Two parents of current WSU basketball players respond to allegations against Marshall
Allegations of physical and verbal abuse leveled against coach Gregg Marshall in national reports by The Athletic and the sports website Stadium have made Wichita State the talk of college basketball.
WSU has since confirmed it has hired a St. Louis-based law firm to conduct an independent investigation into the allegations. Until that investigation is complete, Marshall and the Shockers are preparing for the upcoming season as usual.
The allegations made in the six-month investigation by Stadium were stunning to Nelson Wade, who has two sons playing for the Shockers: senior forward Trey Wade and junior guard Trevin Wade.
The elder Wade traveled to Wichita in a pre-planned trip this past weekend from the family’s home in Marietta, Ga., and spoke with The Eagle about his reaction as a parent of players currently on the team.
“It’s definitely concerning as a parent whenever you hear stuff like that,” Nelson Wade said. “I don’t know if the allegations are true or not, but in our experience we’ve never dealt with anything like that with Gregg Marshall. I asked Trey about it and he said, ‘Dad, I ain’t seen it either.’
“I don’t want to say they’re making it up because that may have been their experience, but my experience has been that the culture of Wichita State basketball has been conducive to Trey’s growth as a basketball player and as a young man that I was trying to raise. I think it helped him.”
Stadium reported that Marshall punched former player Shaquille Morris in the head during an October 2015 practice and choked former assistant coach Kyle Lindsted at a practice during the 2016-17 season. Morris has not responded to multiple requests for an interview by The Eagle, and Lindsted has declined comment.
Multiple former players who were on the team at the time have confirmed to The Eagle that both incidents occurred.
In a recent statement, Marshall did not specifically address either of those incidents but did deny being “demeaning or abusive.”
Parents of current Shockers are awaiting the official findings of the independent investigation before drawing conclusions.
“All I can tell you is our experience and my son is fine and happy to still be at Wichita State,” said Anita Gibson, mother of WSU sophomore Tyson Etienne. “I can’t speak on the other stuff because that hasn’t been our experience. Tyson is my only son and he came to Wichita to play for Gregg Marshall because of his passionate coaching. We’ve had a great experience with the Wichita State coaching staff, and Coach Marshall hasn’t disappointed us.”
When Wichita State started to pursue Trey Wade as a recruiting target in spring 2019, Nelson Wade said he did his own research into Marshall and his coaching style. He said he knew only loosely of Marshall’s reputation as an intense coach.
To learn more, Wade said, his first call was to Leza Jones, the mother of former Shockers star Tekele Cotton (2011-15). One of Wade’s older sons had played basketball with Cotton when they were children in Marietta, so he knew the family well.
“I called her up and she told me the basketball is great and Coach Marshall is going to coach them up, and the environment, for Tekele, it was good for him,” Wade said. “I called around some more and Gregg Marshall checked all of the boxes for me.”
Nelson Wade said that after Trey Wade’s first season with Marshall he was ecstatic to be able to send his youngest child to Wichita to join his older brother this season.
“When my youngest son had the opportunity, I wanted him to experience the same thing,” Nelson Wade said. “I knew he would be at a place where he would be held accountable.”
This story was originally published October 12, 2020 at 12:19 PM.
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