Let’s jump right in here and pick up where we left off Friday. We’re taking a look at the bottom of the JM’s Region today. Vote early, vote often. We’ll keep the polls open until we post the next match-up later this week.
#3 Fighting Gravity v. #6 Gibb Droll [polldaddy poll=5137453]
Fighting Gravity – I was a poser ska fan throughout much of high school, so this band really appealed to me when I first heard them my freshman year at JMU. At the time they were known as Boy O’ Boy, but they changed their name to Fighting Gravity a short time later. The rumor was that they had some sort of dispute with another band who claimed to have the rights to that name. If true, they learned nothing about trademark law from the experiences because searches for “Fighting Gravity” exclusively return pages about some weird Blue Man Group meets Cirque du Soleil type performance troup from America’s Got Talent. It’s kind of a bummer, because I was hoping to find some music of theirs to link to. I also Googled Boy O’ Boy, but thanks to a rather unfortunate typo there is a good chance Chris Hansen is going to come knocking on my door. So, we’re just gonna wrap this one up. Good band though.
Gibb Droll – Is it just me or were this guy and his band virtually inescapable in the mid to late 90’s? I’m not saying that their music was universally adored or even widely known. It’s just that it felt like you couldn’t go see any band play without some random dude wandering up rambling on and on about Gibb Droll. It sucked. Tailgating at a Phish show? Some dude selling devil sticks was bound to spend 3 hours explaining why Gibb Droll was a better guitar player than Trey. Checking out an open mic night over winter break? Big mistake. Someone was bound to try to play a Gibb Droll song, fail horribly, claim the sound guy screwed up, and then lambast you and the audience for not appreciating the blues. I’m telling you, his fans were the 1990 college campus equivalent of hipsters. If you could ignore them though, you’d realize the guy was (and still is) a pretty amazing guitarist.
# 2 Everything vs. #7 Shannon Worrell [polldaddy poll=5137455]
Everything – My senior year of high school some friends of mine took a trip down to JMU for the weekend. I’m not sure why I didn’t go with them. I think it was either because I had a lacrosse game or because they didn’t like me and weren’t really my friends. In any case they returned with an Everything tape (yes, a tape) and stories about how all the students on campus were listening to the band. So when I decided to go to JMU, I somehow believed that every weekend the entire student body just went to one big party where Everything played. I also had equally realistic expecations about how successful I’d be with woman, because one of my friends (who eventually became my roommate at JMU) told us all that getting girls at JMU was “just like catching a frisbee.” This was either 1. the worst analogy ever or 2. evidence that I really suck at frisbee. Anyway, if you were on campus in the early to mid 90’s, you probably think it’s an outrage they’re not the #1 seed in this ridiculous little bracket. And if you didn’t, then please trust those of that did when we tell you that Hooch is no Soulfish.
Shannon Worrell – Let’s first say that she had an absolutely beautiful voice. Her fans however, largely fell into one of two camps. They were either people who were way too into to Dave Matthews Band and liked her because Dave sang back-up on Eleanor on her first album, or they were guys with no game who thought that being a Shannon Worrell fan would make them seem sensitive and more attractive to women. If you fell into the first category, girls were probably freaked out by the way you reacted when your roommate accidentally lost your tape of Dave’s 1994 show at The Flood Zone with the 8 minute version of Two Step. If you fell in the second category, you probably had a lot of fun hanging out with girls all night at parties, before they abruptly left to go sleep with their boyfriends when the night came to a close. If you were unfortunate enought to fit into both categories, then you were me. Again, she had a absolutely beautiful voice.
Well, at long last, the Bracket is back. Last year, we looked back at the Best Eats in the ‘Burg for our first bracket o’ nostalgia. In that contest, Gus’s Taverna managed to hold off serious challenges from Luigi’s and the Little Grill and an unexpected strong showing from Mr. Gatti’s to take the title. This year we’re back with a retro look at the bands Rob and I both loved and made fun of during our tenure (matriculation would’ve been to much credit for my academic career in the ‘Burg). At one point or another during the “heyday” of the following acts, I’d venture to say one or both of us probably tried to float a test-balloon to a young lady or two that each of these bands was “really good, you gotta check them out.” Of course we’d never admit that today for most of them, but don’t let our attempt to go all Cusack/Gordon on the criticism fool you into thinking we actually knew what the hell we were talking about then or now.
