Nation Shutdown
JMU Men’s Hoops, fresh off their first CAA title and NCAA tourney berth in two decades, loaded with four stud sophomores and a couple of highly regarded new freshmen, has already suffered its first huge setback on the second day of practice today. Athletic Director Jeff Bourne announced that star guard and electrifying defender and playmaker Andre Nation, he of the surge-to-fame in last year’s postseason and breathtaking athleticism, was suspended for the first 15 games of the season today due to a violation of JMU athletic department policy.
This means Nation will miss the entire out of conference schedule and the CAA opener before being eligible to return January 7th against College of Charleston. This obviously means he’ll miss what should have been, and may still be, a very exciting season-opening game at UVA.
Needless to say, it hasn’t been a great 48 hours for JMU athletics. The details of the cause of the suspension have not been released, though 15 games is a half-season suspension according to Daily-News Record hoops beat writer Mark Selig and one of the internal JMU reasons for a 1/2 season suspension is a second failed drug test. Rob and I, both of whom have jobs directly or indirectly dependent on our elected leaders not acting like a certain petulant, ranting conference commissioner as they are right now, really don’t have much patience on a personal front for the type of incompetence and immaturity we’ve seen out of JMU the last couple of days. Nonetheless, if you want to bash Andre, Coach Brady, or even JB on this one without knowing the facts or acknowledging that there but for the grace went most of us as Dukes sophomores, please take it over to the message boards at the Dukes Domain on this one. Whatever the cause, this presents an enormous opportunity for other young players to step up and most of all, we sincerely hope Andre gains a new focus on his priorities and is ready to re-engage as a more mature player and student when January 7 arrives.
Also, we really need Semenov’s back to hold up.
Maybe there was a bit too much tea in his party.
A+ headline.
so. disappointing.
Congress has simply been monitoring the situation recently.
The WaPo headline writers are weeping tears of joyous envy right now.
I purposely stay away from the message boards so I don’t know if this has been talked about, but I hope that he doesn’t transfer now.
I’m sure he’s at least on the radar for some higher level D1 teams so what’s stopping him from just sitting out the remainder of the year and then transferring? Especially if we announce a conference move (stop me if you’re heard that one before) that would cause the Dukes to be ineligible for the post season next year.
I have high hopes for the team, especially in the 2014-2015 season when the young team has more experience, so let’s hope that we can keep the core intact.