Feb 2 / Rob

Dukes Go Down Swinging

JMU lost to ODU tonight by the score of 80-71. The loss dropped the Dukes to 10-14 overall and 3-9 in the CAA. With the win, ODU improved to 15-9 and 10-2 in the league. A.J. Davis paced JMU with 23 points and Andrey Semenov chipped in a season high 22, including 6 three pointers. Chris Cooper was the star for ODU. He pulled down 117 rebounds, with several dozen of them on the offensive end (both numbers unofficial).

This Could (Should?) Have Been Much Worse

Once again, this was a game that JMU had no business being in, but they hung in there and made it a game. I lost track of how many times I thought ODU was about to blow JMU out of the gym, only to have JMU battle back. I understand most of you will say this is loser talk, but I was proud of the way JMU battled. The Dukes easily could have packed in it when ODU built up double-digit leads. They didn’t though. They stormed back and even pulled to within 5 points with under 2:00. And they did it largely without Devon Moore, who has a wrist injury and only played 9 minutes.

These Guys Are Gassed

Humpty Hitchens had a pretty awful shooting night. He never found his groove and finished with only 9 points on 4 of 15 shooting. It’s easy to see why. He played 40 high energy minutes tonight. In fact, the senior has played 7 games in the past 2 weeks and he’s sat out a grand total of 5 minutes. A.J. played 38 minutes tonight. Semenov played 39. This team has played a lot of games in a short period of time and they have no bench. So while it was incredibly frustrating to see ODU players shoot wide open threes all night, I understand why it’s happening. JMU is worn the hell out. It’s not an excuse by any means. It’s just a fact. And this team struggles to rebound when they’re fresh. Put them up against a particularly strong rebounding team like ODU, and the result is a 29-22 rebounding edge…for JMU’s team over ODU’s Chris Cooper. As a team, ODU actually pulled down a whopping 47 boards.

This Is Not a Popular Opinion

At some point we’ve got to give Matt Brady some credit. I know. This is loser talk. I get it. For the overwhelming majority of JMU fans, the die has been cast and Brady is a dead man walking. I’m not saying that the guy has earned an extension or even that he doesn’t deserved to be fired. He has kept this depleted roster playing for a full 40 minutes night in and night out though. A few weeks ago, I thought he had lost the team. Now they’re hovering near the bottom of the standings with nothing to play for, but somehow they’re still battling. And they’re more banged up then ever. So I know I’m on an island here, but I think he deserves some credit. He’s not quitting and neither is his team.

Finally, I really haven’t made up my mind on whether or not he should be brought back and I probably won’t until after the season. I do find it sort of funny though that so many fans are convinced JMU is going to fire him and eat almost $300K of salary next year. This is the same athletic department whose conservative financial tendencies brought us bidgate. Forgive me if I’m not convinced they’ll break out the checkbook on this one.

 

9 Comments

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  1. Dukie95 / Feb 3 2012

    Part of me wants to give a lot of credit to Humpty for all the fight this team has. With Wells and Moore out (or just unhealthy), this is his team and he’s setting a great example.

  2. Rob / Feb 3 2012

    Absolutely agree. Humpty has been awesome. He’s played as hard as anyone in the league night in and night out and sets a great example for the underclassmen. I’m going to miss watching him play next year.

  3. Tamara / Feb 3 2012

    You are dead on. Humpty does deserve a lot of credit, but I don’t see that taking precedence over a team playing for a coach they don’t respect and aren’t learning from. I’m on the “Keep Brady, This Isn’t His Fault” team, and also agree that we’re not going to/shouldn’t eat the 300K. I’m a supporter of Brady, and of this team, and I would challenge any CAA team to lose their Pearsons, their Coopers, etc…and still be able to put up a fight like this team does. This is loser talk too, but our losses are close, not blowouts (for the most part)…even if they look like they will be at times. I’ll be at Convo Saturday, screaming my head off and hoping for a W. And we’re heading to the tournament too, because a team with this fight deserves my energy. Go Dukes!

  4. 2004 Duke / Feb 3 2012

    Our Men’s skirtball team is a joke, and spending even $300k on this disaster of a program is not worth it, most likely. The only way to cure this disease of a program is to get Coach K Jr. and recruit a bunch of undersized kids that can shoot and play as a team. As at Duke, recruiting your standard basketball player isn’t going to work (as has been proven in Rocktown for the last 20 years).

    A applaud your efforts, though, to plug away as continue saying things like “they haven’t given up” and “they went down swinging”. That takes a degree of dedication (or Kool Aid) that I cannot and will not ever possess.

    Maybe they should just terminate the Men’s Basketball program and pump the extra cash into the football program (and get us a TV contract)? Maybe under Title IX, we could cut the men’s basketball team and bring back a winner, like the JMU Archery team? We might even get a better return on investment by liquidating the men’s team and just printing a bunch of recruitment flyers for the Admissions Office.

  5. 2004 Duke / Feb 3 2012

    i love your blog though. I’m just a frusterated football player venting. It makes me mad when we do all this work for the first 5 months of the school year making JMU look awesome, and then the men’s basketball team comes in and destroys our reputation.

  6. Rob / Feb 3 2012

    I get where you’re coming from 2004. I’m frustrated to and this is definitely some forced kool aid drinking on my part. Honestly, I just don’t know if I could keep blogging if I only focused on the negative. It would get depressing. And Todd and I told ourselves that we’d never rip on student athletes on the blog as long as they weren’t mailing it in or acting in a way that embarrassed the school. And I definitely don’t think Humpty, Semonov, A.J. etc are doing either of those things.

    And thanks for the kind words about the blog. We always appreciate your comments. Even when you disagree with us, you’re able to do so in an objective way that isn’t personal. That’s part of the fun of this whole thing. Keep it coming.

  7. hi / Feb 3 2012

    you guys already used that pic of humpty earlier in the season! let’s spice it up a bit

  8. Rob / Feb 3 2012

    Haha. We’re trying to find new photos, I swear. You’d be surprised how few pictures you can find of a struggling basketball team hovering near the bottom of the standings of a mid-major conference during an off year. Or maybe you wouldn’t.

  9. circus / Feb 3 2012

    If I could earn $300k by sucking at coaching, sign me up

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