This is our 640th post here at JMUSB and I’m pretty confident it’s the first time we’ve ever mentioned the men’s club water polo squad. It’s the summer though, and Rob and I are split as usual on whether or not the sky is falling and JMU has their eyes facing forward (as opposed to say, facing the inside of their lower intestine) when it comes to realignment, so we’re going a different direction this Friday morning. Plus, as we mentioned back when Lawless came out, author, alum, and friend of JMUSB Matt Bondurant is rapidly moving up the list of notable Dukes.
Swimming in the North Atlantic? Shrinkage!
This month he has reported on, and penned, a cool feature story for Outside magazine on marathon ocean swimming and the “interesting” folks that love the little-publicized sport (as keen observers of our shared @JMUsportsblog account may have noticed, I’m a very amateur participant in a similarly niche and kook-filled sport of endurance adventure racing so I kind of love the celebration of these nuts!). Even better, Bondurant himself is an amateur athlete in the sport and even shouts out in the article that his swimming background included playing water polo at JMU! Speaking of, if anyone knows the current status of the club, assuming there still is one, feel free to update us on its goings-on in the comments and we’ll try not to let another 640 posts come before we circle back. Beyond the article, Bondurant’s third novel The Night Swimmer is set in a fictional recreation of the area in which the article takes place – County Cork, Ireland – and is just a cool read (though it was really tough to top the Virginia-heavy Wettest County in the World, on which Lawless was based).
Finally, while desperately trying to avoid editorializing, I should share for the non-Twitter audience that CUSA officially announced this week that they have shelved all talk of expansion “for the foreseeable future” and the Sun Belt apparently has done the same. So unless a lifeline is thrown from the long-silent MAC, JMU is back is back in the CAA with “peers” like Elon and Albany and playing FCS football “for the foreseeable future” while ODU fans can play with Taylor Heinicke in a bowl game on NCAA ’13. Knew I’d never make it – sorry Rob.
There are certain things in our little CAA sports internet world that give us great joy. One of those things is the way some folks (like us) tweak Richmond fans by insisting that the Spiders are on the way to Division III. It inevitably sets Spider fans off attempting to refute the allegations with all sorts of evidence and logic. Unfortunately for them, evidence and logic are of little use when attempting to disprove something that is 100% fabricated. Until today it is when our new favorite Richmond faculty member, Mr. Rick Mayes, emailed his fellow faculty members to inform them that “after three years of watching and studying sports up close, I believe UR’s long-term academic interests lie with D3-level sports and football being phased out over time.” Well there you go.
Last week this story broke about two young men who were just minding their own business enjoying a meal when they were held up by an armed robber. One minute they’re just sitting their eating gyros and pizza at Pizzola’s Pizzeria in D.C., and the next minute someone is sticking them up and taking their wallets. It turns out the victims were both JMU grads and former lacrosse players. And since they played lacrosse and this is the internet, we’re obligated to refer to them as lax bros (seriously, I think its in the by-laws). Plus, I was on the lacrosse team at JMU (it’s a club team) and we’re allowed to poke fun at our own. It’s part of the anti-dentite exemption. But I don’t think they’d object to the description anyway, seeing as they had this to say about the experience:
“It’s a good thing we’re relaxed, chill guys,” said Swinson, who had never been robbed before. “We don’t get too anxious about something like that. We could have freaked out and gotten injured, but we were letting it just unfold.”
And they weren’t kidding about being relaxed. Even with a gun pointed at him, one of the pair managed to keep the robber from taking his phone. The story explains:
But the 23-year-old accountant, who’d been held up at gunpoint once before, in Philadelphia, also had an iPhone 5 that was easily visible. He wanted to conceal it quickly so he could call 911 after the robbery.
So, the accountant hatched a ruse that the Pilferer of Pizzoli’s fell for.
“Do you want any food?” he asked the robber, lifting his plate.
