Looking Back on JMU’s CAA Tourney Loss to Hofstra
After defeating Hofstra twice during the regular season, JMU dropped a close one to the failed to show up against the Pride in the CAA tournament. Hofstra beat the Dukes 74-57. If you were at the game or watched it on television, you know the story. JMU came out lifeless and got beat on both ends of the court. The Dukes didn’t protect the ball, hit the glass, defend, or shoot particularly well. Other than that though, things were swell.
Save a CIT or CBI tournament bid/payment for entry, JMU will finish 19-13 and as Regular Season Quad-Champions.It’s a little easier to write off a flat performance during the regular season. Come tournament time though, you expect teams to come out sharp and focused. JMU was off from the opening tip this tourney. I lost track of how many times the Dukes turned it over by losing their dribble, stepping out of bounds, or mishandling a simple hand off. Hofstra turned those mistakes into 23 points off turnovers.
Perhaps more aggravating than the sloppy ball control, was the way JMU just essentially conceded the lane to Hofstra. The Pride dominated down low to the tune of 46 points in the paint. They were able to do this of course because JMU did much more watching than boxing out. For fans of fundamental basketball, it was an ugly affair.
All season long Hofstra’s poor defense was its Achilles heel. The Dukes didn’t exactly take advantage of that relative weakness. They shot only 37% from the field overall and were a terrible 5 for 22 from long range. Bad shooting nights happen. Good teams find a way to overcome them by working for easy looks and getting to the line. JMU did not do that against Hofstra. There were long periods of the game, where Ron Curry’s teammates on the floor looked content to let him try to pull the Dukes back on his own. Players seemed to alternate between standing around watching and playing hot potato with the ball on the perimeter. It was really just a total lack of offensive creativity.
Clearly, the game left me frustrated. Maybe I’m making it seem worse than it was. Or maybe it was even worse than I’m indicating. The fact is that JMU got boat raced by a team it had beaten twice already. Hofstra definitely has more talent, but the Dukes didn’t look prepared to play. Whether that’s an indictment of the coaches and players, or just an inopportune time to have an off night is a question for another day.
Well put. I totally agree. I know Caparkapa got injured in second half, but up until then, he wasn’t on the floor much after leading the team in first half. When everyone else is stone cold you’ve got to stay with the hot hand, no matter who it is.
So sad. The interior D was embarrassing, I can’t recall the number of wide open put-backs and open layups that were conceded. And the O was just as bad, with 4 guys literally standing around watching Curry.
Yes, the future looks bright with a whole team returning, but how did this happen? I’ve wavered back and forth about Brady, but this game was a real turd for him and his staff.
And how was Hofstra favored by Vegas? Sin City truly does know all.
Such a sad, pathetic end to a really good year overcoming the odds.
It was just an embarrassing game to watch. The only time we looked alive was when we were 5 points up early on in the game, and from there the Dukes just played deflated. Their dribbling was sloppy, their defense lazy and the turnovers inexcusable. The awful rebounding was just the cherry on top.
It’s really sad, because I’ve seen JMU teams with much worse records and seedings give much stronger performances at the CAA tourney than this one did here. The fans were pretty much taken right out of the game from early on, and I felt bad because the Pep Band was trying its best to keep the spirit in it (and performing wonderfully as usual).
Definitely excited to watch the Lady Dukes take on their tourney next weekend, but this one will leave a sour note on me for a while.
You have to wonder what this team could have done with Cooke, Bessick and Nation. Bessick in particular was missed against a big, physical team like the Pride.
Maybe Nation was a lost cause, not salvageable by even the best NCAA coaches. But when combined with the other players departing as well, something is up. These are guys Brady recruited himself, then was unable to keep happy – even after a CAA title and living in the awesomeness that is Harrisonburg.
Something is wrong culturally with your team when you have that kind of mass exodus, especially when these guys end up on Top 50 (ok Iona is 51) RPI rosters. These are not busts, these are talented players who bought into Madison, experienced success, and had proved themselves worthy of joining better programs.
It’s time for a change. Bring back Lefty.
OK. Anyone asking to bring back Lefty is forgetting history. Most talented teams in the CAA every year. One NCAA appearance…a loss. His teams sucked come tournament time. If you are going to long for a JMU coach, you have to go all the way back to the early 80’s to find one worth longing for.
Ha. I don’t even know if Lefty is still alive, but he’s certainly not coaching anywhere. It’s just fun to remember those years.
I don’t judge teams on tournament wins/losses. One game, one bounce changes everything.
During the Lefty years the JMU program attracted talent and won big games over major conference opponents. We don’t do that anymore.
Point is that Brady lost three extremely talented players, whom he recruited, and are all likely to start at bigger programs next year.
DI hoops isn’t Hooisers. You can’t win with the picket fence. Talent is necessary. JMU lacks it and its on the HC.
I agree with Dion and I’ve said the same thing. The year before last year’s exodus (which also included Tom Rivard) the Dukes parted ways with Arman Marks and Enoch Hood.
And the Lefty years are still a great example. It’s extremely hard to win in a tournament, as we’ve seen, and as happened to William and Mary last night.
But it sure was nice to have teams that routinely drew a crowd to the Convo because they brought in some other big name teams and won some of those games and could be counted on to dominate teams like William and Mary.
I don’t recall how long Brady’s contract extension was, but I think this year was one of his better coaching jobs, despite the fact that a lot of problems experienced by JMU’s Men’s Basketball were self-inflicted. I’d give him one more year.
@Dion: you woke up my research bug.
Coach Driesell is on the selection committee of the Collegeinsider.com tournament.
Coach Driesell’s name did allow JMU to schedule up while he was there and that was a positive that we don’t have now — and the Dukes did beat some teams from the major conferences in that era (I excluded Penn State — I couldn’t remember if they were independent in hoops as they were in football — and Virginia Tech — 21-16, ’nuff said). I’m sure I missed some teams in this research (getting ready for 3 hours of student conferences — which no parents, or students, will take time to attend) but a cursory glance tells me:
The Dukes won 8 games against ‘big’ schools — Florida, California, Oregon State (x2), Auburn, Purdue, Mississippi State, and Ole Miss. Most of these wins were concentrated in 2 seasons — 91-92 and 92-93. Cal (19) was ranked.
They lost 11 times: Georgia Tech, UNLV (x2), Oklahoma (x2), Florida, Washington, Seton Hall, Minnesota, Auburn, and North Carolina. Tech (23), UNLV (1, 24), Oklahoma (6), Seton Hall (7), and Florida (25) were ranked.
Most of these games were neutral court or away games, though the #24 UNLV game was at JMU.
Scheduled up and won some, but not against that many teams in the upper echelon of their conferences.
Ultimately a coach, especially at a mid/low major (which is what we were for a long time — and are again) is judged by his/her post-season performance. I would agree with OBXDuke83 in this case; Coach Driesell’s overall post-season record is not that good. All the misfires can’t be attributed to one bad bounce in a game.
At the end of the day, Coach Brady has 1 more NCAA win at JMU than Coach Driesell.
I don’t believe that everything is hunky-dory in the men’s program, and we shouldn’t be sitting around the campfire singing Kum-ba-ya — but I’m not positive that it’s broken beyond repair (which was my position about 10 months ago). If the exodus continues this off-season, then the program might very well be in trouble.
Since I am working at being more glass half-full, I think we’ll lose fewer than 20 games next year; since we didn’t win 20 this year, we broke Brady cycle!