JMU ended a 7 game CAA home losing streak with a 59-47 win over the William & Mary Tribe last night. For the first time in a long time, Todd and I actually had a lot of fun watching a JMU game. That was primarily due to the fact that JMU controlled a game for the first time in ages. It also had a lot to do with the fact that John Feinstein was doing color. Yes, the man can namedrop like nobody else on earth. He also has some great stories and is a tireless advocate for mid-major programs.
Here are 3 quick thoughts on last night’s action.
The Most Semenov-ish Game Ever
JMU’s tattooed combo guard/forward had an outstanding game last night. He led all scorers with 15 points and pulled down 8 boards. It was classic Semenov, diving for loose balls, mixing it up with Beasthoven, and pissing off the opposition so much that a player in street clothes got a tech for calling him a punk. Just your typical Andrey Semenov performance. I think the guy might be the most hated player in the CAA, but I love him. Anyone who can get opposing fans that riled up is OK in my book. In fact I think he’s now one of my favorite Russians ever. Ovi is still tops on the list, but Andrey has clearly passed Yakov Smirnoff at this point.
7 Man Rotation
The Dukes lack of depth due to injuries and other things, was supposed to be a problem last night. Matt Brady told reporters after the Hofstra game that walk-on Christian Pierce might even start seeing serious minutes. Last night however, Brady settled in with a 7 man rotation. The Dukes went with what has become their standard starting 5, Moore, Humpty, Davis, Hood, and Semenov. Arman Marks and Alione Diouf came off the bench. The result was a very well rounded effort in which everyone contributed. A.J. Davis looked ready to take over the game with his athleticism at several points, but never did. Instead the team seemed to always have a different player hit a jumper, get to the line, or pull down a rebound when they needed it. It wasn’t always pretty and it wasn’t against the best of the CAA, but it was encouraging nonetheless.
Fun With Feinstein
As mentioned above, John Feinstein did color for the television broadcast. His seemingly countless Dean Smith references had Twitter abuzz (at least our feed which is chock full of CAA die-hards) which kept us laughing throughout the game. I’ve got to say though, I loved it. I wish he did color for every CAA game. I really do. He’s been beating the drum for mid-majors for years and was the guy who gave JMU a vote in last year’s AP poll. And the man has some great stories. Last night he brought us inside the huddle before “the shot” in 1994 to explain that Kent Culuko pulled a Jimmy Chitwood by looking the coaches in the eye and telling them he’d make it. He even told us that Chuck Driesel claimed to have called the play the picket fence. And the nugget he dropped about Lou Rowe getting hurt so badly that he couldn’t fly home from a game in Florida, so he had to drive 18 hours back, was awesome. Seriously. Who else gives you that sort of stuff during a CAA broadcast? Most color commentators for CAA games are lucky to get the players’ names right. So if a few Dean Smith name-drops is the price we have to pay for funny anecdotes and a guy who actually seems to be happy to calling a game between two CAA bottom dwellers, I’ll gladly pay it. And for the record, if I had the network that Feinstein did I would name-drop worse than anyone could imagine.
JMU announced its official 2012 Football Schedule this afternoon. And we like it. We like it a lot. First things first, there are 6 home games (regular season that is) compared to only 5 last year. And if history is any indicator, we can count the game at Richmond as at least 3/4 of a home game attendance wise anyway.
Last season’s CAA was full of surprises and proved that teams can easily outplay expectations. Be that as it may, JMU’s opponents were collectively 9 games under .500. And as I’m sure you’ve heard AD Jeff Bourne explain, he expects the JMU program to win consistently and be primed for a deep playoff run about once every four years. Well, JMU won the National Championship in 2004 and ran the table in the CAA and made it to the semi-finals in 2008. This will be the fourth season since that semi-final run. Therefore the completely un-scientific and statistically baseless conclusion is that the Dukes are going deep into the playoffs this season. Coach Matthews brings back a talented and experienced roster. With this favorable schedule, we’re drinking the Kool-Aid and setting ours sights on JMU winning it all.
Here is the full schedule with some thoughts on each game. Home games are in bold.
September 1 – St. Francis – Sacrificial lamb to start the season. Hopefully an evening kick off for some extended tailgating.
September 8 – Alcorn State – Steve McNair went there. That’s all I got folks.
September 15 – vs. West Virginia (at FedEx Field) – Agent Steinz might be poking fun at this game (and lighten up, it’s a funny post), but we’ve had it on the calendar since last summer. We’re expecting a huge crowd, some great tailgating, and a loss quite frankly. But last time WVU beat JMU, the Dukes won it all. So, good omen. Good omen.
