Nick Marshall ready for his role in NBL25

The time is now for Nick Marshall

The relatively unknown character of Nick Marshall is something that is very interesting to people within the NBL circles. The young star in the making is a quiet character who is anything but that on the basketball court and is set for a big year in NBL25.

The Adelaide 36ers guard is ready for an impressive NBL25 season under Scott Ninnis and with the 36ers bringing back mostly the same core as last year, this season is filled with opportunity and optimism.

Nick, a homegrown Adelaide local, spent most of his early days focusing on Aussie rules football. Nick would play for North Adelaide in the SANFL as a development player before making the switch very late at the age of 17 to play basketball. Not having much basketball experience in the past only playing here and there growing up, the change in sports was a little bit of a shock, but the athletic ability that Nick had put him in good shape to excel.

“For me, it was really, I just wasn't enjoying (Aussie rules) like a lot of my mates kind of stopped playing footy and I just wasn't really enjoying it as much.”

After making the switch to basketball Nick would start out playing Division 4 in South Australia before quickly rising the ranks and representing South Australia at the national level. Nick would make the Under 18s team in consecutive years before making the under 20s team finishing runner up to Victoria in the National Championship.

Jack McVeigh playing mentor

After an impressive couple of years representing South Australia Nick would head over to the US to play for Clarke University. Based in a very small town in Dubuque, Iowa, there was a little bit of a culture shock at first.

“I was in Iowa, in Dubuque, which was a small town, not much going on. There was literally just like three colleges there. Mine was probably one of the smaller ones in that town.”

After the end of his freshman season Nick would come back to Adelaide and would work in his off season with Jack McVeigh consistently. McVeigh would really take Nick under his wing and really showed him the ins and outs of being a professional on and off the court. This would put Nick in good shape heading back over to the US for his sophomore season before the season was ultimately ended due to the COVID 19 breakout.

This would be a massive shame for the team and Nick with the squad making the National Title in the NAIA for the first time in school history.

Nick would return to Adelaide and back with McVeigh working on his game before forgoing his last 2 seasons at college due to the on-going COVID 19 outbreaks that were happening in the US. Whilst he was disappointed he couldn’t return he would be working hard in the NBL1 competition in South Australia and would be quickly signed as a train-on player for the Adelaide 36ers.

At the completion of his seasons as a train-on the promising guard would be signed by the 36ers as a development player for 2 season. In that time Nick would show his potential playing some great minutes as a DP and Nick would be rewarded with a 3-year deal as a full rostered player starting in NBL24.

Whilst the team struggled at the start of the NBL24 season it wasn’t until Scott Ninnis would take over the team after the sacking of NBL Legend CJ Bruton, that we would see Nick get his chance.

“Yeah, I think it just might have been that little bit of fresh face, as well as Ninni just kind of bringing the group together and really just trying to get the team to play together and play as a team. We simplified the offense a bit, made Isaac and DJ, obviously, our main kind of focal point and then moved Trey to the point. So we just kind of played a lot more through Isaac, which I felt helped us a lot.”

Nick finished the NBL24 season in good order and the future is looking very bright for one of the younger guns in the NBL. Whilst it’s unclear on where the 36ers will head in NBL 25, what we do know is that they will be an improved team from last season and Nick can’t wait to be apart of it.

“I think I'm going to have a bigger role, similar to last season, I know I'm going to play. So it's just playing confidently and continuing to get better. Yeah, I think I'm just looking forward to preseason and continue to work every day and just kind of keep getting better, growing, learning, doing all that kind of things.”

With the start of the NBL season closing in thick and fast it’s going to be exciting to see another young gun take the next step in his development for one of the most decorated franchises in the NBL.