Looking Back at the Loss to ODU
By now you know that JMU suffered 67-61 OT loss to ODU yesterday. We apologize for the delay getting this post up, but we’re still working our way out of a holiday fog. We’ve had a chance to let the emotions run their course now though and might be in a slightly better position to look at things rationally than we were 24 hours ago. Maybe. Obviously, this was a tough loss to stomach. JMU blew a double-digit second half lead and had ODU on the ropes ready to be knocked out. A win would have put the Dukes at 2-0 in the CAA with some serious momentum heading into the heart of conference play. Instead, they’re 1-1 and have missed a huge opportunity to get a rare win over an ODU program that has owned them for years.
The Obvious
JMU just got murdered on the boards yesterday. If you had to pick one thing that made the difference in this game, that would be it. ODU pulled down a ridiculous 50 rebounds versus only 31 for the Dukes. Of ODU’s 50 rebounds, 22 of them were on the offensive end. That translated to a lot of extra chances for the Monarchs. They were missing easy put-backs in the first half, which helped JMU get out to an 8 point lead at the half. ODU kept attacking the glass though and eventually started converting on second chances.
JMU’s Offensive Execution
If you weren’t able to see this game, let me do my best to explain how the Dukes’ offense operated. In the first half, they had really good ball movement, attacked the rim, and shot very well from long range. In the second half they played catch 30 feet from the basket and then launched threes with the shot clock winding down. To call it un-inspired would be charitable. It was just lifeless. Thankfully Andre Semenov tried to snap them out of it and managed to get to the line and hit some big free throws down the stretch. Otherwise, it really seemed like a bunch of guys who were completely exhausted, just content to win or die by the jump shot.
AJ Davis vs. Matt Brady
As ODU chipped away at the lead in the second half, JMU could have really used someone who could create his own shot and stop the bleeding. A player exactly like AJ Davis. Unfortunately, Davis was glued to the bench for large stretches by Matt Brady who wasn’t satisfied with his effort on the defensive end. On one hand, you really have to admire Brady for holding guys accountable this season. Brady has never pulled any punches and he’s made it very clear this year that players who don’t work on both ends of the court are going to get benched. On the other hand, we watched for the past 2 years when he let Denzel Bowles play offense only for 2 years. Now he’s trying to play hard-ball with arguably JMU’s most talented player to make sure he commits to being a complete basketball player. I respect Brady for what he’s doing and think it’s the right thing to do. I just wonder if it is some sort of Bruce Boudreau situation where a coach changes his approach after already establishing a specific culture.
The End of Regulation
ODU’s Kent Bazemore tied the game with 6 seconds left and JMU had Humpty, Semenov, Diouff, Wells, and Moore on the floor. I’m not sure how you would personally rank the players you’d most like to get the ball in that situation, but I’m fairly certain that you’d all have Humpty first and you should have Julius Wells last. If that sounds harsh, I apologize. Wells has some good attributes, but he’s not a guy who can go end-to-end quickly. He’s a guy who likes to shoot 3 pointers. And that’s exactly what he did, even though there were still 2 seconds on the clock, he was double-teamed, off balance, and had the opportunity to at least try to pass it to Moore or Semenov who were wide-open streaking down the court. Yeah, I know things are different in the heat of the moment, but go watch the end of regulation and then try to disagree with me. Humpty doesn’t want to inbound it because he wants the ball in his hands. He makes the right pass to Julius to get it up the court quickly, but Julius never makes the next pass. He just jogs up court and launches a trey. That’s not the way you draw it up.
