The Dukes' Humpty Hitchens
Well it was a little more nerve-racking down the stretch than we’d hoped, but JMU got out of DC with a 62-57 win over GW last night. It’s always nice to get a win on the road and despite the relatively disappointing offensive effort in the second half, we came away more optimistic about the Dukes’ chances in the CAA. This JMU team isn’t great, but neither is the league this year. I mean, we’re talking about a league where just when a team starts to look like it’s putting things together, they go out and lose to Howard. So it’s a winnable CAA. Anyway here are 3 quick thoughts on the game.
Insert Cliche Here
Sports cliches suck, but sometimes they are unavoidable. I’m going to try to refrain from using them and saying JMU was a different team after the break or anything like that. The fact is that JMU looked amazing in the first half and then they just didn’t in the second half. The first 20 minutes were about as well played as any half of basketball I’d seen by the Dukes in years. JMU shot the ball well and played really solid defense to limit the Colonials. AJ Davis and Humpty had 17 points each and the Dukes had a 20 point lead at the break. They had 18 points as a team in the second half. They couldn’t find good shots and the few they managed to get off weren’t going in. It was dicey for a while, but they managed to hold on and escape with a win.
Mike Lonnergan Does Not Speak Humpty
I have no idea what was said between the two, but Humpty and Mike Lonnergan had a bit of an altercation late in the second half. Humpty apparently was getting a little too close to the GW bench for Lonnergan’s comfort and next think you know people were pulling them apart from each other. Whatever the case, neither guy got T’d up, so it couldn’t have been that bad. Brady and the assistant coaches, particularly Lou Rowe, did an excellent job of getting Humpty out of there and calming him down. What could have been sort of ugly, turned out to be nothing.
Purple Out
This might have been a road game for the Dukes, but JMU fans showed up and eliminated any home court advantage the Colonials could have had. Which was good, because with nearly all the seats in the Smith Center practically hanging over the court, it would be a very tough place to play if it were packed with GW fans. I thought it was a terrific place to watch a college basketball game and obviously loved seeing so many Dukes fans there. Kudos to the Duke Club (and Living Social) for doing such a great job to get JMU fans out in full force. And I’m sure I speak for Todd when I say that it was awesome to meet some more blog readers in person.
Alright, I’m gonna cut this short because the JMUSB post game celebration at Jay’s Saloon has me in dire need of a cup of coffee. Merry Christmas everyone!
VCU continued its reign at the top of the CAA Bloggers Poll this week and deservedly so. Our Dukes moved up a few spots to 4th. I actually had the Dukes in the 6th slot. Before anyone crushes me, I turned in my ballot prior to Monday’s game and was judging them based on the complete stinker of an effort against Kent State. I still think it’s pretty much VCU and everyone else at this point. No other team has been able to play consistent basketball thus far. Well, unless you count Towson and William & Mary which have both been consistently dreadful. Here is my full ballot.
JMU put the blowout loss to Kent State behind them and cruised to 67-49 win over the Citadel tonight. The Dukes were aided by the return of Devon Moore, who played his first game of the season after being declared academically ineligible for the first semester. The Dukes were also aided by the fact that the Citadel Bulldogs are not very good at playing basketball. A win is a win though and it was great to see the Dukes put the Kent State debacle behind them. Here are 3 quick thoughts on the win.
Guess Who’s Back
The story of the night was clearly the return of junior point guard Devon Moore. Everyone expected this to be Devon’s team this year, so it was great to finally get him out on the floor. He came off the bench, but played a team high 33 minutes, largely due to the fact that Humpty Hitchens got into foul trouble. In those 33 minutes he had the sort of all around game that makes him so valuable to JMU. He finished with 8 points on 4 of 7 shooting, 4 assists, 3 boards, and 2 steals. It could take a few games for him to get into full season mode, but this team will definitely be better with Moore running the show.
