Here’s the JMU baseball team jumping on the Harlem Shake video bandwagon thing. It comes courtesy of our friends over at Mister Irrelevant who sent it to us and reminded us that if you haven’t of the Harlem Shake yet…you don’t spend enough time on the internet. (Ed. note: we don’t spend enough time on the internet.)
JMU bounced back after a disappointing loss to Drexel and beat Towson 75-70 tonight. The win moved the Dukes back into second place at 15-12 (9-5). Towson dropped to 14-13 (9-5) and tied with JMU. It also avenged an earlier ugly 73-47 loss at Towson last month. JMU showed once again that it’s a different team in the friendly confines of the Convo. They played with great poise down the stretch and sealed the win by hitting 9 of 10 from the line to close the game. Devon Moore went 8 of 8 from the stripe in the closing minutes. It was quite a strong performance from the senior who entered the game only shooting 73% from the line, a full 11% below what he shot as a freshman.
The Dukes came flying out of the gates tonight. Alioune Diouf, who earned the surprise start, scored 5 quick points to get JMU out to a 5-0 lead. Diouf sparked the Dukes who played nothing like they did in the dreadful 12 point first half against Drexel. The “four guys watching one dude dribble around before launching a three” offensive philosophy was thankfully absent. And as a result the Dukes carried a 35-30 lead into the locker room at halftime. read more…
We’ve been conditioned to expect the worst when it comes to JMU basketball, especially when it comes to injuries. As you can see from above Tweet however, the Dukes got some very good news this afternoon. The DNR’s Mark Selig is reporting that redshirt senior Andrey Semenov does not need surgery. So that means he could be (and we stress could be) ready for the CAA tournament in March. This sort of takes the sting out of last night’s loss a bit, no? We’ve been saying all year that in a down year like this one, the CAA tournament title could be there for the taking. And we like the Dukes’ chances a lot better if Semenov is on the court. I’m telling you, if there is ever going to be a good year for a team with a 19 year NCAA tournament drought to get hot for 3 days and steal a bid, this would be it.
Really nothing much to say here. JMU Men’s Hoops scored 12, that’s correct 12, points in the first half. It wasn’t a game, it was a kick in the ding-ding. A very scary and getting-healthy Drexel team absolutely out-worked, outsmarted, outplayed, out-hustled, out-muscled, and generally out-sacked the Dukes throughout a hideous offensive night in Philly. Ruffin, Massenat, and Lee are best avoided in Richmond if healthy, but let’s all just hope that two things come out of this. First, Brady has to run the offense through Ray Goins on a more consistent basis. And second, the effort and intensity Drexel played with tonight can win this horrendous conference for anyone who brings it March 9-11. Can the Dukes step up their give-a-shit to match anyone else who shows up this way?!
That’s it. Now they get a shot to redeem the only loss worse than this one, at Towson a month ago, at home on Tuesday. Free on MadiZone.
Women’s hoops lost a tough game to CAA heavy Delaware today too. We usually hate all things Hens, and we’re certainly hoping the Dukes can spring the upset come tourney time, but we’ve gotta admit we’ve become huge DelleDonne fans as she’s battled chronic Lyme disease, and huge congrats go out to her for breaking Dawn Evans’ CAA scoring record.
Yep, that’s my JAC card. I found it at my folks’ house last weekend. It’s from a long, long time ago. From my freshman year at JMU in fact. Otherwise known as the last year the Dukes made the NCAA tournament. Just a couple quick thoughts:
1.) It’s not the most flattering photo. I know this. To be fair though it was taken right in the middle of my awkward phase. A phase that lasted from approximately the time I turned 14 until yesterday. And tomorrow my looks will start deteriorating as I begin my rapid descent to the grave. Today though, I’m dashingly handsome.
2.) JMU apparently had no restrictions on students wearing hats in ID photos back then. Nor did they seem to have any issue snapping the photo just in time to capture me mouth agape like that. Much appreciated.
3.) Nice signature loser.
4.) I have no clue why I’m looking up. Maybe my eyes were glazed over because this was taken at Freshmen Orientation. In the middle of July. And it was 95 degrees and I had just finished up an hour long seminar in an un-air conditioned room on how to login to the VAX to check my electronic mail account.
Tough day for blogging here at JMUSB HQ. Damn life getting in the way of JMU items! But lots of positive JMU news and we didn’t want to miss this morning entirely.
This pic never gets old. Hahahaha.
First, we’re delighted to report that the men’s hoops team did what we all hoped: they put the Mason loss behind them and dealt with the task at hand, in this case a William & Mary team that has been killing the Dukes the last few years. You can read about the game over at JMU Sports, but needless to say this was that game for mercurial wingman AJ Davis, who went bananas and pretty much singlehandedly crushed the pantless Griffins’ souls in this one with a barrage of dunks and treys that shows Brady (and guys like us) why you can imagine a March to remember.
And secondly, it was National Signing Day for football recruits. We’ve gone both ways with this in past years. Rob has given JMU signing day an exhaustive treatment complete with highlights and analysis of each player. But as we’ve all become very aware, this quickly becomes counter-productive as guys quit for lack of playing time or get thrown out for accumulating points for JMU in the Fulmer Cup. Because of this, we’ve also gone the opposite way and said “this is crap, nothing to see till they take the field.” This year, maybe just a few highlights.
– As we all know, the biggest offseason signing is OC Hal Mumme, not the players! No way to describe how exciting this news really is.
– JMU signed FIVE WR’s this year and with Mumme, it appears they intend to use them as something other than blockers. Gotta think those kids are really excited.
