By Woody Woodrum,

Herd Insider Senior Editor --

TULSA, Okla. - Marshall finds itself in a new position in Conference USA in more than being somewhere other than the FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tenn.

For four years, the Herd has travelled to Western Tennessee and had a disappointing turn in the C-USA tourney which was absolutely dominated by the Tigers, the Memphis fans and their head coach, John Calipari. The “Memphis Invitational,” however, is no more and the Herd not only finds itself getting a first-round bye after finishing tied for third with UAB and the No. 4 seed, Marshall has been tabbed as the “team to watch” outside of UTEP, Memphis and the Blazers by the Tulsa World newspaper.

That is a bit interesting because most observers expect the Herd’s first opponent to be the Golden Hurricane, a five-seed expected to dispatch No. 12 Rice with relative ease tonight at the BOK Center in Tulsa.

“The Thundering Herd has some special parts that can provide a matchup problem for several teams. Center Hassan Whiteside is a special player…Tyler Wilkerson compliments Whiteside well and is a proven scorer. If the perimeter shooters, led by Chris Lutz, are hitting shots, the Herd is a dangerous team,” the World said in this morning’s edition.

“We are excited to be here,” said Donnie Jones on Wednesday morning at a press conference with Marshall’s media contingent. “We have been focusing on ourselves for a few days, not sure who we will play yet, either Tulsa or Rice.

“We played Tulsa twice and Rice once. We will keep ourselves sharp, then scout the game tonight and go back and show the team video of the winner.”