Basketwagon Breaks Down
Wha' Happened?!
Really running the turd sandwich picture again would have been more apropos for the Dukes play tonight in a horrid 73-67 loss to William & Mary, but didn’t want to belabor the point. I’ll be brief because Rob’s post below on National Signing Day is both happier and more encouraging today.
Here’s the list of good points from tonight’s shitshow: Wells had a good night offensively. Hitchens had a decent night offensively. That’s it.
An absolutley atrocious performance all the way around and really the first game since Kansas St. the Dukes were never really in at the end. Unreal because the Tribe sucks, but they’re kind of the anti-JMU: smart, savvy, tenacious, clutch-shooting, etc. Here’s the list of terribles for the Dukes tonight: Effort on defense, respect for the opponent, turnovers, missed foul shots, coaching (why the hell is Ben Louis anywhere near the floor and what in holy hell is doing throwing up, literally throwing up, threes late in the game), the rotation (where’s Trevon?), offensive creativity, and once again, EFFORT on DEFENSE. All at-large hopes are out the door, probably even for the NIT, (and on a night when VCU was upset by Northeastern too) and at this point we’re really just crossing our fingers they don’t finish the season and head into the CAA Tourney on a six-game skid. This performance was so wholly piss-poor it’s not worth another word. Ok, maybe one more, RRR-RRR-RRRR dumping out my load.
One more thing, you can now feel good about going ahead and purchasing those Friday tickets for the CAA tourney like always. Sighhh.
This loss really hurts. It hurts deep down. I had faith that Brady could get a team that has NCAA tournament hopes motivated to take care of business AT HOME against a team that was 2 – 9 in conference heading into the game. It also doesn’t take a genius to know what W&M do well- shoot the ball, find the open guy. Even a little bit of defense would have done the trick. McDowell was ‘hot’ but it wasn’t like he was shooting contested 3s. Ditto for Boatner. A hand in the face goes a long way. I’d love to the Dukes make a run in the CAA tournament but I just don’t think they area team that can get on the type of run needed to win the tournament.
I wish I could get the two hours back that I spent watching the game last night. I am not sure how they won 17 games this year. The Dukes are 2-4 since I got on the “basketwagon”. At this rate, I hope Fat Tuesdays’s has second half specials next weekend.
Interesting you mentioned lack of respect for the opponent because I think it’s a serious problem. Some of the JMU guys really play like they think they’re better than they really are and that their sheer talent will be enough. They never play great defense, but it’s absolutely terrible against the teams below them in the standings.
Also, if there was ever a time for Brady to send a message by pulling all the starters and putting 5 bench players on the floor, it was in last night’s first half. I’m not at practice so I don’t know how Diouf, Trevon, etc look, but could they have possibly played worse than the guys on the floor last night? You’d think that the guys who never get in would at least hustle and try to play D if Brady put them in there. If not, then why even bother to have them on the team?
Not to mention he can’t expect Jackson, Flores, etc. to give him anything if needed in crunchtime (foul trouble) if he doesn’t find them at least a few minutes in which to engage in the game earlier on.