Then & Now: Harvey Marshall

Then & Now: Harvey Marshall

Compiled By Dave Brandon

(Photo Courtesy NU Media Relations)

Harvey

Marshall played for Nebraska for two seasons (1984-1985

and 1985-1986.) Marshall, an athletic guard and threat

to score from anywhere on the floor, was one of the

leaders of Nebraska’s first ever NCAA tournament team in

1985-1986.  His leadership especially shined after Dave

Hoppen’s injury.

Marshall recently joined HHC in the

twentieth anniversary season of Nebraska’s first ever

NCAA tournament team, to discuss then and now.

HHC: Harvey, we want

to start by thanking you for talking Husker Hoops with

us.

HM: My pleasure.  I

think this site and feature is great for the program.

 Getting former players back together and in contact

with each other is a great recruiting tool for the

university and can only help the program.  It’s what

many of the top programs do, and I think it’s a way to

really help the basketball program at Nebraska.

HHC: You are originally from Jackson,

Tennessee, and began your collegiate career by playing

two seasons at Northeastern Junior College in Sterling,

Colorado.  While at Northeastern, you were a first team

JUCO All-American, and averaged 23 points per game.

 Your stock was tremendous at this point, and many were

surprised that Nebraska landed you.  Can you tell us

what made you choose Nebraska over all of the other

great schools that were recruiting you?

HM: Probably first

and foremost was that my head coach at Northeastern JUCO

was Lowell Rumph, who was from Nebraska and went to

college there.  So, he was a huge Big Red fan, and I had

a lot of respect for him.  He nudged me in Nebraska’s

direction a little bit and they ended up recruiting me

the longest and hardest of all the schools, which

numbered over fifty, and included Missouri, Colorado,

Wyoming, and Tennessee-Chattanooga.  It actually came

down to the wire between Nebraska and Colorado.  I know

Colorado didn’t have much of a basketball program at the

time, but they had a really good coach who recruited me

in Alvin Gentry.  He’s still on the coaching scene in

the NBA.

HHC: Many current

fans don’t know much about Moe Iba, other than the fact

that his teams played great defense and really slowed

the tempo.  How would you describe his beliefs, both

offensively and defensively?

HM: You just did.

(laughs)  But really, he was a very defensive minded

coach, and really emphasized playing aggressive, in your

face defense.  Most teams that we played against were

not capable of effectively scoring on that style of

defense.  I think a lot of the old school coaches use

that philosophy as well, and it obviously worked well

for Iba, who was definitely one of those types of

coaches.

His offensive, like you said, was

to slow the ball down and I guess when I was there, to

dump the ball into our big guy, Dave Hoppen.  He liked

to let Hoppen get at least one touch every time before

someone took a shot.  He was very strict on that.  His

father was a legendary college coach, obviously, and he

definitely used his father’s philosophy, which was

aggressive defense and strict offense.

Moe was a really good coach, but he

wasn’t very good at communicating with people.  So, I

think that’s kind of where he struggled, but he had that

old school mentality.  I do think its kind of unfair

that the fans and media forced him out, because I always

think that when people that are outside the program

dictate things, its not good.  I have a problem with

that, because you have to look at his record, and I

think his record states that he’s a pretty decent

coach.  I think the fans got tired of his style of play

more than anything else because the game was changing,

so I think that had more to do with it than anything.

HHC: And what about

Harvey Marshall?  Tell us what kind of player he was,

and what he brought to the team.

HM: I think the first

thing that I was, was a team player, first and

foremost.  At the suffering of my own individual goals

and aspirations, I think I did what was best for the

team.  I think that I came to Nebraska with a bright

future because of the skills that I had developed up to

that point, and not really understanding the style of

play that Nebraska played.  I think I was a little

stifled within their offense; I was turned into an

excellent defensive player, but offensively I think that

I suffered quite a bit.  I think if you look at the

statistics, from when I was in junior college versus

Nebraska, I was an excellent rebounder at the two-guard

position, and ,as a matter of fact, at the JUCO

tournament I was in the top ten in scoring and

rebounding.

What I didn’t realize when I went

to Nebraska was that in Iba’s system, the guards were

forced to get back on defense, and were not allowed to

go to the offensive boards to get easy points and

rebounds.  That was probably the strongest part of my

game, so I think that suffered as a result of the

system.  But I always put the team first and did what

was best for the program.

HHC: Your first

season at Nebraska was 1984-1985, and the team did as

well as you did, as Nebraska was 8-1 in games in which

you shot over 50%.  You were also third on the team in

scoring, and scored in double digits in twenty games. 

Before we get to the more memorable season of 1985-1986,

tell us what you remember about your first season at

Nebraska, in which the Huskers went 16-14.  Do you feel

that team underachieved at all, and what specific games

or feelings do you remember?