Once the man declined, the accountant said he surreptitiously set his plate down on a new spot on the table, covering the iPhone.
“I’ve done more impressive things in my life, to say the least,” he said. “I was just pleased I wouldn’t have to go looking for my phone in a bush. It was a work phone, too, and I would have had to go to [my managers] to get a new phone and that would have taken two weeks, ballpark, without having a phone. Plus, I didn’t want to lose all my contacts.”
That’s actually rather clever, especially under the circumstances. The quick thinking saved the phone, but the robber still got away with $220 cash. Most importantly, nobody was harmed. Well done chill lax bros. Well done indeed.
h/t to madddukes98 for tipping us to the story
Here’s a very cool story about five current or former Dukes playing in the Women’s World Cup for Lacrosse next month in Ontario. As you can probably surmise, it’s difficult to make the US Team, not so difficult to make some of the other teams. But the best part is that JMU will be represented on the powerhouse US squad for the first time at a World Cup by ’07 grad and former Dukes great Kelly Berger, who persevered with her game despite a series of knee injuries dating back to her time in the ‘Burg. Kelly graces the cover of this month’s Lacrosse Magazine. As you can see below, she’s also ripped and pretty much looks like an all-around badass by the way! Congrats and good luck to all five women next month – as always, you make us proud.
In other news, we’ve reached Round 2 of voting that may or may not matter on the ten finalists for the JMU court design over at the JMU Dukes FB page. Lots of differences of opinion (I get your point about the mustache, but still love the mountains and “Brighten the Lights” – Zac has it right about no need for some hoity-toity seal or Jimmy’s wig), but truthfully I’m more worried about the letters just below the foul line than anything. The new turf at Bridgeforth is also completed, or nearly completed, but we haven’t seen a definitive look yet, though the purple endzones and borders look outstanding!
Former Diamond Duke Ryan Reid made his Major League debut for the Pittsburgh Pirates last night. Reid entered with the bases loaded in the 7th inning of the Bucs 7-2 loss to the Braves. He got Reed Johnson to ground out and end the inning and then returned in the 8th for a quick three-up, three-down. Not a bad start for a guy who spent 7 years in the Tampa Bay organization before signing with the Pirates this year.
After receiving 65 submissions, the JMU athletic department has selected 10 finalists in the basketball court design contest. Be sure to check out the Top 10 and offer feedback. And to be clear, elements of the most popular designs might be incorporated into the final court set to be revealed this year. There are no plans to implement any of the designs as-is. Translation, votes or “likes” probably don’t matter nearly as much as real feedback about specific elements of each finalist.
I came across this bit of leadership advice about how the simplest praise can make all the difference for your coworkers. That’s good, simple advice at face value. The point is really driven home though by a great anecdote about pick up hoops at JMU open gym (probably in Godwin) back in the day. To be more specific, pick up hoops with former Dukes great Linton Townes and a certain townie named Ralph Sampson.
And finally, most of look back fondly at our time at JMU and are thankful for the experience. We warn the current students not to take it for granted and joke about how much better JMU is than the real world. And then we go about our lives. JMU is not just a four year experience however. JMU challenges us to “be the change”, but that’s not something we can do alone. We need a support system to do it. Some of us struggle to understand how that translates to every day life. Some people do not. Thankfully, one of the latter wrote about it. And if you haven’t read it by now, you should. Like now. We’ll wait. You’ll thank us for it.
Bingo is not only for old ladies everyone can play it. You can take advantage of this fact and make extra money by holding a bingo party for your friends and offer them cash prize.
Prepare for the Game/Party
To host a bingo party, all that you need to do is to prepare the supplies you will need such as a roller cage, cards, the balls, and daubers. Since you are playing it with friends, any size of game room will do for as long as it will be able to hold as much people attending the bingo party.
Now, for the best part. Make sure that you have raised enough money for the jackpot prize. You can raise the needed pot by soliciting from others or as with any bingo game, make your friends pay for every card that they play. The amount you will raise will make up the cash prize. One can earn more cash for beer as he/she continues winning and being that first person to shout “Bingo!”
