Oddly slow weekend on the JMU Sports calendar for exams before the last of the spring sports wrap up, hopefully with good things for Lax and Softball in particular! And while we’re thrilled to hear Matt Brady is back and hoping for a conference announcement soon, we’re both headed out of town this weekend and there’s only so much blood we can keep spilling on those topics.
So for our Friday wrapup we just want to highlight two Dukes hoping for big weekends. First, keep an eye on the NFL Draft for monster Dukes Guard Earl Watford. With so many Guards going off the board so early in tonight’s first round, we’d think that’s a great sign for those remaining, including Earl when other teams inevitably realize they still have to fill that need. If Watford is drafted, he’d be the first official draftee (not including other Dukes signed as free agents) since Buffalo’s Arthur Moats.
Secondly, how about a big hand for current JMU Junior Chelsea Mohindroo for making it onto this year’s Team Usher on NBC’s The Voice! Chelsea was a member of The Overtones before taking time off to compete on the show. Unfortunately, Chelsea was eliminated this week, but check out the details from The Breeze a couple weeks back. She certainly did JMU proud!
Jeff Bourne and the rest of JMU athletic department either have a flair for the dramatic or they just love to procrastinate. The school and head basketball coach Matt Brady agreed to terms on a four-year contract extension today with Brady’s current contract due to expire tomorrow. According to the DNR’s Mark Selig, the deal will pay $302,000 year, with the first 3 years guaranteed. JMU has an option for the fourth year, or they can buy Brady out for $20,000. The deal gives Brady a slight raise from the $290,000 a year his initial deal paid him. This new extension also includes performance incentives and raises for Brady’s assistants. JMU also retains the right to terminate the deal at any time if JMU is declared ineligible (for APR violations) or is placed on probation. read more…
Spring sports are entering the home stretch or wrapping their seasons up right now and this weekend was a busy one. Largely because we’re sick of rehashing the lunacy of the Brady situation and conference realignment and what those two things say about our admin’s athletics competency level right now, we’ll take a spin around some good news in the ‘Burg.
Football’s spring game was this weekend and here’s all we have to say about that. Defense good (expected), offense shaky at best (expected) learning new system, kicking game w/out Cam Starke is a scary proposition (currently injured but should be ready come fall). Moving on:
Congrats to Women’s Golf who clinched their first CAA title since ’05 and punched their ticket to NCAA regionals by holding off UNCW at St. James Plantation in Southport, NC this weekend!
Softball continued their destruction of the CAA this weekend with a 6-0 beatdown of Delaware. They’re absolutely rolling to the tune of 36-10 overall and 15-0 in conference play! The team has been an “others receiving votes” often this season and they’ll get a shot at one of the big guns nationally with a doubleheader at #2 Tennessee this Wednesday. One win in the Hofstra series next weekend would lock up hosting the CAA tourney.
Lacrosse ripped ODU (always a good thing!) 17-2 on Senior Day and preps for next week’s CAA tourney at Towson where they’ll be seeded second.
On the alumni front, good to see Akeem Jordan was snagged by the Kansas City Chiefs this week, where he’ll have a chance to compete for a starting spot under his former coach in Philly Andy Reid. Also nice that Rob (NYG) and me (WAS) don’t really have to root against his team anymore!
Finally, because we just can’t avoid it no matter how hard we try, it should be noted that once all the spring sports get into CAA tourney play, their postseason eligibility is one more item JMU doesn’t have to worry about if they feel like announcing a liferaft out of the CAA.
JMU’s basketball season has been over for weeks now. Other programs have fired coaches. Other programs have hired coaches. Most programs are now pressing hard for recruits and looking forward to next season. After leading JMU to a CAA title and its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1994, Matt Brady has been hitting the recruiting trail pretty hard himself. Last season he was somehow able to assemble a stellar recruiting class despite only having one year remaining on his contract. And as difficult as that must have been, it was probably easier than trying to sign a class with weeks or days left on his contract. That’s exactly the situation JMU Athletic Director Jeff Bourne has put Brady in this year, because the coach still doesn’t have a new contract.
As reported by Matthew Stoss, former JMU running back Jordan Anderson is going to play for Virginia State University this Fall. Virginia State is a Division II school and Jordan can play without needing to sit out a year. He’ll be joining former JMU assistant coach, Latrell Scott, who is the head coach at VSU, as well as former JMU offensive line coach Chris Malone. Anderson will graduate from JMU in May and use his remaining year of eligibility with the Trojans.
Anderson saw limited action for the Dukes last season as he battled injuries. In 2011 however, he saw action both as Dae’Quan Scott’s back-up and as a starter when Scott got hurt. He was extremely productive in both roles, rushing for season totals of 858 yards and 9 TDs. Against Maine, he ran for a career high 212 yards. As we stated when it was announced that Jordan wouldn’t be returning to play another season for JMU, he’s a talented player and a valuable back-up for the often injured Dae’quan Scott. The circumstances surrounding his separation from the team were odd, with Mickey claiming one thing and Anderson alleging another. Regardless of the reason, it’s sad to see him go but nice that he’s found a place to round out his career. He’s a good player with a bright future off the field.
As expected, nothing new on the conference front. Sun Belt officials are scheduled to visit Liberty this week and there’s at least some speculation Harrisonburg may be on their iteniary as well, but who knows. If you haven’t read it, there’s a very enlightening piece on why the window to move up may be slamming shut right now and we’d encourage you to read it here (this is important and you can figure why on your own, though it should be noted the cost per school per share of adding more members is really not “that” significant if you think of it in terms of profit to be earned from a single home game at BFS or similar spots or from the added revenue of having a conference championship game).