September 22 – vs. Rhode Island – Just days before my wifes’ birthday and the Dukes coincidentally have a road game a mere 30 minutes from Newport, her favorite place on earth? Sounds like a set up for the perfect gift. Happy Birthday to me.
October 6 – Towson (Family Weekend) – Good to play the defending CAA Champs in Bridgeforth. Bad to have to do it in front of the historically subdued and boring Family Weekend crowd.
October 13 – William & Mary – Always a game to look forward to. If you’re student who has to study that weekend, stake out a spot in the library early before the visiting fans get there for their unique brand of research focused “tailgating”.
October 20 – vs. Richmond – JMU’s first chance to beat Rocco at his new home.
October 27 – Georgia State (Homecoming) – Oh gawd. Tough draw for the Panthers. Not only do they need to come to Bridgeforth in their first year of CAA play, but they have to do it on homecoming.
November 3 – vs. Maine – The least intimidating stadium in the CAA, yet still one of the most intimidating places to play purely due to the weather. A cold, wind exposed stadium. Glad that it’s early in November instead of late.
November 10 – vs. Villanova – Nova took their lumps with a very young squad last season. They should be a much tougher out this season.
November 17 – ODU – My personally most anticipated game on the schedule. Heading into the first meeting with ODU last year, we said the Monarchs were already JMU’s biggest rival. Then they beat JMU. We’ve been anxious for a rematch on our turf ever since. And we love that the CAA and both schools have said that they want this match-up to close the season annually.
If you want the good news, just skip to the Good News section below. So, men’s hoops went on the road in the ATL to visit this year’s CAA surprise team, Georgia St., and the now familiar scrit repeated itself. Again. I’d link you to the game story, but let’s be honest, you don’t care. The undermanned Dukes played scrappy, smart, passionate basketball through the under 16 timeout in the second half, when they held a 5-point lead. And then the wheels fell off under an avalanche of lazy fouls, bad turnovers, and awful shots. Devon Moore’s wrist injury, suffered late in the loss to Hofstra on Saturday, made the Dukes look like the JV scrimmaging the varsity when the Panthers turned up the heat defensively in the second half. In fact, JMU was one more player fouling out away from having to turn to walk-ons, burning a redshirt, or Ollie from Hoosiers. With Goins, Wells, and Moore, the heart of last year’s team, all out now, it’s really almost unfair to jump on the players. But tonight’s game brings two questions to the forefront and gives us a chance to give a piece of advice.
1) Who is going to be the next coach? And how much will that decision be impacted by the new JMU President and his feelings on Jeff Bourne? Needless to say, more on this at CAA tourney time.
2) What in the sam hell was Julius Wells doing tweeting about watching “his girl” Skylar Diggins at 7:20 p.m. tonight?! You know, when the Dukes were playing. I mean, I guess I understand he’s not traveling now, and I guess I can even believe he’s not used to firing up the MadiZone broadcast, but seriously, someone should remind him how much tuition he paid during his four-year barrage of Dray Blatche shot selections.
3) If you plan to watch Thursday’s game on Comcast (8 p.m.) or even worse, to attend the Mason game this Saturday, this is a public service announcement: Drink heavily before viewing. You’re going to need spirits, maybe even corn liquor, for these and do not fool yourself into thinking beer or wine will do the job.
Good News!!!
Really could say great news for two JMU alums (warning: one is non-sports but it’s really cool).
First, former JMU soccer star and recently crowned MLS Rookie of the Year C.J. Sapong was capped Saturday night in the USA’s victory over Venezuela! A “cap” in soccer, for anyone who still hates on the beautiful game, is when you actually get playing time for your national team. Yes it’s a friendly and largely a young, inexperienced group that will not comprise the “A” team for a few years, but this is enormous. Rob’s going to cover this in detail later in the week, but seriously, a Duke Dog on the National team is pretty damn awesome. And he earned a solid 6 to 6.5 from commentators for his performance for those who know soccer ratings!
Second, JMU alum and friend of JMUSB Matt Bondurant’s book, The Night Swimmer, came out this week to a great bit of fanfare. Having read my fellow JMU English department product’s third novel over the weekend, I’ll offer that this San Francisco Chronicle review does it fairly good justice, though I’d have liked to see a nod to the outstanding and eclectic music references in the book. Oh yeah, and his last book, The Wettest County in the World, is awaiting release of the film adaptation this summer with a few actors you “may” have heard of! Click that link and check out the company Wettest County is keeping these days (Hunger Games). Better yet, read it, preferably while listening to a Drive-By Truckers album with a glass of Early Times. After all, it’s kind of the mood of the hoops season.
