Herd Insider Magazine - Official website. Cover Marshall Sports since 1998

By Woody Woodrum,

Herd Insider Senior Editor –

DALLAS, Tex. - In four previous meetings with the SMU Mustangs, Marshall had found a way to win but it was never easy. Last year, Markel Humphrey launched a 75-foot “miracle” that led to a 53-50 win.

Mark Dorris, having a great season in Germany in pro ball, nailed a three at the buzzer to give the Herd a 75-74 win in the Moody Coliseum in Dallas. The Herd also found a way to win under Ron Jirsa, beating the Mustangs 52-49, as Dez Willingham misses a three at the end, and a 75-72 win in overtime in the first meeting in the Lone Star State back in 2005-06.

This year, needing a win to clinch fourth in C-USA this season and a first round bye in next week’s tournament in Tulsa, Okla., the Herd got double-doubles from senior Tyler Wilkerson and freshman Hassan Whiteside and a strong defensive effort by the entire squad to beat SMU, 73-57, in Dallas on Saturday night.

"This was a big time win for us," said Marshall head coach Donnie Jones.  "We wanted to keep SMU under 40 percent shooting for the game, and under 30 percent from three-point range for the game.

“We were able to accomplish both of those goals.  We earned the bye and we now need to sharpen our focus and get ready for post-season."

Tyler Wilkerson picked up his 18th double-double with 22 points and ten rebounds to lead Marshall to a 73-57 at SMU. Marshall finished the regular season as the No. 4-seed in the Conference USA Tournament next week with a 23-8 mark, 11-5 in C-USA - Herd Insider file photo by Greg Perry.

Jones said his team, who will fly back from Dallas to Huntington, W.Va. on Sunday, will have the rest of that day off, then practice and go to class on Monday and Tuesday before taking the chartered jet to Tulsa on Tuesday evening.

“We will work on ourselves on Monday and Tuesday, plus get two days of class in before leaving,” Jones said. “Then we can go watch the teams we will play in Rice and Tulsa on Wednesday at the tournament.”

Marshall will await the winner of the No. 5 Tulsa Golden Hurricane versus No. 12 Rice, played Wednesday, March 10 in the BOK Center in Tulsa’s downtown, who will play at 7 p.m. (EST). The Herd will face the winner on Thursday, Mar. 11, at 7:30 p.m. in the quarterfinals of the tournament, the first time in five trips the Herd has not played in the opening round.

The Herd finishes the regular season with a 23-8 mark, 11-5 in C-USA and 8-4 on the road this season. That is the most wins, and the second time MU was over .500 on the road, since Rick Huckabay’s 1986-87 Herd won the Southern Conference and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for a third time in four years. Billy Donovan’s first team in 1994-95, on which current MU head coach Donnie Jones was an assistant coach, went 7-4 on the road in a season where the Herd travelled to No. 5 Kentucky, No. 16 Wake Forest and such SC rivals as Furman, Davidson, UT-Chattanooga and ETSU.

The 23 wins in the regular season match the 23 won by Huck’s 1987-88 team that won the SC regular season title and advanced to the NIT and the Carl Tacy team in 1971-72, including New York Knick’s head coach Mike D’Antoni, Randy Noll and Russell Lee who were 23-3, ranked as high as No. 8 in the nation before finishing 12th and advanced to the NCAA Tournament.

Only Cam Henderson has won more: 25-4 with no post-season in 1939-40 and 27 win in both 1937-38 (27-3, Buckeye Conference champs and first trip to NAIB – today’s NAIA – Tournament in Kansas City) and the 1946-47 team that won 27 games before adding a National Championship to Henderson’s team with five straight post-season wins in KC.

Wilkerson led this year’s team with his 18th double-double by scoring 22 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. He is the leader among active players in C-USA with 18 games with double figures in two statistical categories, and it was his seventh of the 2009-2010 season.

Whiteside picked up his 13th double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds. He had three blocks, giving him 168 on the year and moving the frosh into the top ten in NCAA Division I in blocks for a season, tied with Stephen Lasme of UMass in 2007.

The all-time leader is David Robinson, “The Admiral,” who blocked 20 for Navy in 1986, but next up for Whiteside will be Alonzo Mourning of Georgetown. He is ninth and had 169 for Georgetown in 1989, while Jarvis Varnardo (the career blocks leader from Mississippi State) had 170 blocks last season for eighth.

