Faulkner: UCI needs Marshall plan
Covering sports can provide one a unique insight into the coaching profession. The combination of continual observation and recurring interaction can unveil the myriad intangibles that separate mediocre coaches from those who both represent, and inspire excellence.
In 30-plus years covering sports in these parts, some coaches have earned a place on my all-time list. Among those I have worked closely with and covered extensively, John Speraw, Jeff Brinkley, Tim O’Brien, Mike Gillespie and Russ Davis are as good as it gets.
Identifying the characteristics that define a good coach can be obvious. Yet trying to articulate how these qualities align can border on mysticism.
Ultimately, I know it when I see it. And watching those special coaches work is one of the sublime pleasures of this job.
Once in a great while, the genesis of a transcendent coaching talent emerges so boldly, it is nothing short of a revelation.
One such instance occurred recently as I watched Leigh Marshall guide her Palomar College women’s basketball team in a tournament at Orange Coast College.
Marshall, a spirited, but largely unremarkable player at Costa Mesa High and OCC, who spent a handful of seasons as an assistant coach under Pirates’ women’s coach Mike Thornton, blends intensity, passion, knowledge, innovation and presence into that inexplicable “It” factor.
Marshall, a sophomore reserve guard on the Pirates’ 2002-03 state championship team, left OCC after five seasons as an assistant to become the girls’ head coach at El Modena High. She then seized an opportunity to rescue the Palomar program that lost its coach, and all its players, only months before the 2010-11 season began.
The Comets were 0-21 that season, then went 5-21 in 2011-12. The next three seasons produced a pair of Pacific Coast Conference titles, and advancement to the round of 16 and the elite eight in the state playoffs.
This season, Palomar is 12-3, 2-0 in conference, and ranked No. 5 in Southern California, heading into Wednesday’s first-place showdown with Mt. San Jacinto (17-0), ranked No. 1 in SoCal.
“I’m unbelievably proud of her,” Thornton said of Marshall, who considers the OCC head man her biggest coaching influence. “I’ve never seen any coach at any level of basketball who could get her players to play as hard as she has.
“She has taken things from us,” Thornton said, “and also taken things from other coaches, and she has developed her own system, which is unique.”
Thornton, in his 27th year at OCC, said he wants Marshall, the 2014-15 Southern California Community College Coach of the Year, to succeed him at OCC.
However, I would propose an alternate destination for Marshall: UC Irvine.
The Anteaters are in search of a coach after Doug Oliver announced Tuesday that he would retire at the end of this season.
Marshall, whose loyalty to Palomar prompted her to pass up a more lucrative job at a Southern California community college before this season, would bring sufficient dynamism to help the UCI women’s program find the consistent success it has failed to achieve in decades, arguably in its entire history.
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•Oliver’s departure will follow what has been a 3-13 season, 0-2 in the Big West Conference. UCI was 8-24 a year ago in Oliver’s third season, after he guided the 2013-14 ‘Eaters, stocked with players recruited by his predecessor Molly Goodenbour, to a 17-15 mark that represented the program’s best win total in 19 seasons. UCI was 9-21 in Oliver’s first season at the helm.
UCI takes an eight-game losing streak, in which it has been outscored by an average of 24 points, into Thursday’s Big West clash at UC Davis.
The Anteaters rank last among 344 Division I programs in three-point-shooting (20.3%), and rank No. 320 in field-goal shooting (34.7%).
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•The UCI men’s basketball team continues to show its supremacy in the Big West. Coach Russell Turner’s squad, which won a conference regular-season title two seasons ago and earned the program’s first NCAA Tournament berth by winning the Big West Tournament last season, is 2-0 in conference and has won six of its last seven.
Junior guard Luke Nelson could give the UCI women some pointers after making eight of 10 three-point tries in a pair of conference home wins against UC Davis and UC Riverside last week.
Nelson was 16 for 23 from the field in the two games (69.6) and his 45 combined points included a career-high 29 on Saturday against UC Riverside.
Nelson’s bid to become Big West Player of the Week was overcome by Cal State Fullerton junior guard Tre’ Coggins, who combined for 66 points in two games, including a career-high 41 on Saturday against Cal State Northridge.
UCI (13-5), is joined by Hawaii (13-2) and Long Beach State (8-9) at 2-0 atop the Big West standings after the opening week. The three schools are a combined 25-2 at home this season, including UCI’s 7-0 mark.
