C-USA – Golden Eagles vs Thundering Herd
Speculation about whether the Southern Miss Golden Eagles really are a tournament team continues as they struggled to beat East Carolina, needing overtime to beat the Pirates in a quarterfinal matchup.
Conference USA Semifinal
Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles (25-7) vs Marshall Thundering Herd (20-12)
Friday March 9
The Pyramid – Memphis, TN
4:00PM
Moneyline: No money line currently listed
Spread: No line currently listed
O/U: No line currently listed
Southern Miss
The record is gaudy but a look behind the numbers reveals that their best wins are probably a 2 pointer over South Florida, another bubble team, and a 3 pointer against Memphis at home. I am not sure Conference USA is more than a one bid league if favoured Memphis wins the title.
The Golden Eagles feature a guard heavy attack with four backcourt players averaging between 10 and 12 points per game.
Darnell Dodson transferred out of Kentucky in pursuit of more playing time and though he only averages 18 minutes per game he uses that time very wisely scoring 10+ points per game, making him one of the most efficient scorers around.
Southern Miss can get pushed around as only one player in their regular rotation tops 6’7”.
They will probably look to run the weary Thundering Herd out of the gym. [soliloquy id=”82219″]
Marshall
It took three overtimes but Marshall finally put away Tulsa yesterday, advancing themselves to the semifinals and destroying the logistics of the Conference USA tournament.
The Thundering Herd are still a long shot to make the tournament but they have a chance to grab even more attention if they can beat a Southern Miss squad they just beat to close the regular season.
The team’s split their two games with each winning on their home flour by 4 points.
The real question is how much energy Marshall still has left.
They didn’t get a bye like Southern Miss did in round 1 and played almost an extra half a game yesterday. Guard DeAndre Kane scored 40 points, but it far from a masterful performance as he made just 15 of 35 shots. He was a dreadful 1 for 9 from three and will have to be better to keep Marshall in the game.
This team isn’t very deep and might be too emotionally spent to win another round.
Spread Pick:
O/U Pick:
Score Prediction: Southern Miss 72 – Marshall 60
