— By Bill Cornwell
With his team’s regular season winding down. Marshall men’s basketball coach Dan D’Antoni says he’s troubled by what he views as a lack of heart and focus on his squad, which has a huge presence of freshmen and sophomores.
D’Antoni’s doubts increased Thursday night as Marshall lost for the 13th time in 14 games, suffering a 72-71 defeat to Florida International, a team that had not previously won a road contest all season.
D’Antoni was quite emotional after Thursday night’s defeat in describing how the Herd began the contest as it trailed by 10 at halftime and failed to make plays in the last minute that could’ve changed the outcome.
“The first half was embarrassing and I don’t say that often because I love these kids,” D’Antoni said. “I told them that it doesn’t matter how well you dribble or how well you shoot. If you don’t have heart and it doesn’t come out and you don’t play, you aren’t very good — period.
“It’s about competitiveness. You have to have the type of resolve to get it done, and we have to find the toughness as a team to be disciplined when we have to be disciplined. We have to have the confidence to make plays.”
Marshall (8-16, 1-10) now heads to the most western extreme of the Conference USA footprint for Sunday’s 3 p.m. contest at UTEP. The matchup at the Don Haskins Center can be seen on C-USA TV.
The Miners (14-9, 7-4) last played on Monday at North Texas, and were upended by the Mean Green, 66-58.
Prior to that contest, UTEP had won six straight league games.
Joe Golding, who led Abilene Christian to the NCAA Tournament two of the last three seasons, is in his first year as the Miners’ head coach. Golding’s ACU team picked up an upset win over Texas in the opening round of last year’s NCAA Tournament. His career record is 172-153 in 11 seasons.
Marshall’s perimeter defense will be put to the test as junior guard Souley Boum leads UTEP in scoring with 19.1 points per game. Junior point guard Jamal Bienemy (15.7 ppg) and redshirt sophomore guard Keonte Kennedy (13.3 ppg) also average scoring in double figures. Kennedy is the Miners’ rebounding leader with 5.9 per game.
Marshall’s statistical leaders haven’t changed as Taevion Kinsey, Obinna-Anochili Killen and Andrew Taylor continue to lead in scoring and Anochili-Killen remains Marshall’s rebounding leader.
UTEP and Marshall have played 19 previous times and the Miners have won 11 of those matchups. Marshall won the last meeting between the two teams, an 86-78 victory in the 2020 Conference USA Tournament in Frisco, Texas.
After the UTEP game, Marshall returns home for a game next Thursday night against Old Dominion.
Athletic Director Update
Marshall President Brad Smith said Thursday during a University Board of Governors meeting that the interview process with the four finalists for the vacant MU Athletic Director position is progressing, with all four being interviewed on-campus within the past two weeks. He expects to name a new Athletic Director by the end of the month. Reports say those four finalists for the job are Interim Marshall Athletic Director Jeff O’Malley, Pitt Deputy Athletic Director and Chief of Staff Christian Spears, Syracuse Deputy Athletics Director and Chief Marketing Officer Andrew Goodrich and Washington State Deputy Director of Athletics over External Relations Chris Park.