This beauty could finally be getting replaced.
The Virginia General Assembly voted on a measure to give JMU the green light to proceed with some major capital projects. The most noteworthy of which is an $88 million dollar project to build a new convocation center. I’m sure someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but this doesn’t mean that Virginia is giving JMU the money, just that they’re authorizing the school to take on debt to finance the projects.
C.J. Sapong had an outstanding career playing soccer at JMU and he followed that up by winning MLS Rookie of the Year last year. He’s quickly becoming one of JMUSB’s favorite athletes, due to his success on the field and the way he carries himself off it. Check out this nice piece on Sapong’s special bond with his sister. And his team is undefeated and the class of MLS.
I don’t really care that the Hokies are experimenting with the Pistol formation this spring. I like that it leads to quotes like “I’m still haunted by JMU using it as a vessel for their option and power run game during their last trip to Blacksburg.” though.
The Diamond Dukes seem to be playing for pride at this point, but they’re starting to play some better ball. They rattled off 5 straight CAA wins before dropping a game against ODU on Sunday.
The ladies on the Diamond look at the boys 5 game win streak and laugh. Try a 12 game winning streak on for size fellas. JMU softball was 12-20 a few weeks ago, but now are 24-20 and atop the CAA with a 10-1 league record.
Not to be left out, the JMU women’s lacrosse team has strung together 4 straight victories. They took care of business on Senior Night by knocking off William & Mary 15-11. The women currently are in first place in the CAA at 8-4 (4-0).
JMU Alumni Weekend is good for local business. And to recap, riots are still not.
There are colleges lists and rankings for practically everything. And they’re all notoriously subjective and suspect. Except when they make JMU look good. Then they’re purely objective. JMU is the 10th healthiest college in the US. And the Princeton Review just published a book of the 300 best undergraduate college professors in the country. It “includes 11 professors from Virginia’s James Madison University — but none from Williams College, Johns Hopkins University or Duke.” Seems about right.
And finally, Bobby McFerrin recently taught 2 classes on musical improv at JMU. My other alma mater lists a former president on its faculty, but somehow I find this more impressive.
[polldaddy poll=6133571]As Todd explained on Wednesday, things are looking a little unsettled in CAA land. Georgia State just skipped town for the Sun Belt and the A10 is courting both VCU and George Mason. The Georgia State news was met with a collective yawn, but the potential loss of VCU and GMU has CAA fans buzzing and the rumor machine working overtime. The CAA has been fortunate to experience great success in both football and basketball in the last decade. Since not every league school fields a football team, including perennial hoops contenders VCU and Mason, there is no consensus league strategy for the future however. Some schools want to focus on hoops and keep climbing the mid-major ladder. Other schools favor making football the #1 priority. And the elephant in the room is that at least half the schools in the league would entertain offers from a stronger/FBS football/multi-bid hoops league. Or at least half the schools’ fans would. So with the uncertainty surrounding JMU, we’re curious what you think JMU’s AD Jeff Bourne should do. You could think the CAA is perfect for JMU and Bourne needs to fight to keep it together. Maybe you’re convinced the CAA is dying fast and Bourne needs to put out an APB to find a new league before it’s too late. You might think its best to just take a deep breath, calm down, and see how everything plays out. Or maybe you’d got other ideas we haven’t even considered. One thing seems pretty clear, the CAA is changing and Jeff Bourne needs to do what’s best for JMU.
What the hell are the interwebs for if not for rumormongering and rampant, uninformed speculation about doomsday scenarios for collegiate athletic conferences?! Well call us sheep, but we’re definitely not going to let an awkward, something-seems-fishy-here, strange bit of commentary from CAA commish Tom Yeager slide by without shamelessly contributing to the general internet hysteria that results when the uninformed masses (that’s us) try to make sense of things like this on blogs, Twitter, and message boards.
One thing I do know is that Yeager and co. need to figure out that as the CAA has grown in terms of reputation, exposure, and marketability, so has the peripheral yak (again, that’s us and the general Twitterazzi). When they botch something like yesterday’s “we’re going to have a vote on raising the conference exit fee to something in the seven-figure range and then hold a presser to tell you about it” by not actually being able to get a quorum of school presidents and then being forced to give a very awkward statement about why that vote was called off, they’re going to set off the rumor mill.
