Donyell Marshall will be honored at Big East Tournament | The Boneyard

Donyell Marshall will be honored at Big East Tournament

HooperScooper

HooperScooper

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During the Huskies’ quarterfinal game of the conference tournament Thursday, Donyell Marshall will be acknowledged as a member of the 2025-26 Big East Basketball Legends.


I noticed that Donyell doesn't get much recognition on here. Maybe he played before a lot of Yarders were old enough to follow the Huskies. Or maybe it's because he didn't win a championship or do much of anything in the NCAA Tournament. Or maybe it's those free throws he missed. But he had one of the most dominant seasons of any Husky.
 
HooperScooper said:
During the Huskies’ quarterfinal game of the conference tournament Thursday, Donyell Marshall will be acknowledged as a member of the 2025-26 Big East Basketball Legends.


I noticed that Donyell doesn't get much recognition on here. Maybe he played before a lot of Yarders were old enough to follow the Huskies. Or maybe it's because he didn't win a championship or do much of anything in the NCAA Tournament. Or maybe it's those free throws he missed. But he had one of the most dominant seasons of any Husky.
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A true superstar of my youth. I was enamored by all those guys. It was like they were all Aliens.
 
Donyell was so good on both ends of the court. UConn didn’t lose a home game in his last year and won the BE regular season championship. The great recruiting class that Marshall was part of was a byproduct of the Dream Season. I recently watched the Fab Five ESPN 30 for 30 and Donyell was highly ranked along with Webber and Rose.

The loss to Florida was a bummer. I drove to Miami to watch UConn lose in that sweet sixteen game. The missed FTs hurt but all part of UConn’s journey. Nice to see Donyell recognized since he is a UConn legend.
 
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He overlapped (one year) with Ray Allen, so I don’t know that it’s just age. Donyell was the first of our 6 players who were legitimate 1st team All Americans and you could discuss for being the best player in the country — Donyell, Ray, Rip, Okafor, Kemba, and Shabazz. Was an outstanding player from the moment he walked onto campus, and was nothing short of great his last year. The missed FTs in the tourney were both unbearable and totally out of character.
 
He was a force, and helped ensure that the Dream Season was not just a flash in the pan. In that sense he played a big role in the trajectory of the program.

But it's hard to consider a guy who never advanced past the Sweet 16 in the same category as legends who won big. And in contrast to a guy like Ray Allen who became a star in the NBA, his career (like many of our stars) was more "pretty good" than memorable. Too much success in the program, I suppose.
 
HooperScooper said:
During the Huskies’ quarterfinal game of the conference tournament Thursday, Donyell Marshall will be acknowledged as a member of the 2025-26 Big East Basketball Legends.


I noticed that Donyell doesn't get much recognition on here. Maybe he played before a lot of Yarders were old enough to follow the Huskies. Or maybe it's because he didn't win a championship or do much of anything in the NCAA Tournament. Or maybe it's those free throws he missed. But he had one of the most dominant seasons of any Husky.
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Yes the missed free throws were horrible but can people stop mentioning that when Donyell is discussed.

He did so may great things for the program.
 
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Inyatkin said:
The first time on this board I saw someone who didn't know the difference between Donyell and Donny Marshall was when I knew I was an old-timer
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And didn’t they both wear “D.Marshall” on the back of their jerseys for a time early on, maybe freshman year to make it even more confusing?

Raff after a turnover: “One Marshall…handcuffed…the other Marshall!”

Donyell was a stud from day 1.
 
Tenspro2002 said:
He was a force, and helped ensure that the Dream Season was not just a flash in the pan. In that sense he played a big role in the trajectory of the program.

But it's hard to consider a guy who never advanced past the Sweet 16 in the same category as legends who won big. And in contrast to a guy like Ray Allen who became a star in the NBA, his career (like many of our stars) was more "pretty good" than memorable. Too much success in the program, I suppose.
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Strong disagree. He's of course a top 10 player all-time at UConn and I don't really see how anyone could have him outside their top 6 or 7 ever at UConn.
 
superjohn said:
Strong disagree. He's of course a top 10 player all-time at UConn and I don't really see how anyone could have him outside their top 6 or 7 ever at UConn.
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Like all of these "greatest" lists, it depends on what you mean:
  • most talented?
  • best career?
  • biggest winner?
  • most impactful?