HM: I remember that

being a tough year as a team; it just didn’t seem like

we meshed.  I just kind of remember struggling.  For me,

it was a tough year because I was going from being the

focal point on every team I had played on up until that

point, and thinking that I would still play a very

important role, to that not happening.  I struggled with

realizing “now I’m not the main focus of the offense. 

How do I still be a productive player and play within

the system?”  So, for me personally, it was a tough

year, and I felt like the team itself had a tough year

as well.  Whether it was chemistry wise, I’m not sure, I

can’t quite put a finger on it, but it was a difficult

year for us.

HHC: After your first

season, and be totally honest, did you have any clue

that your senior season would lead to the NCAA

Tournament?

HM: To be perfectly

honest, no, I didn’t think it would lead to the NCAA

Tournament.  But, I felt like we were a few good players

away from being a quality team.  I felt if we brought

some big players in to help Hoppen inside with presence,

we’d be a quality team.  I think we got Bill Jackman

that year, and we had some bigger players that stepped

up as opposed to my previous year.  I felt that our

forwards, especially power forward spot, were our

weakest spot.  I felt that our strength was on the

perimeter, although we weren’t exactly deep at the guard

spot, as Brian and I had to play a lot of minutes.  I

still felt like we were a very solid team at those

spots.

HHC: Before we talk

about your senior season, we have to ask you about the

infamous Moe Iba illegal practice at Mabel Lee.  Tell us

what you remember about the incident, both during and

after?

HM: To be honest with

you, I was really disappointed in the people behind the

school newspaper who brought that all out, because

obviously it was a vendetta to get Moe Iba fired, that

was pretty obvious.  We weren’t doing anything that

every other college program wasn’t doing.  It was a

long-standing practice that teams get together before

the season for conditioning.  It gives the coaches a

chance to see what kind of shape the guys were in, and

to oversee you getting in shape.  It also gave them an

opportunity to look at the new players they were

bringing in, and to see how they fit in with the guys

that are coming back.  I don’t think what we were doing

was anything unusual.  So I was really disappointed in

the school’s newspaper.

There was quite a bit that went

into that, (laughs) but its probably best that we leave

it at that. But there was definitely a lot of political

stuff that happened as a result of that incident. 

Because I don’t want to tarnish the school in any way,

that’s all I can say.

HHC: No problem, you

knew that question was coming I’m sure. (laughs)

 Anyway, 1985-1986 would prove to be Nebraska’s first

ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament, and can best be

described as a year of overcoming adversity.  Talk to us

about the distractions you guys had to overcome to

achieve this success, as far as distractions from Moe

Iba and Dave Hoppen’s injury in the game against

Colorado.

HM: I know I

personally came into the second year with some fire, and

completely ready to go.  The team itself brought in some

quality people, not that they were tremendously skilled

people, but quality individuals and solid players.  We

bonded together as a team, and I think we made something

really fun happen together, almost magical.  We all came

together as a group, and I think it was more of a

testament of the character to the team.  Had we won a

couple of games in the tournament, it would have drawn

national attention and been something truly special.

The beginning of the season, we

were all optimistic since we brought in Bernard Day at

the small forward position, he was an excellent player. 

We also had Bill Jackman around, who transferred back to

Nebraska from Duke, so he was 6’9” and another big body

that we really needed.  John Matzke was a great guy and

really good friend of mine, a really religious guy. 

With him and Jackman, Day, and Chris Logan, along with

Brian Carr and of course Hop, we had some quality

people.  Nobody gave us much chance for being

successful, and I think we surprised a few people.

Maybe the newspaper article and

getting into trouble with the NCAA motivated us, and I

know that not a lot of people had high expectations of

us.  I think we kind of decided to block that out and it

almost felt like we wanted to come together as a team to

show everyone that we were capable of doing something

special.  I certainly know that was the feeling before

Hoppen got hurt, and after, a tremendous change occurred

in people’s attitudes, especially with Moe Iba.  I saw

him change his philosophy, which freed guys up and

allowed them to just go out and play basketball/have

fun.  I think that was the main reason we were able to

go ahead and still be successful after Hoppen’s injury. 

We were quality people, and all good basketball players,

not great, but all took pride in what we were doing and

in ourselves.

HHC: The last game

you played in was against Western Kentucky in the NCAA

Tournament in Charlotte, North Carolina.  Tell us what

you remember about the game, and what happened

immediately after the game?  Was the team shocked about

Iba’s resignation as several accounts have stated, or

did you have a good idea it was coming?

HM: I think I expected it to happen.  The

game itself was pretty typical for the last eight to ten

games we played without Hoppen.  I believe we won like 7

of those 10 games.  In the WKU game, Iba again

relinquished his tight control of the team and let us

play.  He finally allowed us to go out there and utilize

the skills we were blessed with.  Instead of holding

guys back from utilizing skills to conform to his

system, he finally conformed to our skills.

