WKU Basketball: Assessing the Adversary — Marshall
Salty. That’s my flavor of choice right now. If you have to ask why then you aren’t paying attention. But them’s the breaks, kids. Let’s use that salt and throw it at those good ‘ole mountain folk of Marshall.
Note: On principal I’m staying away from the one vein of tasteless Marshall jokes. Everyone knows what I mean. Don’t be that guy. We’re better than that.
With that out of the way, here’s a look at Marshall University:
- Location: Huntington, WV
- Student Population: Approx: 14,000
- Endowment: $110.4 Million
- Mascot: Marco the Bison
- Number of last names: 7
- Percentage of the population of Huntington since 1950 that realized they lived West Virginia and dipped out: Approx: 54% (this is a real thing)
- Famous Alumni: Randy Moss (they’ve got other relevant figures but come on, you don’t need any more)
West Virginia is an easy target. I could easily put down an entire piece filled with jokes about family trees that don’t fork, weird numbers of toes and narrow nasal bridges. I could joke about the cost of couches being so high because people in WV just burn them at the first sign of excitement and their Mountain Dew mouth. But I won’t for two reasons:
- Eastern KY exists
- We can go deeper
If you’ve ever driven through H-town (as I’ve affectionately dubbed it) you’ll be immediately struck with a few thoughts:
Woah, that’s a lot of Applebee’s.
Why are there so many Applebee’s here?
Why are those naked guys fighting in that Applebee’s parking lot?
Not only do they have a depressing number of chain restaurants (except for the Marshall Hall of Fame Cafe, which is admittedly pretty cool. Get on it Caboni) but the history of the town reads like a bad Steinbeck novel.
It had a huge boom in the late 19th to early 20th centuries until a huge flood destroyed much of the town. Then they had another boom during World War II, but that busted in 1950 and the population of Huntington has decreased ever since. I’m not sure if that’s funny or just really sad. Nah, we’ll go with funny.
But hey, you know what they do have? Multiple articles about how they are the fattest city in America. How unhealthy and obese are the denizens of the town? Renowned British chef Jamie Oliver filmed a healthy cooking TV show and based it on how obese Huntington was. BTW still the biggest waistlines in the nation. Even Jamie Oliver couldn’t save them.
One last bit: For a good laugh go and read the Wikipedia article on Huntington. It’s hilariously under-cited and the most “try-hard” piece of writing I’ve read since I revised my last article. We get it, you have to sell WV somehow. Chill.
Marshall Men’s Basketball
Marshall this year is a very weird team. Here’s the current tale of the tape:
- 2018–19 Record: 9–6
- KenPom/NET Rankings: 133/129
- Projected Conference Finish: 2nd
Marshall and WKU share a common trait this season; both were tabbed to lead the conference and compete for the CUSA Championship and both are struggling to live up to those lofty standards. Though some of the names have changed, their formula for wins has remained similar. Let the guards go to work making shots.
This season that’s been a taller task (pun intended) with the loss of star center Ajdin Penava to the Euro League. Without a talented big man in the middle to draw attention the Thundering Herd are only shooting 34% from behind the arc. This, combined with lackluster defense (allowing nearly 80 PPG to opponents) has led to a rough start for the Herd. I call it a rough start because they’ve played a terrible easy schedule thus far and only have one decent win on the season against ODU. *saltiness intensifies*
They are still led by senior guards John Elmore (19.2 PPG) and C.J. Burkes (16.6 PPG). They are still not a large team, only having one player 6’10” or taller. They still don’t play good defense and they still need to score in bunches in order to win. Man, that sounds familiar.
What to Watch
After the last game the Tops need a standout performance from the point guard position. We’ve seen Charles Bassey dominate down low and it just isn’t enough night in and night out. Five turnovers from Dalano Banton won’t cut it and is unacceptable even from a true freshman. I’m not sure if he’s the answer or if giving Monte more minutes will help (if nothing else to wake Banton up) but they cannot have another night like they did at ODU.
As other writers have said in a previous article, Stans has to trust his bench if he wants any sort of consistency out of these guys. If Jake or Monte can give meaningful minutes and actually be more than just five fouls and a pulse, he will have a team that can put away the Herd just like they did last year in both regular season meetings.
Maybe it goes without saying, but defensively the Tops will have to get pressure on at least one of the two leading guards for the Herd. The way they lose this game is by letting Elmore have his way from three and trying to match him shot for shot. If they are able to take that one toy away from D’Antoni I believe they stand a good chance to come home 2–1 off this tough road swing. If not…… *saltiness overloads*
