Gregg Marshall has become a coach made for March (VIDEO)

CLEVELAND – The March spotlight once scared Gregg Marshall, hard as it is to believe for a man who laughs, dances, hugs his family and soaks up every bit of NCAA Tournament atmosphere.

There was a time — hard as it is to believe for a coach who humbles the elite, loses in epic fashion and piles up March memories — when he feared the tournament would write his legacy as a loser.

It didn’t last long, a few minutes at most, during a 2007 game in Spokane, Wash.

“I’m thinking, ‘Oh boy, I’m 0-6 in the NCAA Tournament,’” Marshall said. “And we’re going to blow a 20-point lead here in the second half and I’m going to forever be known as the worst NCAA Tournament coach in the history of the tournament.”

Eight seasons later, he is closer to one of the best.

March is the time Marshall does some of his best work. He does such good work in March because his team did the hard work back in August and October and January. And when March arrives, the big stage fits comfortably.

“Once you get to March, it’s time to show the body of work, what you’ve done,” Wichita State assistant coach Greg Heiar said. “It’s time to let it all out.”

Marshall’s teams do that.

He had to win in early March at Winthrop to claim the Big South’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. He lost six NCAA games, burdened by the worst seeds in the field, before breaking through in that 2007 game with a 74-64 win over Notre Dame. His 20-point lead held up, despite worrisome moments, and started Marshall on an overwhelming success rate in March.

Since 2011, the Shockers are 12-3 with an NIT title and four NCAA appearances. They’ve handled teams from the Big Ten, ACC, Pacific 12, SEC and Big East. Since 2013, WSU played Kentucky, Kansas, Ohio State, Louisville and Indiana – schools ranked in the top eight of Final Four appearances. It defeated Kansas (No. 4 with 44 NCAA Tournament appearances, Indiana (No. 7 with 38) and plays Notre Dame (No. 9 with 23) on Thursday at Quicken Loans Arena.

“They’ve been machine-like in March,” Notre Dame coach Mike Brey said.

It doesn’t start in March.

“He treated every game like it was a Super Bowl in terms of preparation,” former assistant coach Chris Jans said. “It could be some fill-in-the-blank game and it received the same intensity and preparation. Once they get into March, nothing changes.”

Now Marshall has assembled a team that knows how to win in March and believes itself the equal of anybody, no matter the name on the jersey. Its last two NCAA Tournament defeats are by a total of six points.

“Experience is pretty key when it comes to these games,” WSU junior Ron Baker said. “You get to focus on what’s important. If we’re able to play defense and rebounding, I trust our offensive assets to get us points.”

That consistency breeds WSU’s high motor. The Shockers know one way to play, because there is no room for error if they want to earn an NCAA at-large bid. That accountability breeds confidence, because a player isn’t on the court unless Marshall knows he can succeed.

“We just think of ourselves as winners and we’re tough and we’re going to fight,” WSU junior Fred VanVleet said. “We’ll just go out there and play with extreme confidence and play as hard as we possibly can.”

Fans saw what consistent coaching can do for a player summarized in one play when WSU freshman Zach Brown beat Kansas players to a loose ball on Sunday, leading to a dunk. Brown’s playing time went up and down this season. In March, he was ready because coaches kept pushing him in the right direction.

Brown isn’t the first Shocker to break out in March. In 2013, VanVleet and Baker came up big in the NCAA Tournament. VanVleet’s role grew throughout the season. Baker returned from injury after missing two months.

“The year we went to the Final Four, Malcolm Armstead was a different player in the NCAA Tournament,” Heiar said. “He was so much more comfortable with the system and the way Coach wanted to play. He knew Coach had confidence in him and believed in him. Coach gave him the ball.”

Marshall built up that same confidence while at Winthrop from 1998-2007. His Eagles won seven Big South Tournaments in nine seasons.

“Before the games we had our scouting report and he would write matchups on the boards and give us information,” former Winthrop guard Chris Gaynor said. “Then he would look at us and say ‘You know what — we can play. We don't need a scouting report. We're better than them. We just need to play.’”

Most of the time, that means defense and rebounding. The Shockers also win with an offense that can play fast or slow and uses sets that can produce two or three baskets by catching the opponent unaware.

“It’s really hard to scout Gregg Marshall,” former Eagles player Antwon Harris said. “Our half-court offense is, I believe, unstoppable. We have a play, then we have a counter to the play, then another play.”

Before WSU played Kansas on Sunday, assistant coach Steve Forbes told the Shockers “Do what you do.” For some Shockers that means taking their scoring down a notch or two to give shots to other players. Freshman Rashard Kelly’s job is to rebound. Junior center Bush Wamukota is a defensive specialist who doesn’t need to try spin moves with the basketball. Zach Brown defends, runs the floor and shoots. He isn’t supposed to lead the fast break, not yet.

“You’ve got to put players in a position where they will be successful,” Marshall said. “That’s not the position where players always want to be. A lot of players want to play outside themselves. You’ve got to institute that stuff well before the NCAA Tournament. You try to do that once you’re in the NCAA Tournament, it’s not going to work.”

What does work is fun. While Marshall’s practices aren’t fun and his film critiques can be painfully honest, the players see the rewards. They cut down nets. They see their coach prompt the pep band to play his favorite Shocker victory songs. They see him grab every bit of national media attention to praise his players and pump up his program.

“I think Coach enjoys being real and enjoys allowing his players to see the kid inside of him,” Jans said. “He’s not afraid to show his emotions.”

Those emotion are much different than those few minutes in 2007 when it all seemed to be a disaster unfolding in slow motion. Now Marshall’s emotion is summed in the thrill of beating Indiana and Kansas, kissing his wife and hugging his children after a win.

“Euphoria,” he said.　

This story was originally published March 25, 2015 at 5:00 PM with the headline "Gregg Marshall has become a coach made for March (VIDEO)."