Marshall has a Caracter issue

Donnie Jones calmly strolled to the postgame news conference, took a deep breath and uttered the most telling line of the night.

"OK," Jones said as he looked around at the familiar faces that crammed into the Marshall media room. "I guess we've had this meeting before."

We certainly have.

Like what happens to Billy Murray in "Groundhog Day," the scene plays out all over again in Jones' head.

His Thundering Herd team fighting like crazy against a nationally respected opponent, feeding off the energy of an electric Cam Henderson Center crowd, making shots, forcing turnovers.

It's all there in Jones' mind. He sees it against Memphis. He sees it against UAB.

But then he sees the scene switch.

It suddenly goes dark with the memories of a missed free throw, a dagger 3-pointer from the opposition or, in Tuesday's case, a failure to make a defensive stand when it mattered most.

"If we make a couple plays down the stretch, we're right there," Jones said. "But you have to make plays and get stops when you want to win those games.

"That's what happens when you play against a very good basketball team. There's not a whole lot of room for error."

That room ran about 12 feet wide and stretched 19 feet long.

When crunch time hit Tuesday night, Marshall lost the battle in the paint.

With 5:39 remaining in the contest, Miners coach Tony Barbee called a timeout after Hassan Whiteside had the Cam rocking with a nifty jumper that finally fell through the hoop after smooching off the rim three times. The bucket capped off an 11-0 Herd run that had it up one, 65-64.

 During the break, the Miners called on their silencer to hush the 7,894 in attendance.
And Derrick Caracter delivered.

With a backside that would make Charles Barkley jealous, the 6-foot-9, 275-pound beast unleashed furry on Whiteside on the low block, scoring 10 of UTEP's last 16 points.

Caracter simply won a battle of bums.

"When you have a butt as wide as Derrick's and one as narrow as Hassan's, it was an advantage for Derrick," Barbee said.

There was no answer for Caracter when the game was on the line. Only a question from the Herd's other big man who tried to bang with him.

"Honestly, I don't why we didn't throw a double team at him," said Tyler Wilkerson. "That should have been one of the things we should have tried — throw a double team at him.

"But we never did."

Marshall did tag team Caracter once. 

With the Herd clinging to a 74-72 lead with less than three to play, Wilkerson forced Caracter into a tough floating shot in the lane that Whiteside easily came over and swatted.

But two possessions later, the Miners stuck with their game plan and fed it into big No. 4 again.

And again, he bullied his way in for two. This time, grabbing his own offensive board and kissing it off the glass.

  Some thirty seconds later, he put the nail in Marshall's coffin with a soft jump hook over the outstretch hands of Wilkerson.

  "He's got good legs on him. It's hard to stop him," Wilkerson said. "He got deep post-ups and you really couldn't do anything with him when he's that low."

  Low enough to bring Marshall down in another gut-wrencher.

Andrew Ramspacher can be contacted at ramspacher@marshall.edu.