Reports: Gregg Marshall and Wichita State expected to part ways
Wichita State head coach Gregg Marshall reacts to a call made during the game against Houston at Charles Koch Arena on Saturday, Jan. 18, 2019.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.
Gregg Marshall and Wichita State are expected to part ways by the end of the week, according to a report from Stadium’s Jeff Goodman– who wrote a report about Marshall’s behavior after a six month long investigation— and CBS Sports. Marshall had been WSU’s head coach for the past 14 seasons prior to this decision.
When The Sunflower asked for a statement, the president’s office said they would call back later. The Sunflower didn’t get a response from Wichita State Athletic Director Darron Boatright.
The Sunflower was able to confirm that Marshall wasn’t at Friday’s practice through an university spokesperson. According to the Wichita Eagle, Marshall hasn’t been present at practice all week due to “personal reasons”.
This report follows roughly two months after WSU launched an investigation into Marshall for misconduct allegations.
On Oct. 8, multiple reports surfaced with allegations into Marshall’s behavior. The allegations include Marshall reportedly punching former men’s basketball player Shaq Morris during practice and choking former assistant coach Kyle Lindsted, among other allegations.
Ten players have transferred from WSU in the past two seasons, including the seven players who transferred this offseason. In two seasons prior, only four scholarship players had transferred out of the program.
In an exit interview with a former player from the 2017-18 season, the student-athlete did not have rave reviews for Marshall. As a requirement from the NCAA, the athletic department must conduct exit interviews with some student-athletes whose eligibility has expired. The exit interviews are made anonymous for privacy reasons and only show the player’s gender, sport and race.
The student-athlete said that there was inappropriate verbal communication from the coaches but there was no inappropriate physical contact.
The student-athlete also said that Marshall’s performance as a positive example of ethical behavior was “very poor”. He also gave that same rating to Marshall’s belief that “winning isn’t everything”.
When asked if he would still attend WSU, the student-athlete said “yes” but said “no” when asked if he would encourage others to attend the university.
“I love WSU but a few changes that are currently happening and hopefully will happen soon. Then yes I would encourage other student-athletes to come to Wichita State,” the anonymous athlete said.
This was the only men’s basketball exit interview made available through an open records request. The Sunflower’s request for exit interviews from previous seasons was denied due to a state law that pertains to privacy concerns.
Marshall was hired as WSU’s head coach back in 2007, replacing Mark Turgeon. Marshall struggled out of the gates but was finally able to take the Shockers back to the NCAA Tournament in the 2011-12 season. This started a seven-year run of consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament.
In 12 of Marshall’s 14 seasons as head coach, the Shockers have made a trip to the postseason including an NIT Championship in 2011.
In 2013, Marshall was able to lead the Shockers to the first Final Four appearance since 1965 but fell to the eventual champion Louisville in the semifinals. The following season, the Shockers jumped out to a 35-0 start and was the first team ever to do so.
Marshall also helped maneuver WSU through the move to the American Athletic Conference and in their debut season led the Shockers to a second-place finish in the conference and another trip to the NCAA Tournament.
In the past two seasons, Marshall led the Shockers to the semifinals of the NIT along with a 23-8 record one year ago.
Marshall has produced six NBA players over his 14 years, including Landry Shamet, Fred VanVleet, Ron Baker, Cleanthony Early, Toure’ Murray and Gal Mekel.
Shamet is the latest former Shocker to make it into the NBA after being selected in the first round of the 2018 NBA Draft. Marshall has produced a total of 37 professionals during his time at WSU.
Over his 14 seasons as head coach, Marshall led WSU to a record of 331-121.
Marshall started his head coaching career at Winthrop University prior to arriving at WSU. His nine seasons at Winthrop included seven trips to the NCAA Tournament. Marshall left Winthrop in 2007 when he started in Wichita.
Prior to this decision, Marshall was making just over $3.5 million per year on a seven-year rolling contract. According to USA Today, Marshall was the 15th highest-paid coach in the country.
Sean Marty was the sports editor for The Sunflower. Marty, a senior from St. Louis, majored in communications with a journalism emphasis and minored in...
