Chatting with Marshall Coach Donnie Jones are (l to r) Roger Adams, Rotarian Sherrie Payne (Pray Construction), Sean Mayberry (Lanham O'Dell), Coach Jones and Rotarian David Williams (Lanham O'Dell). Adams, pastor for the Crossroads Community Chapel in Winfield, is chaplain for the Marshall basketball team.

The Thundering Herd Men's Basketball team won sixteen games last year, their first winning season in seven years and their second year in Conference USA. But when you look at a basketball program, Coach Donnie Jones told Putnam Rotarians today, you need to think about tradition over the long haul.

"A change in culture is underway," he told the group. "Changing culture means changing habits, and we want to go out on the floor every night expecting victory."

The Point Pleasant native returned to Marshall last year after assisting eleven years at the University of Florida when the Gators made nine consecutive NCAA appearances and won two back-to-back national championships.

"We did that," said Jones, "because we put a lot of attention on our kids. And that's the same thing we've done since we've been here at Marshall.

"We graduated every kid in our program over the past ten years, those that didn't leave early to go to the NCA. If you were there for four years, you got a degree. That was number one out of all Division I programs -- including Duke and West Virginia -- all across the country."

"We're shooting for the top, and how far we can go will be determined on how quickly we can come together as a group.

"I recruit every day," says Jones. "We've brought in a lot of new kids -- nine new faces -- and returned four kids from last year's team. we went out to get kids who had great character, great passion and great ability to be a great teammate.

"Commitment and vision at Marshall -- creating the culture, selling the dream, making it happen," he said, "we can put ourselves in a situation where we know we can win every night."