This Story About Former Duke Abdulai Jalloh Should Live Forever
One of the only good things about JMU’s loss to UNCW was the fact that our favorite CAA hoops writer from the past, Brian Mull, came out of semi-retirement to cover the game. Mull covered UNCW and the CAA at large back in the day for the Wilmington Star News and he was great. After UNCW got out to an insurmountable lead the other night, he mentioned via Twitter that he wasn’t sure “Abdulai Jalloh, two girls and a plate of chicken can save JMU now.” Given the state of mind we were in at the time, it went right over our heads. But then Mull followed up with an explanation and oh what an explanation it is. It goes like this:
After setting the Trask Coliseum scoring record with 37 points in a 99-85 UNCW victory, Jalloh came into the interview room to talk with JMU beat writer Dustin Dopiriak. Only, he didn’t come alone, nor did he leave emptyhanded. By his side were two young local ladies he’d recently befriended. While conducting the interview, he talked to the ladies about a return trip to Wilmington and also piled high on a plate leftovers from the pregame media buffet.
That’s amazing. Jalloh was a heck of a player and we knew he loved to score buckets. He also apparently liked to take the all the food and women too. If we retired jerseys here on JMUSB, Jalloh’s might be the first one hoisted the rafters.
There was a period of time during the Sherman Dillard/Dean Keener years that the fundamentals and play of men’s basketball at JMU was just too clownish to watch – worse than any high school team. I found I just couldn’t watch it.
So I don’t remember this player. Amusing story.
You can say what you will about the tenure of coach Matt Brady, but at least the program isn’t a total laughingstock anymore.
Good point Xerk. It got so bad that I almost tried to ignore the team in the later Dillard/Keener years. I also remember the relatively underachieving Lefty year’s where the team would win the regular season (and had a more talent due to his HOF status), but bow out in the CAA tourney routinely. Maybe it clouds my judgment, but I actually believe Brady has done a pretty good job pulling the program from the depths of despair.
That list of players in the source link just makes me sad. Even though we sucked, the CAA was a really good conference.