How Rayah Marshall went from South Central to USC phenom

There’s a summer in Atlanta that Lynwood High School girls’ basketball coach Ellis Barfield can’t get out of his head. 

His Nike Elite Youth Basketball Team, the Calstorm Knights, was playing club ball in 2019. It was a grueling trip, with three tournaments in 10 days and a game played almost every day. 

The Knights prevailed, advancing to the Nike Tournament of Champions championship game. Playing a physical team from Maryland, Barfield’s team fell behind early. 

A future McDonald’s All-American wouldn’t let them fold over. Sophomore women’s basketball forward Rayah Marshall put the team on her back as they cut the deficit.

With the game nearing its end, a moment is tattooed in Barfield’s mind. Marshall’s teammate missed a layup, but Marshall tracked down the ball and slammed it back in as it came off the rim. 

“Everybody was like ‘what, that’s a girl that just dunked it,’” Marshall said. 

There was only one problem, though — it didn’t count. 

“The refs, they couldn’t believe it, they didn’t know what to call it,” Barfield said. “They called it basket interference and they took the basket away and the female official was like ‘Wow, does she do this all the time?’ and we were like ‘Yes, she does this all the time.’”

Almost four years later, and though his team won, Barfield still disagrees with the call.

“She caught that off the bounce,” Barfield said. 

But for Marshall, basket or no basket, it was a pivotal moment during a journey where she overcame nearly being unhoused to become a basketball phenom. 

According to her seventh-grade physical education teacher, rumors exist that Marshall was dunking on 9-foot courts in middle school. A year later, she attempted her first dunk in a game before her freshman year. While others slept in on the weekends, she made basketball practice as a seventh grader by catching buses at 5 a.m. 

“When I think back on [playing basketball as a kid], I was like, this is my outlet, this is something I’m good at,” Marshall said. “It was almost like a natural feel for it so I just kept my focus on there and just see where a ball can take me.”

It’s taken her to a road with a way out.  

“This girl’s going to make it”

Born and raised in South Central, Marshall said she lived in a “very harsh neighborhood.” 

At one point growing up, she was on the verge of being unhoused. Marshall lived with her younger sister and cousins in a small apartment, sharing pallets of food. Classmates at school teased her. 

“It was a hard upbringing, well not upbringing, like my entire life, but that part of my life because it was part of my life where I struggled,” Marshall said. “It was hard to adjust to.”

She adjusted by leaning on her faith, with her situation improving as time went on. 

While in the fifth grade, Marshall’s cousin pushed her to play basketball with him and his friends before morning class. The playground became her home.

Two years later in the seventh grade, Marshall’s maturity and ability caught the eye of Damieon Williams, her physical education teacher at Bret Harte Prep Middle School. Williams said she dominated boys on the court and was the best basketball player in the school. 

But Marshall wasn’t serious about the game yet. After Williams returned from overseas basketball, Marshall expressed interest in playing for the first time.

“She started talking about basketball and just her focus in our conversations,” Williams said. “From there I was like, ‘Wow this is a different type of kid, she’s going to make it.’ As long as she gets an opportunity, this girl’s going to make it.”

Williams knew Marshall’s potential. He told Marshall’s mother she had a WNBA player and McDonald’s All-American. In Williams’ mind, if he put her with the right people, everything would work out. 

He took Marshall to Barfield, the head coach of a disciplined program on which missing times for sprints had repercussions. 

“We had workouts and stuff set aside for her and I just seen that she was a special individual, not just basketball-wise, but just her whole mentality,” Barfield said. “She was ahead of her time.” 

Marshall’s work ethic set her apart. She never complained about extra reps, and the way she carried herself was different from others her age, Barfield said. It wasn’t about just saying it for Marshall, but being and doing about it, he said.

Those weekend workouts with Barfield’s travel team proved her seriousness. Practices started at 6 a.m., which meant waking up at 5 a.m. to catch buses. During the week after school, practices reached four hours. 

But she knew no other way. She fell in love with basketball and wanted more of it. 

“I didn’t want to be local, just stuck in poverty,” Marshall said. “I rather have it that way than no other way. I mean I could be sleeping in on weekends and just busy doing nothing, rather than getting up [and] grinding.”

The work paid off. Marshall was a starter on Barfield’s travel team full of high schoolers, playing her up against girls two, three and even four times her age every summer. 

It never mattered. Barfield called Marshall the best player in her position he’s ever coached in his 30 years at Lynwood. 

“She wasn’t afraid,” Barfield said. “She was able to compete and she was always, with the length that she has and her tenacity, she was able to cause a lot of problems on the court.”

