HUNTINGTON - At several times in his first season as Marshall coach, Tom Herrion was fond of saying, "Offense comes easy to these guys."
Often, it did for that 22-12 Thundering Herd, which finished second in scoring in Conference USA at 73.5 points a game, 71.0 in league action.
Fifty-four games into Herrion's tenure, and amid his first three-game losing streak in Huntington, he isn't saying that anymore. He has seemingly dropped the word "easy" from his vocabulary, and has come up with another word.
Inept. As in, "We were inept offensively."
The Thundering Herd's offense was at its most offensive Wednesday night at Cam Henderson Center, scoring two field goals in the final 11:53 of a 56-49 loss to Alabama-Birmingham.
It was the Herd's first sub-50 game since Feb. 9, 2011 in a home game against, yep, UAB.
Give the Blazers credit, for in a season of hard luck and hard knocks, they still can play a little defense. But the Herd's performance in the past few weeks has its fans wondering, at times, if their team can score on air.
It's as if ghosts of the offensively-challenged Ron Jirsa era are dancing in the "Herd Heaven" bleacher seats at Cam Henderson Center.
(Don't laugh. The current team is shooting 40.5 percent in six conference games. Jirsa's 13-19 team of 2006-07 shot 40.088 percent in all games, avoiding the field goal "Mendoza Line" by two baskets.)
Any such ghosts must be exorcised by tonight, lest the Herd get steamrolled by Memphis on the Tigers' FedExForum floor. Game time is 9 p.m. EST, with WSAZ, channel 3 in Charleston-Huntington picking up the game.
Marshall (13-7, 4-2) remains one loss behind co-leader Memphis (14-6, 5-1) in the Conference USA standings, which is good and bad - an upset would re-establish the Herd as a contender, but a loss throws it into the pack, two games back.
The Herd must reverse all sorts of grim history on Beale Street. It not only has lost all five times to the Tigers there, it has done so by an average of 19.6 points - and has fallen behind by at least 20 each time.
MU will have to try to reverse recent history of offensive struggles. Since the calendar flipped to 2012, the Herd has shot 40.7 percent from the floor, 29.9 percent from 3-point range and 57.1 percent from the line. Against UAB, the Herd finished worse than 1-in-2 in the latter discipline.
The Tigers don't plan on being very forgiving on defense. Coming off a 73-51 throttling of Rice, they lead C-USA in field-goal defense (37.9 percent) and have held eight of their last nine opponents under 60 points.
Several players on the following list have to get warm if the Herd has a chance tonight:
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Offensively-challenged Herd visits Memphis
HUNTINGTON - At several times in his first season as Marshall coach, Tom Herrion was fond of saying, "Offense comes easy to these guys."
Often, it did for that 22-12 Thundering Herd, which finished second in scoring in Conference USA at 73.5 points a game, 71.0 in league action.
Fifty-four games into Herrion's tenure, and amid his first three-game losing streak in Huntington, he isn't saying that anymore. He has seemingly dropped the word "easy" from his vocabulary, and has come up with another word.
Inept. As in, "We were inept offensively."
The Thundering Herd's offense was at its most offensive Wednesday night at Cam Henderson Center, scoring two field goals in the final 11:53 of a 56-49 loss to Alabama-Birmingham.
It was the Herd's first sub-50 game since Feb. 9, 2011 in a home game against, yep, UAB.
Give the Blazers credit, for in a season of hard luck and hard knocks, they still can play a little defense. But the Herd's performance in the past few weeks has its fans wondering, at times, if their team can score on air.
It's as if ghosts of the offensively-challenged Ron Jirsa era are dancing in the "Herd Heaven" bleacher seats at Cam Henderson Center.
(Don't laugh. The current team is shooting 40.5 percent in six conference games. Jirsa's 13-19 team of 2006-07 shot 40.088 percent in all games, avoiding the field goal "Mendoza Line" by two baskets.)
Any such ghosts must be exorcised by tonight, lest the Herd get steamrolled by Memphis on the Tigers' FedExForum floor. Game time is 9 p.m. EST, with WSAZ, channel 3 in Charleston-Huntington picking up the game.
Marshall (13-7, 4-2) remains one loss behind co-leader Memphis (14-6, 5-1) in the Conference USA standings, which is good and bad - an upset would re-establish the Herd as a contender, but a loss throws it into the pack, two games back.
