Oct. 16, 2013
By Jon Cooper
Sting Daily
Ty Marshall knows how to finish at the basket.
You don’t score over 1,500 points in three years and get within range of the all-time career scorer for a respected D-I school like Georgia Tech if you can’t.
Marshall is as determined to show that she knows how to finish her career.
She needs 435 points to tie Keisha Ford’s school career-record of 1,955 (set from 1994-97). It’s a number within her reach, as the 5-9 guard from Upper Marlboro, Md., has never scored fewer than 475 points in a season. At her career 15.2 ppg average she would catch Ford on Feb. 27, Tech’s penultimate game at Florida State.
Of course, Marshall expects to exceed her career-scoring average, something she did by nearly three points last season (18.1 ppg, second in the ACC) and has done each of her previous three seasons. She also grabbed a career-best 8.4 rebounds per game last year, tops among ACC guards.
Expecting and doing more has been a theme throughout her career. That’s why she’s one of only five Yellow Jackets ever to score 1,500 points and grab 600 rebounds.
Getting better all-around drove Marshall this past off-season.
“My three ball has gotten a lot better,” she said. “I tried to work on being more consistent at the free throw line and being a more consistent player, staying a consistent player year-round and doing anything I can to help my teammates out, bringing the ball up the court, shooting the ball, playing defense, I tried to perfect every aspect of my game.”
Her all-around game made her one of the ACC’s best in the eyes of the coaches and media, which voted Marshall First-Team All-ACC, ACC All-Defensive Team and Honorable Mention All-America following her junior season.
“Ty has improved each and every year and has become a complete player,” said Georgia Tech Head Coach MaChelle Joseph. “She is one of the top three players in the ACC both offensively and defensively. Ty is a catalyst for our defense and she carries us offensively. What separates her is she is one of the top rebounders in the ACC.”
Heading into her senior season, Marshall was named to the Preseason Wade Watch List for NCAA Division I Player of the Year, presented by the National Association of Girls and Women in Sport (NAGWS) and the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association. She is one of 25 to make the list and one of six ACC players selected.
“It means a lot,” she said. “Thinking about when I was still in high school, not being highly recruited, it means a lot of hard work and dedication I’ve put in has paid off. My coaches have helped me and my teammates have helped me along the way. It means a lot to me to be recognized nationally and gives me more motivation to work hard and to be better than I ever was.”
Marshall may leave Tech as one of the best Yellow Jackets there ever was.
By simply matching last year’s numbers, she can not only make a run at Ford as Georgia Tech’s all-time leading scorer, she can finish at the top or in the top three in minutes (Ford’s 3,823 are the most in school history), rebounds (Ford is third at 871), and steals (Ford and teammate Tiffany Martin are second with 278). Marshall also can crack the top 10 in assists (Anita Malone, ’82-86, is 10th with 310).
Perhaps most important is the possibility of becoming the school’s all-time leader in games played. Ty enters 2013-14 with 100, so catching or passing all-time leaders — and teammates her first two years — Mo Bennett (’09-12) and Sasha Goodlett (’09-12), who played in 134, would mean Georgia Tech has made some noise in the ACC Tournament and gotten back to the NCAAs.
“As a team, we want to get back to 20 wins, like we did two years ago when I was a sophomore, and definitely making the NCAA Tournament,” she said. “The ultimate goal for our team is to win the ACC Championship. We came close two years ago and we want it this year.
“I think the team, overall, will be a lot better than we were a year ago. There’s a lot more chemistry,” she added. “Everybody has embraced their roll and embraced the challenge of getting back to the NCAA Tournament and competing for an ACC Championship. I’m ready to see what everybody has and see everybody step up and play their role.”
Marshall’s role will remain the same as it’s ever been.
“Ty Marshall has been an impact player since the day she stepped on campus at Georgia Tech.” said Joseph.
As she heads into her final season she still remembers that first day.
“I was really nervous for my first official practice at Georgia Tech. My heart was beating fast, I had sweaty palms,” Marshall recalled. “I had worked out with them over the summer but it was different. For my first practice I left it all out there. When we had a sprint I tried to be first. Whatever drill we did I tried to give it my all. The same thing I did my freshman year is the same thing I’m doing now.”
While Joseph admires Marshall’s body of work so far, she expects her senior leader to continue to raise the bar.
“I have always expected big things from Ty and this year will be no different,” she said. “Ty is on track to become our all-time leading scorer so I think that tells the story of the impact she has had at Georgia Tech.”
Not quite the whole story. Marshall graduates in May and has dreams of a career in the WNBA. But first she plans on writing a final chapter befitting her career at Georgia Tech. She doesn’t know how it will play out but does know how she will.
“You can’t hold anything back. I’m ready to give it all I have,” she said. “I’m just going to enjoy the moment with my teammates and coaches, live in the moment and try to leave everything I have out on the court my senior year.”
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