Marshall's speech

[tropicalshox]

A must read.

http://m.bizjournals.com/wichita/blog/2013/08/drill-angry-not-exactly-shocker.html?r=full

[shocka khan]

Nice article. Cohesiveness as a unit, coupled with a strong will to win. Great recipe for success.

[DwShock]

"He said he will be the head men’s basketball coach at Wichita State as long as the university will have him."

That's good enough for me. Guess we won't see any more comment about coach leaving.

Thanks for the article.

[Shockeriffic]

"He said he will be the head men’s basketball coach at Wichita State as long as the university will have him."

That's good enough for me. Guess we won't see any more comment about coach leaving.

Thanks for the article.

Some people will still speculate about what jobs he might leave for. Some people still do that with Mark Few and he's made it clear he's not ever leaving Gonzaga.

[shocksrbest]

"He said he will be the head men’s basketball coach at Wichita State as long as the university will have him."

That's good enough for me. Guess we won't see any more comment about coach leaving.

Thanks for the article.

That is great to hear. The prospects for the future are as bright as they have ever been--and I think will only get better. We have one of the best coaching staffs in the country--and to think...they have not even coached together yet.

[Rocky Mountain Shock]

And we want to have you for a long, long time Mr. Marshall. I'm glad you found your paradise, and I'm glad it's here.

[60Shock]

No doubt in my mind that after he eventually retires from coaching, after a couple of decades at WSU, that he could make a great living making motivational speeches all around the country.

[Bluzrover]

He's got some real nuggets in there and the thing that sticks out is the acknowledgement that last season's run was pretty magical and somewhat unexpected as he admitted he thought last year would be a rebuilding year. (Did anybody catch the comment about talking to teams during the tournament? "Marshall said he wasn’t going to talk to another team about its coaching vacancy while trying to coach his own team in the NCAA Tournament." That doesn't necessarily fully shut the door on his leaving the program for greener pastures.)

I think the Shox will be very competitive this coming season...but it's a new season and a lot can happen between now and next April.

I am reminded of that by the current dismal season the local team here in DC is having in MLB. The Nationals had a magical season last year and the offseason moves had the fanbase giddy with excitement and a surefire return to the NLCS and hopes of a World Series.

After a long season of woeful defense and lackluster offense despite some stellar pitching, the Nats will be left wimpering at the end of the season while watching the postseason in the comforts of their home theaters.

HCGM has another big job ahead of him as far as I am concerned. He's got to find his post player, nay, two post players, and get his new players fully onboard with his style of play. If anybody can do it, it's Mr. Marshall and, in some ways, he makes it look easy, but color me cautiously optimistic for another run into the NCAAs come March.

[60Shock]

With GM at the helm, I am most optimistic that we now have reached that level where we will consistently make the NCAAs.

We know we have the coaching, so just how far our runs go will depend on talent, peaking at the right time, breaks, and a lot of well deserved good luck.

[ShockerPhi]

The thing about Marshall's teams is that they love to prove people wrong and never seem to give up. Look how we did in the NIT. Look how we did this past year. The 2012 NCAA tournament was a bad draw on a very good 12 seed team, VCU, but we all thought we could have made a run. I've never seen better basketball in that 2011 NIT and 2013 NCAA tournaments out of our Shockers. That's when his teams seem to shine the brightest.

And the fact that our fanbase believes just as much doesn't hurt either ;)

Here's to a (hopefully) special season.