The Herd must reverse all sorts of grim history on Beale Street. It not only has lost all five times to the Tigers there, it has done so by an average of 19.6 points - and has fallen behind by at least 20 each time.
MU will have to try to reverse recent history of offensive struggles. Since the calendar flipped to 2012, the Herd has shot 40.7 percent from the floor, 29.9 percent from 3-point range and 57.1 percent from the line. Against UAB, the Herd finished worse than 1-in-2 in the latter discipline.
The Tigers don't plan on being very forgiving on defense. Coming off a 73-51 throttling of Rice, they lead C-USA in field-goal defense (37.9 percent) and have held eight of their last nine opponents under 60 points.
Several players on the following list have to get warm if the Herd has a chance tonight:
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HUNTINGTON - At several times in his first season as Marshall coach, Tom Herrion was fond of saying, "Offense comes easy to these guys."
Often, it did for that 22-12 Thundering Herd, which finished second in scoring in Conference USA at 73.5 points a game, 71.0 in league action.
Fifty-four games into Herrion's tenure, and amid his first three-game losing streak in Huntington, he isn't saying that anymore. He has seemingly dropped the word "easy" from his vocabulary, and has come up with another word.
Inept. As in, "We were inept offensively."
The Thundering Herd's offense was at its most offensive Wednesday night at Cam Henderson Center, scoring two field goals in the final 11:53 of a 56-49 loss to Alabama-Birmingham.
It was the Herd's first sub-50 game since Feb. 9, 2011 in a home game against, yep, UAB.
Give the Blazers credit, for in a season of hard luck and hard knocks, they still can play a little defense. But the Herd's performance in the past few weeks has its fans wondering, at times, if their team can score on air.
It's as if ghosts of the offensively-challenged Ron Jirsa era are dancing in the "Herd Heaven" bleacher seats at Cam Henderson Center.
(Don't laugh. The current team is shooting 40.5 percent in six conference games. Jirsa's 13-19 team of 2006-07 shot 40.088 percent in all games, avoiding the field goal "Mendoza Line" by two baskets.)
Any such ghosts must be exorcised by tonight, lest the Herd get steamrolled by Memphis on the Tigers' FedExForum floor. Game time is 9 p.m. EST, with WSAZ, channel 3 in Charleston-Huntington picking up the game.
Marshall (13-7, 4-2) remains one loss behind co-leader Memphis (14-6, 5-1) in the Conference USA standings, which is good and bad - an upset would re-establish the Herd as a contender, but a loss throws it into the pack, two games back.
The Herd must reverse all sorts of grim history on Beale Street. It not only has lost all five times to the Tigers there, it has done so by an average of 19.6 points - and has fallen behind by at least 20 each time.
MU will have to try to reverse recent history of offensive struggles. Since the calendar flipped to 2012, the Herd has shot 40.7 percent from the floor, 29.9 percent from 3-point range and 57.1 percent from the line. Against UAB, the Herd finished worse than 1-in-2 in the latter discipline.
The Tigers don't plan on being very forgiving on defense. Coming off a 73-51 throttling of Rice, they lead C-USA in field-goal defense (37.9 percent) and have held eight of their last nine opponents under 60 points.
Several players on the following list have to get warm if the Herd has a chance tonight:
Damier Pitts: Opponents know they have to slow down the tandem of Pitts and DeAndre Kane to beat the Herd. Pitts is helping them along with some of his most erratic play - he is shooting 34.4 percent since New Year's Day. His 65 percent foul shooting is nearly 18 percentage points below his preseason career average.
Dennis Tinnon: His production hasn't really fallen off, relative to minutes, but he is falling into early foul trouble. He has picked up his second foul in the first half of four straight games, doing so six minutes into Wednesday's UAB game. The Herd can still rebound with Tinnon on the bench, but not quite as ferociously.
Kane: UAB held him to 12 points on 4-of-13 shooting, four days after he was the Herd's only double-figure scorer. He also has 14 turnovers in the last three games, suggesting he might be trying to do too much. Or he gets fatigued when he has to carry this team. He may be wise to abandon the 3-pointer (25.5 percent)
Robert Goff: The big man is 10-of-28 from the floor over the last seven games, with most misses coming from short, short range. Going 2-of-7 from the line against UAB doesn't help.
A big question: Will Nigel Spikes, approaching the 20-minute mark in his comeback from knee surgery, overtake Goff in the starting rotation?
