Tag: Basketball

Former Marshall Star Makes a Name with Globetrotters

The Harlem Globetrotters will crowds Tuesday night in Charleston and Wednesday night they will do the same in Huntington.

Johnny Thomas played one season at Marshall University in 2010-2011 after transferring from North Carolina State University. The Morehead City, North Carolina native endeared himself to Marshall fans with his hustle and attitude. Finding him on a team known for being flashy comes as a bit of a surprise. During his time on Marshall’s basketball team, Thomas had a reputation as a guy that did the small things.  Thomas joined the Globetrotters last year; he said it was an honor.

“I always wanted to play professional basketball, so when the Globetrotters offered me that opportunity I took it and ran with it,” Thomas said. “The Globetrotters organization is so recognizable through everyone’s eyes and it get so much respect that you want to be a part of a brand that is associated with being ambassadors of goodwill.”

The Globetrotters have been playing ball for 88 years all over the country and world. They’ve played in 122 countries and according to their website in front of a 188 million fans.

Thomas goes by the nickname Hawk. He said he was working out for the team before joining the Globetrotters and they noticed he could jump a little. The coach told him after seeing him dunk, we’re calling you hawk because you can really fly.

Thomas said it takes a unique basketball player that can fit with the Globetrotters and  do all the tricks, while still being charismatic and interacting with the crowd all the while playing a little basketball. Those tricks recently led to an attempt by Thomas to hit a shot from five stories above the floor at Madison Square Garden in New York.

 

He said it’s nice to see how much the Globetrotters mean to the people that come out to see them all over the world.

“I am excited to be a part of it, it does amaze me at the fan loyalty that we have, we’re the only supported franchise in history where people are always on our side, people are always wanting us to win, that’s what I love,” Thomas said.

Thomas is excited about the chance to play in the area once again. He said his short time in Huntington meant a lot to him.

“I’m looking forward to coming home and really seeing people that I haven’t seen in a long time and just having a great time with it,” Thomas said. 

How to Stay Warm in Brutal Cold, Could Fracking Solve Abandoned Mine Water Problems? & More

Lawrence Messina of the West Virginia Department of Military Affairs and Public Safety joins Beth Vorhees by phone to discuss the extreme cold and what’s being done to keep residents safe, could fracking solve abandoned mine water problems, and West Virginia University’s basketball teams begin their second year in the Big 12.

WVU Basketball Hoping for Big Things in Second Big 12 Season

West Virginia’s men’s team is coming off of a season last year where they only won 13 games. It was the worst season in a decade for the program, and one of Coach Bob Huggins’ worst as a head coach.

One problem the team endured  was an exhaustive travel schedule, traveling  more than 30,000 air miles, since many of the Big 12 schools are in Texas. Huggins says an adjusted travel schedule this year, which allows for the team to stay in that state for two games instead of flying back and forth, has helped.

West Virginia’s women’s team is performing better than last year. Last year, they finished with 17 wins and 14 losses. This year, the women’s team is red hot, as they have won 13 games in a row.

Huntington Prep and Head Coach Rob Fulford tip-off 5th season

High school basketball powerhouse Huntington Prep tipped-off its fifth season last night in Huntington.Rob Fulford grew up in Mullens, West Virginia. A…

   

 High school basketball powerhouse Huntington Prep tipped-off its fifth season last night in Huntington.

Rob Fulford grew up in Mullens, West Virginia. A town known for its basketball prowess to those involved with the sport around the state. Its home to the D’Antoni family and former Marshall great and current Los Angeles Lakers Head Coach Mike D’Antoni and others like Jerome Anderson who had a short stint in the NBA.

“Just coming from Mullens, it’s just different, we’re extremely competitive in everything we do, we can go on and on about just how competitive that town is and the county really, but Mullens more so than the county,” Fulford said.

Fulford is the Head Coach for Huntington St. Joseph’s Prep. It’s a prep basketball team that Fulford established at the private catholic school located in downtown Huntington. In just the 5th season the team is recognized on a national scale and spent much of last season ranked first in the nation. The team only plays a national schedule and doesn’t compete with in-state schools. Fulford said the success is something he never expected when he decided pharmaceutical sales wasn’t for him and coaching basketball was.