I agree that Donyell is easily in the top 10 for talent/stats (at least on a single-year basis), and even for impact is probably underrated, but if you're asking why he's sometimes an afterthought, it's because his UConn and post-UConn career accomplishments pale in comparison to our other greats.
 
Tenspro2002 said:
Like all of these "greatest" lists, it depends on what you mean:
  • most talented?
  • best career?
  • biggest winner?
  • most impactful?

I agree that Donyell is easily in the top 10 for talent/stats (at least on a single-year basis), and even for impact is probably underrated, but if you're asking why he's sometimes an afterthought, it's because his UConn and post-UConn career accomplishments pale in comparison to our other greats.
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I mean greatest UConn players ever. I don't care that Tyler Olander has two national championships and Donyell Marshall has zero.
 
I think the two free throws is marked in lots of fans minds because that is one of the last memories we all had of him in a huskie uniform.

The biggest reason though is that Donyell was a great player with the individual accolades he never had the team success that the other huskies had. A big east regular season title in his final year and a sweet 16 was his peak. The other guys had greater team success.
 
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Tenspro2002 said:
He was a force, and helped ensure that the Dream Season was not just a flash in the pan. In that sense he played a big role in the trajectory of the program.

But it's hard to consider a guy who never advanced past the Sweet 16 in the same category as legends who won big. And in contrast to a guy like Ray Allen who became a star in the NBA, his career (like many of our stars) was more "pretty good" than memorable. Too much success in the program, I suppose.
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How about the fact that he was our first, first team all American. Defensive Big East player of the year. # 5 draft pick. Had a good but not great NBA career. We’ve had other great players that didn’t win national championships or NBA TITLES.
 
He was great. I'm interested to see if anybody has Caron Butler as having a better career. Butler has the edge in scoring and assists in the NBA, but also had over 300 more TOs and far less blocks and rebounds.
It's funny that some remember him mostly for the missed FTs against Florida, but was 20 for 20 against St. Johns. It just happened on the worst stage for him and weird things like that just happen. Look at AK against Nova last year.
It's like a lot of young guys here really only remember Ray from the end of his NBA career and will remember him as a 3 pt shooting specialist who could also score. Donyell and Ray were vicious around the rim while at UConn. Ray continued to be in the NBA at times until age started stripping him of some of his gifts.
Also, if Yell hadn't come to UConn, who knows what would have happened. He was such a big and important get for Calhoun and the program. Some people forget that he committed around 8 months after the surprising departure of Nadav when he decided to return home to play in Israel. That class was nice, but Donyell was the jewel of that 8 player group.
 
Donyell was the first UConn player to leave early for the NBA, if I remember correctly.

I recall the entire state being on edge, wondering if he was going to sign an agent or come back. Well, not only did he sign with an agent, but that agent turned out to be my out-of-state uncle (yes, I’m serious and yes, you can kick me off the board). I didn’t even know my uncle had gone into that business! This caused some interesting family discussion.

As a die heard recent UConn grad at the time, Donyell leaving early was heartbreaking. If he had made those two free throws in the Sweet 16, we would have faced BC in the Elite 8 who we had beaten 900 times in a row. Also, who knows what a senior year would have lead to if he had stayed.
 
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Tenspro2002 said:
He was a force, and helped ensure that the Dream Season was not just a flash in the pan. In that sense he played a big role in the trajectory of the program.

But it's hard to consider a guy who never advanced past the Sweet 16 in the same category as legends who won big. And in contrast to a guy like Ray Allen who became a star in the NBA, his career (like many of our stars) was more "pretty good" than memorable. Too much success in the program, I suppose.
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I mean, to be fair, UConn hadn't really had much big time success in the NBA by that point. Cliff was the first and he was still ramping up at that point.

But much like the "the 1999 Duke team didn't have much NBA success" nonsense, Donyell had a very solid 14 year NBA career. He didn't shoot it that well at first, but he had a solid run of a few years around 40% from three, had a few years averaging about 10 rebounds per game. But there are plenty of horror stories about NBA lottery picks that flamed out spectacularly compared to the career Donyell had.
 
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