Balanced Attack
The Dukes worked their way to a 4-3 record without Devon Moore largely due to the outstanding play of Humpty Hitchens and AJ Davis. The duo were carrying over 50% of the scoring load for JMU heading into this game. Tonight JMU had a much more balanced attack with 8 players scoring. Julius Wells and Humpty lead the way with 12 each. The Dukes assisted on 17 of their 27 field goals. It’s tough to read too much into one game, especially one against an overmatched opponent. However, I think this is more in line with what we’ll see the rest of the way. Yes, we’re going to see big scoring nights from Humpty, AJ, and probably even a couple from Julius Wells. With Moore back running the point though, we can look forward to a more dynamic offense with more players contributing on offense.
Meet Us at the GW Game
I really don’t have much else to say about tonight’s game, so I figured I’d throw in another plug for DC metro area Dukes to join us at this Thursday’s game at George Washington. The Duke Club has organized a pre-game happy hour at Tonic. There will be $4 drink specials and plenty of Dukes fans in attendance. Tickets are only $6 and they can be purchased online here. We’ll be posted up at the bar at Tonic with our Old Guys Leave shirts on. Come on over and introduce yourself and maybe we’ll buy you a drink. Maybe.
Finally, JMU announced that Trevon Flores has left the team and returned home to be with his family. Trevon’s mother passed away last summer and he apparently decided that he needs to get back to be with his family. That’s a tough situation and we wish Trevon and his family well.
Todd and I typically try to keep from reporting on any verbal commitments the Dukes get. Instead we try to be patient and wait for the signed offer letters to come in. However, when a talented running back who rushed for 2.532 yards and 39 touchdowns withdraws his commitment to a CAA rival in order to become a Duke, we can’t resist. Stacey Bedell announced this week that he is headed to JMU to play football. The 3 star recruit had originally given Villanova a verbal commitment in July. Thankfully, the Dukes kept pursuing him and he changed his mind. Bedell is a great get for Mickey and the staff. He was timed running a 4.48 40-yard dash…with a sprained ankle. So we know the kid is fast. From the highlights above, we also know that he hits the hole and makes his cut quick. And he comes to play in big games, rushing 412 yards and 4 touchdowns in the Long Island Class 1 Championship game.
Well, Maryland and everyone ever associated with the Terps may hate Kevin Anderson and Randy Edsall, but FCS teams sure don’t. Rob and I usually leave Dukes recruiting stories and rumors to the message boards and more “connected” blogs out there, but some recent news out of PG County really caught our attention. The exodus of Terps out of College Park in the midst of the utter disfunction that is UM athletics combined with the “no waiting if you transfer down” rule are beginning to look like a windfall of talent for local FCS programs. Thankfully JMU joined the party in picking up Safety Titus Till, who on his way out the door, said essentially: “Yeah I’m leaving to go help a great Defense and I’m trying to bring friends with me.” His ‘friends’ allegedly include DT David Mackall and RB Jeremiah Wilson, both of whom are rumored to have other plans. Let’s hope young Mr. Till is a good salesman and a great player!
Hoops in DC Next Week – Help us Purple Out GW’s Smith Center
Next Thursday the Dukes come to DC to take on GW. 7 p.m. tip and huge holiday happy hour starting at 4:30 at Tonic. Look for Old Guys Leave shirts and come say hi. With GW students out on break this has a chance to be a JMU home game (like FedEx next year – I know I know, but let’s dream big).
For Info, check out the DC Nova Duke Club and Metro Dukes Facebook pages or follow @DCNovaDukeClub. Tickets are cheap and of course drink specials to kick off your Christmas weekend!
JMU Baseball Player Makes Preseason All-American
Congrats to JMU Senior LHP Sean Tierney on being named a preseason second team All-American. Hopefully he can lead the Dukes to another CAA Title!
