HUNTINGTON - Donnie Jones was joking, of course.
The 11 NBA team scouts from eight organizations weren't watching the Marshall men's basketball team Wednesday to see 6-foot-3 guard Chris Lutz and 6-8 forward Tyler Wilkerson, as the Herd coach quipped after the game.
Sure, Wilkerson will likely play for pay somewhere, but he'll probably have to head overseas to accomplish that. Perhaps, if he wishes, Lutz could do the same.
No, Wilkerson and Lutz probably didn't dominate the game notes of those scouts. There is no future for them in The Association.
But their imminent future with the Herd should not be undervalued.
I asked Tulsa Coach Doug Wojcik on Tuesday about the much- ballyhooed interior matchup of 7-footers Jerome Jordan and Hassan Whiteside - the reason for the sudden influx of basketball expertise seated on the Henderson Center's press row Wednesday.
Jordan and Whiteside aren't going to get drafted in the middle of the season, Wojcik noted. Pro scouts won't have a bit of an impact on the Conference USA standings over the final weeks of the season.
"For Marshall, it's all about Tyler Wilkerson and Chris Lutz," the fifth-year Golden Hurricane coach and native West Virginian said in a phone interview. "Tyler Wilkerson, he's playing as well as anybody in the conference right now.
"He got his career high (26 points) here and turns around and gets another career-high at UAB (28). He's done a little bit of everything. It's what a fourth-year experienced senior should do.
"Chris Lutz, he's a fifth-year guy that can Swiss Watches make timely shots and draw the defense to him and open it up for other guys."
Whiteside impressed Wednesday night in the 21 foul-plagued minutes he managed to stay on the floor. He finished with a team- high 17 points, blocked four shots, hit jumpers and ran the floor - all eye-pleasers for pro hoops scouts.
But with the Herd's freshman confined to the bench for the final seven Replica Christian Louboutin minutes of the first half and another eight minutes early in the second, Wilkerson and Lutz tag-teamed Jordan in the post. Wilkerson, giving up four inches, bumped and banged Jordan close to the basket.
Lutz provided help-side defense by denying entry passes into the Tulsa center.
The result: Jordan scored only 13 points and managed just nine shots. He had 39 touches in the first meeting with the Herd, but Jones said he had about half of that in the rematch.
No wonder the scouts didn't care about Wilkerson or Lutz. A league devoid of defense wouldn't have an appreciation for that performance.
Wilkerson finished with a double-double - 10 points and 10 rebounds. Lutz scored 15 points and hit a go-ahead 3-pointer - the "timely shot" Wojcik was wary of - as the Herd won for the fourth consecutive game.
As a result, Marshall is suddenly on the cusp of 20 wins for the first time since the 1999-2000 season, with five regular-season contests remaining. The Herd knocks out two of its final three road games in the next week - at Tulane on Saturday night at 8, a game televised by WOWK, and then at last-place Rice next Wednesday.
A five-game losing streak had MU flirting with the bottom half of C-USA a few weeks ago, but now it's back in the hunt for one of the league tournament's four byes.
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