The CAA tournament kicks off today and our beloved Dukes get it going against UNCW in the 8/9 match-up. I’m hitting the road in a few hours to witness the start of a run for the ages (anything can happen, right?) in person. Here are a few links to get you ready for the action.
The All CAA teams were announced last and Humpty Hitchens earned a 3rd team selection. Way to go Humpty!
The DNR’s Mark Selig answers some of Brian Mull’s questions about the Dukes for on the Hawks Hoops blog.
Philahoops breaks down today’s opening round match-ups.
Columnist Dick Jerardi explains the obvious, Drexel’s best bet is to win its way into the NCAA tournament.
Like JMU, Hofstra is a long shot this weekend just hoping to get hot.
Yes, we hate Mason. We’d be foolish to pretend Ryan Pearson wasn’t a beast though. He was selected as CAA Player of the Year last night. Well deserved.
Defiantly Dutch has a Q&A with Hofstra head coach Mo Cassara on the eve of the tournament.
You’ll probably find plenty of CAA tourney previews, but this one has JMU picked to win today so we’re linking to it.
Lot’s of folks are beating him up for it, but Seth Davis has 2 CAA teams in his Top 25 this week. He’s right. #2BidsforCAA!
And finally, here is all the info about television, radio, and streaming broadcasts for the tournament.
JMU fans have been looking forward to seeing the Dukes play West Virginia at FedEx Field ever since it was announced last summer. The game is still a long way off, but tickets for the much anticipated September 15 match-up go on sale this Thursday, March 1. Tickets range in price from $45 for upper deck seats to $149 for Ultimate Fan Zone Packages. The Ultimate Fan Zone Packages include pre-game hospitality in the Ultimate Fan Zone of course. I have no clue if that is some sort of high class affair for the 1% or if it’s just an opportunity to spend a lot of money so you can mingle with a bunch of banjo playing Mountaineer fans sporting overalls and Major Harris jerseys. Regardless of where you choose to sit, you can get a free JMU t-shirt with each ticket order. Student packages including a ticket and bus trip to and from FedEx are also being offered.
Todd and I will definitely be in attendance and we’ve already starting planning the the tailgate with our friends. We’ve also been investigating the possibility of getting a bus to transport us to and from the game safely. This is all preliminary, but let us know in the comments if you’d be interested in taking a bus to/from FedEx with us and some other JMU folks. We’re looking into having the pick up and return be somewhere in Arlington. We’d try to keep the costs reasonable and would probably try to arrive 4 hours prior to kick-off for tailgating. If enough folks seem interested, then we might try to pull something together.
JMU had to come from behind, but they managed to defeat the 1-30 Towson Tigers on Saturday. The 65-59 victory not only gave the Dukes a season sweep over the Tigers, but it helped them lock up the 8th seed in the CAA tourney. That means that despite all of injuries and disappointment, JMU will actually be wearing the home whites for a tourney game. That’s nothing really to celebrate, but JMU has at least a puncher’s chance to win a tourney game. In fact they’ll be playing UNCW, a team that they defeated in their only match-up this season.
It would be foolish to ever look ahead with this year’s JMU team, but we’re still going to do just that. And if JMU can beat UNCW (which they’ve proven they can), then Todd and I actually like the match-up against Drexel in round 2. Don’t get us wrong, JMU would be heavy underdogs and deservedly so. Drexel was the outright regular season champ and in our opinion they’ve shown enough to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, should they not win it all next weekend. We just think that JMU would have a better time knocking off Drexel, than they would any of the other top 4 seeds. So it’s the best case for a long-shot miracle upset so to speak. Admittedly, our confidence is really based more on a hunch than statistics or reason though, so take it for what’s it’s worth (not much).
Honestly, there is a big part of me that just wants this season to end so we can put it behind us. Despite that, the March Madness fan in me has me believing that anything is possible, so I’m looking forward to next weekend. If JMU goes down early, it’s still going to be a great tournament. Any of the top 4 seeds could win it, and I could easily envision Delaware heating up and taking the title. Yes, this season has pretty much sucked. A win or two by the Dukes could cover up a lot of the misery of this season and at least give the team something to build on for next year.
