University of North Carolina Athletics
Lucas: The Marshall Plan
September 13, 2011 | Men's Basketball
Sept. 13, 2011
By Adam Lucas
Kendall Marshall has watched a lot of basketball this offseason. It's just that he hasn't seen much new basketball.
The Carolina point guard spent part of his summer watching tape of several games from his freshman season. He hasn't watched the Kentucky game yet--except for Harrison Barnes, none of his teammates have been able to watch the season-ending loss just yet--but he's reviewed almost everything else, some multiple times.
"I don't want to have to start all over again this season," Marshall says. "I want to build from last year as a stepping stone. So I've watched what defensive concepts other teams are using against us, what they try to do offensively, and also what counter-attacks worked for us."
These last few weeks, he's had repeated viewings of the home victory over Boston College, a 48-46 slugfest that came just 18 days after the Tar Heels had throttled the Eagles, 106-74, in Chestnut Hill.
"I've been watching that one a lot," the sophomore says. "That team did the greatest job of making an adjustment from the first time they played us. They slowed the ball down and we didn't adjust, and this year I have to figure out a way to speed the game up when teams want to slow it down, as well as being able to execute when teams go zone against us or sag in man-to-man."
Not many sophomore point guards in Carolina history have been able to build from a freshman season that was All-ACC caliber; after earning third-team all-conference honors, he's the first freshman Tar Heel to achieve that recognition since Raymond Felton (a frequent summer pickup game opponent this summer) in 2003. Marshall's freshman season--when he led the league in assists, tied for first in assist-error in conference games and set the UNC record for assists in an ACC game (16 against Florida State) while compiling a highlight reel of neatly threaded passes--has reached almost mythical status among Carolina fans.
Marshall, who has grown taller since his freshman measurements of 6-foot-3 and also added 10 pounds through hard work with Jonas Sahratian, knows his sophomore season could be more challenging. Last season, he snuck up on some opponents. This season, as Shammond Williams has frequently advised him in those pickup games, he'll be prominent on the opposing scouting report.
The Dumfries, Va., native will always be a passer. That's his signature, and that's why other players are drawn to him. It is rare, at this level, to find someone who can recite--with no hesitation at all--the exact spot on the floor where each of his teammates is most effective, along with the most effective way to get the ball to them at that particular spot.
But at the request of Roy Williams, Marshall tuned his offensive game over the summer. "I want to be able to keep defenses honest, so I worked on my shot," he says. "I have a little more air underneath it, but one of the most important things is I don't second-guess myself as much about shooting it. I'm focusing on knowing I am a good shooter and I have to let it go."
The numbers support his statements. At 37.7%, his three-point accuracy ranked second on the team last year
In addition to his basketball work, his sessions with Sahratian have been designed to keep Marshall on the court as much as possible. He averaged 34.9 minutes per game over the final 16 games of his freshman campaign. To maintain that demanding workload for a full season, he's focused on becoming more durable. He also wants to improve his quickness to enable him to stay in front of the elite point guards he'll face this season.
He's chronicled virtually every conditioning drill and weights session on Twitter, where over 25,000 fans follow his every thought. Marshall has noticed a curious trend--he uses Twitter to show fans he's more than just a basketball player, that he's someone "just like them" who goes to the mall or ponders a new pair of shoes. But almost all his followers think of him only as an athlete.
If he posts that he's going to get breakfast, someone is certain to reply, "Breakfast of champions!" If his thoughts wander during a class, someone will wonder if he's daydreaming about a game.
He's opened up his life to the public, so strangers feel they know him. Students approach him on campus. Peers whisper on Franklin Street. It is a little odd, he admits, to have someone he's never seen before make a comment about something they'd otherwise never know.
It's enough to make you wonder if, perhaps, he might like to try being anonymous. Maybe just for one day?
"Oh, I already know what that's like," he says immediately. "That's what it was like when we were losing at the beginning of last year."
It sounds like a joke, but his serious face makes it obvious he's not kidding. "I'm not going back to that," he says. "No way."
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly. He is also the author or co-author of six books on Carolina basketball, including the official chronicle of the first 100 years of Tar Heel hoops, A Century of Excellence, which is available now. Get real-time UNC sports updates from the THM staff on Twitter or on Facebook.