– One of those WR’s is the highlight in terms of recruiting rankings (take ’em for what they are: speculative at best). Three-star WR Brandon Ravenel from North Stafford HS. Can’t wait to see him in the Air Raid.
– The Dukes also signed five defensive linemen, which given the difficulty rushing the passer without extra blitzers that we bemoaned quite a bit last year seems to make good sense.
– Other than a couple TE’s and an “OL/DL” recruit, no O-linemen at all this year, but transfers are always still a possibility and at least in the short-term, the Dukes return four starters on the line for this season barring changes.
– Another bit of good news is that on the heels of a disappointing season and a bit of thrashing about in the program in terms of players discontent, the Dukes only lost one recruit they thought they had. And that was a QB to W&M that was likely recruited for the MM/Durden “offense,” not the Air Raid. Four QB’s returning as well including presumed starter Michael Birdsong and seemingly clear-cut backup in Lafonte Thoroughgood.
– If you like Mickeyisms and ridonkulous hyperbole, we encourage you to check out Mickey’s signing day presser over on MadiZone, you won’t be disappointed.
ODU fired Blaine Taylor today. Taylor was the winningest coach in ODU’s history. He leaves with eight games left in the season, and a record of 239-144 in his 12 years as head coach. In 2007 his Monarch team earned the first at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament for any CAA team in over 20 years. Under his leadership, the Monarchs made 4 trips to the NCAAs in the past 8 seasons. This year of course, the Monarchs have spiraled downward and are currently a dismal 2-20. ODU’s athletic director Wood Selig however, stated that the decision to let Taylor go mid-season was not about wins and losses. In today’s press conference, Selig explained that “At this point, in regard to our head men’s basketball coach, our student athletes need mentorship, leadership, and guidance. Our fans and alumni need encouragement. Our administration needs confidence in our leadership.” read more…
The loss to Mason yesterday bummed us out significantly more than any game we can recall in at least the last decade. The expectations were huge, the Convo was legit, and the effort, as it has almost all season, was there. And to top it off, nothing that happened yesterday can be fairly pinned on our usual donkey, Coach Brady.
Gotta get over the small hump and deal with the big one in March
Here are just a few of a long list of things yesterday that Coach Brady was in no way responsible for: Hideous, ghastly free throw shooting, committing horrendous turnovers on the first three possessions of the game and digging yourself a hole they never fully climbed out of, AJ Davis’ shot selection.
Speaking of officiating, let us first note that it was friggin’ joke both ways. CAA commish Tom Yeager was in attendance and his officials looked even worse than his handling of a sinking league. He should be embarrassed. Because the Dukes were trailing down the stretch, the ridiculous calls against them, including the fact the game was clinched on a chicken-shit call even Sherrod Wright disagreed with on the Goins flagrant, seemed more outrageous to JMU fans, but I think it’s fair to say if we were GMCC fans (I threw up in my mouth typing that), we’d be equally disgusted. The only way you dealt with something worse than the officials in that game yesterday is if your pet or a relative died or you were forced to drink a Windex-blue Mad Dog 20/20 that had been heated in the microwave.
But what does it all mean: We hope not a damned thing! The one thing that scares us is that the students seemed to buy into yesterday’s game and we can only hope the disappointment doesn’t turn them off the rest of the way. But we need to remind ourselves the same thing we’ve been reminding you all season – in this shitty league with no at-large selections coming, the only thing that matters is what happens between March 9th and 11th in Richmond. JMU is still in second place and all you’d really like is to be on the 2 or 3 line so you can avoid a getting-healthy Drexel team on Day 1. The big thing this week will be to see if the squad can learn from their past mistake. Clearly the team takes Mason seriously and considers it a marker for their own performance. When they were disappointed in losing to Mason the first time, they kept wallowing in their own self-pity and promptly laid the biggest egg of the season at Towson. Will they learn from that game, get up off the deck, and take at least the first step at dealing with a team that’s been a huge thorn in their side in W&M this week. First get over the inexplicable W&M hump, then get back on track and we’ll deal with Mason when it matters.
The JMU Dukes easily defeated the Hofstra Pride tonight by the score of 62-41. The game was close throughout the entire first half, before the Dukes took over and coasted to a comfortable 21 point victory. Unfortunately, point guard Devon Moore left the game with an ankle injury midway through the second half. Even without Moore, JMU was simply too much for Hofstra. It was far from the best game the Dukes have played and they certainly looked sloppy at times. But once again, they took care of business at home and overwhelmed a less talented opponent. The win moved JMU to 13-10 overall and 7-3 in the CAA. And they’re in second place. And it’s the end of January. That’s very cool. Here are a few quick thoughts on the game. read more…
The strong-and-getting-stronger beat reporter for the Daily News Record, @MatthewStoss, is reporting that Hal Mumme, yes that Hal Mumme, is expected to be named JMU’s new Offensive Coordinator very soon. Sounds like it’s a done deal but for the ridiculous inner-workings of bringing on “employees of the Commonwealth,” thus preventing it from becoming official until after this week.
Needless to say, we’ll be back with much, much, much more commentary on this inspiring development, but it’s important to note this isn’t some random rumor. Mumme’s name surfaced a month ago and he’s an old friend of Mickey’s from the early days of their coaching journeys when they were on the same staff at West Texas A&M.
This has to be thrilling news for JMU’s offensive players, particularly the former “wide-blocking” corps. Also helps to explain why the Dukes have 5 WR’s in the incoming class. If it works, it’s thrilling news for fans too!
