Where Have You Gone, Ramod Marshall? Oh, there you are.
July 21, 2011 Tom Blackburn 
Two seasons ago, during the summer lull, Donoher and I decided we would try to contact some former Flyers in the hopes of catching up and reminiscing about the good times (were there good times?). We came up with a list of seven players: Keef Waleskowski, Kobra Turner, Yuanta Holland, Sean Finn, Tony Stanley, Nate Green and Ramod Marshall.
Waleskowski, being the future Mayor of Dayton, responded quickly and gave us a great interview. Finn followed up with us next and provided some great insight into his time in the Gem City. Holland and Turner were slow getting back to us, but were totally on board once we assured them we wouldn't ask about free cars and fat envelopes stuffed with cash. Once we agreed to leave the off-the-court stuff out of our interview, they were more than happy to participate and couldn't have been nicer guys.
Of course, we weren't able to get into contact with all of our prospective interviewees. Tony Stanely was always a pipe dream, and we assumed our chances were slim to none beforehand. T-Stan has spent the greater part of his European adventure spreading his seed and escaping alimony hearings, we certainly weren't going to catch him on the run via email. We were in touch with some people that knew Nate Green, but for whatever reason the interview never came to fruition.
Which brings us to Ramod Marshall. Marshall was probably the guy we wanted to speak to the most, as not only were Donoher and I big fans, he also seemed like the most abstruse player to wear the red and blue during Purnell's tenure. A silky-smooth guard from North Carolina, who was a 21 year-old freshman after attending two prep schools, not much was known about Ramod. He wasn't an overly demonstrative player and there were no stories circling around him since his departure from UD. To hear some of his ex-teammates tell it, Marshall was a tough nut to crack, a guy that basically kept to himself and didn't really socialize with the team much (Every former teammate used the word "quiet" to descibe Marshall).
So, when we finally were able to track Ramod down, we discovered he was supervising an after-school program for developmentally challenged youth in the Charlotte area. He briefly spoke of his time in Europe and how he had basically burned out on basketball after a few non-productive seasons abroad. Marshall clearly sounded like he was at peace with himself and his newfound place in the world. With basketball behind him, it appeared like he was looking to start a new chapter but simply didn't know how to turn the page.
However, throughout our interactions with Ramod, as brief as they were, some things weren't adding up. From what we could tell, he was accessing email from a library and didn't even own a cellphone. His emails were oftentimes nonsensical and routinely seemed to contradict each other. He would seem very upbeat in one email then downright off-putting in the next. Marshall would enthusiastically agree to answer our questions and then we wouldn't hear from him for weeks. And the cycle would start over again (And no, we never asked him if he was shaving points during the DePaul game). Teammates would hint at Marshall's situation, but would never explicitly state what was amiss in Ramod's world. Whatever it was, Donoher and I, having become sympathetic through our limited interaction with Ramod, hoped things would soon take a turn for the better.
Which brings us to Marshall's latest brush with the law. Not exactly surprising, but disheartening nonetheless.
UD basketball, busted, ramod marshall | in throwaway 