For more information about how to make a great bingo party you can visit this site.
How About an Online Bingo Party
Since there are more and more bingo sites operating the online gaming circuit, you may take advantage of this for your party. Instead of preparing bingo supplies and playing the game as you usually would, why not turn to a reliable online site to game and have a go at it?
Online bingo offers more benefits than a land-based game. You and your friends could raise as much cash not just through winning games but also through the various bonuses on offer. This is a great activity that you can do to kill time, and one way to throw off the stress that studies bring. So, when you come to school the following day, you will be recharged and revitalized. Playing bingo is very exciting. It can help trim down the stress factor as you enjoy it with friends – all in the name of fun!
Ok, maybe the headline is stretching things just a bit, but ODU gets no points for creativity on their new logo and helmets as it seems we’ve seen that “mascot in the state outline” design somewhere before, maybe even fairly recently.
2012 Student Duke Club Shirt:
Great work Sean P!
Then ODU just recently announced they’re making this their main athletic logo, including Center Court at the TED and on their helmets for football:
Hmmm?!
Look, we know ODU’s currently riding high, bigheaded fanbase is going to all go “wow, that looks amazing” the same way we did last year and never trouble themselves with any pesky sense of history or self-awareness. To be honest, we’re still quietly pissed that they have a national platform to promote this change (and a sweet “CUSA” on that court) and an administration that is capable of realizing how even details like solid branding opportunities can be important to a program. But seriously, don’t even try to explain it to them. It’s just a culture of ignorant bliss – like trying to explain to a Darius Rucker “fan” that Wagon Wheel is a cheap knockoff and should not be tolerated.
Of course, to continue with the analogy, that really makes us no better than the Old Crow Medicine Show in this story because the Bob Dylan originator in all of this is definitely ECU. But hey, we’d rather share writing credits with Dylan than release anything with the elevator-music dreck that is Lady Antebellum. And now this court design can hopefully run away with the Convo competition:
The Sporting News has released the first FCS preseason poll and conference predictions for the upcoming season. JMU is unranked. While I haven’t been able to track down an official reason why JMU was left out of the rankings, logic dictates that it’s because the Dukes are a lock to move up to FBS so soon that the voters removed them from consideration. More puzzling however is the fact that instead of following through with that logic and leaving JMU out of the CAA predictions entirely, the Sporting News just randomly listed the Dukes sixth. Huh. read more…
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?
A few weeks ago, JMU announced that it was redesigning its basketball court. As much as we love the Duke Dog, the court is in dire need of a refresh, so the news alone was pretty exciting. To add another layer of excitement, the school has decided to solicit the help of JMU fans everywhere. Court designs can be submitted until this Friday, May 31. Members of the athletic department will review all the submissions and narrow them down to a few finalists. Fans will then be invited to vote for their favorite. The votes will be used to gauge support for each entry before turning them over to the design team. The final design created by the team could incorporate elements from any number of the finalists.
This is a really cool idea. Some might grumble that the final design with the most votes won’t be implemented as-is, but I actually think it’s better that they’re looking to combine the best ideas from multiple proposals. You know because mash-up or synergy or wisdom of crowds or something. OK, so I can’t quite put it into words. However, it seems likely that the the best ideas might not all come from the same person. Doing it this way enables would enable the designers to grab multiple ideas and run with them, taking the mid-court circle from one person, the baseline from another, and the paint from a third to form one awesome court for instance. If one person nails everything, then good for them. This strategy seems to cast a wider net and guarantee greater success though.
We’re sure JMU fans are going to rally and generate a ton of amazing ideas. Maybe Todd and I will even put on the old thinking caps and submit something. Just one reminder. Purple is great. Attempting to make the Convo floor some purple hoops equivalent of Smurf Turf is not. Carry on.
