The Marshall University men’s basketball team is one week away from its 2020-21 season opener against Coppin State Wednesday, Nov. 25. Two days later, the team will play another home game Friday, Nov. 27 against Tennessee State. 

Marshall head coach Dan D’Antoni said the Herd is focused on continuing to get better to prepare for its first two home games and for the entire season while focusing on COVID-19 safety precautions and protocols.

“Just start,” D’Antoni said. “We’re going to crowd everything together to go for the 25th opener. The biggest part is conditioning. Then it’s the synchronization between the players and to make the decisions between the players. Our team always gets better. It’s a process that we go over to get better and better.”

Junior guard Taevion Kinsey said the team has to hop back into the groove of basketball, prepare, practice and focus on the upcoming season and each game.

“It’s a process. It’s a lot of trials and tribulations,” Kinsey said. “We’re not the only team that’s going through this. I think it’s safe and necessary. I love basketball so much, so I just try to relax. I’ve been working on basketball all summer and studying basketball. We can’t get too high or too low, because we are going to be facing a lot of things. It’s not going to be an easy season, year or life in general.” 

Senior guard Jarrod West said as a leader his goal is to remain positive and staying confident in the team.

“Everything is up in the air right now,” West said. “We know that, and we’re trying to stay as positive as possible. We have a real game next week. We understand what is at stake. We have to adjust and adapt. We have to work with it. Conference is very important. I think non-conference, we play some good teams, and it will be good for us. It’s more important to us now than ever. Chemistry wise, we got to lock in and buckle down and get acclimated together before next week.”

Both home games next week on Nov. 25 and Nov. 27 are set to tipoff at 6 p.m. at the Cam Henderson Center with limited fans in attendance. 

Tip times for future games will be announced at a later date.

Taylor Huddleston can be contacted at [email protected].