Conference USA Basketball

In an absolute Jekyll and Hyde performance, the Marshall University Thundering Herd made up for a dismal first half by going on a 19-1 run to start the second half, dispatching the Houston Cougars 66-58 in Conference USA action. 

Senior point guard Damier Pitts led the Herd in scoring with 15 points. DeAndre Kane added 14 points and Dago Pena, who shot lights out from behind the arc in the second half, also added 14.

The star of the second half and arguably the player of the game, was backup center Nigel Spikes, who fired up the Herd faithful with two-monster blocks early in the second half—along with collecting 10 rebounds in only 17 minutes of total playing time.

In a woeful first half, the Thundering Herd only managed to put 23 points on the board on 10-for-32 shooting from the field (31.3 percent) and two-for-11 (18.2 percent) from the free throw line. DeAndre Kane led the Herd with 10 points at the half, but he also committed four turnovers in that stretch.

The only positives that could be taken into the locker room at half time were the final play of the half, where DeAndre Kane dumped the ball underneath to a wide-open Jamir Hanner for an easy slam dunk, and the fact that Houston was unable to capitalize—and put the game totally out of reach.

The Cougars managed only 31 points at the half. The dunk by Hanner seemingly set the tone for the second half to come.

Whether it was the good spirits brought about by the Hanner slam, or the motivational speech Marshall head coach Tom Herrion delivered in the locker room, the Thundering Herd came out firing on all cylinders to start the half—cutting the eight-point Houston lead to two in just over two minutes of play.

It was at that point, when Nigel Spikes got the Cam Henderson Center rocking by sending Alandise Harris' (five points on two-for-four shooting) shot into the stands. Dennis Tinnon stole the inbound pass and sprinted up the court for a slam dunk and the foul, which only further fueled the frenzied home crowd.

After Houston collected the rebound from the failed three-point conversion, Harris once again tried to go baseline—only to have his shot rejected into the stands again by Nigel Spikes—in an exact copy of the previous possession. As the Marshall fans erupted, it appeared that Harris' own teammates were asking him what he was thinking attempting the same shot again.

By the 5:00 mark of the second half, the Thundering Herd had been on a 37-9 run and the lead was pushed to 21. The Cougars should be credited for never giving up, as they spent the final five minutes fouling and stopping the clock. They clawed their way to an eight-point deficit before the final buzzer. 

Marshall, who is eighth in the nation in rebounding (39.9), finished right at their season average by snagging 40 off of the glass—winning the battle of the boards on the night with Houston only collecting 35.

The Thundering Herd improves to 17-10 on the season and 8-5 in Conference USA. Houston falls 12-14 on the season and 4-9 during conference play.

Marshall faces off against the conference-leading Memphis Tigers on Saturday at home. Houston plays in-state rival Southern Methodist University on Saturday at home.

The University of Memphis Tigers are going to officially be members of the Big East Conference starting in 2013, according to a press release obtained by the staff of College Football Talk

According to the release, it seems that both sides are ecstatic about the marriage.

“Over the past decade, the University of Memphis has demonstrated an unwavering commitment of competing at the highest level in college sports,” said Big East commissioner John Marinatto.  “The University has positioned itself for long-term success by upgrading facilities and investing wisely in various areas of the athletic department including coaching and administration.  We are confident that the addition of this outstanding athletics program located in a top 50 media market and in the heart of the nation’s largest conference footprint will further propel the BIG EAST and the University of Memphis to even greater levels of success in the future.”

Memphis, along with Houston, UCF and SMU, is now part of the push to add schools from the southern United States to the conference.

These four colleges will be joining all their sports to the conference.

When the Tigers jump aboard, it will open a recruiting base in a new region for the Big East and heavily benefits Memphis as well.

Memphis can now work on legitimizing their awful football program in an automatic qualifying conference while getting a fresh start on rebuilding their basketball legacy 

It's important to note that the Big East is set to drastically change in the next few years, as longtime members Pittsburgh, Syracuse and West Virginia are all on the way out.

Pitt and ‘Cuse are trying to leave by 2013, while the Mountaineers are hoping to jump ship to the Big 12 before the 2012 season begins.

