Thank You Coach Marshall

[choida]

Thank you Gregg. Just thank you.

Watching it still brings chills. But the memes that could and will come out of the "play angry" are going to be downtown funny and disrespectful. It is what it is

[SB Shock]

What post(s) by me prompted you to issue this warning? Have I committed a violation of Shockernet TOS? Or do you find dealing with objective, truthful posts offensive?

I refuse to allow a few aggressive bullies on Shockeernet to influence my thinking/posting. If you don't like what I post then put me on ignore.

U are the new DOFO and don't even realize it. You are now the Shockernet Court Jester. The village idiot.

[Shocker1976]

U are the new DOFO and don't even realize it. You are now the Shockernet Court Jester. The village idiot.

That's your reply? No justification for your warning? Just resorting to vulgarity and name calling to serve your purpose?

[shoxlax]

While I am not using it to justify FHCGM’s behavior, the fact remains the amount of pressure placed on a head coach to battle successfully on a national level against teams who don’t play by the same rules has to be a load to carry. If you are wired like Mark Few, who wouldn’t change expression during a nuclear war, then it may be bearable, but unfortunately most coaches are not.

[SB Shock]

That's your reply? No justification for your warning? Just resorting to vulgarity and name calling to serve your purpose?

I am just trying to help you. It is not my problem that is how you are perceived - you have created this situation for yourself.

[ShockerFever]

That's your reply? No justification for your warning? Just resorting to vulgarity and name calling to serve your purpose?

See a theme here? Who on this site is in your corner? Go ahead and name them.

[DJShocker10]

See a theme here? Who on this site is in your corner? Go ahead and name them.

This could be good. McCarthyism: ShockerNet Edition

[ShauXTyme]

The amount of “rationalism” on this board astounds me.

[pinstripers]

What HCGM did at WSU rivals what Snyder did with K-State football or what Gene did with WSU baseball. It's absolutely amazing.

[David Rahm]

Thank you Coach Marshall.
I am sad and angry at ths shabby way you have been treated on such unsubstantiated claims.
I think it is wholly wrong that you are fired or forced to quit.

I appecicate what you did for the basketball team.
I appreciate what you did for WSU.
I appreciate what you did for the community.
I appreciate how integrated you were in the community and local charities.

I cannot believe we cannot have any more loyalty to a man who was nothing but loyal to Wichita and WSU,
I think it is a HUGE mistake, and more than anything, sad.

Good luck to you. Take a year off, get a job, and schedule WSU and come back and kick our a**es,

[Good News]

In the spirit of a famous basketball coaching quote – “The key is not the will to win. Everybody has that. It is the will to PREPARE to win that is important.” – I will skip the thanks for the F4 and NCAA Tournament runs, for the undefeated season and the national rankings. Those are too obvious.

Without regard to my other uninformed opinions and regrets on how things ended what I will say thanks to HCGM for are these:

Thanks for seeing the potential in the resources and the fan base of a school that had one NCAA tournament appearance in the previous 20 years and leaving a school that you had taken to the tournament 7 of your 9 seasons to start all over again with a roster in shambles.

Thanks for getting rid of There’s No D In Ogirri (assuming the rumors I won’t repeat were true) and rebranding immediately as D, toughness, and MTXE before O.

Thanks for the resilience on the recruiting trail, particularly after watching your first recruit (Guy Alang-Ntang) die on the court. In person.

Thanks for coming in, looking around the huddle, and telling the coaching staff “the first thing we’re going to do is recruit guys that I have to look up at when I talk to them.”

Thanks for your enthusiasm and personable nature when meeting non-boosters and others that had nothing to offer your program and nothing to take but your time. I was among them.

Thanks for living and dying on the floor with your teams (those that actually cared enough to live and die on it, that is), even during the dog days of road trip Valley winters.

Thanks for your candor and enthusiasm on the coaches show when most coaches would offer neither (note – this excludes the last 2 years but you get a pass).

Thanks for jumping off the bench and charging at Nick Wiggins during a timeout screaming “if you don’t dive after loose balls you can sit on the f***ing bench and not get a chance to dive” at the same time I was standing in my living room yelling the same thing at my TV.

Thanks for “Straight cash, homie” … but not quite as much as…

Thanks for a straight-eyed, no-joke answer to a media question of “wolves don’t care about the opinions of sheep”

Thanks for getting rid of Erik Stevenson so I don’t have to watch a high major D1 guard with 20' range shoot 25% from deep 3 and 10x the program record for hitting the side of the backboard.

And most of all, thanks for knowing the secret of basketball that most kids never learn and that more and more coaches have resigned themselves to not teaching – (1) the difference between a successful season and a disappointing one is usually based on the outcome of less than 5 games (less than 3 games in the Valley), (2) Most basketball games are decided by less than 5 possessions, and (3) you can tilt the result in your favor with nothing but attitude and hard work on every single possession by doing the little things THAT THE OTHER GUY WON’T. Just like life. Which means

Thanks for putting a product on the floor that I was proud to call my own.


