Hubert Davis on why Kendall Marshall wasn't retained at North Carolina
Kendall Marshall played two seasons at North Carolina, becoming one of the best passers in school history. Marshall recently spent time on Roy Williams’ coaching staff. When Hubert Davis took over following Williams’ retirement, Marshall was not retained on North Carolina’s coaching staff. Davis said that he loved working with Marshall, but there just wasn’t room for him. Marshall had been serving as the Tar Heels’ director of recruiting.
Davis: Staff diversity will be great for the team
As a player, Marshall had some great moments for North Carolina on the court. Following a short NBA career, Marshall returned to Chapel Hill and quickly joined the coaching staff. When Davis was hired as the new head coach of the Tar Heels, he had to make a tough decision with Marshall. There are only so many spots on a coaching staff, and Davis wanted a lot of different experience levels and histories on his staff.
“One of the things that I wanted to do on staff is I wanted to have versatility,” Davis said. “One of the things that I wanted is, I wanted to embody the coaching careers of Coach (Dean) Smith, Coach (Bill) Guthridge and also Coach (Roy) Williams. I wanted guys that had the experience of playing for Coach Smith. I wanted people on staff that had experience of playing for Coach Guthridge and wanted the experience, obviously, of the guys that had played for Coach Williams. Just wanted to give our current guys just a full body menu of what Carolina was all about. For all of us, what binds us together is out shared experiences at Carolina, but there’s also some differences because of personality in terms of Coach Smith to Coach Guthridge and Coach (Matt) Doherty and Coach Williams.
“I felt like that diversity in the staff would be absolutely terrific and great for us. One of the things that is hard is that you can’t put everybody on staff. And there’s so many great Carolina guys… Unfortunately, not just Kendall Marshall, but George Lynch, Brian Reese, Scott Williams, C.B. McGrath. There are just a number of unbelievable people, unbelievable players here that were unbelievable coaches. And unfortunately, we can’t have a staff of 100 former players. But Kendall Marshall, the three years that I worked with him, I loved it. He was an unbelievable and outstanding player, and he was such a pleasure. It was great working with him the last three years.”
Marshall established himself as a Carolina great in his two seasons
Marshall’s collegiate career began in 2010 at UNC. He took over the starting point guard job late in the season and saw immediate success. As a freshman, Marshall averaged 24.6 minutes per game, 6.2 points, and 6.2 assists. In his sophomore season, Marshall emerged as an elite passer for UNC. As a sophomore, Marshall averaged 8.1 points and 9.8 assists in 33 minutes per game.
Marshall’s sophomore season ended in an unfortunate way when he fell and fractures his wrist in the early rounds of the NCAA Tournament. The Phoenix Suns selected Marshall 13th overall in 2012. Unfortunately for Marshall, he never found his footing in the NBA.
As a rookie, Marshall played in 48 games, averaging three points and three assists per game. He was traded to the Lakers in the offseason. Marshall saw more success in Los Angeles, playing 29 minutes per game along with eight points and 8.8 assists. After the season, Marshall was waived and signed with the Bucks in the offseason. In January of 2015, Marshall tore his ACL and missed the rest of the season. He was traded to the Suns in February and later signed with the 76ers in the ensuing offseason.
Marshall never found a permanent home in the NBA and retired in 2017. He then went back to North Carolina and finished his degree. Roy Williams originally added Marshall to the Carolina’s staff as a student assistant in 2018-2019 before promoting him to director of recruiting.