In North Carolina's victory over Maryland Kendall Marshall had a modest (for him) eight assists. The significant one came on his fourth, a pass that set up a streaking Harrison Barnes and put Marshall alone on top of the Tar Heels list for the single season assist record. This pass did not happen until two minutes into the second half, and you better believe Marshall was aware of it.
“It was definitely weighing on me in the first half,’’ said Marshall, “I think we had three pitch-aheads that are usually easy baskets. And we didn’t convert on them. A couple of them were bad passes on my part, others, I don’t know what happened. Second half, I just wanted to go out there and play, and if it happens, it happens. If not, I’m sure I’ll have another opportunity.”
Marshall is right with the "pitch-aheads", or long passes that the Tar Heels like to throw during their fast breaks, usually with Tyler Zeller on the opposite end of the throw after outrunning fellow big men. Carolina led 36-25 at the half but looked mediocre after getting up 16-4 early. They never broke away until Marshall and the Tar Heels started to execute these "pitch-aheads" about five minutes into the second half.
But Marshall is not done yet. After the game he said, “one thing that’s been weighing on my mind lately is I don’t want to be just another basketball player. I want to be remembered, I want to be able to be legendary.” Marshall has now already made his mark in UNC lore, passing Ed Cota with his 285th assist. He now has 289, passing one Bobby Hurley mark and tying another. In front of him for the ACC record are NC State's Chris Corchiani's 299 in the 1991 season and Georgia Tech's Craig Neal's 303 in 1988. Southern University's Avery Johnson hold the NCAA mark with 399 in 1988, a mark that Marshall could only catch if he averaged 11 dimes a game and the Tar Heels went to both the ACC championship and NCAA championship.
While Marshall is only 14 assists shy of the record (not out of his ability to complete in one game), he has done it under some incredible circumstances. Marshall did not begin starting until the end of December last year, but ended with 230 assists and a 6.5 average per game. That has moved up to 9.6 this year, .1 higher than Neal's average in 1987-88. To show how indispensable he is, the next best assist man on Carolina's roster is John Henson, who has 41 total this season, good for just over 1 a game.
While Bobby Hurley may be considered the best passer in conference history with his record 1,076 career assists, it may be hard to argue that Marshall is the most important passer. Hurley had four other players dish out over 54 assists in Duke's national championship 1992 season, including Grant Hill's 134. Marshall is now on pace to surpass Hurley's all time record, and although he is considered by many a lottery draft pick, he could go down as the greatest passer in conference history, after just two seasons.
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