Hall of Fame Class of 2020: The case for Bryant Marmol
Marmol (6) receiving his 2019 Fall Rec-Plus MVP trophy from Fridley League Coordinator, Jake Gave
Every week leading up to the reveal of the nominees for the Class of 2020 for the Ultimate Hoops Hall of Fame, we’ll feature a possible candidate for the upcoming induction class. None of these articles will focus on anyone who has already been nominated for the Hall of Fame but has yet to be inducted. If you want to learn more about those candidates, you can visit the Hall of Fame section of our blog.
Today we’re focusing on UH Minnesota veteran Bryant Marmol.
The ase for Marmol
The timing of this article makes a lot of sense, as Marmol was named the Minnesota Rec-Plus MVP for the fall season today. Winning an MVP award is impressive no matter what league it comes in or when someone wins it, but Marmol just won an MVP 559 games into his illustrious UH career. He also won the award in a combined race between the Bloomington South and Fridley leagues, which boasted 21 teams last season, and he helped lead his two teams to the championship game, earning him his 14th career championship. In 19 games in the fall season, Marmol averaged 18.8 points, 5.8 rebounds and 5.6 assists on 54% shooting from the field and 49% from deep. This season capped off an outstanding calendar year for Marmol, which earned him a spot on the 2019 All-UH Team.
This is all from one season, mind you, in a career that has spanned 559 games, 61 seasons and six tournaments. The 559 games is the 15th most in UH history, while his 9,766 points is eighth, his 2,392 assists is 13th and his 749 steals is 14th.
Marmol’s combination of longevity and consistently good to great production over that long period is the main reason he’ll be considered for the Hall of Fame. Players like Terrell Davis and Gale Sayers have made it into the Hall of Fame based on a few dominant seasons but short-lived careers. Marmol is the opposite of that; he’s much more like Frank Gore (with higher-highs), consistently delivering and someone who is always going to help a team and make them better (I also don’t know why I’m using football players to make a point about a basketball player, but just go with it).
The case against Marmol
Marmol will suffer from the same problem any other candidate in Minnesota is going to face this year. Dustin Dupont and Chris Maher have been nominated two years in a row, and Sonny Young-Graves was nominated last year. That puts three players theoretically ahead of Marmol, plus you have the candidacy of Geno Phelps and Ronnie Kennedy, who’ve I’ve written about already in this format. They are in contention for contributions other than their play, but that’s two more candidates out of Minnesota that could muck things up.
Marmol, just like all of the other candidates out of Minnesota I mentioned in the previous paragraph, will get into the Hall someday; it’s much more of a question of when rather than if. The fall season Marmol just put together really boosts his chances for a nomination in 2020 (we’re all susceptible to recency bias), but his whole career speaks for itself and is more than deserving of a nomination.