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A few observations from the last week in sports:
Think the Marshall men’s basketball team being in a five-game rut is hard to handle? Imagine what Shaq Johnson must feel like.
The sophomore guard has had the ball in his hands during crunch time for four of those losses – a late turnover against WVU, ditto that at home against UAB, the missed foul shots against Memphis and Wednesday at Tulsa, when his shot to tie the game (after the Herd totally blew a 15-point first half lead) was blocked by one of the most underrated guards in the country, the Golden Hurricane’s Ben Uzoh.
Just so I’m clear, those losses are not Shaq’s fault. He’s not the only one who couldn’t make a shot (any shot) in the first half against UAB, and he’s not the only one that missed foul shots against Memphis.
I do have to wonder though, is there anybody else Donnie Jones and his staff could draw a play up for at the end of a close game? Obviously putting the ball in Shaq’s hands has not been working, so why not give the ball to someone else when the Herd needs a basket at the end of the game.
The Cam Henderson Center has turned in to the anti-Boston Garden as of late. With the game tight and the clock winding down, Celtics fans just knew Larry Bird was going to drain the shot they needed. When the same scenario unfolds during Marshall games and Shaq has the ball, Herd fans (and judging from the look on his face Shaq himself) expect him to miss the shot (if he hangs on to the ball).
Johnson is an outstanding talent with a bright future ahead of him and a host of other sports clichés coaches and Jay Bilas would use. One cliché I would not use – Shaq doesn’t have that special ability to come through in the clutch, not yet at least.
Speaking of bad basketball, has anyone else noticed the Herd’s losing streak coincides with the tenure of The Parthenon’s sports editor, Kyle Hobstetter? Marshall hasn’t won a game since Hobbsie took over. Kyle wasn’t content torpedoing the Bengals, the Reds and University of Cincinnati sports in general; he had to get the stink on the Herd at the worst possible time.
I certainly wasn’t a jinx when I was the sports editor. Thinking back to my reign over the Sports page, the 48-47, lowest scoring game in Conference USA tournament history, stinker that set the game of basketball back decades between the Herd and Tulane, and how Marshall got to that point came to mind. So never mind, moving on…
If you are like me and unfortunately are Facebook friends with a bunch of WVU fans, then certainly you’ve seen some of the backlash against their awful fans in statuses since some idiot pegged a Pitt assistant coach in the face with a coin Wednesday.
The thing that I find hilarious is that most of the people, my friends that is, give the impression that this is some sort of isolated incident and the handful of fans that act like jerks in Morgantown are giving the rest of them a bad reputation.
Hell, this isn’t even the first time Bob Huggins has had to lecture the fans about this type of thing. I seem to remember an incident a few years back at the Charleston Civic Center when Huggins had to lecture the crowd about throwing stuff on the floor against Oklahoma. This is the same fanbase that takes pride in visiting football teams having to wear their helmets at all time for fear of being flung from the stands. This is the same school Virginia Tech refuses to play because of how poorly their fans and players are treated in Morgantown.
I’m all for a lubricated, rowdy student section. However, there is a difference between rowdy and felony assault. WVU fans seem to have found that line more often than not.
And finally…
Kobe Bryant broke Jerry West’s all-time Lakers scoring record this week, and there has been a lot of talk about if that makes Bryant the greatest Laker of all-time. I know former Marshall basketball player Mark Dorris would hate to read this, but no, it does not. Not even close.
There are at least four better Lakers’ than the Black Mamba. Off the top of my head and in no particular order, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Shaquille O’Neal and The Logo (bonus points for being a fellow Kanawha County native, no matter where he chose to play college ball) are all better Lakers than Kobe, period.
Tom Bragg can be contacted at tom.bragg@marshall.edu.
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