Look, there are a lot of ways to look at yesterday’s vote being called off but the two most likely are a) the presidents were just busy and b) Yeager knew it wasn’t going to pass because some schools are on their way out. The first one is boring, but the second is a WTF moment for the league. We know GSU is gone to the Sun Belt after they change planes in the CAA this fall. We also know VCU and GMU have been linked to the A-10. And now we know that JMU President Rose and AD Jeff Bourne said yesterday they are not sure how JMU will vote. Lastly, we also think we know that technically CAA Football is a separate organization with separate bylaws from the rest of the CAA and who knows how that affects things. Oh yeah, and we have this quote from Yeager on GSU’s announcement about the Sun Belt. “…the CAA could not accomodate that desire [to move to FBS] within Georgia State’s timeframe.” Whaaaa?!?! If I’m Mason or VCU, that certainly sounds to me like a conference with designs, albeit slowly developing designs, on raising their profile in football. And a conference that just got tossed out of ESPN Bracketbusters, which for better or worse has been helpful in those March Madness runs, because they signed what amounts to essentially a football deal with another network.
Needless to say, we’ll probably be talking about this business a lot this summer and maybe the next couple of years, but for now we just hope that Rose, Bourne, and Alger are staying ahead of the game and positioning JMU well for however the dominoes fall.
Look, things are slow around JMUSB HQ right now. Rob managed to keep us afloat while I was doing some sorely needed traveling last week. Plus you know, the Masters, Opening Day, and the temporary Kentucky championship. Down in the ‘Burg, Women’s Lax continues to roll, some good stuff from Track & Field, and Spring Practice for football have all been going on, but we’re basically on Spring Break too when it comes to our ability to dive that deep into Dukesland.
But one thing we did notice over the weekend with at least a tenuous JMU tie was this damn fine slo-mo goal celebration from CJ Sapong and Sporting Kansas City after Kai Kamara’s gamewinner over LA Galaxy last night! Enjoy.
Update: JMU announced that Scott has been hired and he’s going to coach the tight ends.
Last week, the Richmond Times Dispatch broke the story that Latrell Scott was a candidate to join the JMU coaching staff. Tonight, Phil Orban, the Sports Director from WRIC-TV 8 in Richmond, is reporting that Scott has been hired. Scott succeeded Mike London as head coach of the Spiders after the 2009 season. Richmond went 6-5 under his leadership in 2010. It was his only season at the helm. He resigned 8 days before the 2011 season kicked off after being arrested and charged with DWI.
Despite the unfortunate end to Scott’s tenure at Richmond, I think there is a lot of upside to this move. The man made a mistake and it cost him dearly. He paid the price for his actions though and is ready to resume his career. Assuming that Matthews and his staff have done their due diligence and they are confident Scott is not a risk, I think this is a good hire. Bringing in a guy with head coaching experience to help on the offense could pay big dividends. And dare we speculate that bringing Scott in specifically to work with the receivers and tight-ends means that the Dukes are going to (gulp) pass more? The smart money is still on Mickey going with the “run to set up the run” offense whether we like it or not. He did give the playcalling duties back to Jeff Durden and brought in a former head coach to work with him though. Maybe Mickey will actually surprise us and air it out a bit.
Georgia State playing in front of its largest crowd ever.
With all of the scandals that have rocked college football recently, I’ve still never heard of a school being penalized by taking away future wins. If the reports are true and Georgia State is indeed headed to the Sun Belt however, then that is exactly what could happen to JMU. The Dukes, and every other football program in the conference really, will be robbed of of one guaranteed win each season going forward that they have rightfully earned by allowing Georgia State to play CAA football. It just doesn’t seem fair. Other schools pay players, forge transcripts, or run completely afoul of the legal system and they lose a few scholarships or vacate past wins. Now JMU, William & Mary, Delaware, and the rest of the CAA are giving up infinite future wins. All as a result of inviting Georgia State to join the conference in 2005. I guess there’s no statute of limitations on stupid.
Losing never feels good. Some losses sting a little less, when you know what the win means to the victor. JMU fell to Oklahoma State 75-68 in the WNIT Finals on Saturday. The loss ended the Dukes’ season, but it was anything but sour. In their run to the finals Coach Brooks and his team represented the entire JMU community well and picked up a lot of new fans in the process.