"It's the competitive nature of it all, I always wanted to coach," Fulford said.

  “It’s the competitive nature of it all, I always wanted to coach, I was in pharmaceutical sales and made a ton of money and I just hated the job. So got out of that and started coaching and I don’t make any money, but I love it and I think it’s just my up-bringing,” Fulford said.

Fulford started at Mountain State Academy in Beckley where he established a prep school. There he was able to recruit basketball talent from around the country and world to southern West Virginia. After 4 years there and dwindling opportunities, he decided things had to change. The next step was to move things to Huntington. In a new city, things have blossomed for Fulford and Huntington Prep where stars like last years number 1 overall recruit Andrew Wiggins have shined.

Fulford said the biggest challenge in establishing the program hasn’t been the national recognition, getting recruits or getting his kids into reputable college programs, but it’s the community’s lack of interest or confusion about what the program is about.

“I think it’s gradually going away because they understand the type of kids that we’re getting, they’re good kids, high character kids, they’re great academic kids and I think it’s taken some time for people to grasp what the program is. I think our involvement with St. Joe has helped the community support,” Fulford said.

Fulford thinks things may begin to change this season as they’ll play more home games in the Huntington area. Over the first four seasons they’ve played homes games at a variety of gyms in the area that allowed for bigger crowds than St. Joseph’s gym would allow. This year he says they’ll play some games in the small St. Joe gym and others at the Civic Arena downtown after establishing an agreement with Huntington Mayor Steve Williams. Fulford is excited to see if his team can live up to expectations they’ve set for themselves over the past four seasons.

“The expectations are obviously high, but I think people in the community and really ourselves are anxious to see what this team will do and how they respond because they’ve heard it. That’s all they’ve heard since they’ve arrived in Huntington, is how do you compare to last year’s team,” Fulford said.

He said the ultimate goal is to be the best team in the country.

“We had a really good team last year and we were preseason number one in a few polls and I think we’ll be preseason 1-5 this year in some polls and that’s our ultimate goal is to win a national championship and to continue to bring in high character kids that make the state proud,” Fulford said.

Wednesday night Huntington Prep took care of Bluefield College’s Junior Varsity team, 99 to 52.

Marshall Women’s Basketball hope to improve on 2012-2013 season

Marshall Women’s Basketball Head Coach Matt Daniel is set to tip off his second season in Huntington.

How does the Marshall Women’s Basketball program rebound from a rough first year under new Head Coach Matt Daniel in 2012-2013? They bring in 10 new girls to fill the roster. A year after finishing 9-20 overall and 3-13? in Conference USA play, the Marshall Women hope to fit more into Coach Daniel’s up-tempo style of play.

“Well with 10 new faces you never know how that’s going to equate to wins and losses, but they’ve really jelled together really quickly. I really like the personality of our team and we’re not a group that takes ourselves too seriously, we’re just out here to work hard and try to have a good time and see what happens at the end of 40 minutes,” Daniel said.

Despite adding 10 new girls to the team, five girls with starting experience do return to help steady the transition. Among Daniel’s goals as the coach of The Herd is to bring in local talent. This year Daniel as added freshman Kiana Evans from Huntington, McKenzie Akers from Princeton and Talequia Hamilton—a University of Cincinnati transfer that originally hails from Huntington. Daniel thinks local talent could be the key.

“You know when you’re recruiting kids and you’re establishing who you want to be and I was just talking to President Kopp and I want to do it with kids that are local and I think that’s important that we educate the kids that are within our tri-state area and hopefully at the end of the day try to win a few ball games as well,” Daniel said.

Marshall opens the season November 8th at home against Bluefield College. The Herd plays 9 of its first 11 games at home and has 18 home days overall. Daniel thinks his group of girls will take to his philosophy of being aggressive and quick.

“Well they’re very coachable and that’s all you can ask and it’s going to be interesting to see. It can get real fun real fast or it can still be a grind, you hope for the best, but you plan for the worst, so we’re just going to go out and we’ll kind of see what’s what then and see where we go, but I’m really pleased with the effort the girls are giving,” Daniel said.

