be playing.

On meeting with the WSU players today...
I'm just going to talk to them briefly about what happened to Guy because they know Guy from when he visited. I'm just going to tell them that they need to appreciate things that they have and have a positive outlook on life, value each day and each opportunity. Most importantly, value this hour that we're going to spend getting better and getting to know each other as coach and player and try to expand your game a little bit. We're going to go to work. We're going to talk a little bit, but it's time to go to work. I look forward to have that opportunity to move on with these players, sweat with them a little bit, and get to know them and see what they are about, see how they play.