- January 21st, 2007, 9:53 am
#54761
Welcome to an over-the-top man crush of Greg Marshall written after our game with WU at the Vines. I think I want to hurl:
Winthrop: Not the devil, but darn closehttp://www.heraldonline.com/109/story/11661.html
By Andrew Dys · The Herald - Updated 01/21/07 - 12:54 AM
LYNCHBURG, Va. -- At Liberty University, God is first. But the Rev. Jerry Falwell, the icon conservative preacher who founded the school and still is the boss, is a close second.
Gregg Marshall is last. Marshall isn't the devil at Liberty, but the Winthrop basketball coach and his team are as close as hell comes to the Virginia hills.
"Marshall, where's your money bags?" screamed out a lady who was 75 years old if she was a day. "How much did you pay those referees?"
Marshall and Winthrop are the villains at Liberty, and in Charleston and Conway and High Point, N.C., and everywhere else they play.
Other teams and other fans hate Winthrop. Because Winthrop wins. A lot.
And Marshall makes no apologies for it.
Falwell entered the arena quietly Jan. 13 when Winthrop played Liberty, through a back entrance. I admit it, I had been stalking the joint looking for him. He walked down courtside, right past me. He smiled and shook hands with fans.
But a few minutes later, as Winthrop turned Liberty into pillars of salt in an ugly rout, the only cheering was jeering.
Marshall is everybody's target. He's the coach in the tailored suits who has the audacity to look opposing fans in the eye in any arena, who had the heart to turn down a half-million bucks from College of Charleston last summer, who has won six of eight conference titles.
Charleston Southern scheduled its home game a couple weeks ago against Winthrop at a 10,000-seat North Charleston arena rather than the 789-seat campus bandbox. The Buccaneers tried to hype the game as Marshall's return to the Charleston he snubbed to get fans and students riled up.
The few fans who did show up wished Marshall was never born. Winthrop won by a bunch, but fans hammered at Marshall anyway.
"Nice suit!" screamed out one guy around 20 who had to notice that his team was losing by 20 points.
It was a nice suit. Marshall wears tailored suits. He bought many of them in Charleston to boot. And he wins games like the one the kid was watching.
At High Point last year, I sat in the last seat one row from the top. The game was a sellout, because Winthrop is the biggest draw for all Big South teams. I literally bought the last ticket they sold. The only guy with a worse seat was the guy behind me, who kept screaming, "Marshall! Marshall! Marshall!"
High Point came back but lost.
"dang Winthrop," the guy said. Then he left.
At Radford last season, the same place Winthrop won Saturday night, I bought a ticket and sat behind the Radford students. The abuse was the worst I've ever heard at a game.
One guy even threatened Marshall.
I admit here and now: I told the student to shut up. He didn't. Then, I invited him to go outside and settle it like men.
Thankfully, he shut up.
He was big as a mountain. I'm not, and a wimp to boot.
At Liberty on Jan. 13, where Marshall has taken abuse for years, the chorus started around tip-off.
"Go home to Charleston," shouted another older lady.
Marshall still lives in Rock Hill, but details are trifle when Marshall is the target.
"Winthrop, you stink!" chimed in another geriatric man.
Plenty of vitriolic oldsters cheer for Liberty, I can tell you.
The best of the best from an old man fan that Saturday night:
"Marshall, you jerk!"
Easy to call a guy a jerk when Winthrop was leading at that point by more than 30 points, and Marshall was still screaming at his players and the referees. He was still coaching. He wasn't coaching to win that game. It was already won.
He was coaching to win the next game. And maybe, finally, win that elusive first NCAA tournament game after six tries, if his team makes it again this year like the Eagles are favored to do.
I became a Winthrop fan like so many of the couple thousand who now go to the Coliseum as regularly as church. I became a fan one win at a time.
Those fans are Wayne the electrician and his son, who never miss a home game. They love it when Marshall screams and yells and carries on like we all wish we could at our jobs.
"Did you see that Marshall on the court!" Wayne said to me at half-time of the UNC-Asheville game Monday night. Marshall had been glaring and yelling. "He was all over those refs."
Doesn't hurt the growing fan base that Winthrop has lost just one home game in three seasons.
There is not supposed to be any cheering on press row at games. When Winthrop lost a heartbreaker to Tennessee in the NCAA tournament last year, the Volunteers radio broadcaster gave a high five to a player before that player inbounded the ball for the final winning shot.
I sat a few rows away, seething.
"Jerk," I said. Loud.
I was worse.
A few minutes earlier, after Winthrop's Craig Bradshaw was called for a foul, I blurted out a word that would make a bootlegger blush. Only about a thousand people heard it.
During the ensuing timeout, two guys in the yellow coats -- stadium security always wear yellow coats that say 'Security' in black letters across the back -- walked over to say that I was this close from being tossed from the Greensboro Coliseum.
One guy held up his fingers an inch apart.
I said I would behave.
I lied.
I stomped my feet under the table and cussed under my breath as Winthrop lost.
I'm a Winthrop fan.
They are the hometown team.
The Carolina Panthers are close to hometown, too. But their coach talks about zones and schemes and jock stuff. Gregg Marshall knows the ladies who clean his arena and treats them like gold, and he calls out fans by name.
I'm a homer for guys like him. And I envy the suits.
I admit it.
That night in Lynchburg, Falwell smiled the whole night. He was gracious enough to go on the Winthrop basketball radio show at half-time.
I sat two rows behind Falwell -- who sits in the front row, right behind the announcers -- for the last 10 or 15 minutes of the game. I tried to eavesdrop on what he and other people were saying. I was hoping Falwell or somebody else in his inner circle would say something bad about Marshall or Winthrop.
I hoped for a story.
They didn't say a single bad thing.
Falwell left quietly, still smiling and shaking hands.
The whole arena that holds almost 10,000 at the end of the game was as quiet as a church during a Falwell sermon.
It was quiet because Winthrop -- a team that wears red on the road, but should wear black because villains wear black -- was leading by so many points even the vendors tried to clean up early and sneak out.
Andrew Dys • 329-4065 | adys@heraldonline.com
I'd guess 450 at the most. 798 must include people anywhere near the Buc-Dome. 
What if I promise to cheer for Liberty (or if you want, I could wear a paper bag over my head)?
- By olldflame