— By Bill Cornwell
Marshall men’s basketball head coach Cornelius Jackson is looking for a different attitude from his team after the Thundering Herd dropped road games last week at South Alabama and Louisiana.
Jackson was troubled by Marshall’s poor starts and didn’t feel as though the Herd gave maximum effort in either game.
“We didn’t play hard enough,” Jackson said. “When you don’t play hard enough, have breakdowns and miss shots, you usually come out on the losing end, and that’s what happened to us at Louisiana. We have to play hard and tough, and when we don’t do that, it’s a tossup.”
The Thundering Herd looks to turn things around starting at 5 p.m. Thursday when it plays at Old Dominion.
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While Marshall (15-12, 8-6) lost both games during last week’s road swing, Old Dominion (11-16, 7-7) was having similar road woes, falling at Georgia State, 97-75, and at Georgia Southern, 78-75.
Marshall is currently in sole possession of sixth place in the Sun Belt Conference standings, trailing Appalachian State by one game. There is a four-way tie for first place involving Arkansas State, Troy, South Alabama and James Madison, all of which are 10-4 in Sun Belt play.
Old Dominion is tied with Georgia State for seventh place in the league standings.
The Monarchs are being led by first-year head coach Mike Jones, an Old Dominion alumnus who returned to Norfolk after serving as an assistant coach at Maryland. Jones was head coach at DeMatha Catholic (Md.) — one of the country’s top high school programs — from 2002-2021, before joining the staff at Virginia Tech.
Old Dominion struggled in non-conference play, which it wrapped up with four wins over 13 games.
Robert Davis, a sophomore guard, and senior guard Sean Durugordon, both average 15.4 points for the Monarchs. Junior guard Devin Caesar averages 11.5 points. Durugordon is ODU’s top rebounder with an average of 8.6, followed closely by junior wing player Stephaun Walker, who grabs 7.1 boards on average.
Jackson says despite Old Dominion’s losing record, the Herd faces a tough challenge at Chartway Arena, where the Monarchs are 7-7 this season.
“They’re strong and athletic,” Jackson said. “(Robert) Davis is one of the Sun Belt’s better players. He can score 30 any night and he’s always looking to score. When they make shots, they’re tough to beat, especially at home, so we have our hands full.”
Marshall’s scoring leaders remain senior forward Obinna Anochili-Killen (13.8 ppg), senior guard Mikal Dawson (13), junior guard Dezayne Mingo (11.6) and senior guard Jalen Speer (10.7).
Senior forward Nate Martin tops MU rebounders with 8.5 per game.
Anochili-Killen is fourth nationally in blocked shots and first in the Sun Belt Conference with 77.
This will be the 31st meeting between the teams, with Old Dominion holding a 16-14 series lead. The Monarchs won both meetings last season.
After battling ODU for the first time this season, Marshall plays at Appalachian State on Saturday afternoon, then returns home next week to welcome both the Monarchs and Mountaineers.