Nov. 14, 2008
UNIVERSITY PARK, PA., Nov. 14, 2008 - Penn State coach Ed DeChellis and the Nittany Lion basketball program has added another highly sought after guard in the NCAA early signing period as Red Land High School's Jermaine Marshall (Etters, Pa.) signed his National Letter of Intent on Friday.
"Jermaine is a very versatile and athletic guard who can play a number of positions for us," DeChellis said. "He has tremendous court vision, is a terrific passer and his long arms and athleticism make him a great on-the-ball defender. He can play either guard spot, and we think he could even grow some more and eventually play a wing for us."
The 6-5, 185-pound Marshall is Red Land's all-time leading scorer with 1,425 career points and is coming off an outstanding junior season in which he averaged 19.1 points per game while leading the Patriots to a 22-7 record and an appearance in the PIAA Class AAAA tournament. Showing his shooting range, Marshall made 18 three-pointers last season. He scored 20 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and handed out eight assists in a first round loss in the PIAA tournament. Marshall was a PIAA Class AAAA second-team all-state selection and the Carlisle Sentinel Area Player-of-the-Year last season.
"He comes from a great family and was really well coached by Scott Slayton at Red Land, so we think he is just a tremendous fit for our program," DeChellis said. "We really targeted Jermaine from the beginning as a player we wanted in our program."
Marshall is a two-time Harrisburg Patriot-News Big 15 selection. He set a record with seven blocked shots in the 2008 Harrisburg Showcase and is described as a "very complete player" who can "score on the box or play point guard" and "rebounds and jumps well" by ESPN.com. He led the Patriots to the Mid-Penn Keystone division title as a sophomore.
Marshall will join 2008 signees Chris Babb (6-5) and Cammeron Woodyard (6-5) to give Penn State three big guards to join current Nittany Lion point-guard Talor Battle (5-11) and fellow 2009 early signee Tim Frazier (6-2, Houston, Texas) in the Penn State back court in the coming seasons.
Marshall recently underwent surgery to repair a knee injury that may cause him to miss a significant portion of his senior campaign at Red Land.
"We are very familiar with Jermaine's situation with his knee and have no doubt he will make a complete recovery and be an outstanding player for us," DeChellis said. "He's a great kid and we know he'll put a lot of energy into his rehabilitation process and expect he'll be ready to go for us next season."
Assistant coach Kurt Kanaskie, a former mid-state standout himself, headed up Marshall's recruitment. Kanaskie was an all-state selection at Cumberland Valley before going on to play at LaSalle.
Penn State does not expect to add any other signees in the early period.