Check back later this week for other tourney coverage and maybe even a contest of two.
Saturday is Senior Day for JMU basketball. The Dukes will welcome the 1-29 Towson Tigers to the Convo for the big regular season finale. The last time these two teams faced each other, JMU narrowly escaped with a 58-56 win. In that game, Towson outrebounded the Dukes by 30 rebounds. That is not a typo. I haven’t done any research, but I feel pretty confident saying that there probably aren’t too many instances where a team was outrebounded by 30 boards by a team at least a couple dozen games under .500. But this time it will be Senior Day and the Dukes will be hyped up to honor Julius Wells and Humpty Hitchens. Unfortunately, it appears Wells’ career had already ended due to a mysterious heart virus and Humpty has missed two straight games with a bum shoulder. So it looks like JMU faces the very real possibility of hosting a Senior Day without any seniors in the line-up. That would be the most 2011-2012 JMU Basketball thing ever.
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Well, on a day when there was even more bad news in the JMU Sports world which we might mention later, at least the Diamond Dukes took their home opener 13-7 over Longwood. And Rob will be delighted to learn today’s starter was Freshman Ben Garner of none other than Rob’s alma mater, Paul VI High School. Of course he gave up three runs on five hits and two walks in 2 1/3, but this is college baseball and it was his debut, so needless to say, we’re not gonna complain.
Oh yeah, did I say there was bad news? Before the game, Curt Dudley tweeted that one of JMU’s top returning offensive players, Johnny Bladel, had been suspended indefinitely for unspecified reasons. Hopefully football’s off-field shenanigans don’t start bleeding over onto the diamond this year. Apparently it didn’t affect the offense or the result today, but let’s hope it’s nothing serious.
Reggae Boys' next star?
Purely in the interest of avoiding men’s hoops for another sentence or two, a cool story from JMU Sports today came out that former another former Dukes soccer player is now playing for his country’s National Team. 2009 JMU Captain Joel Senior was slated to be in the squad for Jamaica’s friendly tonight against Cuba, following breakout star CJ Sapong with the US team last month and women’s goalscoring rockstar Corky Julien with Canada. With Jamaica already drawn in the Yanks’ qualifying group for Brazil 2014, it’s not out of the realm of possibility we could see two former Dukes playing against each other for a World Cup berth in 2012 and/or 2013!
Oh yeah, and men’s hoops blew a big early lead in typical fashion with Brady frustratedly watching with a huge cast from the far end of the bench. Also wasted an absolutely insane first half performance by Andrei Semenov, who has nearly singlehandedly kept the Dukes competitive in the absence of Julius Wells’ and Humpty Hitchens’ firepower. Semenov went 4 for his first 4 shooting treys early in the game, with the last one turning into a four-point play. He was old school NBA Jams type “On Fire!” and it was awesome for a little while. Of course, Bruiser yelled at his guys, they clamped down, and Andrei only had 5 points the rest of the game. To be fair, the Dukes played a decent game tonight, with balanced scoring including big contributions from Gene Swindle, but with only seven “healthy” players, including broken-wrist-can’t-shoot Devon Moore, they just seem to wear down every game, especially against tough defensive squads like the Dragons. I just hope they can avoid losing on senior night to Towson this Saturday at this point.
You know it’s been a really bad weekend of sports action when the unquestioned highlight is a tie game! In baseball no less. Seriously, a tie on the diamond. Unless Bud Selig’s involved, that’s just not something you see everyday.
The Good
Bueller? Bueller?
The Bad
The Diamond Dukes tied national powerhouse and neighborhood rival UVA in an ugly, rain-soaked game in South Carolina to wrap up a season opening trip 0-2-1. Ughhh. Given the zillion-game schedule in baseball, probably not worth getting too worked up over, but for a team with high expectations, this definitely qualified as stumbling out of the gate. On Friday, the Dukes threw a huge crooked number up in the “E” column and got blown out by tourney hosts Coastal Carolina 7-1. Then Saturday, JMU hit into a seemingly impossible five double plays in falling 8-5 to Boston College. But no worries, they “salvaged” the weekend with a 4-4 tie against the Cavaliers when the game had to be called after the 8th inning turned into a deluge. At least the Dukes come home for their Veterans Memorial Stadium opener Wednesday at 4 p.m. against Longwood.
