With another conference victory under their belts, the UB Bulls have faced the top teams in the Mid-American Conference, and now they are set to face the worst.
The Bulls (11-5 overall, 4-4 MAC) match up well against the Marshall Thundering Herd (3-13 overall, 0-7 MAC), a team that has yet to pick up a conference victory this year.
Marshall gets the majority of its points from a player coming off the bench in Joe Miles. Miles is currently averaging 11.9 points per game and has started six games for the Herd this year.
Miles is a sharpshooter from long range - he is shooting 40 percent from beyond the arc so far this season. After the Bulls gave up countless 3-point opportunities to the Huskies on Tuesday night, they will have to tighten up for their match-up against the Thundering Herd's 3-point threat.
David Anderson, Marshall's 6 foot 8 inch senior forward, is the Herd's post threat, averaging 8.8 points per game and shooting over 50 percent from the field.
The Bulls are coming off a close victory, nearly blown due to sloppy play down the stretch. UB had countless mental mistakes and almost suffered a come-from-ahead loss after leading by 17 with just less than 12 minutes remaining in the game.
This was not the first game in which the Bulls ran into problems down the stretch, and they will have to clean up their play late in games. A team like Marshall, that shoots a lot of high percentage shots, can be a threat late in games if their opposing defense lets them back into the game with a poor performance.
"When you're up on a team you've got to put them away," said UB head coach Reggie Witherspoon following UB's Tuesday night victory against Northern Illinois.
Mario Jordan, with five steals, and Mark Bortz, who added two blocks, both gave UB great defensive efforts throughout Tuesday night's game. Both will need to continue their respective efforts against Marshall's Anderson, who will see a lot of touches to test the Bulls' interior defense.
Mindful of the emerging interior domination the Bulls have been exhibiting recently, Witherspoon cited the fact that this is a trend that will need to continue throughout the season.
"You can't accept being blocked out, you've got to fight through it," said Witherspoon.
It is also essential for Daniel Gilbert and Turner Battle to stay out of foul trouble for the Bulls in order to provide superior perimeter defense and to ultimately keep Marshall's Joe Miles and A.W. Hamilton in check throughout the game.
Despite their high field goal percentage, the Herd averages only 67.6 points per game. The Bulls can't allow that statistic to fool them, however. UB will need to take every possession seriously, and pressure the ball to keep Marshall from putting up threes at their whim.
The Thundering Herd's defense has given up 74.8 points per game, and the Bulls should look to exploit Marshall down low with Yassin Idbihi and Jordan, as well as outside with the marksmanship of Calvin Cage.
Though the Herd has not won many games this season, the Bulls can't let up in preparing for this game. Another Bulls team lost against a winless opponent just a week ago, the women's basketball team in their match against Akron last Friday.
Should the Bulls take home a victory in this game, they will get over the .500 mark in the conference for the first time this season. They will need help from the Kent State Golden Flashes, however, to move up in the MAC East division, as the Flashes hold a 5-3 MAC record.
After facing the Thundering Herd on Thursday, the Bulls will hit the road to face Eastern Michigan on Saturday.
Thursday's game is set to tip off at 7 p.m. at Alumni Arena.
Photo: Courtesy of Matthew Messina, from the RMBERS' Instagram page
