Starting this thread a little earlier than normal. While you wait, here is a classic response from Coach Marshall during yesterday's interviews ...
Hayden Barber from the Wichita Eagle:
Coach Marshall:
Hayden Barber from the Wichita Eagle:
Shaq has been through some ups and downs in his career and now he is known as one of the best players in the conference if not the best player in the conference.
Why did you stick with him through all that? And how rewarding and fun is that for you as a coach to watch that progression?
Why did you stick with him through all that? And how rewarding and fun is that for you as a coach to watch that progression?
Well I remember Chris Jans and I were evaluating him and, boy he was really heavy and somewhat lazy. And the crazy thing about Shaq was he wore the fact that he was lazy like a badge of honor. That was something that he was proud of. And I had to explain to him, "that's not something you need to be proud of. That's something you need to shed from your personality and your modus operandi." And he did that.
To his credit -- now it was slomo, he probably missed more practices his freshman year (the year that he redshirted) than anyone's ever missed in the history of college basketball. I mean there was no serious injuries, but ... hangnails and uhh .. you know sniffles and what-not, and he was out for several days.
I told him when he went home for Christmas that freshman year, I think he had missed about 35 days of workouts. And our trainer, Todd Fagan, I went to him and documented all the things that he had wrong with him in that Fall semester. And before he left to go home for Christmas I says, "Son, you need to go by a doctor's office and check out a medical thesaurus."
And he goes, "What's that? What are you talking about?"
And I said, "You are going to need to come up with some new ailments in the Spring semester."
To his credit -- now it was slomo, he probably missed more practices his freshman year (the year that he redshirted) than anyone's ever missed in the history of college basketball. I mean there was no serious injuries, but ... hangnails and uhh .. you know sniffles and what-not, and he was out for several days.
I told him when he went home for Christmas that freshman year, I think he had missed about 35 days of workouts. And our trainer, Todd Fagan, I went to him and documented all the things that he had wrong with him in that Fall semester. And before he left to go home for Christmas I says, "Son, you need to go by a doctor's office and check out a medical thesaurus."
And he goes, "What's that? What are you talking about?"
And I said, "You are going to need to come up with some new ailments in the Spring semester."
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