Last week we were fortunate to be invited to vote in the CAA Bloggers Poll. The poll ranks the CAA basketball teams from 1 to 12 with the results posted to VCURamNation.com each week. The voting panel is made up of a number of CAA hoops experts and well respected bloggers from around the league. And us apparently. You can view this week’s poll results here. To the surprise of absolutely nobody, VCU earned the top spot in large part due to an impressive blowout victory over Richmond. Our Dukes ended up in the 4 slot.
The NCAA released its final attendance figures for the 2011 college football season last Saturday. Like most things associated with NCAA bookkeeping, the numbers are a little suspect. Actually, they are flat out inflated. Accounting hijinks aside, JMU had the second highest official average attendance in FCS, finishing just behind Appalachian State. In fact, JMU’s average attendance of 25,002 was good enough to outdraw 46 FBS teams, including such traditional powers such as Duke, UNLV, Rice, and SMU. Of course by traditional powers, I actually mean recognizable schools that have terrible fan support.
Other fun facts and miscellaneous notes:
- JMU had a higher average attendance than all but one MAC school.
- MAC football sucks
- JMU drew 102% of capacity and App State drew 130%. Me thinks capacity is a made up number.
- Eastern Kentucky finished a mere 71 spots behind JMU.
- There seem to be a lot of directional universities on the FCS list.
- The MAC is the exception to the above. That conference is a directional school hotbed.
- 3 of the 4 remaining schools in the FCS playoffs finished in the top 11 for attendance.
- JMU and Yale were the only schools in the top 10 with fewer than 6 home games. Montana had 8.
I have no real point I’m trying to make other than showing that the inauguaral season in the new Bridgeforth Stadium was a great success attendance wise. Well, and to show that the MAC and other lower level FBS conferences might be a classification above FCS, they probably can’t be called a higher level. Give me the CAA and FCS playoffs over them any day.
As hard as it is to believe, today is our second anniversary here at JMUSB. And of course we’re celebrating by drinking ourselves silly (which these days only takes three beers and a glass of wine) and slinging darts at a picture of Taylor Heinicke.
But we also wanted to take a look back at one of our initial posts. Here’s are 2009 Christmas List. The incredible thing is how many items remain the same. With a few minor tweaks, we simply ask again for the following:
A CAA Tourney Run for Men’s Hoops
Readers of the blog are aware of our developing man crush on AJ Davis. We might be a little bit overwhelmed by the start to his JMU career, but we honestly think Coach Brady has a squad that is capable of making a little run in the conference tourney. We’re just sick of setting our sights on “hopefully avoiding the play-in game”. Please give us at least a trip to the CAA semis.
For Justin Thorpe to Grow Up
Let’s clarify this one before anyone freaks out. We think JT kind of gets a raw deal from Dukes fans. He’s not Rodney Landers. We get it. Everyone seems to ignore the fact that he was CAA Offensive Rookie of the Year , that he led the team to 4 straight wins to close the season his freshman year, and the Dukes have won nearly every game he’s started against FCS competition. With that being said, he’s STILL got great potential and we’re ready to see him show some maturity both on and off the football field.
PleaseSanta!
98 Ornament
It’s Christmas time, so we at JMU Sports Blog headquarters put our heads together and came up with our wish list for Santa Claus. Here are some of things we’re asking for in the coming year.
Even Santa is a Dukes fan
A CAA Tourney Run for Men’s Hoops
Readers of the blog are aware of our developing man crush on Denzel Bowles. We might be a little bit overwhelmed by the big guy’s start to his JMU career, but we honestly think Coach Brady has a squad that is capable of making a little run in the conference tourney. We’re just sick of setting our sights on “hopefully avoiding the play-in game”. Please give us at least a trip to the CAA semis.
Bridgeforth reseating for 2010 to be the same seats as 2009
Confession time: This was the first year that Todd and I bit the bullet and actually got our own season tickets, after years of leaching off friends. We sat in different sections, but both hit the jackpot and would love if we had comparable seats in the new and improved Bridgeforth. Todd has front row seats right next to Coach Lucas of the Field Hockey team, which is a real thrill for him. The jury is still out on how she feels about it.