Among those returnee’s is 5th year senior forward Erica Woods. She said this group is different than last year’s team.

“I have never in all my life seen a group of young ladies come together and jell at once so quickly. Obviously still have a ways to go and there is always room for improvement and things like that, but definitely willing to want to get it right, not be right, but get things right, we’re all about us and not just one person,” Woods said.

Not only is the team changing, but the conference the women play in is changing quickly. With 8 new schools, some of which have had previous national success, play could be tougher than it’s ever been. Woods said with the addition of all the new girls they can play the style that Coach Daniel wants.

“We just have girls that are ready to get after it day-in and day-out and everybody seems to be buying into Coach Daniel’s concept and like I said in practice everything is full speed. And if we don’t go full speed, we run and nobody wants to run, so we just try to do as he says and get in and get out,” Woods said.

Among the newcomers is transfer Talequia Hamilton, who said her transfer back home from Cincinnati was about playing in front of the people she cares about.

“I missed home, I really did. Of the two years I was there I wasn’t 

  really sure that my heart was in it, but I knew back home that I would get to play in front of my friends and my family, so I’m going to put my all into it,” Hamilton said.

Daniel hopes that home mentality for the local girls can be one of the keys to resurgence. 

Can Marshall Basketball rebound after tough 2012-2013 season?

Marshall Men's basketball began practice this week for the 2013-2014 season. After finishing last season with a 13-19 record, there were not many…

Marshall Men’s basketball began practice this week for the 2013-2014 season.

  After finishing last season with a 13-19 record, there were not many positives to look forward to this season for Marshall Basketball. But the Herd is a team of newcomers mixed with just a few returnees. Counting graduations and departures Marshall only returns six players from last season and mixes them with nine newcomers. Marshall Head Coach Tom Herrion said he likes the mix of guys he has.

“I know how far we have to go, we’ve got a lot of areas that we have to become really good at and that’s going to happen over time, but I can assure you the one thing I’m confident about as I sit here is the fabric of our group. They’ve really displayed great attitude, pride and willingness,” Herrion said.

One thing that will help the Herd with its inexperience is a new NCAA rule that allows teams to start practice earlier. Marshall officially began practice last Friday, almost two weeks earlier than past seasons. The new NCAA legislation permits 30 days of practice in a 42-day period before the first game. The Herd’s first game is November 8th against South Carolina State.

“With this new start date it’s been good for me as a coach because it’s really forces you have to a little bit better management of your practice situations. With the move up of the time you get 30 practices in roughly a 42-day window and I think it’s good because we’re really not going to go no more than three days at a time, at least for the first three or four weeks without a day off,” Herrion said.

It’s not just starting practice earlier that has the Herd encouraged though, a late summer trip to Canada to play in NCAA exempted games against Canadian Schools has given the Herd needed experience in game situations. Herrion said these added experiences and a line-up of guys with more versatility will allow them do some different things offensively and defensively.

“I think what you’ll see most is our level of extended aggressiveness, we’ve been more of a team that’s played you purely in the half-court defensively. I think you’ll see both in makes and misses defensively our ball pressure point of pick-up will be much higher,” Herrion said.

What that all means is guys like freshman point guard Kareem Canty will be applying full-court pressure to the man with the basketball. Canty sat out last year when he didn’t qualify academically. Canty said he’s looking forward to an aggressive playing style.

“We get to run and jump, we get to run and go, if we can get a stop easy, we can get easy dunks and layups, easy baskets will help us offensively,” Canty said.

Senior forward Elijah Pittman is the leading returning scorer for the Herd at 16 points a game. He echoed coach Herrion’s sentiment, saying versatility will be the key for the Herd.

“There is going to be certain games where we need four guards on the floor, there’s going to be certain games where we need three bigs on the floor and some people are going to have to play positions there not use to, but there is a lot of people on this team that can do that,” Pittman said.

Pittman said with schools like perennial Conference USA power Memphis leaving the conference, it’s time for the Herd to step up.

“When someone leaves the kings chair or the throne they have to pass it down to somebody and I feel like we need to be the team that they pass it down too, we need to be that big time school,” Pittman said.

Pittman and the Herd tip off exhibition play October 28th at home against Concord at 7 p.m.

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