These losses are tough, but it looks like the conference is going to be just fine now that they added Memphis.

It’s also worth pointing out that Boise State, San Diego State and Navy are preparing to make the jump into the Big East for football-only purposes

Perhaps losing three schools turned out best for the Big East. It’s certainly going to be interesting to see how the conference shapes up over the next few years. 

Marshall coach Tom Herrion is a flopper.

The word flop has become a dirty word to label those monsters who would dare add soap opera acting into this fine world of rules and conformity.

In fact, Herrion has the moves to step in for any NBA or world football flopper. He goes above and beyond to sell a love tap given to him by Central Florida Knights guard Isaiah Sykes. 

Sykes was running up the court and seems to graze Herrion with his elbow. At that point, Herrion acts like he was shot by a sniper. 

He falls back to his bench, and when that fails to get the attention of any officials, he drops to the floor and wrenches in agonizing pain. 

Hilarious? Hardly. 

It seems that the officials took notice and punished Central Florida, who would later lose 65-64. Sykes was called for a flagrant foul and Marshall would sink one of the two subsequent free throws. 

The act was so believable that Jeff Goodman of CBS later tweeted that he thought Herrion was having a heart attack. 

It's one thing to have a player stand in the way of a possible two points and take a charge. It is entirely another for a head coach to irresponsibly stop play while a play is reviewed and affect the game by flopping. 

This is a deplorable action and a slippery slope for ridiculousness. Next thing you know, we will have Vinny Del Negro taking charges at Clippers games. 

Okay, that would actually be funny. 

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Michael Jordan's son is leaving UCF.

No, not Marcus Jordan, who's leading the Golden Knights in scoring and minutes played.

I'm talking about the other one, Jeffrey Jordan. According to multiple reports, the elder son of His Airness is ditching Orlando for "personal reasons." Where he's headed or why is anyone's best guess at this point, though it's tough to imagine Jordan finding much of a career in basketball elsewhere. Jeffrey had been averaging career highs across the board in his first (and final) season at UCF.

Jordan's college basketball exploits began at Illinois, where he walked on to Bruce Weber's squad in 2007 and spent three wears working his way up the proverbial food chain, slowly but surely.

Jordan chose to bolt Champaign after his junior season to join Marcus at UCF and sat out last season per NCAA transfer rules.

Now, Jordan is on the road again, though he's unlikely to find any takers for his services for the half season that he might be eligible.

Which, for better or worse, may signal an early end to the playing career of one of the sons of the greatest basketball player who ever lived.

That is, unless MJ decides to throw his son a bone in the form of a roster spot with the Charlotte Bobcats at some point down the line.

Barring any sort of nepotistic generosity to such an un-Jordan-like degree, the task will fall exclusively to Marcus to live up to Daddy Dearest's impossible legacy on the court from here on out.

In other words, Michael Jordan won't ever have to worry about his descendants surpassing him in his own sport, a la Joe and Kobe Bryant or Ken Griffey Sr. and Jr.

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When Jeff Jordan decided to transfer to University of Central Florida from Illinois to play with his brother Marcus, it seemed like the perfect idea.

How quickly things change. Jeff has left the Knights basketball team for “personal reasons” according to ESPN.

He came over from Illinois after walking onto their program. He played three seasons for the Fighting Illini but never scored more than two points per game. Last season was by far his most productive campaign yet and he averaged just 1.6 points per game.

Jordan averaged 2.7 points on 37 percent shooting and 1.8 assists in 13 games played this season. He averaged 21 minutes per game.

His leaving of the team comes at an awful time for the Knights who are 12-3 overall and 2-0 in Conference USA.

They will now lean on Marcus who scores 17.2 points, 2.9 rebounds and 2.9 assists per contest. Keith Clanton has also been a major contributor the team with 15.2 points and 9.4 rebounds per game.

Jordan won’t be a major loss to the program given his uneven statistics, but you do have to wonder what impact it will have on his brother and the locker room.

Any type of change to a winning culture could have serious ramifications. The play could suffer on the court or, in some instances, players will rally with each other and play their best basketball.

We’ll find out how the Knights handle it when they host 9-6 Houston on Wednesday, January 11. 

