Dukes Lifeless in Loss to UNCW
JMU's Ron Curry sums up this loss quite succinctly: “They just wanted it more, and they played tougher than we did.”
— Nick Sunderland (@NSunderland4) February 5, 2015
The Dukes lost to UNCW 77-65 in the Convo last night. Heading into this home stand, JMU was tied for 3rd place with a chance to really leap into position for the CAA regular title. Instead, the Dukes lost two lopsided ones to CAA contenders UNCW and W&M. The loss against UNCW leaves JMU at 6-5 in league play and 13-11 overall. UNCW moved to 8-3 and 13-9 overall. Ron Curry lead the Dukes with 21 points. Joe McLean and Tom Vodanovich chipped in 11 and 12 respectively. Here are three quick thought on the game.
Yuck
Not sure how else to describe this one. Normally I can laugh things off and not get too upset about poor performances. For some reason last night’s loss was much more upsetting. JMU looked absolutely lifeless. The Dukes came out of the gate slow and let UNCW build up a lead. If not for the fact that the Seahawks weren’t particularly impressive in their own right, the Dukes would have faced an even bigger deficit. JMU was never really in this one. The game was tied for 40 seconds and JMU managed to lead for only 1:04. Translation, this was all UNCW.
The Dangers of Not Protecting the Basketball
It turns out that when you can’t hold onto the basketball you can’t score. And in fact you give the other team more opportunities to score. Crazy concept, right? UNCW jumped out to a first lead and never looked back because JMU couldn’t handle the press. They turned the ball over repeatedly, resulting in 18 UNCW points off turnovers before halftime. That was all it took. Despite a brief rally after the break, it was never really close. UNCW’s first half pressure was the difference.
What Ron Said
Look at Ron Curry’s quote above. There a few things worse than fans and bloggers questioning players’ heart or effort from afar. We’ve never done and we don’t want to start now. But we certainly wouldn’t want to contradict the best player on the team either. He said it. We just happen to believe it.
Not sure why Satkus has fallen so far that he got less minutes than Caparkapa, but Caparkapa needs to be more of a post player and quit launching 2 pointers. His size is his advantage inside.
This team has a trend of starting off slow. Sometimes they can fight their way back, but they need to start better and that may need to come by mixing up the starting lineup.
Kent was so cold last night he needed a coat… Dumb pun but every time he missed a three it seemed UNCW got a 3 or some transition points (6pt swing). Last night was dissapointing… YOYO seemed to lack excitement throughout the game too. Hopefully we bounce back or we could find ourselves in the basement of the standings.
Go dukes!
Picturing this team going to the “Big Dance” is beyond any logical reasoning ….
I really agree with Bhagavan, why did Satkus didnt get enough time.
however, it is a lost match. I am a football freak and love everything about this game and share my love for this sport at https://kiwifootballupdates.wordpress.com. please visit me sometime. thanks for the constant updates though.