Marshall University Athletics
MCGILL: Basketball record book needs makeover after 2018-19 season
4/16/2019 8:14:00 AM | Men's Basketball, Word on the Herd
Burks, Elmore and the Herd shattered school, conference and national marks
Note: Many thanks to Steve Cotton, the Voice of the Thundering Herd, for helping uncover numbers and notes related to Marshall athletics throughout the season. Mr. Cotton is devoted to the historical accuracy and providing context to the achievements of Thundering Herd teams, its players and its coaches. For that devotion, this writer is eternally grateful.
By Chuck McGill
HerdZone.com
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – The Marshall men's basketball record book doesn't need a simple update; it needs a complete makeover.
This year's Herd hoops team followed an unprecedented season with a 23-win encore, and Dan D'Antoni's program found ways to leave a mark even without the Conference USA championship and NCAA tournament firsts from a year ago.
"We got to see, for the last four years, a high level of basketball," D'Antoni said after Marshall's CIT championship game win.
These numbers and nuggets support the fifth-year head coach's claim:
JON ELMORE
The native of Charleston, West Virginia, will be mentioned among the school's basketball greats after what he accomplished in four seasons in Huntington. Elmore leaves as the program's all-time leader in points, assists, 3-pointers, 3-pointers attempted, free throws and free throws attempted. The points, assists and 3s also rank as the most in Conference USA history.
Elmore is the only player who currently holds the record for points and assists for a Division I men's basketball league, as he does in C-USA.
The guard is also the only Division I men's basketball player in history with at least 2,500 career points and 750 career assists. Elmore finished with 2,638 points and 783 assists. Elmore has the most assists of anyone in the 2,500-point club – and it is not close. Duke's Johnny Dawkins is next on the list with 555 assists, followed by BYU's Jimmer Fredette (515) and, farther down the list, Larry Bird, Pete Maravich and Oscar Robertson. Decent company.
Elmore was the 69th player in D-I men's basketball history to cross the 2,500-point threshold. By the time his senior season concluded, Elmore ranked No. 29 on the sport's career points list, passing names like Elgin Baylor, Shawn Respert, Keith Van Horn, Sean Elliott, Joe Dumars and Stephen Curry.
Elmore is one of 54 players with 750 career assists. Elmore bested Greg White's school record by 82 assists, then ran away with the C-USA mark, too, beating the record held by UTEP's Julyan Stone by 69. Elmore exits college ranked No. 41 in history in career assists, passing Wake Forest's Tyrone "Muggsy" Bogues" in the CIT championship game.
Two seasons ago, Austin Loop broke Tamar Slay's 15-year-old school record for career 3-pointers. Loop finished with 293, topping Slay by 42 made 3s. Loop didn't hold the record for long, as Elmore soared past Loop this season, too, and made 356 career 3-pointers. Elmore ranks No. 48 in college basketball history in career 3s.
It is hard to fathom, but Elmore – second all-time at Marshall in career games played with 133 – also made the school's top 25 in career rebounds and career blocked shots as a 6-foot-3 guard. Elmore is No. 21 in school history with 636 rebounds, on the list just behind Tirrell Baines, Tyler Wilkerson, David Wade, Mark Patton and Dennis Tinnon. Elmore also finished with 43 career blocked shots, tied for No. 25 all-time with Cheikh Sane.
This season, Elmore's 750 points rank fourth-best in a single season in program history and No. 11 in C-USA history. He is the only player in league history with two seasons of at least 750 points, and surpassed the conference scoring record set by UTEP's Stefon Jackson by 182 points. His 114 made 3s are the second-most in a single season, trailing only Keith Veney's 130 in 1996-97, and ranked tied for eighth for a single season in C-USA history. Elmore broke the career 3-point record held by Charlotte's Jobey Thomas (346) by 10.
Overall, Elmore produced one of the most staggering statistical careers ever seen in Division I men's college basketball. Consider this: Since 1992-93, seven players have scored 750 points with at least 150 rebounds, 150 assists and 50 steals in a single season. The other players who made the club once in their careers: Curry (2008-09), UConn's Kemba Walker (2010-11), Long Island's Charles Jones (1997-98), Canisius' Billy Baron (2013-14), Cleveland State's Norris Cole (2010-11) and Murray State's Ja Morant (2018-19).
