The final record might not look like much on paper, but look beyond the surface and 16-14 is just part of what appears to be a much brighter future for the Marshall basketball program under coach Donnie Jones.

Jones, a former Florida and Marshall assistant, kept his team moving forward throughout the season in the face of defeats and injuries and the Thundering Herd played its best basketball down the stretch. Along the way, Conference USA coaches went out of their way to praise the job Jones was doing and predict bigger, better things for the program.

"You look at Marshall right now, what he's done," Memphis coach John Calipari said. "We were talking about it as a staff today. He's done as good a job of coaching his team as anybody in our league. I tell (Marshall athletic director) Bob Marcum all the time, 'Your basketball coach is doing a fabulous job.'"

It's also a good sign when a 48-47 loss to Tulane in the first round of the Conference USA tournament hurt Marshall as much as it did.

"Any loss in the tournament when you think you could win is a horrible feeling," sophomore forward Tyler Wilkerson said.

A lack of initial numbers this season was exacerbated by injuries that caused six different players to miss playing time, including third-team all-conference wing Markel Humphrey and senior point guard Taurean Marshall.

"There wasn't a lot of room for error for our team," Jones said.

One reason for the limited depth was Jones' decision to add three Division I transfers last spring, knowing they would have to sit out the 2007-08 season. Still, Jones is counting on those three players -- small forward Tay Spann from Georgetown, shooting guard Chris Lutz from Purdue and shooting guard Brandon Powell from Florida -- to have a better chance to turn the program around than most freshmen he could have signed last spring.

"It's going to be a great season," Humphrey said.

Copyright (C) 2008 The Sports Xchange. All Rights Reserved.