Arguably, Marshall's basketball team very well could be 9-1.
No, I'm not going in the direction you think. I'm not rolling out the "if they had C.J. Burks, Terrence Thompson and Ryan Taylor, they win" line. Akron is solid, and could have repeated its 99-88 win Saturday, even if Thundering Herd were at full strength.
Marshall fell to 6-4 with the result, and returns to action Monday against West Virginia Wesleyan at Cam Henderson Center. Tip-off is an hour earlier than usual, 6 p.m.
Wesleyan (5-4), coming off a 64-60 win over Bluefield State, is the first sub-Division I team to visit Huntington for a regular-season game in two years. In this instance, MU was holding out for another Akron-like test in December, one to start a home-and-home series.
To show how long MU held out, the full schedule wasn't released until Aug. 12. As late as that seems, schedules haven't rolled out some years until September.
It's a testament to just how tough it is to construct a nonconference schedule. Coaches in three different divisions have told me that's the worst part of the job and it never gets better. Everybody wants to play at home - in 2015-16, 12 of the 14 Conference USA teams played more home than "true" road games.
That leads to some opponents I have to brush up on - this Wednesday, Rice faces a crosstown rival in ... the University of St. Thomas?
D'Antoni would just as soon not play a D-II, nor does he like to play a D-I team as weak as Western Carolina, a game that was part of the Global Sports Challenge. He has half-joked that mismatches put him to sleep.
But this is his most important point: The nonconference schedule is not supposed to fatten your win-loss record. It is supposed to make you tougher, sharper for upcoming conference play - and eventually, for the conference tournament.
So that's why Marshall traveled to Mid-American Conference favorite Akron. And after Monday night, the Herd goes to Cincinnati on Thursday, and Pittsburgh on Dec. 28. All regional teams, as were those trips to Ohio State and Eastern Kentucky and Southern Conference favorite Chattanooga.
As D'Antoni will tell you, the only bottom-half teams he wants to play are in Marshall's own league.
D'Antoni could have gone the other way. In his three seasons, Donnie Jones played eight sub-Division I teams, including that horrendous 115-34 win over Salem International in December 2009.
Saturday, the Herd played without Thompson, Taylor and Burks and got a sub-par effort from Jon Elmore. Truthfully, those guys could have used a game against Missouri-Kansas City, but the Kangaroos were another cupcake in the Morgantown bakery.
There are other good scheduling models within C-USA, and Middle Tennessee is one of them. If you haven't heard, the Blue Raiders (10-2) have skinned Mississippi and Vanderbilt by a combined 38 points, and downed Belmont by 13.
The Raiders take on a number of regional teams and have found some sneaky-good mid-major teams. Their first loss was to Tennessee State, 64th in the Rating Percentage Index.
Their second loss came Saturday at Virginia Commonwealth, 80-77 in overtime. The Rams are 22nd in the RPI, helping MTSU keep a lofty No. 6 rank. That number will be dragged down by a conference currently ranked 24th (ouch), but stands to remain in the top 40.
Even with its four losses, MU's RPI is 120. In the games ahead, Cincinnati is 50, Pitt 37. (The Wesleyan game has no effect on the RPI.)
Going 7-6 won't be bad thing heading into the Dec. 31 league opener at Florida International. Should D'Antoni's blueprint play out as envisioned, that may improve a few games in future seasons.
And the coach will stay awake.
nnn
Ripley's Luke Layhew is one of Wesleyan's four double-figure scorers, averaging 12.0 points and a team-high 6.8 rebounds. At 6-foot-8, 200 pounds, he is one of the Bobcats' big men.
Serbian native Luka Petrovic, who played at Huntington Prep, averages 4.9 and 2.9. Alex Osburn of Winfield and Jaquan Brock of Riverside are on the roster, but have combined for one minute.
The Bobcats' leading scorer is Mo Berchie, 14.3. Interesting stat: They are shooting 73.5 percent from the foul line, Marshall 74.1 percent.
I guess all those years of the Herd struggling to shoot 60 percent still stick in my head.
Contact Doug Smock at 304-348-5130 or dougsmock@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @dougsmock and read his blog at http://blogs.wvgazettemail.com/dougsmock/.