GAME NOTES: The Jacksonville State Gamecocks will try to start the upcoming season off on the right foot as they travel to face the Marshall Thundering Herd in a non-conference matchup at Cam Henderson Center on Friday.

Jacksonville State finished with a disappointing 10-21 overall record a season ago, making little headway in a contentious Ohio Valley Conference at 4-12. As an offense, the Gamecocks were absolutely dismal in 2013-14, scoring just 65 ppg.

Marshall looked just about the same in Conference USA last season, ending the slate with an 11-22 record and an identical 4-12 league ledger. The loss of several key players hurts the Herd headed into the new season, but no loss is as big as Kareem Canty, who transferred away from the program after one year.

The two programs have met three times on the court in their histories, with Marshall winning all three contests.

JSU limped to a poor offensive showing (65 ppg) as a unit last season, which is a huge reason for such a down year. Coach James Green hasn't finished with an above-.500 record in OVC play in any of his six years with the team, but he's hoping this will be the year. There's a lot that needs to change, however, for his squad to accomplish that feat. And it absolutely starts on the offensive side of the ball. Darion Rackley led the team in scoring with 13.1 ppg, but will need to improve even further as the senior go-to guy this time around. His 62 turnovers last season were the most on the team, but he did also register 36 steals in 30 games played. Forward D.J. Felder returns as well after averaging 8.3 ppg, and is the leading returner on the boards with 4.9 rpg.

The Gamecocks have played two exhibition games this preseason, defeating both William Carey and Columbus State. In the team's latest game against Columbus State (a 77-53 win on Monday), Rackley led all Gamecocks scorers with 16 points in the win, adding six rebounds and an assist. Jamal Hunter scored 15 points with nine boards, and Jeremy Watson came off the bench to net 12 points with eight rebounds. The 77 points was well above last season's average, but whether JSU can duplicate the scoring totals against Division I opposition is yet to be seen.

Marshall hired Dan D'Antoni, the brother of Mike D'Antoni, in the offseason to be the Herd's new head coach in order to replace Tommy Herrion. He has some work to do after Marshall finished near the bottom of the conference standings a year ago. The Herd were hurt in the offseason by the loss of leading scorer Canty (16.3 ppg, 180 assists, 24 steals) and Chris Thomas (12.7 ppg, 4.0 rpg). Redshirt sophomore forward Ryan Taylor returns as the team's leading scorer from a year ago (12.8 ppg) and the leading rebounder (7.2 rpg). Taylor received plenty of experience last season, starting in 29 games. Forward Shawn Smith, a transfer from San Francisco, averaged 7.6 ppg for Marshall last season, and he'll look for an expanded role this upcoming season.

Marshall trailed at halftime in its exhibition game against Concord, but made a second-half comeback to defeat the challengers, 92-80. Forward Jay Johnson led the way for the Thundering Herd, netting 19 points in the victory. Taylor went 9-of-10 from the free-throw line and finished with 18 points, while both Smith and Tamron Manning added double-digit scoring with 18 and 16 points, respectively.

The Herd will get a serious boost from being in front of their home crowd Friday, and if Johnson, Taylor and the rest of the lineup can play as well as they did against Concord, Marshall should be able to escape this contest with a win against a JSU team that needs to find an offensive identity.