Mathew • Nov 13, 2020 at 3:27 pm
Maybe now we can get the ICAA’s funding under control!
WSU spends $2,421,082 in general use funds(tuition and state/tax dollars), $762,134 in restricted use funds, and $4,269,016 in student fees for a grand total of $7,452,232, that’s roughly $26,710.51 per student-athelete.
For comparison, according to WSU’s budget:
Adding up research, instruction, academic support, student services, and subtracting the portion of the general and restricted use funds that go to the ICAA… WSU spends $289,752,392 on academics and student-services, or roughly $19,316.83 per student.
That means for every dollar that goes to athletics per student-athlete WSU spends $0.72 on academics per student. And, when compared to the Graduate Assistant stipend, similar statistics emerge. All this while departments go understaffed and are in dire need of faculty, while GTAs make on average $8,000/yr, while the amount of software made available to students remains few, etc.
Meanwhile, according to the ICAA’s public financial records they provide no financial support to WSU and there is no clear evidence that the ICAA helps the school in any way.
Come on WSU! We can do better! We the students deserve better! Defund athletics from the general use funds! Put that money towards hiring new faculty and the GA stipend!
Also, fun fact: Marshal was paid 10x’s more than the women’s basketball coach! Just saying.
Data was found:
https://goshockers.com/sports/2015/5/4/Financial_Information.aspx
https://www.wichita.edu/administration/budget/FY21AdoptedBudgetOnline.pdf
https://www.wichita.edu/about/public_information/wsu_topics/topics_enrollment_numbers.php
https://openrecords.wichita.edu/index.php?gf-download=2019%2F10%2FGC_GradAppt_ORR.pdf&form-id=1&field-id=18&hash=c69bd4b91f124cab56126baa4357d4f422321022b3777ec1c634afc5cf30bc41&TB_iframe=true
Related scholarly articles:
https://www.air.org/sites/default/files/downloads/report/Academic-Spending-vs-Athletic-Spending.pdf
https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED536146
Mathew Tucker • Nov 13, 2020 at 1:33 pm
Thank god! Maybe now we can get the ICAA’s funding under control!
WSU spends $2,421,082 in general use funds(tuition and state/tax dollars), $762,134 in restricted use funds, and $4,269,016 in student fees for a grand total of $7,452,232, that’s roughly $26,710.51 per student-athelete.
For comparison, according to WSU’s budget:
Adding up research, instruction, academic support, student services, and subtracting the portion of the general and restricted use funds that go to the ICAA… WSU spends $289,752,392 on academics and student-services, or roughly $19,316.83 per student.
That means for every dollar that goes to athletics per student-athlete WSU spends $0.72 on academics per student. And, when compared to the GA stipend, similar statistics emerge. All this while departments go understaffed and in dire need of faculty, while GTAs make on average $8,000/yr, while the amount of software made available to students remains few, etc.
Come on WSU! We can do better! We students deserve better!
Data was found:
https://goshockers.com/sports/2015/5/4/Financial_Information.aspx
https://www.wichita.edu/administration/budget/FY21AdoptedBudgetOnline.pdf
https://www.wichita.edu/about/public_information/wsu_topics/topics_enrollment_numbers.php
https://openrecords.wichita.edu/index.php?gf-download=2019%2F10%2FGC_GradAppt_ORR.pdf&form-id=1&field-id=18&hash=c69bd4b91f124cab56126baa4357d4f422321022b3777ec1c634afc5cf30bc41&TB_iframe=true
Related scholarly articles:
https://www.air.org/sites/default/files/downloads/report/Academic-Spending-vs-Athletic-Spending.pdf
https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED536146
Phil Hermanson • Nov 11, 2020 at 10:31 am
My hope is that WSU will get the best Coach possible. Wichita is a great place to live and should be attractive to many coaches out there. The salary and incentives are here with the shockers
Fake President Bardo • Nov 10, 2020 at 11:23 pm
I used alot of student fees to get us to the american atheltic conference. Now all that student loan money was for nothing.
As always,
Fake President Bardo