The Ugly
Traveling without injured Head Coach Matt Brady (ruptured achilles – seriously are you kidding me with the injuries this season?), it was to no one’s surprise that men’s hoops got handled 82-70 in their bracketbuster game at Detroit. Dick Vitale coached there. Other than that, nothing really to report about another rock in the mountain of losses piling up this season. Thankfully, with the prestigious and annual trip to the 8/9 game in the CAA tourney looming a week from Friday, we can all be thankful the deathwatch is almost over.
Equally ugly though a good deal more surprising, Women’s hoops laid their biggest egg of the season at Northeastern Sunday in a shocking 61-50 loss to the Huskies in which no Dukes player was even in double figures. The Dukes fell to 20-6 and 11-4 in the CAA and in a symetrical oddity the Huskies “improved” to 6-20 and 4-11. Kenny Brooks’ team better not forget this one though, as the Dukes are still in solid position for the #2 seed in the women’s tourney in three weeks in scenic downtown Upper Marlboro while the Huskies look headed to the 7/11 matchup, with the winner advancing to play the Dukes. One weird note from this game though could explain a little about the Dukes seeming lack of preparation. With all the membership changes in the conference and resulting odd and unbalanced schedules, this was actually JMU’s first game at Northeastern in a few years.
It’s the end of another work week and we’re all set for another JMU sports weekend. In case you missed the big news though, the CAA and NBC Sports agreed to a 5-year television deal beginning with the 2012-2013 academic year. The deal specifies that “39 regionally televised men’s and women’s basketball games on the Comcast SportsNet regional networks and additional digital coverage on NBCSports.com.” That’s terrific, but the big story is that 12 CAA basketball games and 5 CAA football games will be nationally televised on NBC Sports (formerly Versus). That’s a huge step up in my opinion from the limited ESPN coverage the league currently gets in hoops and obviously a huge leap forward from the current regional football broadcasts.
As we all know, it’s never too early for baseless speculation when it comes to football no matter how far off the season is. So let’s fire up the old rumor machine and attempt to guess which (if any) JMU football games will get the nod for the national broadcast. The immediate game that jumps out is the match-up against ODU at Bridgeforth on November 17. It’s really got everything a nationally televised audience would want, 2 programs with some of the largest and most passionate fanbases in the league, star players (Dae’Quan Scott, Tayler Heinicke, etc), outspoken and quotable coaches, plus it’s being held in the league’s best stadium. And we’re not even mentioning that despite the fact the teams have only played once, it’s been declared a full fledged rivalry game by several prominent media outlets us. Other potential choices for NBC sports are October 13 home game against William & Mary (Bridgeforth + Thomas Jefferson’s alma matter = viewers?) or the away game at Richmond (small, but packed stadium would look good on television).
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The Dukes came up short against Georgia State tonight, falling 67-64 in the Convo. Yet again, JMU hung in there against a team from the top half of the league, but couldn’t get over the hump. It’s just the same old story with this team. They seem to consistently play to the level of the competition. On nights like tonight you can try to console yourself by playing the moral victory card. Yet other times, like Saturday when they struggled to beat a 1-25 Towson team (and got outrebounded by 30 boards in the process), you could just as easily beat yourself up by playing the moral loss card. Tonight’s contest was tight for most of the first half until the Dukes let Georgia State go on a bit of run to go up 35-27 at the break. The Dukes came out of the locker room like a team possessed and made it a neck and neck contest. Unfortunately, Devon Moore had a costly turnover in the closing minutes and Georgia State closed the game out from the line.
Thumbs Up
Andrey Semenov – The Russian has been red hot from 3 point range since the ODU game. He hit a career high 6 treys tonight and led the team with 22 points. For a guy who most of us assumed would never be more than a super sub because of his back issues, he’s certainly elevated his game.
A.J. Davis – He dropped 20 points to go along with 5 boards and 5 assists. He had a rough night from long range, going 2 for 8 from behind the arc, but on a team with few offensive options he got the job done.