A CAA Championship and a Sweet Sixteen Appearance for the Lady Dukes
Last weekend I found myself doing something I’ve never, ever done before. Checking the score for a woman’s hoops game to see how the JMU ladies were doing against Duke. You know what? I’m not even embarrassed about it (kidding, of course I’m embarrassed). Dawn Evans is legit and I’ll gladly jump on the bandwagon. We all should. Kenny Brooks is building one heck of a program in the ‘Burg.
95 Ornament
For Justin Thorpe to Grow Up
Let’s clarify this one before anyone freaks out. We think JT kind of gets a raw deal from Dukes fans. He’s not Rodney Landers. We get it. Everyone seems to ignore the fact that he was CAA Offensive Rookie of the Year and that he led the team to 4 straight wins to close the season. With that being said, he’s got great potential and we’re ready to see him show some maturity both on and off the football field. Even if Drew earns back the starting job next season, JMU is going to need Thorpe to contribute and to be the man the following two seasons.
If Cincy, Rutgers, or the ‘Cuse go Big Ten, We Wish to at Least be a Nationally Rumored Replacement for the Big East (crazy how much this one has changed and that’s why I didn’t update it from the ’09 post, but our thoughts on JMU have not!)
We’re definitely not in the camp that believes JMU has to go D-1 as soon as possible. We’d much prefer to stay at the FCS level than to make the leap to a bad conference or at a time that isn’t right. It would be great though for JMU to at least get some recognition for all the resources it’s putting behind football and the caliber of the program it’s built. It’s never to early to star the chatter. (We’re on board with the East Coast Conference “if and when” and cautiously optimistic about the long-term direction of the program; have to wait and see on President Alger)
For Charles Haley to Make the Pro Football Hall of Fame
We attended JMU long after Haley was gone. Plus, Todd is a Skins fan and I’m a Giants fan (which made for a tense week here at JMU Sports Blog), so we’d both be lying if we said we were huge Haley fans in the NFL. Also, as readers of Jeff Pearlman’s book will attest, Haley might have had, um, let’s just say the worst locker room presence of all time at best, or some deep rooted psychological issues at worst. We’ll ignore that. Put a Duke in the Hall!
A Girls of Madison Calendar
Yeah. We don’t see anyway this can end badly for these young ladies. We’re sure the tens of dollars they each stand to make from this little venture, will outweigh the blowback from the highly unlikely scenario in which potential employers do something crazy like, oh, I don’t know, Google their names. That would never happen. Bravo ladies. We applaud your decision to put our interests of random guys everywhere above your own. In all seriousness, if you got it, flaunt it and it’s very cool that the calendar is raising money for Madison for Keeps. I think that’s why I’m going to buy one.
For Dave’s Taverna to Launch a Pizza Peddlers-esque Tailgate Delivery System
Admit it. This is friggin brilliant! Someone get on this ASAP. Daves on Demand at all JMU Sports Blog tailgates!
For the ESPN Gameday Crew to Broadcast from an FCS Playoff Site
Calm down. We know that due to stadium construction, JMU won’t be hosting a playoff game next year. However, we still want Fowler, Corso, and Herbstreet to lose their FCS playoffs virgnity next season. That way they can work out the kinks and have things running on all cylinders for the first playoff game in the new Bridgeforth stadium’s history in 2011.
A QUIET Offseason for Football, please!
We’ve all heard MM is staying and has control of staff decisions so we don’t expect much turnover there for better or worse, but after last year’s Jailblazers-esque offseason, we could all really go for a quiet offseason from the current Dukes. Oh yeah, and a great recruiting year wouldn’t hurt either.
For Taylor Heinicke to declare early for the NFL Draft
Hey, this is a “wish” list after all, right?!
A Final Four Run for Field Hockey
When they get Taylor West back next year, look out!
