Assesing the ‘CIT’uation

After Marshall men's basketball heartbreaking loss to Tulsa in the C-USA tournament quarterfinals, postseason hopes seemed far away.

But then with the College Insiders Tournament, the Herd have a postseason bid for the first time in 22 years.

The Herd will host Western Carolina in the first round of the CIT at 7 p.m. tonight at the Cam Henderson Center. Head coach Donnie Jones said that it's a great feeling that his team is still playing while others are sitting at home.

"We're excited to be in postseason play, it has been 22 years since we've been," Jones said. "There are a lot of teams who would like to be playing right now, there are 200 some teams not playing right now."

The Herd earned the No. 1 seed in the tournaments second year. That means if the Herd can win its next three games it will host the championship game.

Having the ability to play for the postseason at home give the Herd optimism to take home the CIT championship.

I think it's big for us, being at home everyone plays good," said sophomore forward Cam Miller.  "We come out more intense and hyped with the crowd behind us, its just a big advantage for us and were going to try and win it out."

But to win out the Herd has to first get past the Catamounts of the Southern Conference.

With Western Carolina two things stand out after the Herd watched the tape of them.

"Shooting, everyone can shoot," said Miller, a former Catamount. "And a lot of people have been playing there for a while. Since I've played there, there were six or seven guys have been playing there together, so chemistry wise they are good. They got two or three years under them."

The main three guys who average double figures are all in their third and fourth years with Western Carolina. Senior Brandon Giles, an All-Southern Conference leads Western Carolina in scoring with 11.8 points per game.

Along with Giles, senior Jake Robinson averages 11.4 per game and junior Mike Williams contributes 10 points per game.  Those three help the Catamounts average 73.3 points per game as a team, a number very close to the Herd's total of 79.9 per game.

Jones said that with the Catamounts, it won't be just about playing a good team, it's also about dealing with the tournament atmosphere.

"They are well coached and are feisty and can all shoot," Jones said. "That will be similar to what were used to playing against, but you only got one day to prepare.   It's got to be more about you than it is about them because there is only so much prep."

 But with only one day to prep, the Herd wouldn't have it any other way. For every college basketball team it's about making it to the postseason. 

For senior Darryl Merthie he wasn't expecting it, but after five years of being done, he will welcome the chance to play deep into March.

"I was speechless when coach Jones got a hold of me," Merthie said. "I'm excited to get to lace them up again, put on my white jersey which is my favorite, and get to continue playing for the Herd."

But also for Merthie it's a chance to get the taste out his mouth from the Tulsa game. In the last Ten minutes of the game, Marshall only scored six points and was sent home packing earlier.

   Merthie said that this tournament is a chance to keep his season going and also get his redemption.

   That was the worst ever playing basketball and I thought my career was over with," Merthie said. "We're playing in front of our home crowd and we don't lose too often here, so its going to be hard for someone to come win here, Even thought its the CIT were happy to play and so are people on campus."

   With the CIT tournament, the Herd could have a chance to build for next season. Last year's CIT Champion was Old Dominion, who are now in the NCAA tournament.

   Jones knows that his team can gain experience for and NCAA run next season.

   "Hopefully we can keep building off this" Jones said. "This is a step for us to get a taste of the postseason and next year make it to the NCAA's."

   If the Herd win it will play again on March 22 at the Cam Henderson Center against an unnamed opponent.

Kyle Hobstetter can be contacted at Hobstetter@Marshall.edu