Marshall University Athletics
MCGILL: D'Antoni enjoying every minute of a new season
10/3/2019 1:46:00 PM | Men's Basketball, Word on the Herd
Marshall men's basketball coach has won 20-plus games in each of the last three seasons
By Chuck McGill
HerdZone.com
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – Last week, on the day of the first official practice, Dan D'Antoni made his way from the basketball offices down to the Henderson Center court earlier than usual.
The music from D'Antoni's personal playlist blared through the arena as he jotted down practice notes. He admired the redesigned and repainted hardwood court inside the arena. He hurried from one place to another, checking off items on his to-do list and seeming atypically antsy.
These weren't first-day jitters for the 72-year-old, who is entering his sixth season as the Marshall men's basketball coach. But, after all these years, the first official day of the season still holds magic for D'Antoni. His enthusiasm bubbled over.
"I believe my next year is always the best for me," D'Antoni said. "I've always been that way. I always think tomorrow is going to be better. It keeps you smiling. It keeps you from worrying. I believe this group is going to be better. I'm hoping that the group before cheers that on."
Those groups from before enjoyed plenty of success that serves as the foundation for D'Antoni's program. Marshall has won 68 games in the last three seasons, which includes three consecutive 20-win seasons, one Conference USA championship, one NCAA tournament appearance and the school's first NCAA tournament victory.
The Thundering Herd players – some still on the roster; others who graduated this past year – rewrote the school's men's basketball record books together. Now, however, a roster with one senior will allow for new stars to emerge.
"That's always fun," D'Antoni said. "It's always sad to see the other ones go. You get caught in between. I'm certainly looking forward to the challenges this team presents and how we are able to overcome them or, hopefully not, let it overcome us."
Marshall ended the season on a four-game winning streak, capturing the CollegeInsider.com (CIT) championship. Overall, the Herd will enter this season's Nov. 7 season opener at home against Robert Morris as winners of 10 of its last 11 games.
But, the makeup of this team will be drastically different in 2019-20. The departures of Jon Elmore, C.J. Burks, Rondale Watson and Christian Thieneman means 56.8 percent of the scoring, 54.7 percent of the 3-pointers and 70.7 of the assists have exited the program. Elmore, Burks and Watson were the team's top three in assists last season.
Sophomore Taevion Kinsey (6-foot-5; Columbus, Ohio) is the top returning scoring at 10.5 points per game. Back, too, is Jannson Williams (6-9; Newnan, Georgia), who averaged 9.0 points per game and made all 37 starts. Junior Jarrod West (5-11; Clarksburg, West Virginia), a key cog in each of the past two seasons, played the most minutes in 2018-19 of any return player (1,059 minutes, 28.6 per game).
Junior Darius George (6-7; Staunton, Virginia), sophomore Iran Bennett (6-9; Durham, North Carolina), junior Mikel Beyers (6-9; Houston, Texas) and Sustic (6-10; Split, Croatia) are scholarship players who will mesh with freshmen Andrew Taylor (6-3; Corbin, Kentucky), Jeremy Dillon (6-5; Mingo, West Virginia), Cam Brooks-Harris (6-6; Zanesville, Ohio), Marko Sarenac (6-7; Ljubovija, Serbia), Dajour Rucker (6-7; Virginia Beach, Virginia) and Goran Miladinovic (7-0; Tivat, Montenegro). Taylor, Dillon and Brooks-Harris redshirted last season, while the other three are new to the program.
"Jon Elmore asked me one time, 'Coach, you've been doing this 48 or 49 years – how do you get excited about the next group coming in?' D'Antoni recalled. "But you know what? I swept my gym floor at Socastee High School 11,872 times, and I found a way to enjoy it. I'm that type.
Life, for all of us, is not very long. I want to enjoy every minute and this is a new minute, so I'm going to go out there and enjoy the heck out of it."
Chuck McGill is the Assistant Athletic Director for Fan/Donor Engagement and Communications at Marshall University and a seven-time winner of the National Sports Media Association West Virginia Sportswriter of the Year award. In addition to HerdZone.com's Word on the Herd, McGill is the editor of Thundering Herd Illustrated, Marshall's official athletics publication. Follow him on Twitter (@chuckmcgill) and Instagram (wordontheherd).
