Gregg Marshall

[Gorhoops]

I am not sure this deserves its own thread, but decided what the heck. So on Saturday I go to the WSU/Tulane game. Now, anyone that goes to a Wsu game knows that half of the ticket price is watching the Gregg Marshall show and how he acts on the bench. But, Saturday night I saw something that I am not sure I have ever seen before and I am still not sure I believe what I saw.

So, with about 6 minutes left, Shocks are playing well and grab a 20 pt lead against a bad Tulane team coached by MIke Dunleavy of all people. So my buddy says to me "who is he talking to," referring to Marshall, and proceeds to tell me that Marshall is engaging with a fan in the stands behind the bench. So we start paying attention. The first thing I see is Lynn Marshall, in her normal seat, is standing up and yelling and pointing at a fan a few rows in front of her and to the left. At this point Security is kind of buzzing, but not really anything much. However, over the next few minutes, Marshall spends about half of the game time just standing at the end of the bench staring into the crowd and a fan, WHILE THE GAME IS GOING ON. Of course his team proceeds to give up that 20 point lead and it is cut to 10.

So my buddy had a friend sitting in that section, so as we leave the arena, he calls him to see if he knew the scoop. So the scoop was that some guy yells, "put Asbjorn back in the game, he can play with three fouls." Apparently that is too much for the Marshall family and that is what got him all riled up. The guy said Lynn Marshall was completely inappropriate yelling at the guy and eventually the guy just left on his own. The guy also said it was more than just Gregg staring during the game, but he also spent two full timeouts, sitting on his chair in front of his players, not talking, but just staring at this fan.

So when I get home, I look on Shockernet to see what the scoop was. The story we got was in fact accurate. Marshall was standing at the end of the bench, during play, yelling at this guy things like, "i'm ready, lets go," and stuff like that. The rumor is that the guy that yelled was a former student manager and somehow there was an issue.

Honestly, I cannot fathom a supposed big time college coach engaging a fan to that extreme. Even most of the Shocker fans on the message board said it was completely childish, but also say, "that's just how the Marshall's are wired."

Many fans have felt as though Bruce does not have charisma or is awkward or whatever, but stories like this make me glad he is our coach. Marshall is an outstanding basketball coach, but his fuse on stuff not related to basketball is more than unprofessional.

It was crazy

[KsJoey]

Gregg is an ego driven type of person and stuff like this affirms it. People might complain about Frank during his time here(and rightfully so at times), but sounds like Gregg was on another level.

[kinsleycat]

Gosh, I wonder if Lynn was drunk.
Seriously though, Marshall seems to have incredibly thin skin.

[Gorhoops]

The worst part about Lynn was that during a timeout, she gets up and goes down and gets a cup of water from the cooler at the end of the bench, and just stands there staring up at the guy, and honestly acted like she was going to go up to his seat and engage him. Pretty crazy considering her behavior in the Kentucky game a couple of years ago when she was drunk and yelling at the Kentucky players.

All I could think of was, "I'm sure glad Gregg isn't a high school coach," as high school coaches get much worse abuse than this during a game.

As I mentioned, Gregg is a great coach, but the fact of the matter is, there is a reason he is still at WSU, and probably always will be. The WSU folks may boast that it is because they have everything he needs, blah blah blah, and they do have a great situation, but a BIG reason he has not moved onward and upward is stuff like this. No way would most high level programs put up with this kind of behavior from a head coach. You mentioned Frank and sure, Frank had language issues and blew up now and again, but pretty much all of Frank's stuff was toward the players he was trying to get to play better and improve. Frank never engaged a fan to this extreme. Heck, Frank rarely worked the officials.

[tmcats]

i've never seen marshall profanely go off on his players in a fit/rage of angry vulgarity. but i seldom watch wichita.

i do remember coach weber at texas a few years back. there's this k-state fan holding a sign: "fire weber!" or some such. after the game, he's standing behind the bench. and mind you, k-state had just beaten texas. weber goes up to him a shakes his hand. it was the most disarming piece i've ever seen directed at an azzhole.

[KsJoey]

You would think that opposing fanbases/hecklers, could eat this guy alive. Can't throw them all out. But maybe he's smart enough to know that when outside of Wichita

[RubberBandCat]

His wife is even crazier than him, which is saying a lot.

[tmcats]

[Wildestcat]

Just protecting the ole paycheck.

[Sir Ocelot]

Gregg and Lynn are people who are out of control.

Their behavior will get worse as Gregg finds out that he cannot dominate the AAC like he did the poor little MVC.

Sampson at Houston is another nasty AAC coach, just smarter, sneakier, and more corrupt.