Victory Club gets glimpse of team

HUNTINGTON -- Victory Club members provide financial support for the Marshall University men's basketball team.

In exchange, Thundering Herd head coach Donnie Jones treated the booster club and prospective members to a rare mid-summer preview of the team at a social Monday evening in the Big Green Room of Cam Henderson Center.

While Jones spoke to the group of about 175 people, the Herd was on the court playing pick-up games.

"We have nine new faces in the program and five of them are freshmen," said Jones as video highlights of the newcomers played on a screen.

Included in the new players is 6-foot-10, 315-pound sophomore Marcus Goode from Chapin, S.C., who had to sit out last season as an academic non-qualifier.

"You can't miss him," Jones said. "Marcus had a great year academically. He did an exceptional job."

Jones also mentioned 6-10 Nigel Spikes, a freshman recruit from Dillard High School in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., who is a non-qualifier.

Spikes is going to enroll, Jones said.

"We're hoping he gets to about 7-4 next year," Jones said.

Shaquille Johnson, Dago Pena and Damier Pitts are freshman guards with great athleticism and 6-8 Kore White is a freshman forward who can really run the floor, Jones said.

NCAA Division I transfers Tay Spann (Georgetown), Brandon Powell (Florida) and Chris Lutz (Purdue) all came from winning programs.

Jones said sophomore forward Tirrell Baines, who put on 17 pounds of muscle in the offseason, had surgery for a torn tendon in one of his fingers and will be sidelined for about two more months.

Junior forward Tyler Wilkerson is up to about 240 pounds as a product of strength coach John Hark's workouts.

All-Conference USA forward Markel Humphrey and Darryl Merthie are the only seniors on the team. Merthie is on track to regain a year of eligibility he lost coming out of high school because of academic deficiencies.

"Darryl is a completely different kid than when we first got him," Jones said.

Jones also said Marshall has a series with Old Dominion beginning this year. Marshall has a home game with Ohio and a road game at Dayton.

The Herd also plays Nov. 21-23 in the Glenn Wilkes Classic in Daytona Beach, Fla., with possible games against Mississippi and Utah.