HUNTINGTON —
Marshall University won’t hang a banner in Cam Henderson Center for its CollegeInsider.Com Tournament participation. However, a pennant will pass up for a championship. Marshall wanted to play within the NCAA event. However, that didn’t appear. So if you’re within the CIT, you might as properly move ahead and win it, Thundering Herd sophomore guard Jarrod West said Monday. “I assume it will be proper for us, this software as an entire and this university to come out and win this thing,” West stated. Marshall keeps inside the CIT with a 7 p.M. Tuesday domestic recreation whilst Hampton University (18-16) comes from Hampton, Virginia, to face the Herd (21-14) in the semifinal round. The different semifinal contest Tuesday is Texas Southern (24-thirteen) at Green Bay (20-16). The sport might be broadcast online at watchcit.Com The Herd will host Thursday’s championship if it advances.
Marshall teaches Dan D’Antoni said postseason play consists of a 10K event (the NCAA match) and the Herd didn’t make it, and a 5K (the National Invitation Tournament) the program didn’t get in both. And, there also two 3Ks, the CIT and College Basketball Invitational. “If we win it, we’re one of only 4 teams at the top of the 12 months which are glad,” D’Antoni said. “Only four groups finish with a win.” Along with the possibility to place up a new banner, a CIT championship could be Marshall’s 2d countrywide tournament title. The 1947 crew coached by Cam Henderson turned into the small-university National Association for Intercollegiate Basketball winner. In 1952, the NAIB transformed into what’s now referred to as the NAIA.
Another bonus for playing in the CIT after falling quick of shielding the Conference USA crown and making a 2nd consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance is getting a few extra practices and games, D’Antoni said. “We’re a younger team, but people think we’re vintage,” the 5th-year educate stated. “We’re without a doubt inexperienced persons and sophomores after the ones three seniors (Jon Elmore, C.J. Burks, Rondale Watson), so we’re gambling in a scenario that’s one and executed, and also you surely must be for your Ps and Qs all the time due to the fact you can’t have a down sport.” Elmore owns the school and convention career facts for points (2,593), assists (775), and three-point discipline goals (348) while additionally protecting Herd requirements for three-point subject goal tries (980), free throws (677), and loose throw attempts (837). He’s also 24th in Herd data with 621 rebounds
The 6-foot-three senior from Charleston has season averages of 20.1 points, 5.1 assists, and 5.0 rebounds in line with the game. Burks is a 6-four protect from Martinsburg, whose 1,847 career points overall is fifth within the Marshall record e-book and is averaging 17.4 factors, three.9 rebounds and a pair of.Nine assists. Watson, a 6-4 protect from Lewisburg, comes from off the bench to contribute 7. Four points, three.9 rebounds and 2.1 assists a game. Marshall’s normal beginning lineup additionally consists of the five-11 West from Clarksburg, 6-9 sophomore Jannson Williams of Newnan, Georgia, and six-7 sophomore Darius George from Staunton, Virginia.
Freshman ahead Taevion Kinsey, a 6-five Columbus, Ohio, local, rankings 10.3 factors with double figures in nine of the closing 10 video games, 6-nine freshman Iran Bennett contributes four.4 points with 2.6 rebounds and 6-9 sophomore Mikel Beyers rankings 2.9 points.
“We have quite a few younger men that play,” said West, the faculty season file holder with 76 steals. “I, Jannson, and Darius are all sophomores. Taevion and Iran are novices. It offers us a whole lot of experience and extra video games under our belt.” Marshall has 8 victories in its remaining 9 games, including CIT wins at domestic in opposition to IUPUI (78-seventy three) and Presbyterian College (eighty three-66). Hampton joined the Big South Conference this season after gambling within the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference when you consider that 1991. Head educate Edward “Buck” Joyner’s teams made NCAA match appearances in 2011, 2015, and 2016, went to the College Basketball Invitational in 2014 and 2017 and was inside the NIT in 2018.
The Pirates won their first CIT games at home towards St. Francis, N.Y., eighty one-72, and Charleston Southern, 73-sixty seven, earlier than a street win at NJIT, 82-70.
D’Antoni started the Pirates are athletic and brief; they shoot three-pointers, rising up and down the ground. “If we get in here with power and we pass the basketball on offense and have electricity on the boards and rebound, I feel true,” he said. Six-foot junior defend Jermaine Marrow scores 24.7 factors for the Pirates, and six-2 senior guard Kalin Fisher adds 15.Eight. Heckstall is the main rebounder with 7.1 in line with the contest. Hampton is forty-three. Four percentage capturing team and makes eighty-three threes a recreation. Marshall makes forty-four. 2 percent of its shots and connects on about 10 3-suggestions.
