FORT MYERS, Fla.- When the Florida SouthWestern Men's Basketball staff recruited Jermaine Marshall last year, the plan was clear, come play for the Bucs for a season and move on to the Division I level.  That plan was executed this season and finished on National Signing Day Wednesday as Marshall signed with MAC Champs Akron where he will have three years to play starting this fall.  

 

Marshall was the top freshman in the Suncoast Conference this season, finishing the season averaging 10.2 points and 8.8 rebounds per game on the year.  He earned First Team All-Conference honors by recording double-doubles in 10 of 12 league games for the Bucs including six straight from late January into mid February.  He added two more double-doubles in non-conference action to finish the season with a program 12 on the year.  Marshall scored in double figures in 11 of the Bucs' final 14 games of the year, putting in 10 or more points 16 times total during his freshman campaign.  He topped the 20 point mark three times including a career high 22 on 8 of 13 shooting against St. Petersburg midway through conference action.  He registered 15 games of 10 or more rebounds on the year, en route to breaking the FSW single season rebounding record with 255. He twice topped the 15 rebound mark, pulling down a Bucs' single game record of 17 in a road win over Miami Dade in December.  He was named the FCSAA Player of the Week twice this season, the lone Buc to do so over the past two years. 

 

In Marshall's lone season in Fort Myers the Bucs finished 29-2 overall and captured their third straight Suncoast Conference Championship with a perfect 12-0 record before earning a bid to the NJCAA National Tournament.  FSW spent the entirety of the 2019-2020 season ranked inside the NJCAA's Top 10 and held down the #1 spot in the rankings for the final six weeks of the year.  

 

Marshall follows the path of former Buc Tyler Cheese who won a Conference Championship with FSW before moving on to Akron where he earned a MAC Championship in 2020. Marshall will join a Zips squad coming off of a 24-7 campaign and a favorite to represent the MAC in the NCAA Tournament before it was postponed due to COVID-19.  

 

Marshall is one of seven NCAA Division I signees for the Bucs thus far, joining Keon Ellis (Alabama), Berrick JeanLouis (Iona), Simeon Kirkland (UAB), De'Lazarus Keys (Texas A&M-Corpus Christi), Ralph Bissainthe (Central Michigan), and Sebastian Guitian (South Carolina State).