HUNTINGTON - The preseason prognosticators could have gotten this one right about Marshall's basketball prospects: The Thundering Herd would have to hit not one but two buzzer-beaters to defeat the 12th-place team in Conference USA.
That was the case Saturday night when the Herd somehow beat Southern Mississippi 108-106 in an exhausting overtime game. Just going off memory, I'm not sure when the last time MU came back from 23 down.
(The margin in the 1983-84 comeback on Marquette was 22 points, correct?)
Yes, it was Southern Miss, who gets double credit for not checking out in its last game of the season (the Golden Eagles are ineligible to play onward). Yes, the Herd made Courtlin Jackson look like MJ, except ol' No. 23 would never foul out while scoring 40.
And yes, the Herd has several issues heading into the Conference USA tournament this week in Birmingham. (Can anyone besides Jon Elmore take a charge?)
Then again, Marshall could have been fighting to stay out of Tuesday's play-in game, a pillow fight between Florida Atlantic and Texas-San Antonio. By some pundits' reckoning, MU's ninth-place selection by C-USA's coaches was generous.
For some reason, I have been lugging around Sporting News' basketball preview all season. Stinkin' thing weighs more than my Macbook, and I hadn't opened it since November.
Until Sunday. Had to share a little humor, you know.
The 1-through-14 order wasn't that bad. The SN folks nailed Alabama-Birmingham at 1, missed Louisiana Tech by a seed line (5, actual 4), ditto for Western Kentucky (7, actual 8), and pretty much nailed a few others.
They picked Charlotte 14th, but the 49ers finished alone in seventh. That gets a pass, as the 49ers had a new coach (Mark Price), few returnees and Pittsburgh graduate transfer Joseph Uchebo wasn't listed on the roster.
Marshall was picked 12th behind UTSA (huh?) and FAU (huh?). The mag concluded its MU summation with this: "Of the newcomers, ... James Kelly, a former starter at Miami, should be a factor."
With that, the magazine has exited my laptop bag.
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Marshall shredded my early-January C-USA rankings. Shoot, I was giving the Herd credit for an impending four-spot jump to No. 8. That was my worst pick, with a Charlotte (11, actual 7) being next.
I pegged Louisiana Tech first, but the Bulldogs slipped to a tie for third and UAB took the regular-season title with three games to spare. About UAB, I said, "William Lee has got to pick up the pace."
Roger that.
In the "you're welcome" category, I nailed UTSA at 14, FAU 13, Southern Miss 12, Florida International 10 (actual tie for ninth, 11 seed this week), Rice 9 (tied for ninth, 10 seed) and Texas-El Paso 6. My worst over-selection was Western Kentucky (I went fifth, Hilltoppers finished eighth).
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The all-conference teams come out today. Again, C-USA does this right: five first-teamers, five second-teamers and five third-teamers, with no honorable mention.
My first-teamers are Kelly, Uchebo, Alex Hamilton of Louisiana Tech, Trey Freeman of Old Dominion and Robert Brown of UAB. Slotting UAB players isn't easy, as the Blazers won the league and were very balanced in doing so. Lee, Chris Cokley and Nick Norton also should be honored today.
It was a no-brainer to pick Jon Elmore on the second unit, though I expect him to be on the third. I voted Stevie Browning on the third unit, but the field is pretty deep at that level.
The freshmen and defensive teams come out Tuesday, along with the Sixth Man of the Year and Newcomer of the Year awards. Kelly qualifies as a newcomer, so that's a gimme.
Marcus Evans of Rice should be the Freshman of the Year, and MU's C.J. Burks is easily deserving of a spot on the All-Freshman Team. Burks is a good sixth-man candidate, though I quickly selected UAB's Dirk Williams. I went with Lee for Defensive Player of the Year.
The Player of the Year and Gene Bartow Coach of the Year selections are unveiled Wednesday morning and if Kelly and Dan D'Antoni don't sweep those, I surrender. One note: Only the coaches vote on the latter honor.
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I'm betting D'Antoni picked up a vote from Southern Miss coach Doc Sadler.
"They need to do everything they can to keep that cat," Sadler said. "He plays an exciting style that gets people in the stands, and also plays a style that people enjoy watching, and that's not the case throughout the country."
A few sentences later, he was more candid about the Herd's season.
"I mean, guys, they're one or two plays away from being conference champions," he said. "The calls that went against them against UAB here, I mean, wow.
"I've not been the most pleased guy about the officials [he got thrown out Saturday], but I'd be really unhappy if I'd been Dan against UAB. I mean, they got that game taken away from them."