Mar 7 / Todd

ODuh wins CAA; #3bids4CAA goes down fighting

Here’s the game story from the Richmond Times-Dispatch.   But here’s the JMUSB angles on the CAA tourney.

The Good – The game was incredible! You’ll be hard-pressed to find a game this whole championship week that comes close to this one for atmosphere, level of play, and sheer intensity.  Unfortunately, VCU may be doomed to bookend their season with NIT berths (pre and post seasons) and sending GheorghetheBlog’s season-long dream of #3bids4CAA down in flames, but it wasn’t without an incredible effort to comeback from 18 down early in the 2nd half to close within  a single point before the Monarchs pulled it out.  Was it possibly even enough to keep the dream alive though?  Could be, CAA Commish (Senior Doofus) Tom Yeager said before the game the NCAA told him VCU was in consideration win or lose.  But the crowd was fabulous and for all the yakking from Hempstead to Wilmington (with most of the loudest whining coming from Fairfax) about moving the tourney out of Richmond, tonight was awesome.

The Bad – as in badass, did you see the elbow the VCU kid Henry took from ODU’s manchild Frank Hassell?!  And then returned to the game with stitches INSIDE his mouth and glassy eyes.  Great toughness that defined this game.  That said, are you friggin’ kidding me VCU training/medical staff.  I’m sitting on my couch and when they first showed the replay, I did a full Chris Tucker as Smokey in Friday “You Got knocked the -uck out!” to my unamused wife.  Then when they showed him on the bench before he returned, it looked like the poor kid had no earthly idea where he was.  You’ll never convince me he did not have a concussion and had no business even back on the court, much less IN THE GAME.

The Ugly – The CAA.  I’ve been bitchin’ for a while now about the shoddy, provincial, bush-league, low-rent, d-list nature of the poor little old Colonial and tonight they nearly screwed up

CAA Production Truck

their one big shot on a national stage with that absolute debacle of a smokeshow or whatever the hell ruined the floor, nearly ruined a VCU player’s ankle, and clearly caused the Rams to play very nervous on that end of the floor in the first five minutes or so.  Look, the CAA is a proud conference, especially here in the Commonwealth.  It has served Virginia’s collection of acronymn schools well over the last few decades and has at least made an effort (football) to upgrade it’s status the last couple of seasons.  But this is pure alpaca shit.  It actually makes the ACC’s Jefferson Pilot/Raycom Sports, league-killing, Food Lion, redneck production look downright classy. 

Tonight’s HUGE upgrade in announcers only served to drive home the point.  ESPN’s national team doesn’t even know the CAA as well as our regulars, but they clearly did their homework, actually love and watch a ton of college hoops, and added to the excitement in the building throughout.  I’m going to leave the details of my feelings on the Conference’s LARGE questions and issues for the silly season approaching, but suffices to say it’s time for the Dukes and Monarchs to make the calls to Boone, Atlanta, and Newark, ditch the old rivalries and cute pep bands, and set out for “greener” pastures.

11 Comments

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  1. Sean Petrizzi / Mar 7 2011

    What do you propose as greener pastures?

  2. Todd / Mar 8 2011

    Sean, not sure if you meant it, but your question is very pointed and well-taken. I’m probably a bit ahead of myself to say that ANY move out of the current CAA is necessarily a better thing than the status quo. But despite the JMU Administration’s public stance that the school is not going FBS anytime soon, Dr. Rose is on his way out and I think Bridgeforth speaks for itself. Loudly. I just mention Norfolk (ODU), Boone (ASU), Atlanta (GSU), and Newark (UD) because football, and its bigger $$ (for better and worse) is driving the JMU train and those are schools in the same boat. I’ll save the full cost-benefit analysis for a few weeks until when hopefully Dawn and women’s hoops have cut down a couple nets and we’re back to sustaining ourselves with the limited rations of baseball and lax.

  3. Rob / Mar 8 2011

    I don’t completely get where you’re going with this, but I’m not exactly sure there are “greener pastures” available to JMU at this time. The dream of rounding up some football rivals and creating a FBS conference is enticing, but it’s just a dream at this point and I’m not even sure if it’s possible. As far as hoops goes, I think the CAA is on the rise and I’m proud for JMU to be a part of it. Now if only the Dukes could win the damn thing!

    Should be a fun silly season as you say. I think you and I have a shared opinion of where we’d like to see JMU go, but we’ve got divergent views on exactly how to get there.