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Given the age we live in and some of the clowns on this board, I guess I have to say that this post was focused only on the positives and that I could write a similar sentiment for (almost all) of the players.

[WuDrWu]

That's absolutely spectacular Good News

[Good News]

I never said Shockernet was the oracle to which WSU Admin deferred; I referred directly to the posters on Shockernet who made these claims of successful head coaches waiting in the wings to replace Marshall when he retired. I do not need to point out that not a single successful head coach has made a public statement indicating he wants to succeed Marshall.

Succession planning is a fact of life in any organization that wants to continue to succeed. My interaction with ADDB indicates to me that he lacks this fundamental understanding. So no succession planning by ADDB and the Shockers find themselves on the outside of the coaching world looking in and Shocker fans hoping interim HCIB is a Mark Few in waiting. I am one such fan - wishing the best for IHCIB!

Would you not draw a distinction in context between a Marshall retirement after a full career as perennial NCAA contender that merely needs to hand the keys over versus an abrupt Marshall resignation after a season with a record number of transfers and public media damage to the program?

Or in "organizational" terms would you not draw a distinction at the candidates GE would have attracted in an open search after Jack Welch's retirement in ~1999 versus what they would have attracted after Jeff Immelt's resignation in ~2018?

(Note - this analogy may not make sense if your "organization" consists of stuffed animals arranged around a card table in your basement)

Alright, that was a cheap shot, just kidding. I actually believe you are entitled to every opinion you've voiced, just that the context is pretty obvious in this case. Unless I'm missing something.

We're talking about replacing a CEO with a (probable) external hire here, not "okay let's bump everybody up a rung and hire a new junior janitor". You can always put together a wish list of potential contacts at any given point in time, but ultimately it's going to be a call to an executive search firm and figuring out who's available and interested under the circumstances at the time you need them.

I don't really have an opinion for or against ADDB but come on. Even with the last two seasons you still had a coach on a HOF track under multiyear contract - IMO no AD is going to waste their time on anything more than a what if list in that situation.



(Also FWIW IMO Welch was highly overrated and created the problems that took GE down but the analogy worked for other reasons but I digress).

[Good News]

That's absolutely spectacular Good News

Thanks Doc. I kind of wrote it that way hoping other people would join in with small stuff they remembered...

[Shocker1976]

Would you not draw a distinction in context between a Marshall retirement after a full career as perennial NCAA contender that merely needs to hand the keys over versus an abrupt Marshall resignation after a season with a record number of transfers and public media damage to the program?

Or in "organizational" terms would you not draw a distinction at the candidates GE would have attracted in an open search after Jack Welch's retirement in ~1999 versus what they would have attracted after Jeff Immelt's resignation in ~2018?

(Note - this analogy may not make sense if your "organization" consists of stuffed animals arranged around a card table in your basement)

Alright, that was a cheap shot, just kidding. I actually believe you are entitled to every opinion you've voiced, just that the context is pretty obvious in this case. Unless I'm missing something.

We're talking about replacing a CEO with a (probable) external hire here, not "okay let's bump everybody up a rung and hire a new junior janitor". You can always put together a wish list of potential contacts at any given point in time, but ultimately it's going to be a call to an executive search firm and figuring out who's available and interested under the circumstances at the time you need them.

I don't really have an opinion for or against ADDB but come on. Even with the last two seasons you still had a coach on a HOF track under multiyear contract - IMO no AD is going to waste their time on anything more than a what if list in that situation.



(Also FWIW IMO Welch was highly overrated and created the problems that took GE down but the analogy worked for other reasons but I digress).

Yes I draw the distinction you describe; I am not relishing how this sad episode has unfolded. I care deeply for the damage caused to WSU by Marshall's behavior and the failure of relevant University Administrators.

Your choice of Jack Welch is appropriate as IMO Marshall shares many of Welch's personality and management traits. And note that GE replaced Welch with an insider (Immelt) who initially looked good but rapidly exhibited an inability to manage GE. Similar to my post regards Gary Thompson (assistant coach) replacing Ralph Miller (in seven years Shocker Valley record goes from 14-4 to 4-14 while the MVC weakened overall).

Funny cheap shot that I could easily turn on posters who attack me on Shockernet. Organizations I have built and managed in the US and globally involved more than a few "...stuffed animals arranged around a card table..."

Yes, plans have to be fluid as circumstances will definitely change; witness Forbes and Jans. Forbes goes to ETSU establishes a great record and is hired by Wake Forest; Jans becomes HC at BG performs well but gets fired for a clear public lapse in judgment.

I have no strong feelings regards Boatright but I post with confidence that given my limited knowledge/experience of/with Boatright's management skills Welch would have already fired him for incompetence if Welch were managing WSU.

Edit: to provide clarity that I have limited interaction with Boatright but given Marshall's public statements about retiring at age 60 Boatright should have prepared more than a "what if list." I share your opinion that Welch contributed to GE's decline.