Devon Moore falls down, Alioune Diouf is oblivious to the game clock, and the Dukes never get a shot off. Hofstra wins.
— Mark Selig (@MarkRSelig) January 21, 2012
We’ve written thousands of words on the Dukes this year, yet the DNR’s Mark Selig was able to tell the whole story of the 2011-2012 JMU Basketball season in less than 140 characters. Yeah, the Dukes lost to Hofstra today at home by the score of 71-69. It was Hofstra’s first CAA win of the season. JMU kept it close all game. They had a chance to win in the end. But alas it was not meant to be. See the above tweet. I don’t know what else to say. Todd and I aren’t even pissed. We’re numb. And as fans that might actually be worse.
The above video was put together by JMU as part of the Come to JMU campaign to recruit students. And it’s awesome. I can’t do anything but smile when I watch it. Well, that’s not true exactly. I also can’t help but wonder what else they are not showing us. There has to be some unintentional comedy gold on the cutting room floor right? Because I promise you that if someone put a camera in front of me back when I was in college and asked me for 3 words to describe JMU the results would be cringe worthy. I don’t know exactly what I would have said. It’s a safe bet that it would have been about booze and women, ironically enough two things that I absolutely could not handle.
Because I am ancient however, technology was not as advanced when I was a student. Yes, there were draw backs. We had to actually walk to the library to look things up instead of Googling them. And we had to register for classes over the phone (land line) by entering ridiculously long codes (only to have the pre-recorded voice inform us the section we wanted was full) instead or signing up for classes online. And we never could have put together such a great video like they did here. It would have taken a team of 14 people 75 hours in the AV lab to create something half as good. So while there might be a 5 by 7 glossy or two featuring yours truly in flannel shirts, baggy jeans, wool socks and Birkenstocks, you’ll find no incriminating videos of college me on the VAX, a laptop, or smartphone. But that can’t be the case nowadays. And while we the above video warms our hearts with good memories of our alma matter, we’d really like to see the awful stuff that didn’t make the cut. Just doctor it up and make it a Mason video if it’s truly that bad.
H/T to @RealFrankBio and others for the video
Oh yeah, and the Wizards held off the Thunder. Maybe should all get shootin’ lessons from the Nuge and move to Montana. Before getting to the Dukes, a quick question: Would it have been inappropriate for Wiz fans to storm the court tonight? Never even occured to me at the pro level, but just felt right at the end this evening.
That kinda night!
Ok, we can finally celebrate snapping this miserable JMU losing streak, stop hearing about how their only CAA win was largely based on a miracle shot at Hofstra, and overlook the typically awful incidents in tonight’s game (blowing an 11 point lead midway through the 2nd, Semenov missing two techs that would’ve stopped UNCW’s run, and genearlly trying desparately to give away a game in which they appeared to be both more talented and better coached).
The Good
Darn right I said better coached, and no one is more surprised than we are after finally testing the waters of the #firemattbrady pool these past couple of days. But tonight’s gameplan of mixing up the defenses with some first-half zone and then constant double-teaming from every angle on Seahawk’s star Keith Rendlemen was definitely worthy of high praise.
Humpty’s career high 27 were enormous and the return of his three-point touch was a site for sore eyes.
The ball in Devon Moore’s hands throughout the last few minutes with no question who’s show it was in crunch time!
Enoch Hood chipped in with 14 points, great effort on Rendlemen, and consistent work on the glass. His development is the high point of the season so far. He even drew some love from UNCW reporter Brian Mull. (seriously, if you care about the CAA, there’s not a better, more reasoned voice anywhere than Mull – follow him on Twitter @BGMull and enjoy!)
The Bad
We’re skipping this tonight in celebration of snapping the streak, but continuing to miss Julius is tough when the inevitable offensive droughts come.
The Ugly
One word: MadiZone. We hate you, you cheap, low-rent piece of crap. The jmusports website may look better, but this remains sickening, especially on a night when I’m fairly confident that only the two of us and a couple more shut-ins with their cable out were tuning in.
Billy Cosh.
It’s been rumored for a few weeks, and today Mike Barber from the DNR and Rivals tweeted that Billy Cosh has left JMU. According to Barber, Cosh has transferred to Butler Community College in Colorado Kansas and will play football there.
Cosh came to JMU last spring as a transfer from Kansas State, where he redshirted his freshman year. He had some ridiculous high school stats and was one of the most prolific passers in Maryland high school history. His senior year in high school he threw for 3,913 yards and 56 touchdowns, both state records. He was the 2009 Washington Post Player of the Year. Those numbers and accolades, plus the fact that he was coming from a BCS program, had JMU fans eager to see him rise up the depth charts. Unfortunately for Billy, that never happened.
