Guest Post: Hoops Your Daddy?

Jason Kennedy, aka madddukes98, won last week’s prediction contest and earned the right to guess post. Here’s his take on the state of JMU hoops.

Although there is still a good chunk of the football season left, I thought I would write up my guest post about JMU basketball.  With the tip-off less than 2 weeks away versus a formidable opponent in UVA and an exhibition loss to a D-II team having already taken place, my confidence at the start of the men’s season is already in a deficit.  Oh, and that doesn’t even include the part about how our best player is suspended for the first 5 games.  By the way, Nation should be gone.  There I said it.  He has had too many chances. Brady already has some credibility issues in my opinion going all the way back to his Marist days so to allow this behavior to continue isn’t helping his reputation in my mind.   The “zero tolerance” policy that Brady is now applying to Nation could very easily not be enforced if it’s something that can be covered up by the athletic department such as a team rules violation or something else with low visibility.  Who knows how many other chances he will get that don’t really “count” under the zero tolerance policy.  Or, maybe Brady’s words hold true and he does get dismissed. That would be at least honorable and would improve my opinion of the program.

Understandably this all comes across as if I am completely against the current state of the JMU basketball program.  Having suffered through the post-Lefty years as a student and younger alum I know I probably shouldn’t be too hasty in my contempt for the way the program has been run the past few seasons.  To be fair, I won’t deny that I was completely excited about our trip to the Big Dance two seasons ago.  That team had good chemistry and was built fairly well for a mid-major to make some noise in the Tourney.  It was a magical moment in JMU sports history after winning the CAA tourney and watching the fans storm the court.  However, even after that great moment, it turned sour as the LIU game was tainted due to Goins’ 1st half suspension.  Can anyone explain that one?  Sorry, but if you are going to make a statement you suspend him the entire game.  Yeah, it would have sucked for the team, the school, the fans had he been out the whole game and they lost but it would have been the right thing to do.   The pressure of not being to the NCAAs since 1994 just overwhelmed better judgment.  Yeah, in the end it didn’t matter – losing to LIU wouldn’t have been horrible since we got Indiana the next game -but it’s the principle.

However, being an optimist and possessing a cup-is-half-full personality (being a DC sports fan you have to have one in order to keep coming back for more punishment each year) I am hoping that Nation turns it around, Brady plays it straight the whole season, the team gets some good OOC wins, tears it up in conference play and then wins the CAA tourney.  Granted, that sounds more like the cup is completely full from a fifth round and it’s full of purple and gold kool-aid, but what can I say, I still am a loyal fan.

Now, for some reason if the men’s season doesn’t go too well, we have the women’s squad to look to.  Hopefully they can balance out the potential disappointment on the men’s side as they hope to defend their CAA title.   It should be noted that they aren’t shying away from competition in terms of their out of conference schedule either (UCLA, UMD).   Sure maybe in mid-major women’s basketball it’s not as important but there was talk of JMU getting an at-large bid last season had they not won the CAA so I think it could still prove to be advantageous playing a moderately aggressive OOC schedule.  It gives JMU more publicity and exposure to different crowds of people (especially when playing other parts of the country).

I’m looking forward to a new hoops season and hope that we can continue to have success on the court but also would like to see some improvement in off-court “performances”.  Good luck to Coach Brady and Coach Brooks and win lose or draw, I will keep rootin’ fer Dukes!