ROLL OUT the calculator on your smart phone, divide 7 by 18 and you'll get .389.
Or .3888889 or .388888888889. How many digits beyond the decimal point does your calculator go? Not a big deal, is it?
But this is: That number is close to 40 percent, or how deep Marshall is into the Conference USA season. Into this stunning, unexpected C-USA season.
From a standings standpoint, it's a decent sample size, but not quite the indicator. At 6-1, Thundering Herd still has four games with co-second place Middle Tennessee and league leader Alabama-Birmingham, beginning with the upcoming Thursday/Saturday card at Cam Henderson Center.
Old Dominion and Charlotte, better than their 3-4 league record, will come to town later. So will Louisiana Tech, which has rebounded to fifth place after somehow getting swept in a Florida International/Florida Atlantic swing. (Though it must be noted FIU sits in fourth place at 5-2.)
But remember, Marshall was supposed to be a weak sister, or so said the outside world. And now, the Herd is .857142857 of the way to its seven wins of last year, with 11 games to go.
Shoot, the Herd has tripled its road wins. You saw that coming, right?
Sure you did.
We might have an idea on which teams might contend, but we have a better glimpse at who is in the race for C-USA's player of the year.
Arguably, you could just look at one game: Marshall's 78-75 win Saturday at Old Dominion. Talk about five-on-five and supporting casts all you want, but that game was coming down to the Herd's James Kelly vs. the Monarchs' Trey Freeman.
Freeman scored 37 points, tying the season-high for MU opponents (also doing it: Josh Adams of Wyoming). He is tough to track down off the ball and often shoots ... dare we say it ... mid-range jumpers. And he gets them off quickly, and doesn't fear doing so in traffic.
But he made consecutive, critical errors late in the game, both resulting in Marshall baskets. ODU doesn't commit many turnovers and had just seven in this game, but Marshall converted those into 16 points.
Herd coach Dan D'Antoni offered an explanation of Freeman's problems in his two fateful possessions, which allowed the Herd to take a 71-65 lead. Bear in mind that Freeman played 158 minutes over that game and the previous two, so fatigue could have been a factor.
"I didn't want to trap too early - and it almost beat us, too - on Freeman coming off the picks," D'Antoni said. "I wanted to wait until after halftime so he couldn't adjust to it. It worked out."
And you know who scored off Freeman's gaffes, both on inbounds passes? Yep, Kelly.
And Kelly hit the game-winning shot, a 3-pointer with a hand in his face with 3.2 seconds left. That gave him 21 points for his third 20-point game in a row, eighth in the season.
It was his first direct game-winner, but I figure he has flipped the results of a few others. You can point to his 38 points against Wyoming or his 32-point game against a pesky, psyched Rice team as losses he personally changed to wins.
With better outside shooting, he's a full outside-inside-drive-it threat. When his teammates see him for a lob inside, they don't have to be perfect with the pass. He moves well off the ball, something few players at 6-foot-8, 260 pounds can do.
He opens up the entire offense, with all mates participating.
With all that clicking, he's a threat to be the player of the year, the Herd's first in years.
Keep in mind that, if Kelly stays out of foul and injury trouble, he should at least be the Herd's first all-conference first-teamer in MU's time in C-USA. Hassan Whiteside didn't do it; DeAndre Kane didn't, either.
John Brannen was named the Southern Conference's top player in 1997, while Tamar Slay (2000) and J.R. VanHoose (2001) were first-team all-Mid-American Conference. The MAC MVPs those years were Anthony Stacey of Bowling Green and David Webber of Central Michigan.
We're talking 15 years and longer between these conversations. Kelly is treading into some fresh, deep snow here.
The player of the year race doesn't necessarily come down to Kelly vs. Freeman, though. Kelly and the Herd were taken to school down low by Charlotte's Joseph Uchebo last week. Alex Hamilton could carry Louisiana Tech back up the standings board. Will MTSU's Giddy Potts shoot himself into the running?
League leader UAB's production is more spread out, much to the Blazers' credit.
Most teams have 11, some 12 games to go. Can Kelly take over the player of the year race like he has taken over several games?
MTSU and the Herd hook up at 7 p.m. Thursday at Cam Henderson Center, with UAB coming at noon Saturday. After then, there will be a .500 sample size on both counts.
With no rounding needed.