Lenox Rawlings: There's a new Marshall in town

They huffed and they puffed, and then Kendall Marshall blew down their house of cards.

N.C. State’s loudest fans, still reeling from a nosedive at Duke, still ranting about a ref ejecting two former stars from front-row seats here, devised a full-throated plan to zap antagonist North Carolina with decibels Tuesday night.

The plan didn’t pan out. Carolina threw up a sound shield — commonly known as the big lead — and won 86-74.

Coach Roy Williams achieved strategic goal No.1, silencing the wolves, largely because point guard Marshall took away their breath first.

Marshall, a 6-foot-3 sophomore thrives as the ultimate distributor, finding those three NBA prospects along the front line and feeding the ACC’s highest-scoring machine. Marshall found his own offensive rhythm, hitting four 3-pointers and missing only one shot while scoring a career-high 22 points.

This is the same lefty who had scored in double figures only three times this season, peaking at 14, but had delivered at least 11 assists 11 times.

Marshall maintained his quarterback role, assisting on 13 baskets, but he staggered the Wolfpack’s zone with a unique variation of the jumping set shot.

State point guard Lorenzo Brown, the primary man-to-man defender, said he never expected Marshall to approach 7 of 8 from the field. A reporter asked Brown to estimate the last time Marshall shot like that.

“When he was 12,” Brown said, grinning. “That was about it. Once he’s shooting like that, I don’t think anybody can stop them.”

The Wolfpack (18-10, 7-6 ACC) couldn’t, losing a third straight game against a title contender. The plan didn’t fail for lack of passion. Fans stomped heavily and carried a thousand signs, one adorned with a picture of Tyler Zeller’s mother.

“Interesting,” Zeller observed. “I’m not sure where they got that, but that’s kind of cool.”

Especially for such a hot-blooded audience. Nobody really remembers when State’s emotional bonfire began, the first torchbearers being long dead, but the past two weeks fanned the flames something awful.

The ACC revealed the basketball scheduling plan for the years after Pitt and Syracuse finish Big East servitude. The new deal reduces official rivalries — those requiring a home-and-home series every season — to a meager one. Carolina-Duke survived the cut.

Duke student chanters rubbed in the slight — “Not our rival, not our rival” — and then the Duke players rallied from 20 down in the last 11½ minutes.

Some folks blamed the refs. When referee Karl Hess evicted former stars Chris Corchiani and Tom Gugliotta in the late stages of a Florida State blowout Saturday, lots of folks blamed the refs.

With all that perceived disrespect in the air, many protesters wanted Hess’ whistle or at least an apology. Instead, Hess received a reprimand from the ACC for failing to let a State security chief warn the legends before invoking his authority.

Athletics director Debbie Yow channeled the anger and announced State would honor Gugliotta, Corchiani and their 1989 teammates with the inaugural Wolfpack Unlimited Award. Rodney Monroe, Chucky Brown and others joined the banished pair on the floor before the game. With the crowd cheering, the public-address announcer explained these guys “achieved success because they refused to accept the status quo.”

The’89 Wolfpack finished first in the regular season — the last time that happened — and made the record books by losing the ACC tournament opener to last-place Maryland. In a curious twist, the‘89 team also lost the East Regional semifinals to Georgetown after ref Rick Hartzell’s infamous walking call against Corchiani.

That alone was enough to incite a riot. Throw in the mercurial Williams (now 23-1 against State as a head coach) and the despised Heels and, well….

“We were concerned,” Williams said. “We knew the crowd would really be fired up.”

The crowd was fired up, until the fire Marshall emptied the secret hydrant.