Cosh was firmly 3rd in the pecking order behind Justin Thorpe and Jace Edwards, and even got passed by Andre Coble on the gameday depth chart late in the season. I don’t know if his skills made him a bad fit for the JMU offense, if the other guys on the roster were just better, or if it was something else entirely. The fact that he’s transferring down to a JUCO program leads me to believe he was pretty confident he was never going to see the field at JMU. His departure just makes the pending arrival of 6’6″ 245 lbs QB Ian Fisher that much more exciting. By all accounts Cosh is a great kid though and we certainly wish him well.
JMU lost to George Mason 89-83 yesterday. Again. For the 6th straight time. For the 17th time in the last 18 games between the two schools actually. Yesterday was a very ugly game in which the Dukes were down big only to mount a furious late rally that left them just short of victory. A moral victory that is. And quite frankly, we’re over moral victories. We need some real wins to inspire some confidence in this team. It’s not even February and we’ve pretty much thrown the towel as fans already.
At this point I guess I should just come right out and say that I didn’t have the stomach to sit through this game. I tuned in for the first half with my old man. Neither one of us could take it though. He finally screamed uncle after yet another hideous offensive sequence beginning with the Dukes aimlessly tossing it around the perimeter and finishing with Devon Moore bricking a mid-range jumper. At that point my Dad just grunted and demanded we switch over the Saints vs Niners. I had no will to argue with him, nor any desire to watch any more. I switched the channel.
I know the players are giving it their all. At least most of the time, they appear to be. Other times, it kind of seems like they’re not to be honest. But the fact of the matter is, JMU plays an incredibly frustrating style of basketball. It’s just not any fun to watch. And it’s not just because they are losing. It’s more because they have no apparent system or signature style of play. And that makes me feel helpless. When a team doesn’t have a system, then to me it means you’re basically just waiting for the players themselves to become better basketball players. There is no real benefit to experience because there is no system to become more comfortable or develop expertise in. Case in point is Devon Moore. We all assumed that he’d be better this year because he’s an upperclassman with 2 years of experience running this team. Well there is nothing to really run, so we’re not seeing him get anything extra out of his teammates. As my dad said, it’s like watching a team play pick-up ball. A team play bad pick-up ball.
Regardless, I’m going to stick with this team. It might not be fun to watch and I might not have much hope, but I’m not completely giving up. I’ll try to focus on the positive and cheer like hell for upsets. And then if Brady is let go, which seems inevitable at this point, I’ll try to muster up some enthusiasm and convince myself that the next coach will turn it around next year.
Seriously, actually dookie is better to watch on your television than our beloved Dukes right now. There’s just no excuses remaining and no redeeming quality to this squad. Four minutes into the second half at VCU tonight, the Dukes were down just 45-41 and had us all thinking they just might steal one, or at the least finish off a respectable performance on the road against a tough squad despite the recent struggles. If you had the unfortunate pleasure of walking in from work at about that point in the rare 6:00 start however, you would only get to see the Dukes make a single field goal the rest of the way and you likely would have considered gouging your own eyes out with a spork. The problems our too many to list, but the utter lack of effort to create good shots and a seemingly ironclad belief in the certainty of their own defeat (and Devon Moore’s hideous shooting) made the blowout loss a foregone conclusion despite the early mirage.
I really wish there was something better to say, but honestly, nothing can be said here except the team appears to have quit on Brady, has zippy confidence, and actually misses Julius Wells. I’ve harped on Wells’ shot selection for years, but things have gotten so bad that JMU actually misses his irrational confidence and odd ability to make a couple of those terrible shots at just the right time. Get your first night tickets for the CAA tourney if you want to see the zillionth straight one and done showing from the purple n’ gold!
Plus wouldn’t you rather scroll down to our previous post and laugh your ass off at Mike Fratello rocking out with full-on male toe!
Todd drew the short straw and is on the hook for writing about the loss to VCU. That gives me a free pass to ignore the debacle and do my best to pretend it never happened. And I can think of no better way to distract myself from the struggles of the 2011-2012 JMU basketball team than by looking at pictures of random JMU hoops teams from the 1970s. Fortunately, this little beauty of the 1973 JMU Men’s Basketball team was sent to us. And yes, that is TNT basketball analyst and former JMU assistant coach Mike Fratello on the far right. I’m not sure who the others are, but their pants are pretty fly. And I’m fairly certain we could slip Gene Swindle into the picture and nobody would notice.
Huge H/T to @bpmarkowitz for sending us this picture and a few more we’ll post later.