JMU avenged an earlier loss against Marshall with a 80-73 victory tonight in the Convo. The Dukes had previously lost to Marshall on the road. In that game Marshall shot 26 free throws to only 11 for the Dukes. Tonight’s game was a bit of a different story. The Dukes shot a whopping 43 free throws and connected on 31 of them. The Herd were 23 of 28 from the line. Translation, this was an ugly game with a ton of fouls. Denzel Bowles just flat out dominated, finishing with 34 points and 13 boards.
Here’s a quick take on what we liked and didn’t like about this game.
Thumbs Up
Revenge: The Dukes took advantage of a rare home-and-home series with an out of conference opponent, and bounced back with a strong effort this game. The first game against Marshall was very disappointing, but might have been a wake up call for JMU. The intensity has picked up since then and the team has made some strides forward. Getting revenge for the earlier loss was another positive step.
Denzel Bowles: In case you didn’t see it above, he had 34 and 13! Those are some sick numbers that speak for themselves.
Andrey Semenov: The Dukes consumate energy guy had his first career double-double. He finished with 12 points and 10 boards off the bench. Andrey always does the little things that don’t necessarily show up in the box score. Tonight was a different story.
Depth: Unfortunately, Humpty turned an ankle and was out for the much of the game. And obviously with so many fouls being called, Brady had to rely on the bench. Luckily the reserves came through and gave Brady some solid minutes. Last game, 4 Dukes played more than 37 minutes. Tonight only Denzel did, but 8 guys got more than 10 minutes.
Thumbs Down
Humpty’s Ankle: We’re not sure how badly he hurt it, but hopefully it’s not too bad.
James Millen in Street Clothes: The JUCO transfer who played with Rayshawn Goins last season was in street clothes for the game. After being declared ineligible for the first semester, Millen was slated to start playing after exams. Unfortunately it appears as if he didn’t make grades and his career with the Dukes might be over before it started.
Arthur Moats didn’t end up winning Rookie of the Week, but things have still been looking up lately for the JMUSB favorite. Friday afternoon multiple people brought it to our attention that he was mentioned in Bill Simmons’ weekly NFL column. The Sports Guy offered his take on Moats and his role in ending Brett Favre’s consecutive games streak.
I know Moats has to be diplomatic and say things like, “That’s not the way I want to get my name out there, for hurting somebody,” but part of me wonders if he should be playing this up and milking his 15 minutes of fame. If this were professional wrestling, Moats would have gone on “Monday Night Raw” the following night, renamed himself “The Legend Killer” and done the whole “I didn’t just kill a career, I killed off a legend!” routine as the crowd went crazy.
It’s definitely a funny take, but it points out something that I was thinking about all week. Moats really has been handling himself with a ton of class. He’s been respectful, but has thankfully fallen short of heaping empty and cliched praise Favre’s way. In his interview on Sportscenter, his quotes in papers across the country, and especially on Twitter, Moats he’s just coming across like a guy who’s enjoying every minute of his rookie season. He’s exactly the sort of guy I like to root for as a fan. And it seems like Bills fans agree with me.
Getting his name in columns, isn’t Moats main objective however. He’s much more focused on getting the quarterback and helping his team win football games. He did both on Sunday, racking up 1.5 sacks in the Bills 17-14 win over Miami. That’s three games in a row, where Moats has made an impact. And as a Giant fan, Moats’ play provided a nice highlight for me on an otherwise indescribably awful NFL Sunday.
The South Florida (Golden Brahma) Bulls may not be the Big East’s most storied program or hig-profile name, but a true road win on a Big East court easily qualifies as one of the best victories for JMU’s Men’s Basketball in the last 15 years. Probably even a stronger statement considering the Dukes came out flat and started the game down by scores of 8-0 and 18-4. But led by the unstoppable Denzel Bowles (clearly putting on a show for NBA scouts who might pay a little more attention to a game like this), the Dukes turned in a stunning turnaround to knock off the Bulls 66-61. Denzel had 24 points, but maybe even more importantly, fouled out ALL of USF’s frontcourt players, including two who came off the bench to try and slow down the big guy and had no chance!
