Actually imo, The most relevant period of Marshall basketball has to be the 25 years from 1947-1972. In that quarter century, MU won their only national championship (small colleges), made a run in the same tourney the next year I believe. Then the 50’s, arguably the greatest collection of players in any decade bar none. Greer, Slack. Byrd, Gold dust twins, etc. 1st big boy national tournament (MAC Champs) c 1955.....apparently there were some formidable conference foes (Toledo ) that kept those great teams sitting in the stands come March. NIT run in ‘67 has been gone over, but Ellis took DD and the boys up to NYC and took it over for about a week!
1972 - too many reasons why many on here will always consider this the best team of all time. Tacy takes over for EJ/don’t think he had a handle on the effect of The Crash on our little community! So, a heartbroken town gets this team to hold onto and carry thousands of people on an amazing ride. From November into early March, Herd basketball was the stir in everybody’s drink!! 13 year old me was eaten up with D’Antoni, Noll, Collins (RIP), Russell Lee, Barry Driscoll, Bill James & everyone else - it was fantastic!
I’ll stop, but Herd basketball will always be my fav!