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Gregg
Marshall's eight years as a college head
coach have produced great team success and
personal recognition.
He has led the Winthrop Eagles to six NCAA
tournament appearances during his eight
seasons, including four consecutive trips
during his first four years at the helm.
His 2004-05 team established new Big South
Conference and school records for
victories as the Eagles soared to a 27-6
record and finished the season ranked No.
9 among the nation's Div. I mid-major
programs. The 2005-06 team compiled a 23-7
record and came within a basket of
capturing its first victory in the NCAA
tournament.
Marshall has been voted the Big South
Coach of the Year three times in 1999,
2003 and 2005.
Under Marshall's leadership, Winthrop has
had five 20-win seasons and have averaged
over 20 victories per year. His career
record now stands at a very impressive
165-78. During the 2005-06 season,
Marshall became the winningest coach in
Winthrop men's basketball history, passing
Nield Gordon's mark of 161.
He struck gold in his first year as the
head coach at Winthrop as he led the
Eagles to their first-ever Big South
Conference regular season championship,
the conference tournament title and the
school's first trip to the NCAA
tournament. He led the Eagles to another
Big South tournament title in 2000 and a
second trip to the Big Dance, and then
made it a three-peat in 2001 as Winthrop
won the conference title in exciting
fashion and advanced to the first-ever
opening round game in NCAA tournament
history. His 2001-02 team overcame a
series of injuries to win a fourth
straight conference title and earned the
right to face top-ranked Duke in the NCAA
tournament.
In his first year as a head coach on any
level, Winthrop compiled a 21-8 overall
record including a 9-1 Big South
Conference slate. Winthrop's improvement
of 14 victories over the 1997-98 year was
one of the biggest turnarounds for NCAA
Division I programs. Marshall also
directed the Eagles to a school-record
12-game winning streak during January and
February. He did this despite having his
team picked to finish last in the
conference in nearly every poll and
national publication. He was rewarded by
being voted the 1999 Big South Coach of
the Year.
In 1999-2000 the Eagles won it all again
as they finished second in the regular
season and then captured the Big South
tournament to earn the automatic bid to
the NCAA tourney. Winthrop received a No.
14 seed, the highest ever by a Big South
Conference member, as the Eagles faced
Oklahoma in the West Region at Tucson, AZ.
Sports Illustrated 's NCAA preview even
picked the Eagles to defeat the Sooners,
but that didn't happen. Winthrop finished
the year with a 21-9 record to give
Marshall a 42-17 head coaching mark after
two years.
His third year was probably his best in
terms of coaching skills as Winthrop was
hit hard by the injury bug, but still
managed to compile a 18-13 record and its
third straight Big South title and trip to
the Big Dance.
His appointment as the Eagles' head coach
in April of 1998 brought the South
Carolina native full circle. After being
born in Greenwood, SC, Marshall spent the
first 3½ years of his life on College
Avenue which is located adjacent to the
Winthrop campus and just a few blocks from
his office in Winthrop's 6,100-seat
coliseum.
During the two years leading up to his
arrival at Winthrop, Marshall served as an
assistant coach at Marshall University
where he helped guide the Thundering Herd
to the 1997 Southern Conference
championship and before that was an
assistant on John Kresse's staff at the
College of Charleston for eight years from
1988-1996 when the Cougars made the most
successful transition ever from NAIA to
NCAA Division I. During Marshall's years
there, the Cougars received an at-large
bid to the NCAA tournament in 1994 and
consecutive NIT invitations in 1995 and
1996.
While at Marshall, he recruited 1998
Mid-American Conference Freshman of the
Year Travis Young along with MAC
All-Freshman team member Joda Burgess. The
1997 recruiting class at Marshall was
ranked by ESPN as the best in the MAC and
among the Top 40 in the nation. During his
tenure at the College of Charleston,
Marshall was instrumental in the
recruitment of NBA-caliber
student-athletes from the state of South
Carolina that include Anthony Johnson, a
current member of the Indiana Pacers,
Marion Busby and Thaddeous Delaney. All
three players were voted Trans-America
Athletic Conference Players of the Year.
Prior to joining Kresse's staff in
Charleston, Marshall spent one year as an
assistant at Belmont Abbey College
(1987-88), and two years as an assistant
at his alma mater at Randolph-Macon
College in Ashland, VA, (1985-1987). In 13
years as an assistant coach, the schools
that Marshall was associated with compiled
a record of 268-129 for a success rate of
68 percent.
Marshall received a B.A. degree in
economics/business in 1985 from
Randolph-Macon and earned the Master's
degree in Sport Management from the
University of Richmond in 1987. He is
married to the former Lynn Munday of
Bellingham, Washington, who earned her
master's degree from the College of
Charleston. They are the parents of a son,
Kellen, age 8, and a daughter, Maggie, 5.
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