Fans and supporters of UAB and college sports in general will be sad to hear that Gene Bartow has reportedly passed after a two-year battle with stomach cancer. 

The Birmingham News reports the man known as "The Father of UAB Athletics" died at the age of 81. His 34 years as basketball head coach managed to touch a great deal of people that will surely miss him. 

Bartow made the UAB athletic program what it is today. Any success that is afforded to it has been built on the hard work and enthusiasm of a man that loved to be around basketball. 

More than that, he loved to be around people, and that is what made him such a well-respected figure and friend to so many. 

Memphis head basketball coach Josh Pastner had a few words and paints a vivid picture with them via a report filed by Steve Irvine for The Birmingham News.

The best description I can give of Coach Bartow is he was as nice a human being and as good a human being as you'll find. It doesn't matter if you're the janitor or the president of the United States, he treated everyone the same. He was just a good person, an unbelievable soul. 

Those in Westwood would not let Bartow step in John Wooden's shoes, no matter how great a coach he was then and proved to be later. 

With that two-year stop over, Bartow moved onto smaller but better things at UAB. In his own words, Bartow was proud of his accomplishments, as we were to have had them. 

I'm proud of the fact that I've had two Final Four teams and I had three Final Eight teams. There are not very many in our profession that have had that. With that said, I wouldn't be there if it wasn't for the UAB story.

The college basketball ranks were forever changed thanks to Bartow's contributions. The sport lost a great man that molded so many fine athletes. 

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Southern Miss head coach Larry Fedora is headed to UNC, but he's not done showing up teams at Southern Miss just yet.

The Hawaii Bowl gives him a chance to best his performance against Case Keenum's previously undefeated Houston team and leave a lasting memory with Southern Miss.

Fedora is onto bigger and better things, but don't think for a second that he's already checked out. Fedora undoubtedly wants to finish what he started.

After putting his team on the map against Houston, people are eager to see what he's conjuring in his last performance at the Southern Miss helm.

Nevada is doomed to put forth an embarrassing effort. This isn't the same Nevada team that dominated with Colin Kaepernick under center.

Nevada has shown that they are capable of slamming the door shut on pathetic teams, but with losses to Utah State, Louisiana Tech, Boise State, Oregon, Boise State and Texas Tech, it's clear that any team that has a pulse can roll Nevada.

Southern Miss' embarrassment of Houston has the nation craving for more. Puzzling losses to Marshall and UAB are a distant memory.

This is a team that has scored a combined 93 points in their last two games and they are coming into this bowl red hot.

Nevada is certainly bowl worthy, but there is no way they're going to play spoiler to Fedora's Hawaiian-themed going away party.

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Ever have a brain fart? Then you understand how Memphis Tigers public address announcer Chuck Roberts felt after announcing John Calipari as the team's head coach before Sunday's game against Murray State.

A video of the cringe-worthy mistake is embedded above.

Calipari hasn't coached at the school since 2009 when he moved on to lead the Kentucky Wildcats program. He had a lot of success during his tenure as head coach at Memphis, but the team's National Championship Game appearance was vacated due to issues surrounding Derrick Rose.

So once the former coach's name was uttered by Roberts, a parade of boos started and continued to grow as more fans came to understand what happened. There is obviously still a lot of hostility toward the controversial coach despite being away for a few years.

The current head coach of the Tigers is Josh Pastner.

Pastner spent time as an assistant under Lute Olson at his alma mater of Arizona before joining Calipari's staff in 2008. Once Calipari jumped ship, Pastner was chosen to return the program to prominence through his tireless recruiting.

According to a report from Tom Weir of USA Today, the current coach went over to tell Roberts not to worry about the slip up. Afterwards he jokingly said, “I told him if you're going to call me (Calipari), you've got to add some wins on my record.”

In reality, Pastner is off to a great start of his own at Memphis. The team won 49 games in his first two seasons at the helm and are 5-3 so far this year. At just 34 years old, he appears to a bright coaching future ahead of him.

However, the Tigers did get upset by the undefeated Racers after the announcing gaffe. Apparently something was just a little bit off inside FedEx Forum on Sunday.