Kentucky and Marshall Review and the Ludicrous Huntington Media

For a half (and an early run in the start of the second), it looked like a Kentucky fan's worst fear living in the Huntington-Ashland-Ironton Census designated metro area(a.k.a the Tri-State), may come true. Far worse than a buzzer-beating loss in Philly or Bloomington, a ton more cataclysmic than a Mayan or zombie apocaplypse, and edging out a Wal-Mart trip at the first of the month: A loss (or near loss) to Marshall.

Thankfully, just as the DHARMA initiative taught us, the universe corrects itself. Kentucky got rolling and decided to take their proper role in the story and plundered the Herd. The game also showed the continuing improvement of Ryan Harrow, who is becoming an honest-to-God point guard, and ready to take the reigns of the thoroughbred that is Kentucky basketball.

Kentucky beat the Herd, rather sloppily and modestly, by the tune of 28 points in front of a packed Rupp Arena.

but those 28 points...

According to Chuck Landon of the Herald-Dispatch, and to a degree Marshall forward Nigel Spikes, Kentucky is not 28 points better than Marshall. Even though Landon recognizes that Marshall is a very dismal wreck of a team right now and are playing without their best player, Deandre Kane who is out with an injury, and like Kentucky, has had to play with a 'point guard by committee', ol' Chuck refuses to believe that Kentucky, even with the level of talent they have taking the floor, is 28 points better than the Herd. Matter of fact, he even said that in no way was this a team 28 points better, but they were not even that amount better in Rupp Arena.

So according to Chuck, in no way, shape, or form and in no venue in the world, should Kentucky beat Marshall by 28 points in 2012-2013.

I like Kane, and have said numerous times, he is probably the best under-the- radar player in America, but even with Kane, Marshall is horrible on offense. It's just a fact of life. No one should  have expected anything other than at least a 28 point(or more) loss to THIS Kentucky team.

Marshall has some bright spots. Pitts, Tinnon, and Spikes all play hard and put up respectable numbers. Marshall is a tough and physical team and they have a lot of size, they have at least 7 players on the squad who are 6'8'' or taller. And, what has become kind of a hallmark of the Herd in recent seasons, they attack the glass, and clean it as well as about any other team in the nation. Currently, they sit with the 22nd best rebounding mark in the nation.

And, the Kane injury and being without him obviously is a set-back and it hurts their chances on the floor of pulling out victories. But please, let's not get out of control and say things like Mr. Landon had lamented in Sunday's H-D.

Kentucky is an enigma of a team themselves, right now. You never know what kind of effort they are going to show from game to game, and have become known as a notoriously slow-starting team, and to be quite honest, they are often times very frustrating and hard to watch. We've got issues of our own in Lexington, but at no point should you entertain the thought that we are not 28 points or more better than this Marshall team, even with not knowing how our own point guard situation will work itself out and if we can gain some coordination and get a lot tougher.

To the credit of several on the Herd team, and their Coach Tom Herrion, they know that they are lousy and need a ton of work.

I like Tom Herrion. He is a very capable coach, and has done well in Huntington. If there is a coach in America that can take this situation and attempt to be successful in salvaging this season for Marshall, luckily for them, they already have such a man on their bench.

As bad as they have been offensively, Saturday was just abysmal for the Kelly Green-clad Buffaloes. On God's hardwood floor, they shot just 29% from the field, 56% from the line, and committed 17 turnovers, and those were not from being aggressive and trying to make plays happen. Add to those horrid numbers the rather non-existent total of 6 assists, and it's hard to imagine not just Kentucky, but any team in the nation not being 28 points better than the Herd... In any gym... with or without Kane.

So Chuck Landon says that Marshall should be spending Christmas break in gyms as opposed to around a fire and lit up tree, probably should even just stay on campus and wake up Christmas morning and go straight into drills at the Henderson Center. They stand 7-6 right now, and feel like they should be very disappointed with that mark.

As bad as they are offensively, I think they should be tickled to death that they have a winning record going into the new year with a chance they might be able to improve.

It's going to be a big task for Herrion and company to get this thing turned around. Like it was said, they are big, they are physical and rebounding is like second nature to them. It's not totally dark in Huntington, but I just really don't see them being able to improve their scoring efficiency to level as to where they are going to be able to consistently go head to head with better competition. Marshall is going to have to learn how to control offensive spurts and runs other teams go on, they are going have to make the most of playing in front of their partisan Henderson Center audiences, and they are going to have to become a team that can make the most of their own runs and spurts, because with their offensive woes, they will be few and far between.

And of course, all this will only be possible if KANE is ABLE.