It didn’t take me long to realize that Ramod Marshall has an unusual set of priorities. He wants to be a professional basketball player. He would love to be a member of the NBA. In fact, he actually believes that he will one day. He is so sure that he can make it that when I asked him what he would do if I could tell him with 100% assurance that he would never make it as a professional basketball player, he just replied, “That would just make me work ten times harder.”There is certainly nothing wrong with wanting to play in the NBA. It is a lofty goal that is only accomplished by a handful of players leaving school each year. The problem with Ramod’s goal is that he is going about it in the wrong way. He hasn’t realized that to get anywhere in the NBA, you have to become a selfish individual. Ramod, you see, is anything but a selfish player. His goal is success for the team, no matter what his statistics are. Even in high school, he was more concerned about the team than himself,”There were times that I could have scored thirty, but I gave the ball up to other players, just looking out for everybody else,” Ramod told me a few days ago. “I really tried to be coachable.”

We’ve heard so many stories about inner-city kids that it’s easy to get caught up in what we think is the stereotypical basketball player: African-American, lived in a rough area of town, poor, and raised by a single parent. Ramod Marshall not only breaks the mold of the selfish ball player, he also had a very different upbringing.

“Even though I was an only child, the neighborhood that we lived in had plenty of kids,” he says. “Our neighborhood was mixed racially.” His parents both attended college and are still happily married. His closeness to his parents is still very evident today. “My parents have been the most influential people in my life. They were always there for me. When I messed up, they were there. My dad and I are pretty close. He calls after every game.”

Not always just a basketball player, Ramod played whatever sport was in season. “I quit playing football in high school because we really weren’t very good. I played quarterback, wide receiver, and tailback. I played baseball until my senior year and quit because it was getting in the way of AAU basketball.” His parents were also gifted athletically as his mother, Frances, ran track and his father, Anderson, played basketball in high school.His parents would also play an important part in his early years in sports. “My dad would always work with me on whatever sport I was playing. He played catch or played me one-on-one in basketball. My mom would always come to the games. I was about 15 when I finally beat my dad the first time. I talked junk from then on, he never would hear the end of it. He’d always play around with me. He would let me get close and then he would pour it on. I was only about 5’7″ then. I didn’t get to be 6’ until my junior year.”It wasn’t until that junior year when basketball really became the dominant sport. He didn’t start until the middle of that season when one of his teammates was injured. He went on to score 18 points that game and held the starting spot for the rest of the season. Despite his obvious talent, his coach seemed to favor publicizing his teammates.”I never really got a lot of publicity in high school, but it didn’t bother me. I was happy to play my role just to help the team,” Marshall says. “I always felt that I could play at the Division I level, but I didn’t think that I would get the chance because I really didn’t get much publicity.”It wasn’t until just before the end of his senior year that he got his big break. “During my senior year, the coach at Fork Union Military Academy talked to me about playing for them the next year. They had a tryout and saw me play AAU ball. But even there, I really didn’t shoot that much. I didn’t want to be looked upon as a gunner.”

He came to a point in his life were he needed to make a decision that could affect him for the rest of his career. Marshall made a decision. “I decided to forfeit my right to graduate and retake classes at Fork Union to help my GPA. I knew going there would help both my grades and my basketball skills.” Ramod got his grades in line at Fork Union and certainly got the opportunity to play against some top-notch competition. “At Fork Union we played college JVs. We played the Princeton and North Carolina JVs before their regular games, which made it nice because of the larger crowds.” Although the individual players were not cream of the crop, the overall team play was much better than what he saw in high school.

It was during his time at Fork Union that Division I coaches began to take notice. “When I got to Fork Union we would have Coaches Night. Virginia, Virginia Tech, Providence, Villanova, South Florida, Southern Cal, and Stanford were all in touch with me.” It was then that he met Ron Jirsa and fell in love with the idea of playing at Georgia.