In the first half however, Whiteside nor of any his teammates had any blocks, the first time that had happened this season to the freshman or MU. All three for Whiteside came in the second half.

The Herd attacked the basket after halftime, with Marshall holding a 35-31 lead. MU did not hit a field goal the first 4:45 of the second half, until Whiteside had a dunk with 15:15 to go for a seven-point lead, but made 6-of-8 at the free throw line.

Jones had told his team at the afternoon shooting session free throws would be important, and the Herd hit 78 percent at the line (21-of-27).

“It’s a team victory,” said Jones. “I’ve got the best coaching staff in the league, and I was so proud of our players bouncing back from that emotional victory last Saturday and then played a very good UTEP team three days later.”

The Herd beat UCF in a triple-overtime game last Saturday at the Cam Henderson Center, 121-115, then had to bounce back against the Miners, who finish 15-1 in C-USA after rallying from a ten-point hole to beat UAB at home Saturday to win by one.

“We came down here with great focus.” That was apparent when Marshall drew only ten fouls in the entire game.

Marshall also did not send SMU to the bonus in either half, fouling only six times in the first half and an unbelievable four times in the second half. SMU, who had got to the line over 160 times more than its opponents, shot only 6-of-8 at the line and only 2-for-2 in the second half.

Marshall also got nine points from sophomore Dago Pena in the game, making his second start of the season and fifth in two years due to senior Darryl Merthie having a case of the flu, and Shaq Johnson became the backup point guard.

Merthie did appear for five minutes in the game, scoring three points and picking up a steal – his team-leading 36th steal of the year. By playing, Merthie appeared in his 123rd game and now is only two games away from tying Skip Henderson (1984-88), the all-time leader in games played with 125 for Huckabay.

Wilkerson scored 11 points in a row late in the first half to push Marshall to the lead at half. His 22 points give him 995 points in his career and barring disaster, he should become Marshall’s 45th 1,000-point scorer in program history. That would tie MU with Cincinnati and Wake Forest at tenth among schools with players scoring in four-figures in their careers.

Bob Burgess is at 1,000 among the Herd’s 44 players, and Henderson is the all-time leader with 2,574 points. In fact, if Wilkerson reaches 1,000-points, he will be only the second player in Marshall history with at least 1,000 points-600 rebounds-100 blocks.

Mark Patton had 1,593 points, 634 rebounds and 140 blocks between the years of 2002-06. Of course, blocked shots have only been counted since the 1975-76 season, so players like Charlie Slack (1,551 points and 1,916 points from 1952-56) or Burgess (1,000 points and 973 rebounds from 1959-62) or Bob Redd (1,295 points and 698 rebounds from 1965-68) cannot make this list.

MU shot 50 percent from the floor, making 24-of-48 shots. They held the Mustangs to just 39 percent, making 23-of-59 in field goals. Leading the way for SMU was junior forward Papa Dia, who had a double-double with 18 points and 13 rebounds, helping his team to a 32-31 edge in rebounding.

Neither team shot well from three, as Marshall made 4-of-14 (29 percent) and SMU hit only 5-of-18 behind the arc (28 percent). Wilkerson was 1-of-2 from three while fellow senior Chris Lutz knocked down 2-of-5 for ten points.

Marshall will look to pick up just the second win in the GMC Sierra Conference USA Tournament in Tulsa, the first time since the Herd joined the league for 2005-06 the tournament has not been at the FedEx Forum in Memphis, Tenn.

The Herd is 1-4 in the C-USA post-season, winning against UAB in the first round in 2006-07, then falling to the Tigers. Memphis has won the last four tournaments.

MU fell in the first round last year to Rice, 60-59; lost in the first round to Tulane in 2007-08 in Jones’ first season, 48-47; and lost to Tulane in the first round in 2005-06, 64-58.

Beyond the C-USA Tournament is anyone’s guess, but the best guess is some sort of tournament for the Herd beyond the league tourney for the first time since advancing to the NIT in 1988, an 81-80 overtime loss at home to Old Dominion.

3.26 Copyright (C) 2008 Compojoom.com / Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."