Dukes Blow Huge Lead, Still Down Hofstra
Phew! After blowing a 17-point lead in full house-on-fire fashion by giving up an 18-0 run to a team they had been handling, the Men’s team managed to pull their head out of their asses, reassert themselves, and somehow pull off a 59-53 win in the CAA’s Battle of the Bottom of the Barrel against the Pride (nee Flying Dutchman). Believe it or not, this actually was a pretty big win for JMU as it helped them at least hang onto hope of avoiding the 8/9 play-in game in the CAA tourney and kept them alive to move up even higher. Just like this time last year, while it sounds insane to talk about seedings, we’ll be watching Wednesday to see if the Dukes can hang with first-place, but now undermanned Delaware and thus show just how wide-open this year’s three days in Baltimore will be.
Ron Curry was the star of this with 20 points and 6 assists, including a huge and-one down the stretch to give the Dukes the cushion they needed. While not his best game, it sure was nice having Andre Nation back on the court tonight, especially on the defensive end. In general, this game had exactly the kind of wild swings we’re beginning to expect from this Dukes team which can really defend (this is compounded when playing an even more ratchet Hofstra team!), but absolutely cannot shoot. Tonight’s incredible, but not exactly surprising stat, was that JMU managed to pull off a perfect 0-11 night from behind the arc. Gotta give ’em credit for consistency!
Also, bracketology is even worse on the women’s side than the men’s thanks to impossibly uninformed commentators, but we’re still pleased to see the Dukes slide up to the 7-line in ESPN’s latest projection. The ladies are threatening the Top 25 and are right on pace for an all-timer of a season in the ‘Burg. All Aboard!
JMU makes ESPN Top 10 last night at number 10. Curry to Nation dunk.
sad news in jmu-land today — Betty Jaynes, former Madison College / JMU women’s basketball coach (’70-’82) died yesterday. a very nice woman who always treated well those of us working with the SID’s office. She was a true giant in the transition of women’s college basketball from it AIAW to NCAA status.
I’m the guy with curly hair and hoodie keeping stats at a JMU game (probably the 81-82 season) that is on the JMUSports homepage.
Thanks for the note Ken and the information about someone who sounds like she was a great Duke!
The ESPN top 10 was great. A couple of my friends were like so that is the team that you talk about all of the time.
somebody have a link to the top 10? — i am apparently no savvy enough to navigate the world-wide leader’s website.
This is the best we could find Ken. https://www.facebook.com/JMUDukeClub/posts/10100204256959712
thanks rob; will check it out once i get home and away from my school system’s web firewalls.