JMU Comes Up Short Again
What could have been the play of the year.
The Dukes gave first place VCU everything they could handle today, but still came up short in the end. VCU defeated JMU 70-66. Despite the unfortunate result, it was a really fun game to watch. The crowd was great, both teams went at each other for the full 40 minutes, and there were plenty of highlight reel plays. Of course the first half had all the defensive intensity of the NBA all star game, but both squads stepped it up in the second half and made up for it.
After watching the Dukes sleep walk through their loss to W&M, it was encouraging to see them play with some energy and fight against VCU. Devon Moore had an awful first half, but played like the leader JMU needs him to be after the break. The second half defense was awesome and seemed to only get better as the pressure increased in crunch time. I was actually starting to believe that JMU was finally going to break through and get a win against a top CAA team. Down 68-66 with 16.5 seconds left, Chad Jackson stole the inbounds pass and made what appeared to be JMU’s top play of the season. Only it wasn’t. The refs claimed that Jackson’s momentum carried the ball over the line before JMU called timeout. It was a bang bang play and a tough call for the ref, but after rewinding it and watching it about a million times, he looked in to me. Take a look at the picture above and decide for yourself. JMU didn’t lose because of the call. I’m not even positive the call was wrong. It just made the loss hurt a little more.
What We Liked
Denzel Bowles’ All Around Effort
He came to play and finished with 22 points and 9 boards. He also had 3 blocks, only 1 turnover, and managed to stay out of foul trouble, something he’s struggled to do lately. He had the convo rocking after some thunderous dunks, including an alley oop from Devon the likes of which hadn’t been seen in Harrisonburg in years.
Devon Moore’s Second Half
Let’s not sugarcoat it. Devon didn’t play well at all in the first half. He couldn’t buy a bucket and was held scoreless. He played at an All-CAA type level in the second half though. He was aggressive, got to the basket, and helped control the tempo for the Dukes. It was exactly the sort of play we expect from Devon.
Chad Jackson Playing His Role Perfectly
JMU needs Jackson to play good defense, be smart with the basketball, and do enough offensively to keep the defense honest. He’s been steadily improving for weeks now, but it all came together today. He hit 4 of 5 from the field, but his impact was most felt on defense. He seems to understand his role about as well as anyone on the team and didn’t try to do too much. What he did was awesome though. Just a solid game from a maturing freshman. Had the out of bounds call gone the other way, and this might have been known as the “Chad Jackson Game”. Oh, and that block of Skeen. WOW!
VCU Fans Traveling
It was cool to see so many VCU fans at the Convo and it made for a more exciting atmosphere. Not because I have any affinity for VCU fans. More because it just nice to know the JMU is finally playing well enough that other fans give a crap.
What We Didn’t Like
That Trey Attempt from Rayshawn
It’s not just the poor shot selection, but more what it represents. It’s not even just Goins. Unlike Chad Jackson, Rayshawn and others appear to completely misunderstand their roles and try to do too much. I like it when Goins plants himself near the basket, throws his weight around, crashes the boards, and gets garbage buckets. The game he has is good enough to put JMU over the top. The game he thinks he has is not.
Bad Breaks
JMU had a number of lay-ups rattle out, loose balls go off their finger tips, and rebounds barely elude them. It was painful to watch them be so close, yet consistently come up short. It’s all in how you look at it though. Sure sometimes the ball does bounce funny. Other times, players look at the defender instead of the bucket and miss the layup, get excited and travel after scooping a loose ball, or get caught flat footed while an opponent swoops in for a rebound. I think it’s what people mean when the say a team hasn’t yet “learned how to win.” Right now the Dukes are not putting themselves in position to get those breaks. Once they start to do that, they’ll be able to beat anyone.
Would be nice to get one of these wins before the CAA tournament. Just to build a little confidence. They are right there in these games, despite the maddening inconsistent play. I still like the direction Brady has the program heading. Where can we pick up another Denzel Bowles for next year?
Luckily, JMU still gets another shot at VCU, plus has games against Mason and ODU before the tourney. I’d really like them to win at least one of them to boost confidence.
I think Brady has things pointed in the right direction as well. I’m not as worried about the loss of Bowles as I was earlier in the season. He’s awesome, but I still think they can be better next year.
I’m sorry but while the Dukes did have some missed opportunities (missed layups and not holding on to defensive rebounds (Goins is a perfect example)), the refs definitely played a part in this loss. Just like a few other games, the free throw attemps were just way too lopsided. 28 for VCU versus 7 for JMU. How is that even balanced. On top of that, Moore didn’t travel and Jackson wasn’t out of bounds. We definitely didn’t get “home town cooking” that we had hoped for after the ODU game…….
I’m sorry, I meant Humpty didn’t travel.
Humpty definetly traveled. You can’t lift your pivot foot and dribble. Once he jumped (pivot foot is up), you have two options, shoot or pass. You can not do the streetball dribble. It was a walk, easy call.
Or you could see it as a Queen James “crabdribble.” Missed layups early 2nd were killer, but glad you pointed out how well Jackson’s game is coming together! @ GMU should be great this weekend.
I was disturbed by the disparity in the free throws as well but… the team seems to settle for jumpers way too often. We’d get more free throws if guys took it to the hole or made passes into the post.
JMU looks best wehn the offense works inside-out. Get the ball to Bowles and let him make a decision on whether to pass or shoot. It clearly opens shots for everyone else.
I am looking forward to catching the team in person and seeing how they perform against a very good Mason team.
I agree with that but even so, Bowles only had 2 FT attempts but he had 20 points which were mostly in the paint. I think Wells is a good person to take it to the hole given his size and relative quickness.
Refs actually did us a favor by calling that ball out of bounds with the whole momentum thing. Jackson tried calling a timeout when JMU had none left…if the ref accepts the timeout….it’s a technical. Of course…if JMU did have a timeout, then the refs blew the call as per the above picture. But alas, they did not and it was not the call that messed JMU up…it was the upward of five missed layups.