JMU Hoops Weekend Wrap

After defeating ODU in Norfolk for just the 6th time in 40 attempts last Wednesday, the JMU Dukes followed that up by losing to Georgia State 68-52 in Atlanta. It was an all around disappointing effort for the Dukes, who never really made a game of it. The Panthers were red hot from behind the arc in the first half, going 8 for 13 and taking a 38-24 lead at the break. Georgia State cooled off considerably in the second half and gave the Dukes plenty of chances to make a game of it. Other than Rayshawn Goins who had 19 points and 16 boards, nobody on JMU could get it going. Aside from Goins, the rest of JMU shot a collective 10 for 41 from the field. That’s not a misprint. And while I haven’t looked it up, a team’s expected winning percentage probably goes way down when the majority of players on your team can’t even shoot 25% from the floor.

There really isn’t much to say about this one. Devon Moore returned, which was nice, but he had a rough return after his prolonged layoff. The Dukes definitely missed Andrey Semenov, who is going to be out for at least a few weeks after hurting his ankle in the win over ODU. And in their second CAA contest, the freshmen class had a rough outing. Hopefully we can chalk this up to just a disappointing performance on the road. Unfortunately, last week’s play is probably a good indicator of what we’re going to see from JMU from here on out. The Dukes are a talented, but flawed team. And the CAA appears to be comprised of a number of inconsistent and flawed teams. So it shouldn’t surprise anyone to see the Dukes follow up gritty wins with disappointing losses every now and again. At least I hope it’s only every now and again.

JMU falls back to 7-7 overall and 1-1 in the CAA after the loss. Georgia State is also 1-1 in the league, despite being only 6-9 overall. Fortunately for both teams, the league is wide open this year. JMU gets back at it tonight and will attempt to right the ship against a 2-10 Hampton Pirates team.