First, condolences to the Penn State community on the death of Joe Paterno. I am reminded that Bear Bryant did not live long after his retirement, though he did not have a heartbreaking scandal swirling around him.

Back to Marshall matters … My column this morning critiques the recruiting class that just finished its work (with one exception), the class of 2007. I’m the only one to do this every year since 2002 and yes, it should be done. This class, and its development (or sometimes, the lack thereof), really shaped where the program is now.

Addendum note, Rivals listed 8 3-star athletes, including the great Jo Jo Cox. I left him out of my column, but I’m not exactly apologizing — he had about as much chance to play as I did.

Right this minute, Rivals lists 9 3-stars, including 4 offensive linemen (2 jucos) and one juco defensive tackle. It would be refreshing if they all panned out.

Speaking of panning out, that’s what the MU basketball team needs to do Wednesday night against UAB. The 2-game losing streak must be snapped before the Herd heads to Memphis on Saturday … and the Blazers (though still dangerous) have plummeted to 10th place.

UAB is 6-12, 1-4, and is coming off a real stinker against Central Florida, in which it suffered another late run by the opposition. I think the fans there are starting to call for Mike Davis’ head, and I can’t blame them a bit.

And if that isn’t enough, the Blazers may have lost Jordan Swing for weeks with a fracture in his hand. Marshall won the Jan. 11 game at Birmingham in no small party by holding Swing to 3-of-11 shooting. (DeAndre Kane’s 21/10 effort and Dennis Tinnon’s 19 rebounds didn’t hurt.)

The Conference USA race is very interesting. That one-loss crowd at the top should be broken up to some degree, and we’ll see if Tulsa can climb into the upper crust. Games this week among the top 5:

UCF — @Tulsa, Southern Miss
Marshall — UAB, @Memphis
Memphis — Rice, Marshall
Southern Miss — @East Carolina, @UCF

But the Herd’s task is to just win, baby … and play from ahead, for once. More on that trend at some point …

 

 

This entry was posted on Monday, January 23, 2012 at 9:16 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.