“We obviously sunk”; RedHawks show inexperience in loss to Marshall

Miami College and Marshall College met at Millett Corridor on Thursday to resume a rivalry almost as previous as basketball itself.

Marshall is about three hours down the Ohio River in Huntington, West Virginia. Miami and Marshall first met on the soccer subject again in 1905. 

All RedHawk fan eyes had been on star senior guard Mekhi Lairy, Miami’s major offensive driver. Regardless of being simply 5-foot-8, he dropped 34 factors in an in depth loss at Georgia on Monday.

The Thundering Herd completed sixth of 14 within the Solar Belt Convention preseason ballot this yr. First-year Head Coach Travis Steele stated after the sport that he believed all alongside that Marshall was extra gifted than Georgia regardless of their respective notorieties.

The Thundering Herd definitely regarded gifted on Thursday.

Marshall took no time in any respect to seek out its taking pictures stroke. Going into the ultimate media timeout of the second half, the Herd’s Kamdyn Curfman snuck behind Lairy as first-year ahead Billy Smith tried to inbound the ball. The slick taking pictures Curfman poked the ball away from Lairy, and instantly ran for the nook. He drilled Marshall’s eighth three pointer of the sport to make the rating 36-25 Herd. 

Kurfman would make one other earlier than half. Wyatt Fricks, a ahead for Marshall, began 4-4 from past the arch. In all, Marshall shot a scorching 9-16 (56.3%) from three within the first half. Miami however went 3-17 (17.6%) from three and simply 10-34 (29.4%) from the ground within the first. 

To start out the half, it was 45-31 Herd. 

It’s nearly exhausting to consider that Marshall scored much more within the second. 

The RedHawks went shot for shot with the Herd for the primary jiffy of the second half, but it surely wasn’t lengthy earlier than Marshall began to tug away additional.

The primary 10 rows of Millett might hear Head Coach Travis Steele studying his workforce the riot act in the course of the under-eight-minute media timeout, even over the raucous rumblings of the coed band. From there it simply received worse, as Marshall made basket after basket, not taking part in towards Miami, however towards the clock as they chased 100. 

Sooner or later, Steele received quieter throughout the courtroom. It wasn’t that he had stopped screaming: he was simply beginning to lose his voice. 

When the under-four-minute break got here round, Steele huddled his teaching employees earlier than he even addressed his workforce. He wasn’t completely satisfied. The gamers, faces twisted with disgrace and perhaps somewhat little bit of concern, regarded dejected as Steele sauntered towards them. 

Popping out of that huddle, Miami tightened up defensively. It most likely helped that Marshall had its backups on the ground, however the Herd solely scored yet another basket. 

Senior ahead Anderson Mirambeaux had a superb evening, ending with 19 factors and 6 rebounds on 6-13 taking pictures, however the 305 pound ahead was battling some kind of decrease physique damage all evening. 

Lairy simply couldn’t discover an oz of daylight. 

When issues began to get determined within the second half, he began heaving up unlikely threes. The technique works extra usually than you’d assume for Lairy, however his shot simply wasn’t falling on Thursday. He additionally missed his first free throw of the yr to drop his conversion fee to 95.5% from the charity stripe.

The RedHawks had been putrid from three. Lairy went 0-6, Smith 0-4, Mirambeaux 1-4 and first-year guards Ryan Mabrey and Eli Yofan mixed to go 1-9. General, Miami was simply 6-32 from behind the arch (18.8%), nearly by no means ok to win. On one hand, taking pictures that unhealthy simply isn’t sustainable; in some unspecified time in the future, the RedHawks will begin sinking extra pictures. However on the opposite, simply the truth that Miami has that kind of efficiency in its bag is type of disheartening. Miami’s turnover-to-assist ratio, 18-10, wasn’t good both.

“I advised our guys that I used to be completely embarrassed with our efficiency tonight,” Steele stated after the sport. “Not embarrassed by the consequence, however simply utterly embarrassed by our response. We fought again, impulsively it was a tie recreation and we had been taking part in actually exhausting, however then a few threes went in and our workforce actually splintered aside.”

It actually didn’t really feel like an ideal effort from Steele’s workforce. It’s stunning, as a result of thus far it appeared just like the RedHawks had been constructing a critically aggressive tradition round Steele and their three captains Lairy, Mirambeaux and senior switch guard Morgan Safford. It must be famous that Safford hasn’t seen the ground since he suffered a leg damage within the first recreation of the yr. Junior ahead Kamari Williams, one of many solely returners who received vital minutes final yr, was additionally out with an damage.

“We’re taking part in walk-ons, we’re taking part in a whole lot of freshmen on the market, however they gotta sink or swim,” Steele stated after the sport. “Tonight, we clearly sunk.”

Steele stated that the one shiny spot from the sport was Wil Stevens, a walk-on senior guard.

“Wil isn’t very gifted,” Steele stated. “And that’s no slight on Wil. However Wil performs exhausting. He loses himself within the recreation. I do know he fouled out, however you can inform he was on the market. You felt him. Tonight I didn’t really feel a whole lot of our guys.”On the Miami and Bowling Inexperienced volleyball recreation at Millett the evening earlier than Miami performed Marshall, there was a second when the courtroom started to filter out after Miami’s season-ending loss, and Stevens appeared out of nowhere all by himself, basketball in hand. 

His presence on the courtroom the subsequent day was actually noticeable. He got here into the sport and instantly dedicated a foul. Earlier than Marshall might even inbound the ball after that, he dedicated one other, tougher one. After that, he by no means stopped shifting. He at all times had his eyes on both his man or the ball. He scored only one level, pulled down three rebounds and dedicated fouls one-through-five to foul out. In simply 9 minutes, Stevens made his mark.

The RedHawks hit the courtroom subsequent on Sunday, November 20, towards No. 12 Indiana in Indianapolis. You don’t want me to let you know that this will probably be a extremely powerful check for Steele’s inexperienced RedHawk squad.

@jackschmelznger

schmelj2@miamioh.edu