Everything seemed to be in order with his SATs and his improved high school grades. The summer went by and then his world took a left turn. “About two weeks before school started at Georgia, I got a letter from the Clearinghouse that one of my high school core courses didn’t count,” he says. “We later found out that in 1994, my high school did not turn in the class as a core course. The school believed that it was a core course and had been telling the athletes that it was. Georgia was going to challenge it, but it would have taken over two weeks to get it settled and I was afraid that I might not be allowed to play. During that time, the Fork Union coach was contacted by a prep school in Maine.”The decision to go to Bridgton Academy in Maine was not a difficult one for Marshall as the situation at Georgia had taken a turn for the worse. Ron Jirsa had been fired after two NIT seasons and Jim Harrick was hired. This didn’t sit too well with Ramod, who didn’t get along with Harrick — the former head coach at Rhode Island who accepted, declined, and reaccepted the Bulldog job. Another year of school and even stiffer competition on the basketball court seemed to be the best alternative.

“In Maine, our league had players like Caron Butler from Connecticut, Reggie Bryant from Villanova, Bernard Robinson from Michigan, and a couple of players that are with Fordham. We had some very talented players in our league.”

It was soon time to make another decision about college and his old friend once again came calling. “Coach Jirsa was a big part of the reason that I came to Dayton,” he says. “I always felt that he was straight up with me. Even when I came here, he told me not to go to UD because of him. If a head-coaching job became available he might move on. I liked the way he was honest with me and I liked the way that he would utilize me.” It wasn’t just the opportunity to play for Jirsa again that caught the attention of the entire Marshall family. “My mom brought up the fact that everyone graduated when we first started looking at UD.” With that in mind, a good visit to Dayton easily sold Ramod on the Flyers. “I thank God everyday about the way things worked out. He just didn’t want me to be there [Georgia].”Just getting the scholarship to a Division I school wasn’t enough, Ramod had goals and he really needed to prove to himself that he belonged on the court with other quality players. “I really didn’t set any specific goals. I just wanted to be a contributor,” Marshall says. “I didn’t want to set goals saying that I would average this or that. I really wanted to get quality minutes. I didn’t want to be someone that would just be put in a few minutes when somebody rested. I wanted to be put in because Coach needed me in.”Although it may not always look like it from the stands, it appears that it can actually be enjoyable playing for one

Oliver Purnell. Unlike some coaches who refuse to become involved with their players, Purnell has found a way to be part of a dozen or so families all at once.

“It’s fun playing for Coach Purnell. He puts pressure on you, which is what I like. He expects a lot out of me and I like that. He pushes you in practice; he doesn’t let me get away with anything. He always seems to know when to talk to you. I don’t know how he does it, he just seems to know when I’m not having a good day or something just isn’t right. He doesn’t get on you, he tries to help you through whatever it is.”Although playing time has come a great deal quicker than even Ramod thought, he realizes that he still has a lot to learn and a number of areas to improve upon. “My main goal now is to be a better defender. In high school, I was always the one who had to stop the best guy on the other team. I just haven’t been happy with what I’ve done on D.” He has had flashes of brilliance on the offensive end but we have yet to see everything that Marshall has in his bag of tricks. “I’ve got to get to the line more. When we practice, Day-Day (David Morris) and I are taught to go into the lane, jump stop and if we don’t have the shot, stay low and look to pass. Instead of being natural and going as far as I can, I do too much thinking. I’ve been trying to do everything right. Coach gets on me about that, too.”The season is half over, but it seems that Oliver Purnell has pulled another rabbit out of his hat. Not only has he found a quality player that is willing to learn the Purnell way of playing basketball, he has found an equally strong person. Ramod Marshall has run into a few speed bumps on his journey to Division I basketball, but he hasn’t allowed it to dampen his enthusiasm for the game or lower his own expectations. Ramod may or may not ever step foot on an NBA court, but you can be sure it won’t be because he gave up on himself.