I’m on my way out the door for a quick vacation, so I just wanted to offer our congrats to the ladies for a great season. It’s amazing what a team can do when everyone from the head coach to the last player on the bench, approaches the game with enthusiasm and a positive attitude. All eyes on you men’s team.
Leading off, let’s give it up for Kenny Brooks and the ladies. Coach Brooks and the Dukes are headed to Stillwater (Oklahoma, not this one) to play Oklahoma State for the Women’s NIT Championship this Sunday. To advance to the finals the Dukes defeated Davidson, South Florida, UVA, and Syracuse. If you’re scoring at home that means they’ve racked up more postseason wins in the past 2 weeks than the men have in the past 3 years. And they’ve been winning over more and more fans each game. Over 4,000 fans packed the Convo for Wednesday night’s semifinal win. They got snubbed by the selection committee, but rather than pout they’ve gone out and taken care of business in the WNIT. So regardless of whether you’re a big fan of the women’s game or not, show a little love for this Dukes squad. Coach Brooks has built a program we can all be proud of.
Spring Football You Say?
That’s right. Mickey and the Dukes are in the midst of Spring practice. Thank God. Much like in every non-Landers or non-Rascati year, the focus will be squarely on the QB play this Spring. Justin Thorpe is firmly sitting in the QB 1 slot. However, due to last year’s suspension and past injuries, he’s never really had a consistent stretch of practice reps (let alone games) as the starter. Mickey is looking to change that and hoping Thorpe can make strides as a passer.
More Rumors Of CAA Defection
The internet was buzzing this week with talk of Mason and VCU skipping town for the A10. Now there are reports that another CAA team could be on the way out. Apparently, Georgia State has seen the writing on the wall and the powers that be realize they’re not up to par with the rest of the CAA Football. Therefore they’re going to drop down a level to the Sun Belt. (ed. note – It turns out the Sun Belt is not actually a level down from FCS. It’s a FBS conference. Seriously. I looked it up and everything.) Take it easy Panther fans. We kid because we love we don’t care at all about your football program.
Weren’t the Diamond Dukes Were Supposed To Be Good?
If this year’s JMU Baseball season has taught us anything, it’s that you should never put too much faith in preseason polls for sports you know nothing about. I love baseball. Love it. I just don’t know much about the college game. So when the preseason polls say the Dukes are expected to successfully defend last year’s CAA Championship, I believe them. The Dukes are 6-18-1 (1-8 CAA) and stuck in dead last. Alas, it appears the poll voters were idiots. Or the Dukes are just under-performing. I’m blaming the voters.
Scary Details Emerge About the Alleged Fight
The Breeze published this account of the alleged incident that led to Jace Edwards’ suspension. There are two sides to every story and now we have one. As a former fraternity guy myself, I can see how something like this would happen. It doesn’t make it right and it doesn’t make anyone involved proud, but sometimes bad things happen. I really wish they didn’t though.
One Bitter Fan’s Opinion On the Final Four
I’ve heard a lot of people say that it’s a shame when fans’ frustration with their own team’s shortcomings prevents them from appreciating the joy of watching other great teams compete. The people can get bent. JMU hasn’t made the tourney in 18 years and nobody is holding their breath for a return anytime soon. But I love college hoops and I’m obviously not going to miss the Final Four, so I might as well pull for some team. Like most people in the free world, I’d never really developed any opinions whatsoever on anything related to the state of Kansas. It was just there. Of course I can’t even accurately tell you where there is other than “in the Midwest.” I mean, honestly who cares where Kansas is? Yet this weekend, I’m a Kansas fan by default. Nobody outside of Kentucky could possibly root for a Calipari or Pitino coached team. That’s just a fact. And rooting for Ohio State, or The Ohio State University as the world’s most annoying fanbase prefers to say, is not an option for any self-respecting human being. So Rock Chalk Jayhawk and all that.
One Last Thing Completely And Totally Unrelated to JMU
It’s the text of Springsteen’s keynote from SXSW. And while we’re at it, here is one of my all time favorite videos of Bruce and Arcade Fire.
