CAA Tourney Week is Here

JMU had to come from behind, but they managed to defeat the 1-30 Towson Tigers on Saturday. The 65-59 victory not only gave the Dukes a season sweep over the Tigers, but it helped them lock up the 8th seed in the CAA tourney. That means that despite all of injuries and disappointment, JMU will actually be wearing the home whites for a tourney game. That’s nothing really to celebrate, but  JMU has at least a puncher’s chance to win a tourney game. In fact they’ll be playing UNCW, a team that they defeated in their only match-up this season.

It would be foolish to ever look ahead with this year’s JMU team, but we’re still going to do just that. And if JMU can beat UNCW (which they’ve proven they can), then Todd and I actually like the match-up against Drexel in round 2. Don’t get us wrong, JMU would be heavy underdogs and deservedly so. Drexel was the outright regular season champ and in our opinion they’ve shown enough to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, should they not win it all next weekend. We just think that JMU would have a better time knocking off Drexel, than they would any of the other top 4 seeds. So it’s the best case for a long-shot miracle upset so to speak. Admittedly, our confidence is really based more on a hunch than statistics or reason though, so take it for what’s it’s worth (not much).

Honestly, there is a big part of me that just wants this season to end so we can put it behind us. Despite that, the March Madness fan in me has me believing that anything is possible, so I’m looking forward to next weekend. If JMU goes down early, it’s still going to be a great tournament. Any of the top 4 seeds could win it, and I could easily envision Delaware heating up and taking the title. Yes, this season has pretty much sucked. A win or two by the Dukes could cover up a lot of the misery of this season and at least give the team something to build on for next year.

Check back later this week for other tourney coverage and maybe even a contest of two.