War Room: Basketball Edition

Jarrod West will report to Marshall in just a couple months. He will enroll on June 5th, take summer classes, and start working out with the team. I asked Jarrod what his goals for his freshman season were and he is setting the bar pretty high. “To start and to make an early contribution to the team, freshman of the year, all freshman team, and to win CUSA”, Jarrod said. West is currently the point guard for a Notre Dame Catholic team that is 19-5, while he averages 21 PPG and 7 APG. As most know, Jarrod has a good pedigree, as his father was a starting point guard for WVU who hit a buzzer-beater to send WVU to the Sweet Sixteen in the 1998 NCAA tournament. When I asked Jarrod if he talks to any of Marshall’s current recruits/commits, he said, “Darius (George) and Jeremy (Dillon), we talk about how we can make some noise one day at Marshall and make a run at the (NCAA) tournament.”

Jarrod West is currently Marshall’s only definite 2017 recruit, which is not an ideal situation to be in this late in the recruiting process. However, Marshall’s current 2017 targets are not high school recruits and will be expected to make an immediate impact.

The 6’9 214lb power forward would add much needed size, athleticism, and versatility to Marshall’s roster. He would be in line to replace Ryan Taylor in Marshall’s starting line up for the 2017-2018 season. Besides an offer from Marshall, Frederick currently holds offers from Kent State, UT Martin, Cleveland State, and SE Missouri State. He likes Marshall’s offensive style and Coach D’Antoni’s love of the three point shot. He is also looking for a school who has a great crowd and family environment within the team. Frederick is also looking to go to the NCAA tournament. Marshall’s toughest competition for Frederick’s services will be Kent State. The Golden Flashes received an NCAA tournament bid after beating Akron in the MAC championship game, so Marshall has to get over that hurdle in the recruiting battle. Frederick averages 21 PPG and 11 RPG for Sinclair Community College. Frederick plans on visiting Marshall after his season is over at Sinclair and will commit when he’s fully sure on where he wants to go.

The 6’9 270lb center is one a lot of Marshall fans have been salivating about for quite some time, even though he’s only been on Marshall’s radar since about September. The reason for this is every time Marshall fans think they’re going to get their ever-elusive big man, the news about his possible 2017 eligibility becomes bleak. When Bennett committed to Marshall in September, the news of his commitment was exciting because it seemed like Coach D’Antoni had landed the big man many thought he didn’t care to recruit. However, news trickled out later that Bennett would have to spend an additional year at Hargrave, not because of grades, but it seems the NCAA does not recognize classes taken at his previous school. It looks like Marshall is trying to petition the NCAA to clear Bennett for the 2017-2018 season. “I talked to coach and they said the NCAA might clear me, but he doesn’t know yet. So I’m hoping for the best,” Bennett said.

Iran’s plans are to enroll in June, take summer classes, and start working out with the team. When asked what drew him to Marshall, Bennett said, “I like that they play an NBA-like style. My coach has ties to the NBA, and then I liked how everyone around the area loves Marshall and supports them. I liked the campus and I got really close with the coaching staff. They showed me the most love. They came to see me in preseason a lot.” Bennett averages 15 PPG and 7 RPG. His Hargrave team is 41-1 and he talks to Tanner Robinette a lot about how they can’t wait to get to Marshall and turn the program around, win the conference, and make it to the NCAA tournament. At this point, with Bennett’s 2017 fate in the NCAA’s hands, I’m afraid the possibility of seeing him wearing green and white instead of orange and black for another year is slim. I guess there is always a chance, but it seems more hopeful than probable.

There are two graduate transfers currently on Marshall’s radar. The first, and most likely candidate, is 6’11250lb, Marin Maric. Maric is the starting center for Northern Illinois and averaged 14.4 PPG and 8.4 RPG this season for the Huskies. Maric was mostly an inside player for NIU, but shot 12-40 (30%) from behind the arc during his career there. Having a double-digit scorer in the 7-foot range would add something that we have yet to see under Coach D’Antoni, and it would give us more of a defensive presence down low. The connection to Marshall seems to be with Marshall’s video coordinator, Ivan Vujic. Maric and Vujic are both from Split, Croatia. I figure there is some sort of connection there.

The other graduate transfer candidate, and this one doesn’t seem very likely, is WKU’s Justin Johnson. With WKU’s incoming recruiting class, Johnson seems to feel like he’ll be pushed out of the picture and would rather go somewhere else. Coach Cline recruited Johnson when Tom Herrion was the head coach at Marshall, so there’s some familiarity there. Johnson has gone 0-4 against Marshall in the past two seasons by an average score of 92-82. Johnson was allowed to step behind the 3pt line this season for WKU and he shot 26-67 (38.8%) after going just a combined 1-12 his previous two seasons. After playing against it for the past few years, I’m sure a lot of Johnson’s interest in Marshall’s is coming from their offensive style of play. There should be plenty of power conference suitors for Johnson’s services once he officially hits the market, which will make Marshall’s chances of landing him a long shot. Not the kind of Danalytics we’re looking for.

As I look at the current Marshall roster, it doesn’t seem like Rondale Watson was on scholarship this past season. So he’ll be taking a scholarship left open by one of Marshall’s departing seniors. Jarrod West will be taking the scholarship of another departing Marshall senior. Therefore, there will only be one scholarship made available by expired eligibility. With the attention being paid to the graduate transfers, Akiean Frederick, and petitioning the NCAA to get Iran Bennett eligible, there’s only two ways to look at this. Either 1) Coach D’Antoni learned his lesson last season and has a Plan A, Plan, B, and a Plan C to fill one spot, or 2) Coach D’Antoni will be freeing up more scholarships by emptying a couple spots at the end of the bench if we can get some immediate impact players. There’s no way we’re sitting at home again in March and ignoring the impact Stefan Jankovic could have had on this team and the impact Jacory Williams did have on Middle Tennessee.

Darius George will be attending Hargrave Academy next season and will be a 2018 Marshall recruit. There has been some worry that he could blow up at Hargrave and get some much higher offers. Jeremy Dillon will also have a decision to make next season, except his decision will be which sport to play. The 2016 Kennedy Award winner (West Virginia High School Football Player of the Year) will probably have some football offers rolling in this summer. Marshall will have to play some defense on these recruits for the 2018 year, and after talking to Jarrod West, I believe he will play a big factor in them coming to Huntington. He is pretty close to both.