Redshirt freshman Roichelle Marble is consistently one of the loudest voices at Badger practices. She takes even the most basic of drills and exercises with a ferocity and seriousness that is seldom exhibited by her teammates. But that’s because basketball has always been everything for Marble.
Her dad, Roy Marble Sr., terrorized the Badgers for years during the 1980s en route to becoming one of the best Iowa Hawkeyes in program history. Even more recently, her half-brother Devyn Marble caused Wisconsin fans fits with countless dominant performances for Iowa. Yet even with a strong basketball lineage connecting her to the University of Iowa, Roichelle, or as everyone refers to her, Shelly, is poised to create her own legacy at a school that she can truly call her own.
Because of an Achilles tear, Shelly was forced to redshirt last season, which has made her impact on the court early on this season even more surprising.
“I was really nervous, but I was also excited ’cause I waited an entire year to play,” Shelly said after the Badgers’ exhibition opener.
Those nerves might be similar to that of her mother, Carla Brown Marble, as she watched Shelly and her four siblings constantly playing basketball in and around the house as they were growing up.
Shelly recalls the excitement that she and her siblings had when her dad put a basketball hoop in one of her brothers’ rooms.
“When we were little he [Roy] put a basketball hoop in my brothers’ room so my mom literally had to buy a supply of light bulbs because we would always break the light bulbs trying to play basketball,” she recalled. “And then he would make us go in their and practice left handed layups because we couldn’t do left handed layups.”
But the Marble family competition was by no means contained within the house.
“The driveway was really intense,” Shelly said, referring to the fierce basketball competition she lived with. “But for the most part me and my sister were the ones that got ganged up, cause we were the only girls … We got beat up and dunked on.”
Yet growing up in a house full of male basketball players forced Shelly to be ultra-tough and competitive on and off the court. Such attributes were integral when, as a freshman in high school, she was lucky enough to win the Iowa State Championship playing alongside her sister, Royannah, who was a senior at the time.
The next year, Royannah left Shelly and her East High School teammates for the University of Iowa, and though she didn’t play in college, her choice was not surprising considering both her parents attended the university decades earlier.
Shelly’s half-brother Devyn, also made a name for himself as a Hawkeye, playing in Iowa City from 2010-’14. He was a two-time captain, one of only two Big Ten players since 1985-86 to amass 1,675 points, 375 assists, 450 rebounds and 175 steals. He finished his collegiate career second in field goal attempts in Iowa history behind only his father, and Devyn and his dad make up the only father/son duo in Big Ten history to eclipse 1,000 career points at the same school.
Shelly and Devyn have a different mother, which is why growing up they seldom saw each other. Devyn grew up in Detroit whereas Shelly grew up in Des Moines. Yet as they have aged the two have become closer.
“As we got older, we started to spend more time together because we would go to each other’s games. But now since he’s in Orlando and I’m all the way here, we Facetime a lot,” Shelly said.
Devyn is in Orlando because, much like his father, he joined the NBA ranks. He was a second round pick in the NBA draft last year and is now entering his second season for the Magic. He has even passed down a message that has helped him succeed in both college and the pros.
“He started as an underdog coming into college. So he’s just telling me to basically prove everybody wrong,” Shelly said. “And at the end of the day don’t let our last name put a lot of pressure on you. You do what you know you can do. And do it well.”
But for a family that for years has had continuity in both the back and front of the jersey, Shelly said she never really considered Iowa. Instead, when it came time for her to decide on where she wanted to play she almost chose Drake University.
“Her recruitment was really interesting in that she was going to sign with Drake,” UW head coach Bobbie Kelsey said. “We had known about Shelly, we knew her high school coach, and somehow she fell through the cracks, she fell to our hand.”
“I never thought of Wisconsin growing up until I went to teen camp here, eighth grade going into ninth grade, and I came here and I played well,” Shelly said. “And I really liked it and I looked around the campus and everything.”
Throughout high school, Lisa Stone, Wisconsin’s head coach from 2003-’11, maintained contact with Shelly and her coach. Shelly recalls sporadically checking on Wisconsin scores, a sign that Madison was always in the back of her mind. And when Wisconsin offered her a scholarship, the decision to sign was a no brainer.
Surprisingly, given her family’s history with Iowa, Shelly didn’t have any real animosity toward the Badgers growing up. Yet even since arriving in Wisconsin she admits to occasionally rooting for the Hawkeyes, but not just because of her familial ties.
“If they weren’t playing Wisconsin then I would root for them just because I actually grew up with one of the players on the team, we played together,” she said. “And then also one of the guys on the team is from where my dad’s from, so I’m still close with them in that way. But for the most part I don’t root for them anymore.”
Shelly’s dad tragically died this September after a long battle with cancer. Just before their first game, the University of Iowa announced that their jerseys will sport a patch in honor of Roy Marble Sr. Such a gesture is a reminder of how strong a legacy her father left at the University of Iowa, but Shelly isn’t concerned about leaving a legacy like her dad’s or brother’s.
“I couldn’t say I worry about legacy because I’m creating my own. I’m the only female in my family to be playing at this level right now,” Shelly said.
Her game on the floor also differs from her male counterparts.
“Shelly obviously has the ability to score, but she’s a great passer. Her tempo is very fast … She hustles she does all the right things, she’s a blue collar player, a grinder,” senior point guard Dakota Whyte said of Shelly’s game.
And while Shelly will serve as Whyte’s backup this season, her role is more like that of an understudy learning the nuances of a role so when the actor moves onto another show, she can play the part just as well, if not better. In the Badgers’ 63-57 loss to San Diego State this past weekend, Marble had a career-highs in both points (13) and minutes (35).
“She’s learning, but she’s going to get better and better and once she gets really comfortable with what she’s doing, she’s going to take over next year,” Kelsey said.
“I’m hard on my point guards ’cause they’re the coach on the floor. And if they are nervous, afraid, scared, don’t know what’s going on, how they gonna’ tell somebody else. Post players don’t tell guards,” Kelsey said, “guards tell posts. Now I want posts to know, but in huddles I want my guards talking and my PG especially. We coach ’em that way. She’s up for the challenge but we’ve gotta give her some time to get used to it.”
Shelly is excited for the challenge as well.
“It’s easy to be a leader in high school, but at this level everyone is good, and everyone does the same things as you good,” Shelly said. “So you have to learn how to be different and still be able to be a leader that stands out.”
On top of just becoming a leader, she hopes to one day be the third Marble to play professionally, but right now she’s just enjoying college basketball, working on her left hand and trying to shoot the lights out just like she did in her brother’s bedroom during her childhood.