So here’s the deal. We’ve seeded 16 bands and broken them into two 8 band regions, the JM’s Region and the Blue Fox Region. Every couple of days we’ll trot out new matchups for you to vote on. We tried to seed the bracket as fairly and objectively as we could based on the bands’ various impact and larger popularity as our beer-pong ravaged brains can remember. We’re not saying we actually thought the fifth seed was the fifth-best band, just that they deserved a five seed based on those rather loosely applied criteria. As you might imagine, we’re actually kind of partial to some of the lower seeds for sentimental reasons, including today’s huge underdog in our first matchup. We also may have made some rather serious omissions and we’d love to hear stories of those long-lost musical stylings in the comments as well. Lastly, thanks to frequent contributor and former Blue Fox headliner Uncle Ron for a good bit of help and material for this series!
Now, the Bracket in it’s entirety:
Click for larger image.
That’s a wrap folks. With the Diamond Dukes bowing out of the NCAA tournament on Sunday, the JMU sports year is officially completed. And now Todd and I move on to the dreaded offseason. Not the football offseason, or basketball offseason, but the entire damn JMU sports program offseason. A JMU sports blogger’s nightmare. Somehow we made it through it last year. We’re slightly less clueless now, so we’re pretty sure we’ll emerge on the other side unscathed this year. At least that’s what we’re telling ourselves.
Looking back, I have no clue what we found to write about last summer. We tend to be a little light on the planning around here and heavily reliant on the “sit back and hope stuff worth writing about happens” approach. We’re breaking the mold slightly though this summer. While we haven’t exactly hashed out a real plan, we did toss around a few ideas around over beers. It’s debatable whether the beers or the ideas gave us confidence, but we walked out of Dogfish Head a few weeks ago fairly certain this was going to be a good summer for the blog.
Nothing is set in stone, but we’re definitely going to bring back the team by team CAA football previews. We had a lot of fun with them last year and are looking forward to writing them again this summer. It will be much more interesting now that we have readers and all. We’ll also be finally getting Todd’s pet project off the ground, the JMUSB Battle of the Bands Bracket, later this week. We are really excited about it and hope that old guys like us will love it. We also hope that younger, cooler readers don’t find it too perplexing and sad.
We realize the internet might break today as millions of people attempt to decide if Grantland is the greatest thing ever to happen to sports journalism, or just a sellout project worthy of nothing but snark. Assuming it doesn’t break though, we’ll be here. (Ed. note – You’re telling me I can read content from this lineup of writers and editors in one place? Yes please. Why so many people seem to be rooting for it to fail is beyond me.) And we’ll be open to suggestions for things to write about. So leave a comment or drop us a line at jmusportsblog@gmail.com if you have any tips. We’re all ears. And thank you very much for reading. We really appreciate it.
JMU Baseball closed the 2010-2011 athletics year in the ‘Burg with a strong showing at the Chapel Hill Regional of the NCAA baseball tourney this weekend. Although the Dukes took out Florida International and Maine, they were unable to overcome the powerful UNC Tarheels in two matchups. After getting shelled on Friday by UNC, the Dukes played tough in the second of two games Sunday (they beat Maine in the early game) and even had the game tied in the 5th after the last of Catcher Jake Lowery’s record-setting homeruns. But they ultimately failed to push across any more runs and the tired pitching staff finally caught up with them late as the Tarheels pulled away. But a huge congratulations to Coach McFarland and the squad on a fabulous season that included the second-straight CAA title!
And the silver lining? The Dukes get another shot in Chapel Hill in just 77 days! Well, different sport, but that’s right, we’re under three months away and the countdown is ON till football season opens. (Also means we’re only 84 days from Bridgeforth’s grand unveiling – have I mentioned that before?). Just guessing, but I’ll bet the normally reserved Tarheel fans will be slightly more nervous when the Dukes roll in for that one than they were this weekend! Reseating appointments are underway for ticket holders and the momentum is only building. Whoever takes over for TJ Yates down at Carolina better start looking for DJ Bryant right now.