Shaquille Johnson: Will have to start the rest of the year for his defensive prowess, but is having his toughest season offensively.
Dago Pena: Good for a 3-pointer or two per game, but he is shooting barely 30 percent against Division I foes.
Rest of the bench: Jamir Hanner remains a project, playing two minutes in the last three games. Yous Mbao, the 7-foot-2 option when the other big men get in foul trouble, is 0-for-11 from the floor. Chris Martin and JP Kambola sit far, far on the end of the bench, playing a combined 26 minutes.
And now Justin Coleman has gone from disappointing to not existing, courtesy of his dismissal Thursday. Anybody miss Johnny Thomas, the brainy graduate transfer who left a season early?
Herrion doesn't have the magic answer, as the Herd must grind through a stretch of three road games in four, with trips to Tulsa and Central Florida looming.
"We're in a collective shooting slump, to say the least," Herrion said. "So we've got to continue to take good shots and believe that they're going to go in."
BRIEFLY: Memphis' Will Barton leads the league in scoring (18.3), is sixth in rebounding (8.7), eighth in field goal percentage (.504), fourth in steals (1.6) and fourth in minutes played (35.4). "He's very versatile, attacks the game in a lot of ways. He's having a player-of-the-year type season," Herrion said. ...
Milestone watch: Johnson is playing his 120th career game, fourth on the MU list. If he stays healthy, he will take the all-time lead with 127 when Memphis comes to Huntington on Feb. 25. ... Pitts has made 168 3-pointers, seventh at MU and six behind Ronny Dawn (2001-05). ...
This is the third and final time Marshall is playing in a TV game produced by Comcast/Charter Sports Southeast. Greg Gaston and Brian Oliver are calling the action.
This article is available only to our premium digital content subscribers.
Offensively-challenged Herd visits Memphis
HUNTINGTON - At several times in his first season as Marshall coach, Tom Herrion was fond of saying, "Offense comes easy to these guys."
Often, it did for that 22-12 Thundering Herd, which finished second in scoring in Conference USA at 73.5 points a game, 71.0 in league action.
Fifty-four games into Herrion's tenure, and amid his first three-game losing streak in Huntington, he isn't saying that anymore. He has seemingly dropped the word "easy" from his vocabulary, and has come up with another word.
Inept. As in, "We were inept offensively."
The Thundering Herd's offense was at its most offensive Wednesday night at Cam Henderson Center, scoring two field goals in the final 11:53 of a 56-49 loss to Alabama-Birmingham.
It was the Herd's first sub-50 game since Feb. 9, 2011 in a home game against, yep, UAB.
Give the Blazers credit, for in a season of hard luck and hard knocks, they still can play a little defense. But the Herd's performance in the past few weeks has its fans wondering, at times, if their team can score on air.
It's as if ghosts of the offensively-challenged Ron Jirsa era are dancing in the "Herd Heaven" bleacher seats at Cam Henderson Center.
(Don't laugh. The current team is shooting 40.5 percent in six conference games. Jirsa's 13-19 team of 2006-07 shot 40.088 percent in all games, avoiding the field goal "Mendoza Line" by two baskets.)
Any such ghosts must be exorcised by tonight, lest the Herd get steamrolled by Memphis on the Tigers' FedExForum floor. Game time is 9 p.m. EST, with WSAZ, channel 3 in Charleston-Huntington picking up the game.
Marshall (13-7, 4-2) remains one loss behind co-leader Memphis (14-6, 5-1) in the Conference USA standings, which is good and bad - an upset would re-establish the Herd as a contender, but a loss throws it into the pack, two games back.
The Herd must reverse all sorts of grim history on Beale Street. It not only has lost all five times to the Tigers there, it has done so by an average of 19.6 points - and has fallen behind by at least 20 each time.
MU will have to try to reverse recent history of offensive struggles. Since the calendar flipped to 2012, the Herd has shot 40.7 percent from the floor, 29.9 percent from 3-point range and 57.1 percent from the line. Against UAB, the Herd finished worse than 1-in-2 in the latter discipline.
The Tigers don't plan on being very forgiving on defense. Coming off a 73-51 throttling of Rice, they lead C-USA in field-goal defense (37.9 percent) and have held eight of their last nine opponents under 60 points.
Several players on the following list have to get warm if the Herd has a chance tonight:
