A Capital Classic
January 20, 2004 01:16 PM | General
January 20, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Lester Rowe didn’t know a thing about the West Virginia-Marshall basketball game when he made his decision to sign with the Mountaineers in the spring of 1981.
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| Forward Lester Rowe got his first taste of the Marshall game as a freshman in 1982. (WVU Sports Communications) |
Being from Buffalo, N.Y., he wasn’t even sure where Marshall University was. Rowe first got an inkling of what this game is all about when he was a freshman playing the Thundering Herd for the very first time in 1982.
“All during the week leading up to Marshall you saw all this stuff on TV and read about it in the newspapers. Then you walk into the gym and see all the gold and blue on one side and the green on the other … you realize it’s something a little bit different,” he said.
Let’s not kid ourselves. The West Virginia-Marshall basketball game isn’t close to being on par with Kentucky-Louisville, Duke-North Carolina, UCLA-USC or even Iowa-Iowa State on the national scene, but it is a highly competitive and emotional game that captures the attention of West Virginians for a few of days in January.
This Wednesday night the two teams will meet for the 32nd time overall and the 14th time at the Charleston Civic Center. No West Virginia-Marshall game has ever aired on national TV and only three times have both teams played and then later advanced to NCAA tournament play (1984, 1985 and 1987).
The last time either school made the NCAA tournament was in 1998 when West Virginia went. Last year, both teams finished the season with losing records and West Virginia has had losing marks in three of the last five campaigns; Marshall has been a little better, winning 21 games in 2000 and 18 games in 2001.
There have been just two NBA players showcased in the series and both played at Marshall: guards Jason Williams and Tamar Slay. In the case of Williams, he appeared in just one West Virginia game (1996) before transferring to Florida to play for Billy Donovan.
No, West Virginia-Marshall is not on par with some of the nation’s great college basketball rivalries. In many ways it is our little secret. But what a fine little secret this game has turned out to be.
| West Virginia-Marshall Trivia | |
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* Guard Brett Vincent was the
only player to suit up for both sides. He scored 10 for the Mountaineers in
1987 and 7 for Marshall in 1990 – both Marshall wins.
* There has been a Harley (Major), a Fish (Brian), two Kings (Michael and Carlton), a George Washington, a Beagle (Anthony) and a Collie (Aaron) play in the West Virginia-Marshall game. A McCoy (Diego) also has played, but no Hatfields to this point. * The highest scoring game was West Virginia 101, Marshall 91 on Dec. 17, 1996.* The lowest scoring game was Marshall 64, West Virginia 60 on Dec. 7, 1985 – a date that will not live in infamy in West Virginia! * The largest margin of victory for West Virginia was 18 points on Dec. 5, 1989; Marshall’s largest margin of victory was 17 points the very next year on Dec. 4, 1990.* The last time this game was played on campus was in 1990 at the Henderson Center in Huntington. That game failed to draw at least 10,000 for the only time. * The last game in Morgantown in 1989 drew only 8,114 fans.* The largest crowd was 15,409 to watch West Virginia defeat Marshall 95-82 on Dec. 4, 1982. * The first game in the Henderson Center was on Dec. 3, 1983 when Marshall defeated West Virginia 78-67.* West Virginia lost all five times it played in the Henderson Center. * J.R. VanHoose (2002) and Greg Nance (1979) both pulled down 18 rebounds in a game* Cornelius Jackson handed out the most assists (10) in 2000. |
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Ten times games have been decided by five points or less, five times by two points or less and four have gone into overtime. The last five games have been determined by a combined 18 points and the last four times the Charleston Civic Center has been filled to the rafters. Since the game was permanently moved to Charleston and named the Capital Classic following the 1990-91 season, the event has attracted at least 10,000 fans in nine of the 12 games played there. Five of the contests have exceeded 12,000.
West Virginia coach John Beilein has been involved in his share of rivalries, coaching Canisius against St. Bonaventure and Richmond against VCU. But he says there is one big difference, “Those two games might draw between 4 and 7,000 depending upon where they are. That would only be if both teams were good. This game, even if it seems like both teams are rebuilding like we both are, there is still a lot of interest in this game,” he said.
For a long period between 1931 and 1978 the two schools didn’t play at all. Gary McPherson, a former WVU assistant coach and a long-time member of the WVU athletic department, says Marshall used to gauge opposing teams’ performances against West Virginia.
“Back in college in the 1950s when I was at Washington and Lee, we played West Virginia and we also played Marshall. As soon as we got to Huntington to play them the first thing they asked us was, ‘How do we compare to West Virginia?’ It was always, ‘Are we as good as they are?’” said McPherson.
Eventually the two teams got around to playing during Joedy Gardner’s last season at West Virginia and Stu Aberdeen’s first year at Marshall in 1978. The game took on a much bigger scope when it was permanently moved to Charleston in 1991 and sponsorships were secured.
Choosing to play the game in Charleston has been a stroke of genius for both schools. The Charleston Civic Center is easily accessible from most parts of the state, each school has strong followings in the Kanawha Valley, the state legislature is usually in session, and the atmosphere is always electric.
“Charleston helps this game,” admits WVU sports marketing director Brad Howe. “All it takes is 6,000 from each side for a sellout.”
Another added benefit is the fact that the event is a money maker for each school, the Charleston Civic Center, and the city of Charleston. Placing the game on a neutral court has also taken some of the edge off a heated rivalry that has come close to boiling over the top several times when it was played on campus.
“I can understand why they do it the way they do it,” said Rowe, who was a first-hand witness to an ugly scene in Huntington in 1983 that escalated into fisticuffs.
That was the infamous game that saw West Virginia player Tim Austin remove his jersey, play up to the Marshall crowd and walk off the court.
“The fight broke out and the coaches were trying to keep players from both teams on the bench,” Rowe recalled. “Somehow Austin got shoved by somebody and he took offense to it and I think he just got caught up into the emotion of the ballgame. He was mad about what happened on our bench and he just took off his jersey and walked off the floor.
“That was pretty bizarre,” the WVU forward added.
Bizarre or standard procedure if you’ve watched enough of these games.
“I never saw it take place,” said McPherson. “I didn’t know about it until about 30 or 40 minutes after the game. I had an uncle ask me what went on and I said, ‘What are you talking about?’
“I talked to Austin after the game and he asked me if he could ride home with his dad,” McPherson continued. “I said, ‘It’s fine with me but you should go ask Coach (Gale) Catlett first.’ I didn’t even realize that Gale had already tossed him out of the locker room.”
Yet for the most part, West Virginia-Marshall basketball games have been clean and highly competitive.
West Virginia won the first five contests after the series was restored, but each time Marshall gained ground. The Herd lost by 13 the first time it played in Morgantown in 1978, then lost by six the following season. Marshall whittled it down to two that same year and lost, 63-62 in the Charleston Civic Center on Jan. 2, 1980.
That paved the way for Marshall’s first win against the Mountaineers on Dec. 6, 1980. It took overtime to do it, but Marshall pulled out a 76-73 victory on the strength of George Washington’s 26 points. You could say it was Marshall’s Valley Forge.
Marshall won the next game, 91-78 on Dec. 5, 1981 at brand new Cam Henderson Center – the first time West Virginia traveled to Huntington.
Two years later Coach Bob Zuffelato gave way to flamboyant Rick Huckaby, whose way of introducing himself to West Virginia fans was by wearing a tuxedo to his very first game against the Mountaineers in 1983. Not surprisingly, that was also the game that had the fracas and saw Austin rip off his jersey.
Huckaby also won in Huntington in 1985 and 1987 to finish with a 3-3 record in his six seasons playing the Mountaineers. West Virginia fans may have viewed Rick Huckaby as both irritating and entertaining, but they also held a healthy respect for his Marshall teams.
In addition to Slay and Williams, several good players have suited up for the Herd. Rowe says the best he played against was 6-foot-4 swing guard LeVerne Evans, who put up 29 in a 91-78 win in Huntington in 1981.
“He could take you off the dribble, he could make the outside shot and he was going to get in there and fight you for rebounds,” said Rowe. “He was a complete player.”
Southern Conference player of the year Skip Henderson poured in 28 against West Virginia in a Marshall win in 1987, and league player of the year John Taft scored 28 in Marshall’s 97-80 win over West Virginia in its final game in Huntington in 1990.
Carlos “Bunny” Gibson scored 28 and 31 points in back-to-back games against West Virginia in 1978, Keith Veney poured in 29 against the Mountaineers in 1996, John Brannen added 30 a year later, and Slay showcased his NBA shooting form by making 9 threes on the way to a 35-point night in a loss to West Virginia in 2000.
“Slay was a very good player but I don’t think he would have been as good without J.R. VanHoose,” said Rowe, who later coached against the pair. “Those two guys just went well together.”
The Mountaineers have also had their share of fine performers, too.
Six-seven forward Maurice Robinson scored 26 points and hauled down 15 rebounds in West Virginia’s first game against Marshall in 1978. Guard Greg Jones fired in 31 points on 12 of 21 shooting in a 95-82 West Virginia win in 1982.
Rowe scored 27 and 25 points in back-to-back games against the Herd. Forward Greg Nance hauled down 18 rebounds in a West Virginia win in 1979, and 6-foot-9 forward Calvin Bowman had a dominant 20-point, 17-rebound double-double to help West Virginia win the 2001 Marshall game.
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| Marshall's Tamar Slay is one of two players in this game to make the NBA. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
The one constant in this game for almost 25 years was Gale Catlett, who played Marshall 26 times winning 18. He owned victories over Stu Aberdeen, Bob Zuffelato, Rick Huckaby, Dana Altman, Dwight Freeman, Billy Donovan and Greg White. According to both Rowe and McPherson, Catlett never treated the West Virginia-Marshall game any different than others.
“Coach Catlett never over emphasized that game with our players,” said McPherson. “It was just another game. Our conference was more important because that was our ticket to the NCAA tournament.”
“We approached it as the next game on our schedule if it was the next game,” said Rowe. “We didn’t prepare for them any different. We prepared for Marshall the same way we prepared for Connecticut.
“Was it nice to beat them? Yes, but it was no more satisfying for me than beating St. John’s,” Rowe added.
That may be the sentiments of most West Virginia players concerning the Marshall series. But McPherson heeds this warning, “You could beat them six or seven times in a row but you never heard the end of it if they beat you once.”
Ah, that one time is all it takes to stir up the tanks. And losing to Marshall is exactly what West Virginia is trying to avoid once again this Wednesday night.