On the blog front, be sure and stop in Wednesday when we launch the Late 90’s JMU Music Scene Bracket of the Bands!
REMINDER: JMU Baseball enters play in the Chapel Hill Regional of the NCAA Baseball tourney today at 1 p.m. Free audio coverage (you can listen at work) will be available on MadiZone beginning at 12:45. The winner will advance to take on the winner of the UNC v. Maine game. The Diamond Dukes will be led by their freshly minted All-Americans! Catcher Jake Lowery was named to first team All-American and Shortstop David Herbek made the second team.
Enjoy the tourney now, because it’s curtains for the 2010-2011 JMU Athletic year after it’s over. Of course, the silver lining is we can go whole hog on the stadium and football season after this (what, you thought we already had? you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!).
In the meantime, we’ve been boning up on the sweet stylings of Gibb Droll and the insanely atrocious suburban hip-hop of Sev in preparation for the launch of the music bracket this weekend. Don’t forget to come back and vote for your favorites. After all, we wouldn’t want those diehard Slackjaw fans to feel like they didn’t get a fair shake.
The Diamond Dukes are red hot, fresh off CAA regular season and tournament championships, and headed down to Chapel Hill, NC to play in the NCAA tournament. It sounds like the perfect time for fans everywhere to jump on the bandwagon. At the risk of offending all of the hard-core fans out there, here is just enough info to help you fake your way through this weekend’s regionals or bask in the glory as the Dukes march on to Omaha.
CAA Tournament Victory
JMU capped an outstanding regular season with a dominating performance in the CAA tournament last weekend. The Dukes’ offense led the way all season, but pitcher Sean Tierney threw a complete game shut-out to help JMU defeat Georgia State 4-0 in the tournament opener. JMU advanced to the winners’ bracket to face UNCW in game 2. The Dukes offense overwhelmed the Seahawks in a comfortable 13-7 win. Catcher Jake Lowery and Johnny Bladel each had 4 hits to pace JMU and fellow slugger Dave Herbek knocked in 5 runs. The victory meant that JMU moved on to the championship to face ODU. Because JMU entered the final match-up without a loss, ODU would have to beat them twice to take the title. JMU took all the drama out of it and crushed them 10-1 to win the CAA Championship in one game.
How the NCAA Tournament Works
The Dukes secured an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament as a result of their CAA Championship. While it all culminates with the College World Series, the tournament actually involves 64 teams. The tournament can be sort of confusing for folks who aren’t familiar with it, but it’s actually pretty simple. The first round, called the Regionals, involves 16 double-elimination tournaments of four teams each. The winners of each Region move on to the Super Regionals, with the other 48 teams heading home. The Super Regionals consist of 8 head to head match-ups between the winners of the Regionals. The teams play a 3 game series, with the 8 winners moving onto the College World Series and the losers eliminated. The World Series uses the same format as the Regionals, with the teams divided into 2 four team brackets for a double-elimination tournament. The winners of each tournament play a 3 game series for the National Championship.
The Dukes’ Strengths and Weaknesses
So, now that we’ve cleared that up, here is what you need to know about JMU. The Dukes’ regional bracket consists of UNC, Florida Interational, and Maine. The Dukes will start things off with a game against FIU Friday afternoon. JMU will likely go as far as their bats take them. The team was an offensive juggernaut all season. Their team batting average of .321 was fourth in the nation. They scored 522 runs which lead the nation and worked out to a ridiculous 9.15 a game. It’s a good thing, because the pitching wasn’t as impressive. The staff ERA of 5.77, good enough for 242nd in the nation. But, and there is always a but, the Dukes pitching was much better down the stretch. They gave up fewer than 3 runs in 6 of their last 8 games.
