Men’s Hoops Turning the Corner Headed into CAA Play?
We all had a feeling the out-of-conference portion of the men’s hoops team’s year was going to be a tough time. The loss of last year’s three top-scoring seniors (Moore, Goins, Davis), missing arguably their best returning player (suspended G Andre Nation), and having true freshmen playing big minutes, all set up to quickly kill momentum off last year’s NCAA tourney appearance. But despite all that, Brady’s team has managed to right the ship a bit after a really tough start. Yesterday they went down to Wilmington to play their CAA lid-lifter against the Seahawks. Wouldn’t you know it, Charles Cooke continued to show huge development and the Dukes walked out with a win (their 4th of 5 games), a 6-9 record overall, and Andre Nation coming back for Tuesday’s game, the first CAA trip to play the College of Charleston!
THIS guy’s coming back!
Nation seems unlikely to solve the Dukes scoring issues, but he will allow everyone to play their more natural positions. Oh yeah, and if you watched the CAA late last season, you know there isn’t a better perimeter defender in the conference. Ask Delaware’s guards what it’s like? If nothing else, the Dukes will be incredibly active and athletic defensively and should be able to force teams into ugly games (i.e. games they have a chance of winning) the rest of the way. We’re not expecting miracles, but a really competitive team with a puncher’s chance come CAA tourney time isn’t out of the question.
As of this writing, we’ve also been hearing through @FootballScoop , who’s been very accurate this year, that Portland St. O-Line Coach Brad Davis will be the new Offensive Coordinator (or co-OC with Drew Mehringer who came over with Withers from OSU but we’re having trouble figuring out the titles and dotted lines for now) under Coach Withers. One thing’s for sure, Coach E seems to be hiring young and hopefully hungry, which is exciting, and if the Davis hire pans out, he’s also thinking way, way outside the old mid-Atlantic comfort zone.
From all I’ve read, it looks like EW is putting together a young, talented staff. With outstanding facilities & excellent coaches & eager players, this could be a very exciting new year! Here’s to a turn-around season of JMU Football ….
I really like what I’m seeing lately with basketball. I think that other starting spot has been a bit iffy with neither Vodanovic, Lukic or Rivard really standing out. Nation should help some of those guys that aren’t contributing this much ride the pine more and maybe some more competition for who is going to be the cream of the freshman crop. Jackson Kent has probably been the best of them so far.
Yohanny Dalembert only scored once, but he did a really good move to do so. I saw a glimmer of what is to come as he gains confidence and develops over the rest of the season and the next 3 years.
I’m cautiously optimistic about this year’s hoops team. I agree about Dalembert’s potential. He’s very raw, but he could be a difference maker in terms of defense and rebounding some nights this year. If he develops an offensive game, he’ll be a real weapon down the road.
Dalembert reminds me a lot of Jeff Chambers. As a matter of fact, that roster from around 1990 reminds me of this one in some ways. Lots of 6-7, 6-8 guys.