Elmore accomplished the feat twice.
C.J. BURKS
Burks, like Elmore, posted jaw-dropping numbers across 130 career games (third-most in program history). Burks started his senior season No. 32 on the school's all-time scoring list, but climbed all the way to fifth place, first passing Shaquille Johnson and then scooting past names like Hal Greer, Leo Byrd, Tamar Slay and J.R. VanHoose.Â
Slay and VanHoose played all four seasons together – like Burks and Elmore – and combined for 3,595 points. Longtime Voice of the Thundering Herd, Steve Cotton, said he never thought he'd see a duo playing alongside one another score that many points again. Burks and Elmore combined for 4,530 points – beating Slay and VanHoose by 935 points.
Burks also finished in the top 10 for career field goals (706, seventh), field goals attempted (1,495, seventh), 3-pointers (215, sixth), 3-pointers attempted (599, sixth) and steals (153, seventh), and No. 13 in career assists (334).
Burks' 2017-18 points total (702) ranks fifth on the single season list, and his 654 points this season is 12th-most in program history. Burks led the team in each of the past two seasons in field goals made, and both seasons rank in the top 10 in program history in that category.
Additionally, Burks' career point total ranks No. 11 in Conference USA history. He needed 10 more points to crack the top 10 in league annals.
GETTING DEFENSIVE
Marshall is losing two of the program's greatest offensive players in history, but the returnees are pursuing defensive records.
Sophomore Jarrod West set the single-season school record with 80 steals, breaking the record of 75 steals co-held by Sidney Coles (1995-96) and Jeff Guthrie (1984-85). In fact, along with Burks and Elmore, Marshall had three players with 60 steals for the first time in school history. Prior to the 2018-19 season, only four players had ever collected that many steals in a single season at Marshall, and a trio did it together in one campaign.
West is already No. 11 in program history in career steals with 137, and should soar past the career record of 208 – held by Skip Henderson – over the next two seasons. West would get the record as a junior if he replicates his 2018-19 defensive production.
Fellow sophomore Jannson Williams is also on a record-breaking defensive pace. The Georgia native has 101 career blocks through two seasons, putting him on pace to break Hassan Whiteside's career record (182). Williams had 72 blocks this season, which is the fourth-most in a single season behind Whiteside, Ajdin Penava (134, 2017-18) and Omar Roland (101, 1989-90).
TEAM ACHIEVEMENTS
Not surprisingly, the four teams led by Burks and Elmore are the four highest scoring teams in program history. The 2018-19 Herd scored 2,978 points, the third-most by a team in MU history behind last year's record-setters (3,017 points) and the 2016-17 team (2,978 points). Marshall now has three of the six highest-scoring seasons in league history, along with Memphis (first), Louisville (second) and Louisiana Tech (fourth).
This year's team made the most shots of any team in Marshall history – 1,047 – and attempted the most. The team's 362 3-pointers tied last season's school record, and the 1,058 attempted 3s rank as the most ever – at Marshall and within Conference USA.
Never before had a Marshall team collected 250 steals and blocked 200 shots in the same season, but this year's team did both. The 2018-19 club is tied for seventh in school history with 252 steals, and the 209 team blocked shots are tied for second all-time with last year's team.
The numbers, obviously, are not hollow or meaningless. In the last four seasons, the Marshall men's basketball program has reached new heights. Two seasons ago, the Herd reached the C-USA championship game and reached 20 wins. Last season, Marshall won its first Conference USA championship, reached the NCAA tournament for the first time in 31 years and defeated Wichita State in the NCAA tournament – the school's first win in the big bracket.
D'Antoni is the first Marshall coach to produce three consecutive 20-win seasons since Cam Henderson, who accomplished the feat in 1945-46, 1946-47 and 1947-48. D'Antoni, 71, was born July 9, 1947 – between the second and third of those 20-win seasons at Marshall.
"It's one of the best systems in the country," Elmore said of the way the Herd plays under D'Antoni. "It's one of the best brands of basketball in the country."
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).