Name to Know
With a .321 team average, lots of guys in the lineup can hit. The Dukes’ big star is catcher Jake Lowery however. He was the CAA Player of the Year and was named a finalist for the 2011 Golden Spikes Award, given to the nation’s top amateur baseball player. He led the nation in Runs, RBI, and Total Bases. He also was second in homers and had a eye-popping 1.240 OPS. In short, the guy can flat out rake and he could easily get hot in Chapel Hill and lead the Dukes on a run to Omaha.
The above picture was posted to Facebook by Todd last Friday afternoon. Nobody has seen or heard from him since. As many of you know, Todd was really excited about the new stadium. Really, really excited. He’d been looking forward to last week’s trip down to campus for months. He claimed that he was just stopping through the ‘Burg on his way to some race he was running in West Virginia. The truth was that he just had to see the upper deck with his own two eyes before last Saturday. You know, in case that whole rapture thing came true.
Todd set out for JMU last Friday morning with bright eyes and a clear mind. It was a drive he’s made hundreds of times. He probably arrived on campus about lunchtime, parked his car, and headed directly to the steps to take the picture. I can just imagine him standing there on the steps, full of pride like a man about to summit Everest. His hands were probably trembling as he brought the camera up to take the shot due to the massive amount of adrenaline rushing through his veins. And then he got it. The perfect shot was his. And I haven’t heard from him since.
I’m not sure what happend to him. Maybe he’s still there, unable to look away and determined to stand by until gameday in September. Maybe he was so overcome with joy by the experience that he’s wandering around the bowels of the stadium with an ear to ear grin mumbling “Bridgeforth…Bridgeforth.” Maybe he’s drifting through campus hugging complete strangers. I really don’t know. I miss him, but I know how much it meant to him to see the stadium. And because he saw it, I know that wherever he is, he’s at peace.
A few months ago I was fortunate to get together with some folks from the Duke Club staff for lunch. It was a unique opportunity for me to spend time with some of the only people are earth who don’t roll their eyes at the mere thought of my overly enthusiastic interest in JMU sports. Quite to the contrary, they actually seemed to appreciate it. So it was a fun afternoon. It also was quite informative as they told me all about the Duke Dog Pride campaign they were just getting ready to roll out.
For those that don’t know, the Duke Dog Pride campaign is a plan to add 2,011 new Duke Club members in 2011. It’s an ambitious goal and one that could give JMU a big leg up on some other athletic programs it competes against, like Richmond, Appalachian State, ODU, and Montana. Each of those schools currently have more athletics donors that JMU. I recently caught up with Brian Powell, Assistant Director of the Duke Club, and asked him for an update on the campaign. He provided me with the info below that shows things are going pretty well. Dollars are tracked according to the fiscal year (July 1 – June 30) and member numbers are based on the calendar year.
New Members to date (Jan – present): 836 Previous All-time Record for New Members (2007): 769
Dollars raised to date: $1,403,068
Projected dollars raised: $1.55M+
All-time dollars raised record: $1,303,410
Football Season ticket sales: 6,138
Renewal Rate: 71% to date and expected to finish closer to 80-85%
2010 Season Tickets: 5,128Club Seat Sales: 702 of 1,0000
It’s impressive that just 6 months into the year, they’ve already added more members than in any other year. There still is a ways to go however. If you’ve been thinking about joining the Duke Club, but just haven’t done so yet, now would be a great time to sign up. If you’ve never really thought about joining, I’d encourage you to learn a little bit about it and take the plunge. And if you’re a particularly persuasive person, then hound your friends until they sign up. That stadium ain’t gonna pay for itself. And most importantly if anyone of you are one of the 702 lucky individuals who have purchased club seats, feel free to invite your favorite JMU bloggers to sit with you at the opener.
According to Mark Selig, a source close to Northern Kentucky says the school is “recruiting Chad Jackson and that his transfer there could be eminent.” Coach Brady has spoken openly about the possibility of Jackson leaving the program due to his homesickness, so this doesn’t really come as a surprise. This is the first that I’ve heard anything about a potential destination for Chad however.
I’ve heard people say that this is some sort of ominous sign and a mark against Coach Brady. Yes, if Jackson goes, this will be the second year in a row the Dukes’ top freshman leaves. Two data points don’t make a trend though. Darren White could score the basketball, but Brady didn’ t think he’d ever get the kid to buy into the program, so he asked him to leave. Jackson got homesick. Just because these things happened in consecutive off-seasons, doesn’t mean there is something evil hiding below the surface.
