Josephs answers call to add speed, defense at GCU

Marquese Josephs moved from the Toronto area to Phoenix before his high school junior year in pursuit of a dream to play college basketball and be his hoop family's first university student.

Over the past two years, Josephs began to envision the dream at Grand Canyon, where he attended seven Lopes games and learned how his strong faith fit fit at GCU and in head coach Bryce Drew's program.

Marquese Josephs

"When I visited last year with my parents, I said, 'This is where I need to be,' " Josephs said. "All I was waiting for was an offer."

So when he saw Drew was calling his phone one night this summer while at the Josephs family home in Brampton, Ontario, the 6-foot-1 point guard hustled to the basement for quiet while thinking, "It might happen."

Drew offered Josephs a scholarship to join GCU for the upcoming season.

"I was just stuck in the moment, smiling the whole time and saying, 'Thank you, thank you, thank you,' " Josephs said.

The Lopes staff became well acquainted with Josephs and his basketball development while he studied and played nearby at Bella Vista College Prep in Scottsdale as a junior and Dream City Christian School in Glendale as a senior.

"He's loved GCU since he moved out from Canada," Drew said. "When we offered him a scholarship, you could tell the joy and the excitement he had because this has been his goal and dream for two years.

"He brings some speed to our team and a physical defender with really high character. He works really hard, and he fits in well with our guys."

Josephs has played basketball since he was 5 but did not turn serious until he was about 11 and shifted from a soccer emphasis. He and his family made sacrifices with his 2021 move to the Valley, but he feels like it paid off for him to be able to live out his parents' dreams.

"It was really hard to move away, but it was worth it," Josephs said. "I'm a faithful person. I always feel like wherever He brought me, that's where I'm supposed to be. When this came up, I was thanking God that I stayed patient and didn't give up to do something else."

Josephs brings a strong, 190-pound frame with a true playmaker mindset and a defensive emphasis. He will join the Lopes on next week's trip to the Bahamas, when the Lopes will play exhibition games on Tuesday and Wednesday.

His roots lie in the Caribbean with his mother, Tanesha, being born in Jamaica and his father, Kevin, coming from a Jamaican family that moved to Toronto before he was born. Josephs' initial awareness of GCU was because of former player Sean Miller-Moore, who is from Josephs' Brampton area and also has Jamaican roots.

"It wasn't really just the basketball," Josephs said of why he set GCU as a goal. "It was the environment because I'm big on faith and being around other Christians. I've never been on a team where we prayed before practice. I pray before I do everything – before I go to sleep, before I eat, before I play basketball, before I go to school.

"The coaches are genuine. They want you to get better in everything you do. It's not just yelling. Everything's correcting. They put you in the environment to get better at it and give you drills to get better."

Josephs is admittedly tired as he tries to get up to speed in GCU practices, but he is enjoying being able to play at a higher pace with his new teammates.

"Everything I do, I do it hard," Josephs said. "You're going to see a lot of defense – steals and blocks. I take pride in my defense. That's what separates me from every other guard, especially at my size. Every game, I try to hold my man to no buckets.

"I take pride facilitating and getting other guys into it. I don't need anybody to create for me. I'm good with creating for others."

Grand Canyon University Athletics

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