Starting to DOMINATE!
Full story from JMU sports here.
The Dukes moved to 8-3 and hopefully can use this win, and their first home game in a month against Marshall this Wednesday, as a springboard for great things headed into CAA play.
Finally, a huge thanks for the amazing support we’ve gotten from our readers in our Autism Speaks efforts! (Most especially the crafting/stamping community we were so fortunate to get hooked up with through Joan!) We’ll be back with an official update and a holiday crunch-time push later this week, but if you didn’t get a chance to read about our efforts, please scroll down about three posts and read about our First Birthday Charity Pledge!
So look, here’s the story from the Daily-News Record (for whatever that budget publication’s worth): http://www.dnronline.com/news_details.php?AID=52905&CHID=64
Four JMU football players were recently arrested in connection with a fight in Harrisonburg, allegedly with some students or ex-students connected to the baseball team. At least three of them have been charged with Assault by Mob which carries much stiffer penalties than normal assault charges. As our friend Jamie over at www.misterirrelevant.com said, “this is by far the most D1 thing that’s ever happened at JMU!”
Jokes asisde, and assuming most of our readers are probably hip-deep into this story by now and already defending our beloved university from co-workers on the heels of the “riot” last spring in Forest Hills, I’m going to skip the basics and move right to the highlights.
Never let the “charges” tell the story for you: This is true in nearly every criminal case, but it’s been my experience that it’s especially important to take charges in the Commonwealth, and particularly in Rockingham County and the HPD, with a grain of salt. This is not to exonerate the players for what may have been premeditated violence, but the “mob” portion will take some serious work on the Commonwealth Attorney’s part. Don’t let “assault by mob” as a charge convince you a more serious crime took place than what may or may not have happened.
What about Mickey? At least for now, I’ve got to agree with those in the JMU community expecting a strong statement from Head Coach Mickey Matthews, particularly as it relates to his having given a major second chance to one of the young men involved after his dismissal from Virginia Tech. That said, given that this is the deep-freeze portion of the offseason and that we can all assume the university administration will be more than just chiming in on this, I also don’t think there’s any harm in being patient about making the statement and letting the legal process run its course for a little while. So long as there is something from MM by Spring Practice, consider me satisfied.
Separate the incidents: Just stop mentioning the riot right now. We can all bet neither the administration nor the anti-university crowd that we all know exists in the ‘Burg will not hesitate to connect the two, but can the rest of us agree that at least in terms of judging all of the individuals involved, can we please agree to only hold people liable for what they are actually responsible for?
Be careful what you wish for: Been sayin’ this awhile. I’m a big JMU-to-D1 supporter, but even I need to be reminded to approach this topic with my eyes wide open now and again. While it’s completely unfair to football as a sport and a group of college athletes to state it this way, the truth is the truth, and a rise in the level of a college’s football program oftentimes goes hand-in-hand with issues like this. If you don’t believe that, you’re either delusional or a Notre Dame fan.
JMUSB favorite Arthur Moats got his first start of the season for the Bills last Sunday. He played really well in the game against the Browns picking up a sack and forcing a fumble. So well in fact, that he’s been nominated for the NFL Rookie of the Week. The award is decided by fan vote, so GO VOTE NOW. And yeah, you can vote multiple times. Trust me, I’d know.
Moats should have a pretty good chance at winning if we can get folks to the polls. Unlike the other candidates, he should be able to count on support from three different voting blocks, 1. Dukes fans, 2. Bills Fans, and 3. Reasonable Americans who feel like they owe him a debt of gratitude for ending the soul-sucking Favre spectacle. That doesn’t mean in it’s the bag though, so please forward the link to your friends, vote early, and vote often!
