Wichita State University announced Tuesday that basketball coach Gregg Marshall will receive a settlement of $7.75 million to resign following reports of verbal and physical abuse, ESPN reported.
Multiple allegations against Marshall, specifically from the 2015-16 season, including pushing and punching former player Shaquille Morris during practice, placing his hands around the neck of a staff member, and attempting to punch a student who parked in his spot.
Morris said that Marshall punched him after he went to help teammate Zach Brown up after a foul. To make matters worse, Morris claims that he had confided to the coach about his mother’s cancer diagnosis earlier that same day.
According to ESPN:
Other allegations reported by Stadium, which talked to more than 30 current and former members of the program, included Marshall body-shaming a player who is now dealing with anxiety and depression; Marshall making “Indian howling noises” and telling Isaiah Poor Bear-Chandler, who is of Native American descent, “to get back on his horse”; Marshall telling Colombian center Jaime Echenique he would be “a great coffee bean picker”; and Marshall telling Erik Stevenson that he was “afraid of brothers, guys raised by their grandparents eating PB&Js.”
Many players left the program last spring, even though Marshall has had the most wins of any basketball coach in Wichita State history. Marshall led the team to eight NCAA Tournament appearances since 2007 and transitioned the team from the Missouri Valley Conference to the American Athletic Conference in 2017.
“This was a difficult decision, but one I feel was necessary for my family, the university and, most importantly, the student-athletes,” Marshall said in a statement. “I remain grateful for my years spent at Wichita State. I wish to thank the coaches, student-athletes, the university, the community, and all of Shocker Nation for their unending dedication, support and loyalty. I am incredibly proud of this men’s basketball program and all it has achieved over the past 14 years and am confident of its continued success.”
The university hired lawyers to investigate the abuse allegations in October. Wisconsin State athletic director Darron Boatright said in a statement after Marshall’s resignation:
Our student-athletes are our primary concern. While the university acknowledges the success of the basketball program under Coach Marshall, this decision is in the best interest of the university, its student-athletes and the WSU community. WSU will continue its pursuit of excellence with the help of its student-athletes, staff and loyal supporters of the basketball program.
Other university coaches across the nation have faced abuse allegations this year. A school doctor claimed in April that former DePaul University softball coach Eugene Lenti, who coached at the university for nearly 40 years, “routinely called players names such as ‘f*cking whores,’ and even physically abused them by punching them,” and that the school was alerted to the behavior but did nothing to stop it. In March, three NCAA student-athletes said they were sexually abused and harassed by track coach John Rembao while he worked at the University of Texas and the University of Arizona.
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