Gregg Marshall (5-1-20)

Once upon a time, Steve Forbes was an assistant on our next guest staff. That man is Wichita State Head Coach Greg Marshall. And Coach, I appreciate your time, but I'm looking at your recruiting class right now with the Shockers. And I see Jaden Seymour from Charlotte. I see Ricky Council IV from Durham. You know this area well dating back to your days. So, I guess, how annoyed are you that you're going to have to recruit against your old friend to get kids around here?

Yeah, I know. Steve's going to make it a little more difficult. There'll be less guys falling through the cracks for sure. But you guys now have a guy who's going to bring some talent in for the Demon Deacons. And I think Steve's going to win pretty quickly.

And I know that there's a lot of rebuilding that they're going to have to do, especially next year. But in short order, I think Steve will have him back really winning a lot of games. I read Steve saying a few months ago that being hired at Wichita State after the Show Cause changed his life. What do you remember about hiring him out of the JUCO ranks right after you guys went to the Final Four in 13?

Well, the fact that I was able to do that, go to the Final Four and really never have any coaches that had any problems or whatnot. Steve had some problems there at Tennessee under Bruce Pearl. And when we did our due diligence, we found out from what we were able to discover that Steve really didn't have much to do with that. And in the end, he told the NCAA what had happened. And then it kind of got messed up when the head coach got in and was able to say something different. So that was kind of the problem there.

And really, it was a small issue. I think it was Aaron Kraft, the player. Yeah, former Ohio State guard. Yeah, and we had actually just played in the West Regional Finals against Aaron Kraft at Ohio State to go to the Final Four 2013. So we were very familiar with him.

But in the end, it wasn't a big deal. Because Steve did what he did. He did his two year show cause. And I knew the type person that he was. And he's a quality basketball coach, but he's a better man. He's a better family guy.

And you guys got a good one. Without having the ability to recruit JUCO, which is something he had to do at East Tennessee State and he's not going to be able to do at a private school like Wake Forest. What is it about Steve that gives you confidence he's going to be able to adapt here with the Deags?

Well, he's adapted his whole career. I mean, he was Texas A&M with Billy Gillespie. They probably had the best run, but the Texas A&M's never had while they were there together. And then he goes to Tennessee with Bruce Pearl. And the high water mark for Tennessee basketball was probably the latter couple of years that those two guys were overseeing staff there at Tennessee.

And really it was safe to be set for us. The first year Steve was with us, we go 35-0 to start a season. And he had a big part in that. He builds relationships with people. They like to help him. He's very, very likable. And because of those things, he's able to get in with players and they want to play for him and they want to go to his school. And then once he's there, he's just a very fine basketball coach. So he puts people in positions where they can be successful.

He is a very easy guy to like. We've learned that over the last 24 hours. We're now being joined by Greg Marshall, Wichita State head coach. I mean, you have the video yesterday of him spiking a medical face mask into the practice gym floor, getting people fired up. And then at the press conference today, he's just dropping lines that are funny and telling stories.

So I got to know, like, really, I'd be fine the rest of this interview if we're just telling Steve Forbes stories more than anything else. What's the funniest thing you've ever seen him do to lighten the mood? You know, I can't really identify one thing, but he's such an unassuming guy.

He's very comfortable in his own skin. I think the story where for two years, he literally drove a moped to work at Northwest Florida as opposed to didn't have a car. He didn't own a car because all those years at Texas A&M in Tennessee, he drove a courtesy car. Well, now he's in JUCO land and he had to give those cars back to the dealers. So he literally drove a, of course it doesn't snow too much in Florida, but in rain and hot sun. And there he drives that moped to work and back every single day. So I think that just shows you what kind of guy you're getting.

I mean, very unassuming. Just people are going to really enjoy his tenure there at Winston-Salem. Give me the story where he recruited a kid that you didn't think you were going to be able to land, but with his charm, with his personality, he got it done on your staff. Well, he actually helped recruit two players that were very, very fine players for us after he left and became a head coach at East Tennessee State. The first one, Marcus McDuffie, who had a four-year career for us and is now a pro, but he was a borderline top 100 player out of New Jersey and Steve helped us land him. But the one that you may recognize because he's in the NBA is Landry Shammet, a guy that we had been recruiting prior to Steve being on the staff. Steve comes in and kind of takes the bull by the horns with the kids' recruitment and really develops a great relationship with the mom and the kid and the grandma and the grandpa. And all I had to do was go in and close the deal, but Steve had us in great position and we got him over offers from Missouri, Illinois, K-State, and Colorado.

So that was a very good get for us and he proved to be a wonderful player and is now in his second or third year in the NBA in the season that was just cut short. During the process in which Steve Forbes was being considered, did you hear from Wake Forest? Did they speak to you, John Curry? No, did not talk to John Curry.

He did not reach out to me. I did hear from Steve a couple of times and we talked about the pros and cons of making this move if he had the opportunity. He had a great thing going at East Tennessee State. He was making really good money. They loved him there as they should have. He produced a winner every year and he probably had his best team returning next year. It wasn't an easy decision. A lot of those people gave him an opportunity to be a Division I head coach and he was very happy there.

