Herd headed toward a Hurricane

TULSA OKLA. — As head coach Donnie Jones sat in the BOK center in Tulsa on Wednesday, he saw what he will be dealing with tonight.

A hot Tulsa team with more fans than any other team at the Conference USA Tournament combined.

The No. 4 seed Marshall will take on No. 5 seed Tulsa tonight in the Herd's opening matchup of the C-USA tournament. The Herd had a first-round bye, while the Golden Hurricane beat No. 12 seed Rice 73-62 on Wednesday.

While Tulsa is the host team and will have most of the arena's support, Jones said it's just about keeping the Herd on its own path.

"Our focus today will be on ourselves," Jones said. "Keeping ourselves sharp and fundamentally sound here. Keeping our mind on ourselves."

The Herd and Tulsa met twice during the regular season. Tulsa won at Tulsa, 73-69. But back in Huntington, Marshall pulled off the 64-58 win.

One of the main reasons Marshall was successful against the Golden Hurricane was the Herd's ability to stop Second Team All-Conference USA center Jerome Jordan.

The Herd (23-8, 11-5 C-USA) held the 7-foot senior to 13 points in Huntington. The fact that the Herd held the senior to a low point output is accredited to Marshall's stifling team defense.

When Jordan caught the ball in the post, senior guard Chris Lutz came with a double team, something Lutz said the team will have to do again.

"We really did help out as a team making rotations," Lutz said. "I had to help out one of the bigs, and one of the other guards had to help out with me helping off. It was a real team defensive type look, and we're going to have to play great team defense again."

With tonight's game, Jones expects Tulsa (22-10, 11-6 C-USA) to change its game plan from the last time the teams played. He also said while the other team's game plan may be different, Marshall will not be the same either. 

"I'm sure they will have a different game plan with they way we guarded them the second time," Jones said. "You always have to have other things up your sleeve, and we will." 

Jones might want to look at Rice for some tricks. The Owls were up 15 at halftime but gave up the lead in the end.

Tulsa was led back into the game by its big three in guards, Justin Hurtt, Ben Uzoh and center Jerome Jordan, but still only shot 39.2 percent for the game.

Tulsa head coach Doug Wojcik said Wednesday's lack of scoring showed him what his team needs to work on before facing the Herd.

"I changed the lineup tonight," Wojcik said before the game. "Maybe change the chemistry. Maybe get some good karma. We have to address that tonight, because we're playing a good Marshall team tomorrow."

Many at the BOK Center will look at this game being about a battle of C-USA's best big men. Tulsa has Jordan and Co-Sixth Man of the Year winner, 6-foot-10 forward Steven Idlet. With Marshall it's leading scorer Tyler Wilkerson and C-USA's Defensive Player and Freshman of the Year Hassan Whiteside.

Both teams rely on the big men to supplement the offense, but Jones knows it will be a team game, especially on the defensive side of the ball.

"I think playing Tulsa is very tough," Jones said. "They have two of the better big men in the league. We have to beat them with our team. It's not Hassan (Whiteside) versus Jerome Jordan, or Tyler Wilkerson versus Steven Idlet. I think the one thing our team has done a good job to guard them, the defense is going to be a big part in beating Tulsa."

Along with having two of the better big men in the league and playing the tournament at home, it seems as though Tulsa has one more advantage — Experience in a tournament atmosphere.

   Tulsa has reached the C-USA championships two years in a row. They also won the College Basketball Invitational in 2008 and did well in last year's NIT winning against Northwestern.

   Wojcik said with all the experience his team has, it has to show this week at some point.

   "I think you have a lot of experienced guys who have played seven games in the past two conference tournaments," he said. "That (experience) has to come out at some point. It's a nice thing to know in the back of their minds that they have it within themselves."

   Jones said with the other team having that all-important tournament experience, the Herd will have to pull out the grind against the veteran tournament team.

   "They have well coached veterans with guys who played for the championship the last two years. They understand what this tournaments about," Jones said. "It is going to be a grind both mentally and physically, and it will come down to possession at the end of the game like it usually does."

   But for the Herd, its players know that to win, it has to accept the grind.

   "We're going to come out and be ready for the grind," Wilkerson said. "We're excited to be here and ready to play. We're trying to not come in here and play just one game. So, were excited, focused and ready to go."

In Other C-USA Tournament Action:

—UTEP swept the main postseason awards as head coach Tony Barbee was named C-USA coach of the year, while his guard Randy Culpepper was named Player of the Year.

Culpepper Culpepper earned All-Conference USA first-team honors as he helped guide UTEP to its first C-USA title with a 15-1 league record. The junior from Memphis, Tenn., enters the C-USA Championship ranked third in C-USA in scoring at 18.1 points per game.