I think nowadays, if you look at

some of the top coaches in the country, that’s what you

see them do.  They take players who are talented and

they adapt their coaching philosophies to the team, so

they don’t necessarily force the team to adapt to their

coaching philosophies.  I saw him change that, and maybe

he was just giving up and throwing the towel in.  But I

don’t think he necessarily threw the towel in, I saw him

adjusting his coaching style. That last game was no

different; we stayed in the game but we were really

outmanned big time in the middle without Hoppen. 

Western Kentucky was just so big, and I just remember us

keeping it reasonably close during most of the game.  It

seems like toward the end of the game we came back, but

right at the end we kind of ran out of steam.

I remember after the game, with him

announcing his resignation. Matzke and I went and talked

with Moe after the press conference was over, although I

can’t remember exactly why we went to talk with him, but

it had to do with him resigning. We just kind of went

and cleared some things up that I think we felt as a

team. We were just kind of representing the team by

talking to him.

HHC: Talk about your

memories of UNL and Lincoln. What sticks out when you

reminisce, and when was the last time you were in

Lincoln?

HM: Last time I was

in Lincoln was two years ago on my way to Atlanta. I

drove through and stopped up at the university – drove

over to the Devaney Center, which looks a lot older now.

The campus looks a lot older in general than when I was

there. When I was there, the Devaney Center was a brand

new facility. So, it surprises me how fast time flies.

I didn’t get a chance to spend a

lot of time in Lincoln, and my times there…Oh my

goodness.  You sure you want to know this? (laughs)

HHC: (laughs) Only if

it involves women.

HM: (laughs) Well, I

don’t think I want to incriminate myself that bad!  But,

it was quite an experience for me. Looking back on it, I

went to JUCO in Sterling, Colorado, which is in the

middle of nowhere.  I went from a small school to a

major university and it was somewhat overwhelming, in

that the sheer number of students, and how large the

campus was.  Just sitting in a class of over 100 hundred

people was mind boggling, and you felt like a really

small fish in a huge pond.  I felt like that was kind of

tough for me.

You’d think if you were around more

people you might get to know more people, but it seemed

like in the sports world, you mainly kind of hung out

with the guys on the team or affiliated with the

basketball program.  You might have gotten to know a few

students that you went to class with, but you mainly

hung out with athletes, whether it was football players

or what have you.  I had quite a few classes with Neil

Smith, and we became pretty good friends.

Looking back on that, I wish I had

more exposure to regular fans and students.  I stayed on

campus when I first got there, and I only stayed there a

short period of time.  I had one roommate from Nebraska

for a short period of time, but other than that I really

didn’t get a chance to see the average guy on campus.

 For me, I think it took away experiencing college life,

and what its all about, because you’re so focused on

participating on whatever sport you are in.

HHC: And today, where

will we find Harvey Marshall, and what is he up to?

HM: Harvey Marshall

today is in transition.  I just finished up five-year

trade school in the construction world.  I’m probably

waiting to pursue opportunities with that industry,

where I can combine my trade school knowledge with my

business education that I got at UNL.  I’d like to get

into some kind of project management role, as I’ve been

a project coordinator before.

I’m currently living in Portland,

Oregon, and the big thing that I have going on right now

is that I’m officiating in the American Basketball

Assocation, (ABA) and going into my second year as an

official.  I’m also a high school official out here in

Vancouver, Washington, which is right across the Columbia

River from Portland.  I’ve been officiating high school

for five plus years, and I’ve been involved with YMCA

Sports as well, all the way down to the third grade

level.  So, I’m still very active in basketball and I

get more enjoyment out of it now when I watch the

younger kids develop.

HHC: Well then, we’re

sure you’ll really like our new feature called “Heckling

101” if you are a referee.

HM: (laughs) I’m sure

I’ll enjoy reading that.  But its kind of like when you

play ball.  When you’re out there on the court, you are

so focused on what you are doing that you don’t really

pay a whole lot of attention to what’s going around you

in the stands.  The guys that aren’t as mentally strong

will focus on that and get distracted.  But, most of the

guys who play most of the time are focused, and I find

that I do the same thing when I’m officiating.

HHC: Awesome.  We’ve

set you up an e-mail at

[email protected] so that Nebraska fans

can e-mail you.  Would you be willing to take some

e-mails from the fans

HM: Absolutely.  Like

I said, this is the best thing that could happen to the

program.

HHC: Thanks for the

plug, and for talking Husker Hoops with us.  We feel

there is a huge void in the Cipriano and Iba eras, so we

plan to be addressing that in the near future, as well

as promoting a reunion for your senior year team soon.

HM: Thanks a lot – I hope so.  Look

forward to talking more soon.<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">