A Marshall Tiger Commentary
The Marshall Tigers started the season with a couple losses as Orono took them out in the opener and then Stillwater beat them down the stretch after an amazing day from Isaiah Dobson. The Tigers at that point were 0-2…
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Continue ReadingThe Marshall Tigers started the season with a couple losses as Orono took them out in the opener and then Stillwater beat them down the stretch after an amazing day from Isaiah Dobson. The Tigers at that point were 0-2 and their ranking of second in Class AAA was a distant memory.
“Overrated” they shouted from the different corners of Minnesota. What since? Undefeated. Undefeated and looking fantastic. Undefeated and getting 6-foot-6/6-foot-7 forward Mitchell Sueker back in about a month as Sueker just got his brace off in the last 24 hours.
NHR caught up with the Tigers in Sioux Falls as we were down here for the Heritage Classic. The Tigers are playing yet another game against a big school from Sioux Falls (Lincoln in this case) as they work to fill that 26 game schedule with teams that are of similar size to their school. I mean, come on, they can’t drive to the metro ten times and expect ten metro squads to drive to Marshall going by several other options along the way. Some will, but not ten. This odd situation requires Marshall to play in Sioux Falls and vice versa.
Today’s Tiger opponent was the South Dakota defending state champion Sioux Falls Lincoln Patriots. That term defending champs is kind of misleading as every Patriot in last year’s rotation graduated. But they are still a very solid opponent for Marshall, especially on the road playing eight minutes quarters and having to compete against the slow and methodical brand of South Dakota basketball.
We walked into the gym just before the half to see Marshall holding a five point lead. Moments after the break, Tiger junior big Weston Baker Magrath was fouled. The 6-foot-7 agile post missed his free throw without making contact with anything but the floor and some young lady screamed at him at the top of her lungs. “WBM” responded with a little more power, little less arc, and a make. The next time down he scored on a pretty post move faking the move right and attacking left with a quick lifting one-hander while the defense was frozen solid to the old Lincoln floor.
Moments later Magrath scored on a third possession and the Marshall lead was doubled. You began to thought that Marshall could go to Weston on every play after that but instead the rest of the court opened up for Weston’s 11 other teammates to come on the floor and have at it.
Eleven other teammates? Yep. Marshall has a dozen man rotation because all of them contribute something. The favorite contributions are from the tough guys and you cannot talk tough guy without mentioning Reece Winkelman.
Reece Winkelman moved from “another Winkelman solid player” to “one of our favorite players in the state” today. This guy is tough as nails and loves to battle. When a shot goes up he is attacking the ball or wrestling some guy out of the way to get the ball. Screens, he sets them solid. Defensive talk? Of course only with some intensity. He had putbacks and then there was the time that some guy didn’t think he could hit a jumper so he stepped back and Reece drilled a pretty elbow jumper and smiled the other way.
Tough guys. Let’s also talk seniors Nick Saugstad and Andrew Hmielewski. Saugstad is a last name you recognize from Marshall past, Hmielewski is last name you can’t pronounce but you know he is going to be a Gopher football player soon. Saugstad took care of the ball, defended deep in a stance, made late free throws, and pretty much embodies what this team is about. Hmielewski may have the biggest arms and one of the quickest bounces off the floor in state. He had two late buckets beating everybody off the floor in record time plus he missed an alley-oop that would have knocked the ugly yellow tint off the old Lincoln floor.
Marshall has so many quality contributors I can’t run through them all. I will tell you this, the reason they have won every game since the Stillwater loss is because every man that takes the floor does it for the team. I never saw a bad shot taken, I never saw a guy pout when one of the other eleven came in, and I saw all dozen compete hard.
At the start of the year we were confident enough to rank them number two (check the first week ranking story or the Breakdown book). They fell early but right now are looking every bit like a state contender.