After practicing in pain, Pitt former walk-on K.J. Marshall rewarded with scholarship

For senior walk-on guard K.J. Marshall, Pitt’s post-practice meeting Thursday was like many that had come before it.

“Honestly, I wasn’t listening too much. I was in the back, playing around like I normally do,” he said.

But the theme of the meeting was unselfishness, and it suddenly became about Marshall. That afternoon, he had asked the trainer to wrap his injured hand — he called it a “minor fracture” — a little tighter so he could participate. He said he wanted to simulate what the Louisville guards do to help prepare his teammates for the game Saturday against the Cardinals.

As the meeting was ending, coach Jeff Capel asked freshman guard Jaland Lowe to bring the team together. That’s when Marshall heard Lowe say, “By the way, K.J. is on scholarship.”

”I really didn’t hear it at first. Then I realized what he said,” Marshall said, retelling the story Thursday night on “The Jeff Capel Show” on KDKA-FM. “I’m on scholarship. I have to call my mom.”

He found her at work, and Dion Marshall answered the phone and said, “What happened this time?”

“How’s work going?” K.J. said. “By the way, I’m on scholarship.”

What followed were tears on both ends of the phone and, later, reflections from Marshall on his time at Pitt.

He doesn’t play much, but his work at practice doesn’t go unnoticed.

”All my dirty work I do behind the scenes, I take very seriously,” he said.

He’s known as a jokester who understands when it’s time to get down to business.

“Ask any of the guys. I play around more than anybody. I always got a smile on my face. A lot of that is I just enjoy being here. I remind everyone else, times may not be going (good) all the time. You still have to enjoy what’s in front of us. Not everybody gets to play at a university like this.”

Marshall, a native of Reading who played at Trinity Christian Academy in North Carolina, said he met Capel when he was in eighth grade and was sitting in the the principal’s office “for something I did not do.”

Capel was there to recruit another player, and Marshall walked up to him and said, “I’m going to play for you someday.”

”I’m a man of my word,” he said Thursday. “I’m here today. He came to AAU games. Next thing you know, we started a good relationship, stronger and stronger and stronger. The next thing you know I was here.”

Marshall enrolled in 2019 as a walk-on and also played at Garden City (Kan.) Community College and Mars Hill (N.C.) before returning to Pitt last season.

Freshman guard Bub Carrington called Marshall’s news a “vibe shifter.”

Capel described Marshall’s demeanor as “unbelievably energetic, incredibly positive.”

“He’s a great teammate.”