Come on man!

Really Dazz Thornton?!  Really?!

Look, if Dazz was disqualified in another season, say one where Coach Brady wasn’t being forced to karmically pay back some old, misguided deal with the Devil, the Dukes might survive.  But right now, when the locker room has turned into an externship opportunity for JMU’s huge (and obnoxious at graduation) RN program, was the absolute worst time for him to prove unable to live up to the extraordinary academic pressures placed on college basketball players.  Apparently the crushing weight of Teaching Team Sports – KIN 211 was just too much for the young fellow.  Or maybe River Canoeing – KIN 139* on Newman Lake, what with the intricacies of the bowsweep turn and the correct pronunciation of ‘gunwale’ was just beyond Mr. Thornton.

But in any case, this is just the latest in a series of tough breaks for the Dukes:  First our incredible sophomore point guard, Devon Moore, goes out for the season.  Then fellow super-soph Andrey Semenov joins him on the IR.  And now Thornton.  Tough to overcome 3 of your top 8 guys being out for the year before conference play is really even in full swing.  And that’s without even mentioning games missed due to suspension from the two leading scorers, Wells and Bowles.

Unbelievably, Brady has begun to amass enough talent that the Dukes still have the firepower to play with anyone in the CAA on a given night and maybe, just maybe, if they can avoid further disaster (long shot), they might just be ready to make a sleeper-run in Richmond even if their seeding and overall record  suffers now.  But as we here at sportsBlog HQ have discussed in watching the team the last couple weeks, you have to wonder what kind of toll this is taking on the few remaining players, and especially those really shouldering the load (i.e. Wells and Bowles) who are being forced to play insane minutes.   Not surprisingly, the squad just seems to wear down a bit late in every game and any type of foul trouble is felt even deeper than it othewrise would.

But there is good news: 1) Ben Louis can make gamewinners for us, 2) maybe Rockheed McCarter’s athletic career in the Valley isn’t quite over yet, and best of all, 3) the next four games are televised, including this Thursday night’s game in Williamsburg against the King and Queen/Wren/Pug/Griffins and the big rivalry game at the Convo on Saturday against Mason.  Check your local listings and support the Dukes!

* I also took , and struggled with, both of these classes during my (inexplicably) long and very (un)distinguished career at JMU so no offense meant to Dazz.  For the record, former Field Hockey star Karen Zarchin was in that team sports class.  Concentration for a freshman with a senior of her “caliber” was just too much to ask.  In the River Canoeing Class, which was (and may still be) actually taught on Newman Lake, the tough part was that the Final Exam practicum was on some raging (i.e. rippling) river southwest of campus.  I ALSO took Racquetball – seriously, I friggin’ love JMU!!!