Two items mid-week. First, in case you didn’t know, and judging by blog interest you didn’t, the women’s hoops team is hosting a WNIT Final Four game tomorrow night at 7 p.m. at The Convo against Syracuse. A few cool notes here are that the ‘Burg and JMU Students seem to have really jumped on board with Coach Brooks’ teams’ run even if it doesn’t register with the rest of us. They’ve been getting steadily larger crowds each game through their run and the ticket office reported today they’ve already sold more than Sunday’s win over UVa. The run has included W’s over ACC schools UVa and Wake Forest and the Big East’s South Florida. Hopefully they can notch another Big East win over the ‘Cuse and advance to the final where they’ll meet the winner of the San Diego @ Oklahoma St. game. Lastly, the pep band’s version of Gogol Bordello’s Start Wearin’ Purple has also been gaining much more widespread enthusiasm on campus thanks to this run and we can’t wait to hear it at BFS come September.
What we pay to see!
Second, a bit of a shakeup in the Football Coaching staff was announced this week. For some reason, even the Chicago Tribune picked up this story from the Sports Network, but we’ll take the midwestern love where we find it. A few roles have been upgraded, included former JMU star Tony LeZotte, who will become a full-time (and presumably full-paid) assistant this year. But the big takeaway is that Mickey is turning the playcalling duties back over to long-time OC Jeff Durden. As most of us know, many JMU fans had been calling for Durden’s head for a while before Matthews took the playcalling away from him and assumed that job himself last year. Particularly after the ’09 and ’10 seasons I think we all agreed the offense appeared to have the pizzazz of a Sbarro. However, even if it’s a fool-me-twice situation here, we’re generally fine with this. MM didn’t do anything fancy last year (though he did have to play the meat of the season with an injured, untested QB) and just continued running the same dreadful stretch reverses and occassional hitches to nowhere as before so really, what’s the difference. ’04, ’08, ’12 – if this really is another great year, we all know it’s going to be built on an O-Line allowing for running the ball, running the ball some more, and then running it again regardless of whether it’s the tailbacks (’04) or the QBs (’08), or some combination (’12) doing the toting. Plus now Mickey can go back to what he does best: having his own personal contest to see if he can pop his eyes out or burst a neck-vein first while chucking visors and threatening the children of atrocious FCS officiating crews!
According to reports that emerged over the weekend, VCU and George Mason could soon be on their way out of the CAA. Along with Butler, the two schools are already in discussions with the Atlantic 10 about joining the conference. Ruh-roh. Losing these schools would not be good for the CAA. Not good at all.
When I first heard of these potential moves, I assumed Mason and VCU were as good as gone. It seemed like a complete no-brainer. Both schools have unquestionably developed into very successful hoops programs and find themselves caught in a conference that appears to be driven by football at times. Neither school fields a football team and a move to the A10 would align them with schools sharing common athletic goals. Mainly, it would group them a bunch of other basketball first schools that aren’t flight risks if football conferences come calling. Schools like Xavier, St. Louis, St. Joseph’s, and St. Bonaventure have athletic programs driven by basketball. The CAA’s basketball profile has been on the rise for years, but it’s still a couple football moves away from erasing all the progress it’s made. If ODU, JMU, or Delaware make a jump for a better football set-up, the dominoes could start falling in a way that crushes the CAA. And that is a very real risk for GMU and VCU. Plus, while both the Rams and Patriots have gotten at large bids to the NCAA tourney in recent years, the A10 is a perennial multi-bid league.
After some more reflection however, I’m not sure it’s as much of a no-brainer as I originally thought. The A10 is a stronger basketball league top to bottom. As much as I love CAA hoops and think it is still underrated, it could be tougher for VCU and GMU to replicate their success in the A10. And VCU might get cold feet if it looks across town at its former CAA rival Richmond. The Spiders made the jump in the 90s and I’m not sure they’re better off for it. They’ve had some good years, but they’re not at the level of Xavier or other top A10 programs. VCU and Mason might be more comfortable sticking around in the CAA, a league they know they can win in any given year. But the risk of sticking around and being left behind for football, might force their hand. However you look at it, losing both programs would be a major blow to the CAA. It would likely force JMU’s hand and get them moving to find other football centered schools to align themselves with.
