Friday Links and Commentary
First, a few Friday items of note:
Former Dukes hoopster Denzel Bowles (and frequent target of derision here for his defense-last style of play – what might be called Blatcheian) seems to have earned himself a solid look for the Hornets summer league team. Anthony Davis getting called up to the Olympic team also helped to create more minutes for the big guy and while he hasn’t qute matched his stunning opening night performance since then, he has certainly put himself back on the NBA radar and even drawn a seemingly apt comparison from NBATV’s Chris Webber to none other than JMUSB childhood favorite Le JMdell Eackles! I mean, if you want a guy to fill up a stat page for a bad team, this could definitely be your man. Again, we’ve been hard on Denzel, but to his credit, the road through the Phillipines league seems to have taught him a thing or two about valuing his opportunity and it would be amazing to seem him succeed.
The men of JMU showed up in the top five as expected in Glamour Magazine’s Smitten Blog’s “Colleges with Hottest Guys.” Unexpectedly however they failed to properly credit old guys blogging about JMU which surely would have garnered the Dukes the top spot. That said, I think we can all safely assume this list is retroactive to at least the late nineties. (thanks to @richpriz and @WilkesonWarpath for the link and the jokes!)
And at long last, JMU finally managed to announce the gametimes (well, most of them anyhow except for a couple of t.v. tossups) for the upcoming football season. Still frustrated by the lack of announcement from WVU and FedEx about the time of the big game, but high marks go to JMU for the second consecutive year for the later start times for most home games and the notable absence of any noon starts, which generally suck (possible exception for W&M game to accomodate tv, but that’s fine). Only Towson at 1 p.m. on Parent’s Weekend is scheduled before 3:30 (does kind of suck that one of the biggest games of the year is on PW, but at least it will be full and should be a great show for those footing tuition bills) and the back-to-back 6 p.m. starts to open the season is great use of normally primo weather. Needless to say, the 7 p.m. finale with ODU is a tailgate legend in the making!
JMU’s 2012 Regular Season Football Schedule
Sat., Sept. 1 – Saint Francis (Pa.) – 6 p.m.
Sat., Sept. 8 – Alcorn State – 6 p.m.
Sat., Sept. 15 – vs. West Virginia (FedEx Field, Washington D.C.) – TBA
Sat., Sept. 22 – at Rhode Island* – 1 p.m.
Sat., Oct. 6 – Towson* (NBC Sports Network)- 1 p.m.
Sat., Oct. 13 – William & Mary* (Comcast SportsNet Regional) – TBA
Sat., Oct. 20 – at Richmond* (Comcast SportsNet Regional) – 3:30 p.m.
Sat., Oct. 27 – Georgia State* – 3:30 p.m.
Sat., Nov. 3 – at Maine* (Comcast SportsNet Regional) – 3:30 p.m.
Sat., Nov. 10 – at Villanova* – TBA
Sat., Nov. 17 – Old Dominion* (NBC Sports Network)- 7 p.m.
Oh yeah, seven weeks till Bridgeforth reopens and we forget all the yakking!!