Other folks seem to be of the opinion that Jackson stunk and they’re glad to see him go. I’ve got to disagree with them also. Jackson wasn’t an offensive juggernaut at all. Heck, his shot is downright ugly. The kid was given a role and he played it well though. He came off the bench, played solid defense and wasn’t afraid to do the little things other guys wouldn’t do. He dove for loose balls, hustled back to defend breaks, and seemed to like doing it. Sure, he wasn’t a scorer, but he definitely didn’t suck and I’m not glad to see him go.
Given all that, Jackson is still replaceable. I liked him a lot and enjoyed watching him play, but the Dukes will move on. We’re talking about a guy who played about 18 minutes a game and averaged 2.4 points. This isn’t quite the same as Mason looking for someone to fill Luke Hancock’s shoes. I grew to like Jackson because he appeared to play with more defensive intensity than anyone else on JMU’s roster at times. That’s not exactly high praise. Brady should be able to find someone who can do what Chad did and provide a little more offensively. Coach claims he’s got guys coming back who buy into his system and are hard workers. If he can’t get them all to play tougher defense next year, then that might be an ominous sign. Jackson transferring isn’t one though.
So Rob and I have an odd relationship with the CAA Zone JMU message boards. We learn a ton from some of the most passionate JMU fans around sometimes and are incredibly grateful for the support and friendship we have received from some posters, but at others times we feel like outsiders due to our old age, our inability to follow and/or post daily, and our relative unwillingness to inject actual seriousness into the times we are criticizing a coach or opposing fanbase (unless it involves George Mason Community College or the overpolicing of tailgating at JMU of course), not to mention our unwillingness to eviscerate fellow JMU fans for not knowing enough to properly discuss the backup left guard in the Godwin parking lot.
But there can be no doubt the message boards have served as a source of some GREAT ideas related to starting traditions at a school that doesn’t exactly have a century’s worth of athletic tradition to build upon. The streamers we all love (and UR keeps trying to steal) came from one of the posters and certainly the support for that incredibly unique tradition (which is going to look amazing coming from the upper deck this year by the way) was largely built through the hard work of the CAA Zone participants. The viewing parties around the state and the country we’ve all come to love have ben mainly publicized and spread through the boards. And the traveling circus JMU has begun to bring to road games (ODU Halloween will be Vegasesque!) is mostly coordinated there.
But one tradition that has been suggested and batted around that’s never quite taken off is the use of a signature introductory song when the Dukes take the field ala that team we own down in Blacksburg. Admittedly, the Tech intro is flat-out awesome, even if the song itself is a bit cliched. The Marching Royal Dukes (boards folks are killing me now for going longhand instead of a simple MRD’s) started doing a very solid version of the highly underrated White Stripes’ tune Seven Nation Army a couple years ago, but it really works better for in-game crowd-hyping. But with the new stadium opening and the opportunity for visiting-team intimidation truly materializing in the ‘Burg this fall, it’s time to take a cue from the Boards and go with something that would be signature JMU and COMPLETELY unique, not to mention bewildering to opposing fans and white-haired CAA media folk. So, in the spirit of the upcoming Late 90’s JMU Music bracket…
We give you, via the message boards, the fabulously ridiculous group Gogol Bordello and their classic Start Wearing Purple! Serioulsy, you’ll have to bear with the lengthy (1:25) intro, but if you can’t quite make out all the lyrics in this crazy live performance from Coachella ’08, look ’em up and tell me this isn’t perfect for a Mickey-coached team!
So spread the word, comment if you agree or disagree, and bug anyone you know with JMU media. This is exactly the kind of thing the new stadium needs to add to the vibe (and get people to get their ass in their seat at gametime)!
Lastly, if you get some odd thoughts from @jmusportsblog this weekend, I’m doing a little cross-promotion and will be tweeting during a race I’m doing so just bear with us and feel free to mock if my sleep-deprived mind goes a little sappy and haywire.