Obviously, he made the choice after being given the opportunity by John Curry and I think it's a great move. I'm looking forward to seeing Steve go toe-to-toe with some of the heavyweights there in the ACC and in North Carolina. Based on the conversations you've had with Steve, what do you think it was that excited him the most about Wake Forest? We heard so much from him today, but what stood out to you about the thing he kept going back to?

What excited him? Just the fact that it is in the ACC and it's on Tobacco Road and everybody, even Steve being from Iowa. I'm from South Carolina, so I'm a little more familiar with it, but everybody knows the reputation of the ACC. It's great basketball.

It always has been. He's excited about now going instead of the Wes Millers at UNC Greensboro and the Bob Ritchie's at Furman. He's going to get to go head-to-head with Roy Williams and Kevin Keats and Mike Krzyzewski and Tony Bennett. He's very excited about that.

Two more quick housekeeping notes. We've got Greg Marshall with us here, head coach of the Wichita State Shockers. Can we expect a Wichita State-Winston-Salem meeting or vice versa? Wake Forest coming to your house?

It's possible. We've always tried to get home-and-homes with the big boys. This coming year, we've got Oklahoma State. Oklahoma falls off after four years. We've had Baylor recently. We've had Alabama. We've had Tennessee. We've had Utah. This year, I think we're starting a home-and-home with Missouri, so it's possible.

I would love that to bring those North Carolina kids that we have, Ricky Council from Durham and Jaden Seymour from Charlotte, bring them back to North Carolina to play. It'll be something that we'll talk about. I'm not going to bring it up right now because obviously he knows and I know that it's going to be some rebuilding with the Demon Deacons. But he's going to get some players that he probably shouldn't get here in the next couple of weeks. I'm sure he's already made some contacts with players that he knew about.

So even though the talent pool right now is down and just the sheer numbers are down on their roster, it won't take very long for him to get it going. You've always had a lot of scary teams the last few years, the last decade, going, of course, to the Final Four. I mean, Fred VanVleet, we saw what he was doing with the Toronto Raptors this most recent season. You mentioned McDuffie, Cle Anthony early.

The list goes on. Landry Shammet, as you talked about. But I think your team's also scary because you got this intimidating mascot that I would say is one of the scariest things out there. But the Demon Deacon is often called scary as well. So what does Greg Marshall think is scarier, the thing that is lurking in the corner of your gym or what Winston-Salem's seen for decades, the Demon Deacon? Well, the Wichita State Shocker literally used to carry a sickle because that's how they would cut the wheat. So I would have to give him the edge over the Demon Deacon, who does have a very nice top hat. Yeah, and he's got a bow tie stapled to his chin as well.

I got to ask you this as well because it's somehow a place that we stumbled in in the last few hours. Greatest Will Ferrell movie. Are you a comedy guy, Anchorman, Step Brothers, Talladega Nights?

Absolutely. Love Anchorman. One of my favorite movies, Will Ferrell. In fact, when we were at the Final Four getting ready to play against Louisville in the Final Four, my son and daughter were in the stands with my wife and they see Will Ferrell about 20 feet from them, of course, in the great seats for the Final Four. And my wife, who doesn't stalk or do anything with movie stars, she's never really starstruck, but she was starstruck about Will Ferrell. The family loves him and his movies and his Saturday Night Live sketches, so the three of them walk down and they tap him on the shoulder and my wife says, Hi, I'm Lynn Marshall. My husband is Greg Marshall. He coaches the Shockers and they're getting ready to play.

That's him right there. And Will Ferrell goes, No, he doesn't. And literally starts a comedy routine with my wife and denies that she is the husband or the wife of the coach about to coach the game.

And, oh, it was hilarious after we lost the game and shed a few tears. That lightened the mood when they told me the story of literally running into Will Ferrell and becoming part of his comedy routine. I've got to know, though. See, Coach K, he's told us in the past that he was like a teenage girl when in the presence of Beyonce, like his face got all red and he was embarrassed. Your wife doesn't nudge celebrities, but had the nudge Will Ferrell. Who's that person for Greg Marshall?

Oh, man, I don't know. Have you been starstruck? Harrison Ford comes to Wichita to get his plane worked on. So we've met him a couple of times and had a drink with him.

So I think it would have to be Harrison Ford. Well, Matt, you've done a great job recruiting in this area, and I hope something can get put together with Steve Forbes being here now that you could play in the Joel some time. I look forward to watching your team when you visit East Carolina next and appreciate you spending time here in the Triad. It's appreciated. Well, thank you so much. You guys are really going to have embrace this guy now because he's he's going to be moving fast and he's going to be getting things done.

And it is quite a rebuild right now with all the players in the transfer portal and whatnot. But this time next year, I think you're going to be very happy with the direction of the program was under Steve Forbes. And he's got a beautiful family and just embrace all of them. They're wonderful people. That's just really cool that Greg Marshall would come on to talk about his former assistant that is the head coach of the Wichita State Shockers joining us all the way from Wichita.