Enough problems to catch a future NBA Hall of Famer’s attention. 

“I’m going to the University of…” 

Marshall was “virtually unstoppable” her freshman year at Lynwood when the team reached the CIF-Southern Section Division 2AA finals, ultimately falling to Redondo Union High School. But as the EYBL circuit began during the summer, Marshall’s recruiting offers were dry. 

But the floodgates were about to burst open. 

Playing on Cal Storm Team Taurasi, Marshall was the youngest starter on the team who reached the 2018 EYBL Championship. She dropped a double-double, turning heads and captivating people even in a tight loss — none bigger than 13-time NBA All-Star Kevin Durant. 

“I just remember his facial expression after I made one,” she said. “I cuffed the ball and split through the defense for a layup and he was like ‘What?’ You just see him looking at the statbook [and] he was like ‘Man she’s only a freshman?’”

Durant approached her after the game and told her to stay with it, struggling to comprehend how young and skillful she was.

Then UC Berkeley Head Coach and current USC women’s basketball Head Coach Lindsay Gottlieb was in attendance too, and said Marshall was the talk of the gym. 

The showing blew up her recruiting profile during a summer full of breakout games. 

As her game progressed, college coaches followed. Marshall received so many offers, her mom bought her a new phone for recruiters to call. 

On the court, Lynwood didn’t match the success of Marshall’s freshman year. Her sophomore season ended in a second-round CIF-SS exit, and her junior year ended in the second round of state playoffs.  

Then, everything ended. Or so it seemed. The coronavirus halted the world and offered perspective for Marshall as her college decision inched closer. 

Her final three schools were Oregon, Cal and USC, but she always leaned toward the Trojans. The pandemic emphasized the benefits of staying close to home. 

“I don’t know what to expect with [the coronavirus] and my future in college basketball,” Marshall said. “But I don’t want it to be where the airports were shutting down and I can’t see my family. And I didn’t know how much [the coronavirus] would impact our society at the time.”

With her decision made, Marshall scheduled her commitment date before her senior season. She only told her aunt, who sprinkled cardinal and gold confetti into a balloon. 

After giving a speech to friends and family, Marshall stepped toward the balloon. She uttered the words “I’m going to the University of…” and pop! 

The South Central kid was staying home.

“Can we get them something to eat?”

It was Gottlieb’s first year as USC head coach and she was having a rough day. She prides herself on not showing players whether she’s having a bad day or not. But, Gottlieb looked sad and when she went home at night, a familiar number texted her. 

It was Marshall. 

“She said, ‘I know you deal with a lot of things that we don’t see and I just want you to know I’ve got your back, too,’” Gottlieb said. “I was really moved by that because for an 18-year-old to see life through somebody else’s eyes and ask me how I’m doing — that’s another moment that I’ll never forget with her.”

For Gottlieb, it’s difficult to talk about Marshall the player without mentioning Marshall the person — someone who never wastes a moment, is loved by everyone in the women’s basketball department and who even spoke at an all-staff meeting two weeks ago.

During her freshman year, Marshall’s gratitude for a meal plan, housing and being at USC stood out to Gottlieb. 

“I think she’s very appreciative of the opportunities and it speaks to her character,” Gottlieb said.

What she sees on the court, though, is someone who has yet to tap into her potential.

Marshall’s sophomore season saw a jump in her stats all around. She had 5 or more blocks in six games, including a 17-point, 20-rebound and 7-block masterclass against then-No. 22 Arizona. She had her career high in a 33-point, 16-rebound explosion on the road against Oregon State. 

The numbers don’t say so, but college basketball was difficult for Marshall at first, especially in its pace and physicality. Her foundation made a successful transition possible — she never forgot how to compete. 

“[Coach] Ellis taught me how to compete and just be a dog on what I’m good at,” Marshall said. “That’s what I was here to do.”

Even with her on-court success, Marshall always cares about the people around her. 

Though it didn’t last long, being on the verge of homelessness made a lasting impression on her, and Marshall became more sympathetic toward the unhoused population. At times, she even pleaded with her mom to offer old clothes or shoes to people in need.

“I remember going to school coming from just anywhere in my neighborhood seeing people just out on the streets,” Marshall said. “I’d be out in my mom’s car [and] I’d be asking, ‘Can we get them something to eat? I wanna give them these shoes, I don’t wear them anymore.’”

As her career progresses and a professional career becomes near reality, no success or accomplishment is too big for Marshall to change. 

For her, she’s still a kid from South Central.