Dukes Knock Off Northeastern in Boston 75-63

Can this man takeover the CAA Tourney?

Medium Steps for YoYo

Last time out versus Towson we noted that JMU’s big man Yohanny Dalembert was taking some small steps back towards becoming the breakout player he was last year. In the REALLY GOOD NEWS department, YoYo built on that momentum tonight and is getting closer to an actual trend of solid play at this point. He had 14 points tonight and more than anything, his consistent presence on the court changes the whole dynamic defensively and on the boards.

Sometimes It Really is an Easy Game

JMU shot 57% from the field and 53% from deep. That included an otherworldly 67%/64% in the first half which explained the Dukes racing out to a 15 point lead at the break. Brady mentioned at the half that the Huskies weren’t even playing all that bad on D, the Dukes were just making shots. On the other hand, Northeastern shot a Drexel-esque 36% from the floor and a Delaware-esque 19% from deep.  Make shots and force the other team to miss shots. Sometimes it really is that simple.

Then when you have a senior leader, especially one at the point like Ron Curry (22p/7r/4a) who just calmly steps up and takes over when you’re struggling or things inevitably get tight thanks to CAA “officiating,” it’s just not all that difficult. Watching the Dukes play like this on the road against one of the CAA favorites just makes you realize that if healthy, they’ll have as good a chance as anyone in Baltimore’s Royal Ghetto Arena in March.

Blaine Taylor on the Mic

We gotta admit having former porn star ODU Head Coach Blaine Taylor doing color really is the hoops equivalent to the jackpot that getting Mickey on color must’ve been for some teams the last two years in football. The man who’s been known to so eloquently mix metaphors like “all hat, no horse” is just good old-fashioned CAA fun.