Less expected, and more outrageous, still no news on a new contract for Matt Brady. Pay the man. Seriously Bourne/King/et al, not signing him last year has cost you dearly this year. Get over it and get it done.
The VERY few readers we had back when we started JMUSB may remember we used to work our butts off that first winter and spring dutifully following up the stories on JMU Sports on nearly every sport. We didn’t really know what to write about and we definitely hadn’t figured out that the voice of cranky old alums with a nostalgic leaning would resonate. So though we love us some field hockey (well, mainly Coach Lucas!), we don’t get around as often as we should to bringing you all up to date on other happenings. But with spring sports in the home stretch, probably time to mention at least the successful ones this year.
Huge congrats to Cheerleading for nearly defending their title at Nationals in Daytona this weekend. 2nd place to follow up a win last year is simply outstanding! Plus a 4th place spot for the Dukettes as they just missed the podium. The postseason hoops runs by both the men and women really kept these squads busy till the last minute, but they still delivered great performances.
Death. Taxes. Casey Ancarrow filling the statsheet.
Next, WLax knocked off previously unbeaten (CAA) Drexel over the weekend and locked up a spot in the four-team CAA tourney. The win over the likely #1 Dragons also has to be a huge boost of belief for a team that can really make a run towards the big dance!
And finally, softball just keeps rolling (and putting their male counterparts to shame), finishing off a sweep of GMCC over the weekend. This team that’s been on the fringes of the top 25 for the first time in program history is primed for great things this postseason! Baseball shall not be spoken of this preseason and if you care, check out the new JMU message boards here for quite a bit of the “fire the coach” venom we usually see in football and hoops. New message boards look good and the CAA Zone, like it’s namesake, is dead.
Good luck to all the spring sports and long postseason runs are most, most welcomed by dork bloggers who have to get through a summer of discontent no matter which way the wind blows on conference realignment.
As some of you undoubtedly remember, Duke Dog was a finalist for the 2004 Capital One Mascot Challenge. Of course he lapped the competition in the fan vote category, only to have the powers that be render said vote 100% meaningless by declaring some other costumed chucklehead the winner. Duke Dog is nothing if not resilient however, and he’s back to avenge his defeat. So here is his nomination video for this year’s contest. It’s got Gangnam Style and Harlem Shake parody highlights so it’s sure to age well.
The folks over at Buzzfeed put together this graphic showing the intersection of a school’s academic rigor (as judged by Forbes) and party friendliness (as judged by some website that just logged me as its oldest visitor ever). Not surprisingly JMU offers the best of both worlds. I’m not sure if that’s because half the student body hits the books while the other hits the bottle, or if JMU students can just do it all. Well done regardless.
We’re a bit worn out of discussing conference realignment at the moment, at least until there’s new news of some sort. That could come tomorrow or August or December or next year for all we know so at least for today we’re moving on.
Wish we had something more to discuss regarding a new contract for Matt Brady. All there is to say. Pay the man. Please.
But we do have a few cool notes on former Dukes athletes who have continued there athletic careers. Please add to these in the comments if you know of others.
First, football alum Scott Noble has gone onto to what appears to be a rather promising MMA career. Enjoy:
WBB’s Tamera Young recently re-upped her deal with the WNBA’s Chicago Sky and will look to build on last season’s milestone of becoming only the sixth Sky player to hit the 1000 point mark for her career.
Mike Caussin was re-signed by the Buffalo Bills this summer where he’ll join Arthur Moats again this year. #dontcrosstheMoats Let’s Go Buf-fa-lo! Caussin has been troubled by injuries, but it would be damn cool to see two Dukes contributing on the same roster and hopefully things will finally take off for him.
As you probably know, with the NFL draft rapidly approaching, we’re likely to be back with full Earl Watford coverage soon, but he’s been one of the real “climbers” on draft boards. We’ve seen projections as high as 2nd round and as low as Undrafted Free Agent, but somewhere near the 4th round seems safe to bet for FCS’s finest Guard prospect.
Lots of Diamond Dukes scattered around the minors this spring so keep your eyes peeled if you’re in one of these outposts or they come to town. (this list is certainly not complete) OF Rich Thompson is with the Durham Bulls. Manager Lorenzo Bundy is managing the amazing Albuquerque Isotopes, a personal favorite of JMUSB and the Dodgers AAA team that includes Dee Gordon, Scott Van Slyke, Jesus Flores, and Tony Gwynn Jr. for the time being. C Jake Lowery is plying his trade with the Carolina Mudcats.
Finally, always fun to keep an eye on former soccer stars CJ Sapong (MLS Sporting Kansas City) and Christina Julien, who is currently playing in Europe and is frequently in Canada’s national side (becoming a legit and hated USWNT rival by the way). She’s also a pretty funny follow @juliencm21 if you like your sports with a huge Canadian slant, eh.
Andrey Semenov announced via twitter today that he has been granted a 6th year of eligibility and will return to play next season. He had already used a medical redshirt for the 2009-2010 season in which he missed all but 5 games due to back problems. Because Andrey only played in 6 of 36 JMU games this year however, he was eligible to apply for an additional medical redshirt. It was approved so now he’s back. And that is very good news.
Semenov will be the lone senior in the regular rotation next year. At this point the Andre Nation, Ron Curry, Taylor Bessick, and Charles Cooke are projected to join Semenov in the starting lineup. All four are talented players, but they’ll only be sophomores. Semenov will add some experience and a deft shooting touch to the lineup. In his last full season, he shot 40% from three point range, which was second best in the CAA. His long range shooting should stretch the defense and open up opportunities for the other guys to slash to the basket. And with a supposedly talented recruiting class on the way, JMU could be well positioned to defend its CAA crown.
