An addendum to Kendall Marshall’s big game versus NC State.
Anyone who follows Kendall Marshall on Twitter and pays any attention to what he says knows he is very aware of what is said in the media. He is a student of the game which means he watches a lot of college basketball and also heeds praise/criticism as it comes. That was the case on Tuesday when a preview of the UNC-NCSU game in the News & Observer provided Marshall with some extra motivation(via Tar Heel Blue)
Tuesday morning, Marshall walked past the Smith Center on his way to his 9:30 a.m. Information class. Video coordinator Eric Hoots called him into the basketball office.
“You see this?” Hoots asked Marshall.
The “this” in question was the matchup feature of that morning’s News and Observer sports section, listing which team had the edge at each position on the court. The point guard segment of that story read as follows:
“Depends on which version of Lorenzo Brown shows up. If it’s the passive one from the first meeting in Chapel Hill, then it’s Marshall all day, every day. If it’s the Brown who had 19 points, six rebounds and five assists at Duke, and was aggressive with the ball, then it’s the multi-faceted Brown over the one-dimensional Marshall. Edge: Brown.”
Marshall read it once. Then read it again. “The multi-faceted Brown over the one-dimensional Marshall,” it said. He raised his eyebrows and harrumphed. All he said was, “Who wrote that?”
To answer Marshall, J.P. Giglio wrote the preview which was not off base. Marshall has not proven himself to be a consistent offensive threat outside of setting up his teammates. Coming into the game he was shooting 27% from three and driving to the basket infrequently. Lorenzo Brown, on the other hand, has been a more versatile player. Besides, UNC’s offense has been performing quite well(aside from missed perimeter shots) with Marshall focusing primarily on distributing the basketball. In that respect Marshall is “one dimensional” because that is his role in the offense. However, a Kendall Marshall who can be more than that to the point it keeps opposing defenses honest only bolsters this team’s chances in March. In essence there was nothing wrong with Giglio’s assessment based on the facts at hand and Giglio acknowledged to me on Twitter(after congratulating Marshall publicly) that the “one dimension” is why he thinks Marshall should be All-ACC. Regardless, Marshall took the assessment as motivation to prove it wrong playing possibly his best all-around game as a Tar Heel. It should be noted that in the first game versus NC State there was talk about Brown being the best PG in the ACC. Marshall answered that by putting up seven points and 11 assists en route to a 19 point win for the Heels.
As for how this game impacted Marshall’s pursuit of various assist records, let’s just say it was a very good night. First of all, Marshall’s 13 assists bring his total for the season to 275 in 28 games raising his average to 9.82 apg. Marshall needs to just ten more assists to break Ed Cota’s UNC record for assists in a season and 29 more to eclipse Georgia Tech’s Craig Neal for the ACC record. Cota’s mark could fall on Saturday vs Virginia though the tempo of that game might reduce the number of chances. That would means Marshall could break the record on Senior Night versus Maryland which would be a lot of fun for everyone involved. In addition to those records, Marshall’s zero turnover game against 13 assists raised his A/TO for the season to 3.61 and back ahead of Ty Lawson for the UNC and ACC record. This will obviously continue to fluctuate but the more high assist, low turnover games Marshall has the more UNC wins and the easier it will be for him to snag this record as well.
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I still wouldnt put this year ahead of Tywon’s junior year….
However, congrats to kendall, those shots are always avaliable and the heels need him to start taking and making them.
I love how Marshall uses knocks on his game for inspiration. He never once showed like it gets to him. Only after his game has “talked the talk” did he say anything.
Here’s another nice article about last night:
http://fayobserver.com/articles/2012/02/22/1159237?sac=fo.sports
they werent just sagging off him, they were a J-bus ride away.
Outstanding work by Marshall last night, I hope everyone takes note when they think about leaving him open. I would say that Reggie had as big of a game as Kendall though and he deserves credit as well. Like they say, “you take what the defense gives you.” he did.
The KY game was just an abomination of what happens when you lose control of your team, both sides. If you want to beat KY then make life tough for them and get inside their heads. In my mind both teams lost last night but KY got the W. I can’t imagine this happening with Roy but then again, it was a little chippy on the floor with Duke. Sadly that was Reggie standing over Rivers then John got involved later. That said it was an outburst not a complete loss of control or meltdown.
Good on Marshall, I hope he rolls with that performance from now on.
^ wouldnt you stand over Rivers, when he takes a cheap shot kick at your bad knee. Happens everytime the heels play dook, everytime. Dirty cheap plays
Good for Marshall, and good for the team. To win the championship, or make a deep run the team needs 5 scorers on the floor at any time and credible perimeter threats to spread the defense. If someone wants to play zone against this team they should be made to pay like this. Keep it up!
500 assists as a sophmore, when you didnt get the start until Feb. of your freshman year.
wayne – I would hurt him when the ref wouldn’t see it. Making it a penalty plays into their strategy.
^why do you think UCONN has had such success against Duke in the tourney?
One Dimensional
One Dimensional
One Dimensional
One Dimensional
One Dimensional
One Dimensional
One Dimensional
One Dimensional
One Dimensional
One Dimensional
One Dimensional
One Dimensional
Feel free to use that against all teams for the remainder of the spring.
Please contact me next October for additional motivation.
Free, no charge.
PS, You are on your own in the summer Dorm league.
Butta betta bury
that rock right thru the rim
or all those sneaky guards
gonna sag way offa him
and they’ll swarm all over Z
like bees swarm in the spring
and our beloved Mr. Zeller
won’t get another ring
BoyWilliams
Nice one on ya.
what?
KM is also chasing Machado for both the total and average assist lead this year. Machado is ahead 283-275, with both guys having played 28 games. They will easily finish 1-2 unless something strange happens.
“Anyone who follows Kendall Marshall on Twitter and pays any attention to what he says knows he is very aware of what is said in the media.”
Which includes the following media, scouting reports, and otherwise:
-”Old man’s game”
-”Too slow for Roy’s up-tempo style”
-”Not very athletic”
-”Perimeter shot needs work”
-”#8 point guard in 2010 High School class”
Oh, and you can add one more:
-”Most important player on 2012 Top-10 UNC Tar Heels”
^ Nice!
Butta reminded me of Indiana Jones in “The Last Crusade”. His dad Dr. Henry Jones, played by Sean Connery, keeps calling him “Junior”. Indy picks up a machine gun, mows down three nazi guards, turns to his dad and says, “DON’T call me Junior.” After one of his threes, Butta shook his head as he backed up on D and said, “DON’T call me one dimensional.” I can read lips due to ear damage swimming as a kid. It was an awesome moment in an awesome performance. Go Heels!