The Rally – I’m absolutely sick of forcing myself to drink the kool aid and writing about how impressed I am with the Dukes’ effort. However, this team has nothing to play for and appeared ready to let the game get out of hand before half-time, so I was at least encouraged by the furious second half rally.
Thumbs Down
Humpty’s Injury – Oh, I didn’t mention this yet. Maybe I’m trying to pretend it didn’t happen, but Humpty Hitchens hurt his shoulder and was forced to sit out for most of the second half. Brady said they think it’s a sprain and Humpty might miss a game or two. Let’s hope that’s all it is. After the effort Humpty has given all season, it would be a shame to see his senior season end prematurely.
Devon’s Turnover – These things happen. I don’t want to crush a guy for making a mistake, but it was a costly mistake. The guy is playing with a busted hand though and iced the win over Towson from the line Saturday, so he’s still breaking even.
The Panthers Free Throw Shooting – Georgia State went 21 for 24 from the line. That’s a tremendous shooting effort by them. It also points out one of the Dukes critical weaknesses this year, they foul way too much. JMU puts guys on the line all too often, which has been the difference in close games. And if you want to say that lazy defense is a primary cause of fouls, well I won’t argue with you.
Will the Dukes produce even more All-Americans this year?!
“Play Ball!” – When an umpire yells those magic words THIS Friday somewhere near Myrtle Beach where the Dukes will be opening the season at Coastal Carolina, we can exhale with relief that we can finally avert our eyes, even momentarily, from the nuclear aftermath that is men’s hoops this year. The defending CAA Champs and NCAA tourney veteran Diamond Dukes have been picked by the conference’s coaches as the preseason favorite for the fourth year in a row and look poised to have another great season. Junior OF/P Johnny Bladel and Senior LHP Sean Tierney were both selected as preseason All-CAA players. Tierney was also voted a second-team preseason All American and is expected to lead another strong Dukes pitching staff.
In other news you may not have thought about in a while, check out this gallery from JMU Sports of the construction at University Park on all the new facilities and fields for Soccer, Lacrosse, Track, and eventually JMUSB’s favorite, Field Hockey! These fields are located in an area out Port Republic Rd. near what feels to old guys like us as if it’s all the way out to Lakeview Golf Course, but to current students is just another part of campus over the hill from UREC. Absolutely hard to believe, but just incredible how much JMU has done from a facilities standpoint the last five years!
Also, for those who love car crashes like we do, the hoops game tonight (Tuesday) is on ESPN3 at home vs. surprising Georgia St. If you watch the first half and then a) go to bed or b) break out the mescaline, you’ll be better off.
To no one’s surprise, the Dukes did not snap CAA-leading Drexel’s 12 game winning streak or their own 5 game losing streak at the Convo tonight, falling 63-56. Even the close score isn’t a good sign against the defensively beastly, but offensively challenged Dragons. Drexel, the preseason conference favorite, has recovered from a slow start and seem a good bet for the top seed in Richmond (which incidentally would also match them up with whoever beats the Dukes in the 8/9 game). So other than informing you that JMU is now 10-16 overall and a hideous 3-10 in conference, we’re just going to ask you to read another fantastic story about a former Dukes start doing great things!
In this case, it’s former soccer start C.J. Sapong, who gets the full-on star treatment from ESPN Soccer’s Leander Schaerlackens. Seriously, this story is a fantastic piece on the former Duke and a subtle reminder of the central problem with US Soccer’s development, namely that the dreaded combo of politics and parents repeatedly conspire to prop up the wrong players and keep down some of the best raw talent.
In other soccer news, former women’s star Corky Julien is Canada’s best goal scorer and has begun training in Sweden before leading her country’s squad to the Olympics in London this summer.
Finally, per a very valid suggestion on Twitter (follow us @jmusportsblog), we’ll be previewing the back-to-back CAA Champion Diamond Dukes this weekend in preparation for college Opening Day next week! Needless to say, we’re looking forward to the Women’s hoops tournament and the baseball season a great deal more than continuing to discuss the over/under on how long Matt Brady keeps his job.
p.s. Info coming soon on JMUSB’s plans for the West Virginia game at FedEx this fall!
