Friday Ramblings: Three Point Woes and Eternal Wedded Bliss

 Whoa. People get married while at JMU? Seriously? That’s um, surprising. I’m married and it’s awesome. It really is. Despite what you might have heard from some formulaic three camera sitcom, marriage is great. But in college? I don’t think so. I’m not talking about married people who make the decision to go back and get a degree. I’m talking about normal 18-22 year olds that tie the knot during their time at JMU. Makes no sense. That would be like waiting years to get a reservation at the French Laundry and then bringing a bucket of KFC with you instead of ordering off the menu.

There’s no need to rush folks. You can be old and married later. You know, like when you’re actually old. I apologize if you are currently married at JMU and this offends you. If you’d like to take it up with me I suggest you craft a response via email. On Saturday night. After you return from Bed, Bath, and Beyond. But before you stream Hugh Grant movies from Netflix. While your classmates are out having fun. 

Struggles from Long Range

It’s no secret that Todd and I have been somewhat frustrated with JMU’s poor three point shooting lately. Matt Brady’s Dukes have attempted 324 treys this season. That’s tied for the 118th most (out of 351 teams) in the country. They’ve hit only 27.2% of those attempts. That’s tied for 343rd (again out of 351 teams) in the country.

There are people who insist everyone should spend countless hours diligently working to improve their weaknesses. There are others who believe it’s far more effective to focus on your strengths and seek opportunities to minimize activities that emphasize your weaknesses. We here at JMUSB fall firmly in the latter. Stop shooting so many damn threes fellas. It ain’t helping.

On the Other Hand

Don’t look now, but Kenny Brooks and the Lady Dukes are hot. The women defeated Delaware in a laugher last weekend by the score of 87-51. The victory snapped Delaware’s 44 game conference winning streak. In it, the Dukes hit Kirby Burkholder led the Dukes with a career high 33 points. She hit 7 three pointers. If you’re keeping score at home, that’s one more than the entire men’s team has hit in its past 2 games.

In fact the women’s team is shooting a somewhat respectable 33% from long range. That’s decent, but not great. Here’s the thing though. Heading into last night’s game against Towson, only 27% of the ladies field goal attempts were from long range. The men on the other hand, have launched 36% of their shots from behind the arc. And again, the men are hitting threes at a lower rate than the women. The women, shoot ok from long range, but shoot almost 3/4 of their shots from inside the arc. And they win. The men shoot horribly from long range, but continue to launch them at will. I guess the point we’re making here is stop. Just stop. Do something different please. Because this “green light every trey” strategy is not working.

The Best Thing on the Internet This Week

Vad Lee transferring to JMU is a good thing, for a whole myriad of reasons. But Erik Pitzer had the best take on it. His creation above was a clever nod to this, and it was also the best thing we saw on the internet this week.

The Triumphant (sort of) Return

I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, but Dave’s Express is coming back. That’s right, you’ll be able to eat your pita once again. Which is obviously terrific. But there is still no true full scale Dave’s Taverna. We understand that many of you believed the service and overall staff attitude both left room for improvement the last few years. That might have been true. But every college town needs a dive with cheap pitchers of beer. Dave was that dive bar for years. Thankfully, the ‘burg has a number of establishments serving some pretty outstanding craft beer. But again, cheap pitchers are a college staple. Someplace needs to fill the void.

A Few Things You Might Have Missed 

Since we started JMUSB a few years ago, a number of JMU sports related blogs have sprung up. And pretty much all of them have faded away. But we have good news. There are some current JMU students doing some fantastic things in the world of blogging and online writing. In particular we’d like to highlight two recent posts we enjoyed. Yes, the first one is a roundtable of sorts that we participated in, but Chase Kiddy, the writer who pulled it together, is great. Y’all should follow his work. And the other is a really neat look behind the scenes of a JMU basketball road trip by Joseph Kuykendall, the team manager. And while we’re handing out recommendations, Stephen Profitt is doing a great job covering hoops for The Breeze. His web-only piece on Andre Nation this week  goes well beyond the typical game recaps I recalled reading back when we were in school. So please do all the requisite likes and follows (and encourage them all to write more).

On Tap This Weekend

The Dukes have a chance to stop the bleeding with a road game at William & Mary. JMU actually reminds me a lot of last year’s Tribe team. They had some talented players with clear upside, but they just couldn’t close out games. This year, they’re showing their maturity and are off to a great start. Keep the faith Dukes fans. And cheer like hell for a bounce back win tomorrow. There’s enough talent on JMU’s roster to pull it off.