Want to move on after Marshall? WSU should reveal the results of its investigation

It wasn’t exactly a surprise announcement from Wichita State University on Tuesday that men’s basketball coach Gregg Marshall resigned.

The coach, who earned the Shockers national acclaim and took the team to the Final Four in 2013, has been the subject of a months-long investigation by the university into allegations of physical and verbal abuse involving former players and staff members.

In a predictably vague news release Tuesday, Director of Athletics Darron Boatright said that “student-athletes are our primary concern,” but offered no real explanation for the coach’s departure.

Both Marshall and the university clearly want to put the ugliness behind them — to the tune of a $7.75 million payout that the coach will collect over the next six years.

Both sides want to move on and look forward. Nothing to see here, WSU officials seem to be saying. A new season starts in eight days.

It mirrors the secrecy with which Wichita State cut ties with former President Jay Golden, who resigned suddenly and without explanation in September.

It mirrors WSU’s closed-door search for a new president.

And once again, it’s deplorable behavior by a public university, funded with public dollars, which should be accountable to the public.

If WSU wants to regain credibility with current and future students, coaches, faculty members and the community, it should make the results of its investigation public.

Marshall is accused of inexcusable behavior, including allegations that he punched a player, choked an assistant coach, was involved in a physical altercation with a student-athlete over a parking spot and was verbally abusive, including using racially and culturally insensitive language to belittle players.

Since the allegations surfaced, the Wichita community has been sharply divided:

Some, including many major donors, say Marshall is a dedicated and passionate coach whose style, in the coach’s own words, just “isn’t for everyone.”

Others, including some members of WSU’s faculty, said Marshall should have been suspended during the investigation, and that by letting him keep coaching, the university demonstrated that it doesn’t take allegations of abuse seriously.

Wichita State hired a St. Louis-based law firm to conduct an investigation into the alleged misconduct. The public deserves to know what it found.

The community deserves answers, and it should demand them.

University and athletic department officials should realize that this kind of secrecy doesn’t look good — not to potential players, coaches, students or faculty members who might consider Wichita State but wonder what it has to hide.

The Kansas Board of Regents, which oversees public universities, should encourage WSU to come forward with its findings. If that board is unwilling, state lawmakers should step in and demand accountability.

Otherwise, Marshall’s hush-hush buy-out and back-channel exit are just another chapter in WSU’s litany of secrets.

This story was originally published November 17, 2020 at 2:48 PM.