Following the annual intrastate meeting with West at the Charleston Civic Center, the Herd has slumped. Marshall has lost the game after the WVU game in each of the past seven seasons.

Breaking that trend won't be easy this Saturday, as Marshall travels to Hattiesburg, Miss., to face Southern Miss - a 16-3 team that has the No. 17 RPI among Division I men's basketball teams.

Tipoff is at 6 p.m.

"Obviously a big challenge," Marshall second-year Coach Tom Herrion said after the 78-62 loss to WVU on Wednesday night, the most lopsided game in the series since it became a Charleston staple during the 1991-92 season.

"(Southern Miss is) really good. Playing down there is really challenging, as you may know. We're 4-0 in the conference. We've got to jump back in.

"All of our attention needs to quickly turn. As disappointed as we all are for the way we performed (against WVU), we've got to kind of get it out of our system ... flush it."

That has been problematic in the past, whether the Herd was coached by a Freeman or Donovan or Jirsa or Jones.

Take 2009-10 season, for example. The Donnie Jones-led Marshall team took a 15-2 record into that January's Classic, which included a perfect 4-0 start in Conference USA.

The Herd lost the Capital Classic, 68-60, then dropped four consecutive games when it re-entered league play.

Beating the Mountaineers doesn't seem to prevent the post-Classic letdown, either. Following last year's 75-71 win, Marshall headed back to Huntington and lost at home to East Carolina, 82-81.

Since the series moved to Charleston, Marshall has won the next game on the schedule just six times. In 1998, 2005 and 2006, the Herd regrouped from the physical and emotional toll of the Classic to win the next game ... but in each case promptly lost four consecutive games.

In 1992 and '93, MU lost three straight after playing WVU. In '95 it was four defeats in a row. In 2005 - after upsetting the Mountaineers - the Herd lost six straight.

The quality of team hasn't seemed to matter.

Including the loss to ECU, Marshall struggled through a 2-4 stretch following last year's Classic title, which is easily the worst six-game span for Herrion through 52 games here.

A sliver of hope: the 44-year-old Herrion has had success with reversing trends.

In November, Marshall went on the road, rallied and defeated Cincinnati in overtime. By beating the Big East program, it became the Herd's first win over a team from a BCS league in a true road game since Dec. 7, 1989.

Marshall beat Texas A&M, 69-66, in that nailbiter.

The significance?

That is also the last time the Herd won on the road the game after playing West Virginia.

If Herrion is to reverse that trend, too, he reiterated the importance of his players shifting their focus back to C-USA.

After Thursday afternoon and Friday morning practices, MU heads to Mississippi for Saturday's game.

That's a quick turnaround.

"We've got to turn the page out of this and jump back into conference play," Herrion said. "We've got to learn from this. Can't let it happen again."

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MARSHALL IS THE lone remaining unbeaten team in C-USA after Wednesday's action, which included UCF holding off Memphis for a one-point win.

The Herd dropped to No. 39 in the RPI, but the strength of schedule is No. 32.

Three C-USA teams have one loss: UCF, Southern Miss and Memphis.

This Saturday's opponent, USM, hasn't lost at home.

The three defeats were to Denver, Murray State and Memphis ... all true road games against teams in the top 60 of the RPI.

Marshall leads the all-time series with Southern Miss, 6-5, but has won just once in four tries in Hattiesburg. That win came on Dec. 28, 1988, the first time the two teams met at Southern Miss.

Contact sportswriter Chuck McGill at chuck.mcg...@dailymail.com or 304-348-1712. His blog is at blogs.dailymail.com/marshall.