Wichita State's Gregg Marshall and College of Charleston's Bobby Cremins share more than a desire to reach the NIT semifinals.
They also share a serendipitous legacy as college basketball flip-floppers.
Their paths intersected with the Cougars five years ago.
Marshall's midsummer change of heart in 2006 to renege on the Cougars head coaching job he'd accepted a day earlier led the school to hire Cremins.
Cremins had done his own flip-flop in 1993 when he had returned to Georgia Tech after agreeing to leave the school to lead his alma mater, South Carolina, only a few days earlier.
The two meet Wednesday night at Wichita State in the NIT.
Cremins said it's ''ironic that I got this job because Gregg pulled a Bobby Cremins.''
Cremins was a New York City kid lured to the Gamecocks by Frank McGuire in the late 1960s and became one of the game's best coaches with Georgia Tech from 1982-2000. In the midst of that run, Cremins couldn't resist the call of his former coach and school in 1993 as he told a roomful of ex-teammates, friends and joyous fans that he'd rebuild the Gamecocks.
However, by that weekend, Cremins had returned to Atlanta and his old job where he stayed until stepping away in 2000. Cremins was living in Hilton Head six years later when he heard that Charleston had a basketball opening and had hoped for a chance to get back in the game.
''But,'' Cremins recalled this week, ''they told me that they had their guy.''
That was Marshall, the former Charleston assistant under John Kresse who had built a mid-major power at Winthrop.
Marshall, too, couldn't resist the call of Kresse and other old friends to come back to Charleston and was introduced as Cougars coach. Like Cremins, Marshall immediately felt uneasy over his choice and a day later publicly announced he was back at Winthrop.
One of the first people Marshall met on the recruiting trail that summer was Charlseton's new coach Cremins, who counseled the younger coach on how to handle the characterizations and hard feelings that follow such a doubletake.
''I told him, 'No one hates you in Charleston. All right, maybe a few people,''' Cremins said. ''I'm the dean of that stuff so it was easy for me to empathize.''
Cremins needed months away from basketball and a psychiatrist's help to bounce back. Marshall said the best recovery for him was to jump back into work. Still, Cremins' words helped Marshall make it through. ''He was and is an unbelievable friend,'' Marshall said.
Marshall spent one more with Winthrop after his Charleston two-step and his Big South champion Eagles topped Notre Dame in the NCAA tournament's opening round.
He was hired by Wichita State about a month later where he's spent the past four seasons. The Shockers reached the championship game of the Missouri Valley Conference a year ago and bowed out of the NIT quickly. This time, Marshall says his team has played more resolve in defeating Nebraska and Virginia Tech to set up the game with College of Charleston. ''A friend of mine said, 'You've got to bloom where you're planted,''' Marshall said.
Cremins, like Marshall, has steadily reconstructed the Cougars the past five years. They've lost in the Southern Conference finals three times, including to Wofford this month, yet have made their deepest postseason run to advance to the NIT quarterfinals. ''It'd be incredible'' to get back home to New York, Cremins said.
Marshall and Cremins discussed their teams playing each other in the past, a matchup that hadn't come together until now. Marshall can't wait to see Cremins and Kresse, who's also traveling with the Cougars for the game.
Marshall said he he doesn't really have any regrets about the past.
''You make your decisions in life,'' he said. ''You've got enough people second guessing you, you don't need to second guess yourself.''
