Marshall basketball plays their first game of the NCAA Tournament on Friday. What can be expected of them in their first round match-up?
Marshall is a No. 13 seed in this year’s NCAA Tournament. Playing in the East Region, the Thundering Herd are making their fourth appearance in the tournament and their first since 1987. They are coached by Dan D’Antoni, who is in his fourth season with Marshall. What should you know as they approach their first game against Wichita State?
How They Got Here
Marshall made the tournament by winning the Conference USA tournament. The Thundering Herd went 24-10 on the season and finished fourth in conference play. To win the CUSA tournament, Marshall won three games in three days beating UTSA, Southern Miss, and Western Kentucky. The Herd lucked out when Middle Tennessee State lost early, giving them their unlikely chance.
Top Players
Jon Elmore: Elmore is Marshall’s go-to guy. He makes the Thundering Herd thunder. The junior led the team in scoring with 22.8 per game while also dishing out a team-high 6.9 assists.
Ajden Penava: Penava is the Herd’s inside man. The junior from Bosnia & Herzegovina leads the team with 8.6 rebounds per game. He also led the nation in blocks per game with 4.1 per contest, nearly half a block more than Texas’s Mohamed Bamba, who finished second.
CJ Burks: How often do you see a team with two 20 point scorers? It isn’t a regular occurrence and it is one of the reasons Marshall finished the season 12th nationally in scoring. Burks joins teammate Elmore with 20.5 points per game to create a very dangerous backcourt for other teams to deal with.
Biggest Question
Can Marshall keep the magic alive?
Marshall was not expected to be here. They had a decent season, but they were a dark horse at best to win the Conference USA tournament, which was the only way they were making the tournament for the first time in 31 years.
However, everything broke right for Marshall, as things often do for miracle runs, and now they are in the tournament looking for their first-ever program win in the Big Dance. If they do get the win, they will put a damper on a lot of brackets.
Next: Most-likely first-round upsets by seed
Marshall 93, Wichita State 92. The Herd pulls off the major upset in what is one of the highest scoring games in the first weekend of the tournament, literally shocking the Shockers. Wichita State, who is a trendy Sweet 16 pick, gets bounced in the first round as brackets are busted throughout the Midwest.