O’Connell rising sophomore Kendall Marshall has been in the public eye for so long that nothing seems to faze him.
A basketball prodigy since elementary school, the 6-foot-2 guard was once ranked the No. 1 sixth-grader in the country by the national recruiting Web site HoopScoop. He started on the varsity last winter as a freshman at O’Connell, one of the Washington, D.C. area’s most decorated programs in recent years, and then spent his summer excelling against top national competition for the Boo Williams under-17 AAU team.
But even Marshall was a little rattled on Wednesday after announcing that he has verbally committed to play basketball at North Carolina.
“This is something that I’ve always dreamed about. But even a couple of months ago I never would have guessed it could happen this fast,” said Marshall, who was offered a scholarship by Tar Heels coach Roy Williams during an unofficial visit to campus over Labor Day weekend. “I’m kind of speechless right now.”
Marshall chose North Carolina over scholarship offers from Georgetown and Villanova, among countless others. He was told by Williams that North Carolina, winner of four NCAA championships and alma mater of 71 current or former NBA basketball players, including four Hall-of-Famers and Michael Jordan, had never received a verbal commitment from a player so young. Former O’Connell star Marcus Ginyard, a rising junior guard/forward at North Carolina, has served as a mentor to Marshall and hosted his family on their recent visit.
“There was no reason to wait because I knew what I wanted,” said Marshall, a Dumfries, Va. resident. “This takes a lot of the pressure off me. Now I can just spend my time just getting better.”