  4. Uncle Ron / Mar 8 2011

    I don’t know about greener pastures, but the Jefferson Pilot / Raycom / Food Lion line is classic.

  5. Sean Petrizzi / Mar 9 2011

    Dont forget Chick Fil A when mentioning the ACC haha.

    I think JMU is on the brink of a next step. I think basketball wise, we need to become a consistent top 3 CAA team and win the tournament a few times, then MAYBE make a move to the A-10 which would lead to higher competition and therefore higher SOS. Also, this would help feed the Richmond/JMU, what I always thought was our best possible rival with every football game becoming an instant classic, basketball conference affiliation is the only thing standing in the way since the Spiders left the CAA.

    Football wise, I love the idea of a UMASS, JMU, Delaware, App State FBS conference, with a few more teams obviously. Unfortunately I don’t know who likely this scenario is and moving to FBS any other way worries me. I think Bridgeforth is more than impressive but for it to stay impressive, you have to fill seats. And a jump to FBS could take the wind of the programs sails. People come to JMU games because we can compete for a National Title almost every year, doesn’t mean we have the past two, but we could. If we jump to a crappy FBS conference and fall to the bottom of that conference, fans don’t wanna watch that. I say we stay at the FCS level for now and enjoy the opportunity it presents i.e., a national title and ESPN televised home playoff games.

  6. Sean Petrizzi / Mar 9 2011

    Who thinks a FBS conference of JMU, Delaware, UMASS, Villanova, U of R(small stadium now, but built to be easily expanded), App State, GA Southern, ODU would be a good league? Eastern Conference? Or take the CAA name to FBS? Eastern Conference is to generic and cheesy

  7. Sean Petrizzi / Mar 9 2011

    Lafayette and Lehigh also have two very nice, newly renovated stadiums. Picking up two of the biggest rivals in all of college sports would make for a big story line in this new conference. JMU, Richmond, and ODU would undoubtedly learn to love to hate each other and we already dislike Delaware and play great games against them. JMU App St certainly have a recent history of good games.

    I am beginning to like this idea. Any JMU marketing majors want to come up with a pitch?

  8. Todd / Mar 9 2011

    There you go Sean, though I think you and Rob have convinced me to pipe down a bit on the football side. Your point about competing for titles bringing fans is sort of the catch 22 though. It’s correct, but 25k is going to be tough consistently no matter how great an FCS program the Dukes can build. But I’ve got to disagree on the A-10 in basketball. CAA is on the rise at least and UR can come back if they want, but the A-10 is equally budget (Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall?!).

    Going to open this up in another whole thread, but here’s something to think about. Since Villanova won the title in 1985, only one team (UConn) has won a title in basketball at a school w/out D1/FBS football. And that UConn team was transitioning at the time. Maybe more telling, only Villanova, Marquette, Georgetown, George Mason, and Butler have made the Final Four since 2000 w/out big-time football.

  9. Rob / Mar 9 2011

    Sean, I used to always think that A-10 hoops was superior to CAA hoops. I’m not so sure any more though. Xavier, Temple, and UR are good this year, but probably on par with the top CAA teams. St. Joseph’s has sort of a nostalgic appeal, but realistically hasn’t been anything special since Jameer Nelson and Delonte West were there. And the guy who recruited those two players left St. Joe’s anyway. That guy was Matt Brady by the way.

  10. Sean Petrizzi / Mar 11 2011

    I have to disagree and say the A10 is a higher conference. UR, Temple, Xavier, Dayton, and St Joe’s are all good teams AND programs. UMASS has been good as well as Charlotte, URI and GW are decent programs as well.

    I don’t think the FBS football thing is as telling as we might think. Teams may not have won a championship but off the top pf my head I can think of Nova and Georgetown being great basketball programs with FCS football team.

  11. Rob / Mar 11 2011

    Historically yes, the A10 has been a better conference. I think the leagues are on par, or at least close to being on par, with each other now. I believe they’re the 9th and 10th rated conferences in terms of RPI. It’s a good conference, I just don’t think it would necessarily be a good move for JMU if it ever became an option. Basically, I wouldn’t want JMU to switch conferences with a different regional base, unless it was a no-brainer upgrade. I don’t think the A10 is. Look at UR. They’ve made the NCAAs 2 times since joining the A10 in 2001. Between 1990 and 2000 in the CAA they made it 3 times. And they don’t have in-state conference rivals any more. Negligible upgrade at best.

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