MBB vs Marshall, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024, 6:30 p.m. ET, Holmes Sweet Holmes, No Love For The Herd, there will be 3s

[T-Dog]

Boy that MAC challenge adventure was something. Perhaps the best basketball game in Holmes Center history. After scoring 56 on Wednesday, App scored 109 on Saturday. Does it make sense? Yes, because it's college basketball. It was almost a thrilling as the Super Bowl (and wasn't boring for the first 70%).

Now, the 20-5 App State Mountaineers return for the final three weeks of the regular season. Six games, the next two at Holmes Sweet Holmes. It's winning time of the season.

Also, FYI, the Oregon State and NIU games don't matter right now. So stop worrying and live in the now while were' enjoying these days. We're in a title chase here!

App State is tied for first with Troy at 10-2 with the Trojans holding the tiebreaker for the No. 1 seed. Regardless, App is still in 1st place and controls its destiny for a ring, with JMU one game back. Annoying yes, but that's life.

Next up: The Herd

Marshall is 12-13 overall and 7-5 in the Sun Belt, currently tied for 5th. Because they're wusses, Marshall didn't take part in the SBC/MAC Challenge, so they didn't play over the weekend. The Herd' last game was Wednesday at Troy, who waxed them 82-66 as Marshall only scored 24 points in the first half.

Marshall is typically known for shooting 3's, but this season haven't been great at it. The Herd have attempted the 3rd-most threes in the Sun Belt, but are 12th in % at 31.2% (App is 31.7%). Marshall is 13th in FG% (42%) while App is 47.3%. They shoot FT's decently and can rebound fine. Marshall gets assists (16.04 a game, App is 15.16) and blocks (4.68 shots a game, App is 7.28).

They're hard to make out on their schedule. Beat Southern Miss and Louisiana, but lost twice to last-place ODU. They still gotta go to Georgia and JMU. Marshall is 3-5 in road games, with those wins at Ohio, ULM and Texas State. Because of the Herd's hot and cold nature, it's hard to see how this game will go. I'll predict App will score somewhere between 56 and 109 points.

Just like every other sport at Marshall not named men's soccer and women's basketball, Marshall fans hate their team and their coach right now. I'm fine with piling on the misery, especially since losing both times to Marshall last season. In fact, App hasn't beaten Marshall since the 2010 CIT Tournament in Huntington and not in Boone since 1997 in Varsity (!!!), meaning Marshall has never lost in the Holmes Center (2-0, I believe).

Plus, we really don't to lose an undefeated home record to fricking Marshall.

Many of us olds can't make it Thursday, so for those who can, go.

[BambooRdApp]

App by 5

[311neers]

1-0. Win anyway.

[Bigdaddyg1]

Apparently all of that NET stuff is completely out of our control now unless a whole bunch of teams above us all just absolutely collapse over the next 3 weeks and we can win the last 6 games by 50 and we won't climb the ladder much so just out score everyone by at least a point!!

[agentpaul001]

Two more App wins this week pretty much locks a double-bye as well.

[Bootsy]

One guy I'm really hoping will see a turn in fortunes is Mantis. His defense has been solid over the past six weeks but he's struggled mightily from the arc. I'm looking forward to that young man finding his range again soon.

[Saint3333]

Mantis is shooting 34% from three on the season. Not great, not terrible. It’s the streaks that are very prominent. He’ll shoot 15% for four games then 45% for four games. Right now he’s on a streak closer to 15%.

Hope he gets hot for the tourney.

[biggie]

Winning that last game with Mantis scoring zero seemed a bit crazy to me.

[AppStFan1]

One guy I'm really hoping will see a turn in fortunes is Mantis. His defense has been solid over the past six weeks but he's struggled mightily from the arc. I'm looking forward to that young man finding his range again soon.

He has really struggled. I have thought he was our 9th best player the last couple weeks. I am hoping he can find his range again for sure. He has shown flashes at times. It just seems like a long time since he last contributed from long range.

[ah59396]

I wanna win 30.

Starts with The Turd. Let’s go!

[appgrad95&97]

This game, really every game going forward, is/are big. Both Troy and JMU should win out. And beating Marshall will go a long way towards locking up a double bye in the tournament.

[Bigdaddyg1]

The next 3 weeks will weed out the contenders and the pretenders.

[RaleighApp27609]

Since we are approaching the end of the regular season, if both App and Troy win out, would they be considered co-champions or does the Sunbelt do some sort of tie-breaker? Basically what I am asking is would we be able to add a regular season championship banner to the rafters in the HCC.

[311neers]

Since we are approaching the end of the regular season, if both App and Troy win out, would they be considered co-champions or does the Sunbelt do some sort of tie-breaker? Basically what I am asking is would we be able to add a regular season championship banner to the rafters in the HCC.

Great question. With the head to head win, I think they take it. We could get lucky and be a co-champion though.

[hapapp]

Since we are approaching the end of the regular season, if both App and Troy win out, would they be considered co-champions or does the Sunbelt do some sort of tie-breaker? Basically what I am asking is would we be able to add a regular season championship banner to the rafters in the HCC.

Good question. We would in fact be co-champions with the Trojans getting the #1 seed. Not sure whether we would be entitled to officially call ourselves co-champions.

[appgrad95&97]

Since we are approaching the end of the regular season, if both App and Troy win out, would they be considered co-champions or does the Sunbelt do some sort of tie-breaker? Basically what I am asking is would we be able to add a regular season championship banner to the rafters in the HCC.

Good question. We would in fact be co-champions with the Trojans getting the #1 seed. Not sure whether we would be entitled to officially call ourselves co-champions.

Following the 2017 Central Florida example we are entitled to call ourselves co-champions. Others might feel entitled to laugh.

[appgrad95&97]

App by 5

11.5

[BambooRdApp]

It's GameDay. Let's Go App. St !!

[APPdiesel]

It warms my cockles to see these threads growing the way they are. No matter what happens we need this kind of hype and fervor when the team is going into game 1 of 2024-25.

Assuming Kerns, Abson, Spillers, Tate, Harcum, and (hopefully) Huntley come back I think we will.

[appgrad95&97]

Keeping Kerns is absolutely, critically important.