You ever had one of those paper-cuts that just will not quit bleeding? No matter what you do...gush.
Marshall currently, has one of those paper-cuts. They are also having trouble finding a band-aid that sticks for the 2nd half.
Marshall was on top of Conference USA for all of 1 day. That ended in Hattiesburg, when the Herd was defeated by C-USA suprise of the season Southern Miss. The Herd couldn't get over the hump in that one and blew chances to get the win.
It seems that was to become a theme for Marshall. Marshall would find themselves in this position again and again. A chance to win....and then going cold. Missing shots and not operating their offense at any sort of efficiency. Missing give-me's and put backs and chuckin' up ill-advised 3's. Plain and simple, just not playing smart with the game on the line.
The low man on the conference totem pole, UAB came into Huntington, and The Herd was plagued with the same sort of problems. UAB at one point in this one had a 10 point advantage. UAB shouldn't have ever been up on The Herd like that. UAB stole one from Marshall at the Henderson Center, 56-49.
Another issue Marshall has shown is that they tend to start off badly, putting themselves n a hole they are constantly digging out of. A positive is that they have shown they can dig, but they need to learn how to not get in those situations. They are also prone to letting teams go on runs.
So that brought Marshall to being 4-2 in conference. Put on top of that the Justin Coleman situation, and Marshall begins to look ready to self-destruct.
Tonight, the inability to take advantage of every opportunity against Memphis late in the game, and the way they went about trying to do so, shows that maybe The Herd has already self-destructed. Missed shots and bad decisions, missed free-throws and turnovers. Memphis did it all in the final minutes with the score either tied, or being a one possesion game. They seemingly tried to give Marshall the game.
However, Marshall fell back into it's late game habbits. Ill-advised shots, missing shots 2 feet from the rim, missing put-backs, and The Herd once again found themselves on the losing end of the Fed-Ex Center in Memphis.
Although, the over-all game was better than what we had seen out of Marshall than the previous two league games. Marshall never once found themselves down by double digits, and also went into the half with the slimest of leads, 41-10. Normally, that is a good sign for the Green.
However, Marshall let the Tigers do too much in the 2nd half, being out-scored 43-35. It was all the missed chances at the end that really burns for the Herd. Memphis managed to pull away in the final 2 minutes as Marshall completely fell apart. For the Herd it had actually started earlier, as they did not score a single point in a 5 minute span.
You are not going to win games like that, let alone go dancing.
Memphis picked up the 83-76 win, and has now moved into a tie with So. Miss for the conference lead.
Marshall dropped to 4-3 in C-USA, and going back to the WVU game, has now lost 4 straight.
Marshall, along with Memphis, were pre-season favorites to take honors in the conference. However, somewhere along the way, Marshall's Thundering Herd has become more like a 'Plummeting' Herd. It was rumored that the Justin Coleman situation was coausing dissention among players and coaches, it was causing a rift. Now that Coleman has been released from the program, one has to wonder if those rumors were true, if it the rift had grown too big. Maybe that is what we are seeing now from the Herd. Apparently,
Coleman was being some-sort of locker-room politician, and putting everyone at odds for personal motives or his own gain.It was said that Coleman was upset that he wasn't a starter like he expected to be, because Pitino allegedly had made that promise to him while he was commited to Louisville. He put on the face of working hard in a different system to earn playing time. By that, I guess he meant playing words with friends on the bench during games.
The Herd is still cleaning the glass as good as anyone though. Currently recording about 42 a game, which is good enough to be 3rd in the nation.
Whatever is ailing the Herd, needs to have an intervention quickly. Marshall has all the right ingredients to be playing some ball in March, but for some reason the mix isn't taking to the spoon. I don't think Marshall ever slacks off or doesn't give it their best effort, they show they are gritty and resilient to the end, when some sort of as-of-now insurmountable 'hump' always manages to get in their way.
At one time, Marshall was regarded as a contender for a spot in the dance. Now, after their recent demise, they stand at 13-8 overall, and judging by how they lost tonight in Memphis, the only sound you may hear in Huntington is the popping of their bubble.
No comments:
Post a Comment