For as long as he can remember, basketball has been a part of Kellen Marshall’s life.

On the court before he could walk, Kellen has seen his father — head coach Gregg Marshall — coach two teams to victorious seasons, not including the team Gregg coached when Kellen was born.

“I’ve always grown up around this type of life — going to practices and games with my dad,” Kellen said. “A lot of people think it’s weird but I’m used to it.”

Going into the eighth season of Shocker basketball and halfway through his senior year at Trinity Academy, Kellen holds the experiences he’s had at his father’s side closely. His said his favorite memory was the atmosphere he witnessed during the Final Four run.

“It was very special,” he said. “I won’t forget it. I pretty much shadowed my dad the whole time.”

Being raised by a Division I basketball coach, Kellen said he has gained a knowledge for the sport despite not playing. During practices, he said he will often step in and help run scouting plays, help run drills and his favorite ­­— closeout drills — where he must attempt to score on defending players.

“I’ve done [closeout drills] a couple hundred times and I’ve only scored once,” Kellen said. “That shows how hard it is.”

Kellen is not only valuable to his father on the court, but also off the court. Kellen said he tends to stick around the locker rooms to visit with the players after practices. This helps him distinguish the dynamics of different players and how the players felt about practice.

“I get to see a little different side,” Kellen said. “Maybe I’ll say [to dad] so-and-so didn’t understand what was going on tonight, talk to this guy or help this guy out.”

Kellen also knows the game in the aspect of the NCAA league. During the last several seasons, his Twitter account has become increasingly popular amongst followers of Shocker basketball.

Kellen remembers a specific occurrence last season of when he and an ESPN writer had a friendly debate regarding the difficulty of the Shocker’s schedule versus Syracuse’s.

“The ESPN writer told me via Twitter that Syracuse had a much better schedule,” Kellen said. “Then I looked at ESPN’s own website and found that our schedule was 20 slots higher.”

Kellen said he met the writer later in the season who told Kellen he had fun debating with him.

“I voice [things] for those who will get in trouble if they voice it themselves,” Kellen said.

Kellen said that he’s been fortunate to work with the best staff in the country. He’s not sure where his graduation will take him at this point, though WSU is one of three schools he has applied to for next fall.