Men’s Hoops Announces Home and Home Series with UVA
Mark Selig of the Daily News Record reported today that JMU has officially announced a two-year home and home series with UVA in men’s hoops. The Dukes will open the 2013-14 season at John Paul Jones Arena on November 8th. Even more exciting, the Cavaliers will be making the trip to the Valley to take on JMU at the Convo in November 2014 early in the 2014-15 season. Incredibly, Virginia essentially missed out an NCAA bid because of three CAA losses this past year, including a game at George Mason to open the season. Not sure who at UVA put out the mandate to play other state schools, but even we have to admit it’s pretty darn cool they’ve started doing this again after decades of joining their BCS Conference brethren in avoiding such matchups that provide little upside, but great risk. I think I speak for all college hoops fans in saying these types of games against local and regional mid-majors is what we all love to see.
Nation dunking on a big-name team will be even better at the Convo!
It’s also fair to say this will be the best opponent, at least in terms of reputation if not on-court performance which is tough to judge two years out, JMU has hosted at the Convo in men’s hoops in quite some time (should be noted here that Kenny Brooks’ women’s team has frequently hosted solid major conference opponents the last few years, including both UVA and a string of high-majors in their two WNIT runs). Not since Georgetown came to town in ’05 and VT in ’06 has their been a big opponent to get fired up over. For two guys old enough to remember regular visits from schools like Minnesota, Purdue, and Mississippi St. this could be a real reminder of what the Convo can be at its best, especially with what will hopefully be a sweet new court design!
On another note, exciting scheduling like this would go along way towards easing the pain of the potential for a lost, “transitional” season in the event (we hope likely event) JMU gets the hell out of the crumbling CAA. A direct move announced this summer, or next, like those pulled off by VCU and GMU would be a hell of a lot better than the crap ODU had to suffer through this past year, but needless to say bold, decisive action, especially bold, decisive action requiring exit payments, does not quite line up with JMU’s m.o. when it comes to conference issues. Hey, no harm in dreaming right?
“For two guys old enough to remember regular visits from schools like Minnesota, Purdue, and Mississippi St.”
And UNLV…those were the days…
Seton Hall in 08 was a Big East team at the Convo.
On what planet is UVA a “big-name team”?
Come on hi, we’re not saying UVA is Duke or Kentucky, but there’s hardly a team in the country we’d rather see at the Convo. In almost every way, it will mean a lot more to a lot more Dukes than playing UCLA or Indiana would, not to mention there’s at least a reasonable chance of winning the game! Maybe some out-of-state alums won’t care as much, but for the majority of JMU grads who grew up in Virginia, you can bet the connections run deep in the same way it meant so much to play VT in football even if they were never Alabama.
Overlooked Seton Hall, but really that’s not much of an oversight anyways.