These Kids to grow into stud Dukes athletes (or at least big donors!)
In 2009 Gene Swindle injured his knee less than 1 minute into the only basketball game he ever played in for the VA Tech Hokies. The injury was believe to be career ending. After spending a few years as a undergraduate assistant, the 6’11” 260 lbs center transferred to JMU with dreams of returning to the court. We’re less than one month into the season and Swindle has already overtaken Trevon Flores’ role in the starting lineup. It’s a pretty nice story, so we figured we should learn a little about the guy. Well when we checked out his bio on JMUsports.com we found the following little nugget in his Q&A:
What is the bravest thing you have ever done?
Saved a family of 7 from a burning building.
Hold on. What? Yes, he’s only averaging 2 points and 2 boards a game, but he SAVED 7 PEOPLE FROM A BURNING BUILDING. Surely that’s worth publicizing a little bit, don’t you think? I mean at least put it at the top of the Q&A instead of dropping in between talk of Gene’s goals for the season and best place he’s been on a holiday. Not only does the guy have a name that sounds like he’s a bully from The Wonder Years, but he’s also an honest to God lifesaver. I’m not sure if that makes up for JMU not making one NCAA tourney appearance in almost 18 years, but it helps a little bit.
h/t to @richpriz
JMU lost to Kent State in the Convo tonight by the score of 71-51. It was, to put it mildly, a God-awful shooting night for the Dukes. JMU struggled from the opening tip and finished 21-63 from the field. Amazingly, the Dukes were able to overcome the poor shooting in the first half and somehow managed to take a 29-26 lead into halftime. This was largely due to Kent State’s sloppy play and inability to hold onto the ball. The Golden Flashes had 15 turnovers before the break. After the half Kent State held onto the ball better and shot 60% from the field. Put that up against JMU’s 33% shooting effort and it all adds up to a 20 point blowout. Here are 3 quick thoughts on the game.
When It Rains, It Pours
As we mentioned it was a very bad shooting night for the Dukes. Heading into tonight’s match-up, JMU had been shooting particularly well. As a team, JMU was shooting 43% from the field and an outstanding 41% from behind the arc, equating to an effective field goal percentage (eFG) of 51%. A.J. Davis, a guy who hit 5-50 3 pointers in his 2 years at Wyoming, came into the game 18-35 from 3 as a Duke. Humpty Hitchens added a mid-range jumper to his game, and had an eFG of 55%. Well tonight, a couple of the Dukes cooled off and came back down to earth a bit. And by a couple, I mean everyone who saw the floor. JMU set a season low for points, field goal percentage, three pointers made, three point percentage, and free throws.
Advanced Metrics
In case you missed it while paying attention to football, Julius Wells’ game has shown signs of maturity this year. No longer is he one of the top options on offense and he seems to be comfortable in that role. He’s rebounding the ball much better and taking better shots. Tonight unfortunately, he had a terrible shooting night. He went 0 for 11 for the game, including 0-3 from long range. That’s good enough for a 0.o FG percentage. And if we dive in a little deeper, we see that he also had a 0.0 3-pt FG percentage. And if we carry it all the way forward, that’s a perfect 0.0 eFG. So yeah, it was a tough night for Julius and the Dukes.
No Need to Panic
This win moved the Golden Flashes to 6-1 on the season. They’re a solid team and were probably JMU’s toughest opponent of the young season. It’s never good to have a 20 point loss at home, but this isn’t the end of the world. There was a lid on the basket for Wells tonight, but he’s been a much better player this year. He could be a valuable “glue guy” once he truly gets comfortable with his role on this team. Humpty has arguable been the most improved player in the CAA and A.J. Davis is an explosive scored. Tonight was an ugly loss. No doubt about it. JMU has plenty of room for improvement, but Devon Moore will be eligible next game and the Dukes managed to go 4-3 (1-0) in his absence. The CAA is wide open this year and the Dukes could be right in the mix after Devon returns.