Moats has already earned his place in history this season. He’s always going to be the answer to the trivia question, “Who delivered the hit that ended Brett Favre’s continuous games streak?” The way things are going however, that won’t be the only thing Moats is known for. He’s becoming a bit of a fan favorite up in Buffalo and the Don’t Cross the Moats bandwagon is starting to pick up steam. He also did an outstanding job when he was interviewed by Linda Cohn on Sportscenter this morning. Definitely check out the interview (after voting of course). My favorite part of the interview is when he explains that he teammates were joking that he should get some Wrangler jeans after the streak ended. My not so favorite part is when he said he was 4 years old when Favre’s streak started. I am old.
Photo from BuffaloNews.com
Dukes silence the least intimidating crowd ever.
JMU got the easy win it needed, defeating Radford by the score of 78-57 last night. It was JMU’s largest margin of victory for the season and it came as result of a strong effort by the Dukes’ reserves. Alioune Diouf came out of nowhere to lead all scorers with a career high 19 points!
We expected JMU to beat Radford, but this win didn’t exactly follow the predicted script. Again, Alioune Diouf led the Dukes to the win. Alioune Diouf. He is a nice player who showed some flashes last season, but he’s been pretty much glued to the bench all season. To put things in perspective Diouf hit one 3-pointer last night for every minute he had played in the first 9 games. And he only hit 4 treys. He hadn’t scored a bucket all season. Brady gave Alioune and the reserves some run last night though and it paid off big time. The Dukes had 42 points from the bench.
This Radford team isn’t very good, so it would be foolish to try to read too much into this blowout win. It was Radford’s 7th loss in a row and 5th by more than 20 points. They are not a good basketball team and it wasn’t much of a test for JMU. It really was just what the Dukes needed however. Everyone on the roster got to play and 11 Dukes got on the scoresheet. Heading into the game only 7 players on the roster had scored all season. With the game in hand early, Brady was able to rest his starters and give major minutes to guys who hadn’t played much. Four reserves logged at least 20 minutes.
Basically, this was a game that would have meant something if JMU lost or if it was close. A comfortable win was expected though and thankfully the Dukes delivered. Nothing to get too excited about, but a good way to end the brief slide and head into the break for exams.
Photo from JMUsports.com
I’m not sure if this is an anniversary or a birthday, but the first JMUSB post ever was made one year ago tomorrow. You’ll notice that the very first comment on that very first post closed with this little bit of friendly advice, “Let’s hope it gets better from here.” At least we knew someone was reading.
The past 12 months have been a real thrill for us. I can’t speak for Todd, but my excitement for starting the blog was definitely overshadowed by my paranoia that nobody would ever read it, or worse, that tons of people would read it only to tell us how bad it was. By some stroke of luck people have read it, thousands of people actually. And with the notable exception of Liberty fans, I think it’s safe to say that most of you understand that we’re doing this not because we claim to be experts on JMU sports, but simply because it’s a lot of fun. And it really is a ton of fun.
Todd and I definitely wrote a few posts that were forgetable, but there were others that we’ll remember for a while. Todd’s Mike’s Chevron post and our Best Eats Bracket series of posts were neat for us. While both were admittedly wierd, they clicked with some new readers who thankfully have decided to stick around. Our simple post about a throwaway line in one of Arthur Moats’ pre-draft interviews got linked in SI.com’s Hot Clicks and ended up getting more views than every other post we had written to that point combined. And finally the preview of Tech game was my personal favorite because I got to be a total smart ass and make a ridiculous prediction for a JMU win. Then somehow the Dukes miraculously won the game providing the true highlight of the year for every JMU fan on the planet.
We are enormously grateful, and quite frankly kind of amazed, that so many people read the blog. In order to show our appreciation we’re going to make a donation to charity in the name of JMUSB. To be precise, we’ll be donating to Autism Speaks. There are tons of worthy causes and charities, this just happens to be one that means something to us. My cousin has autism as do the children of several friends. Additionally, both of our wives work in the school system and do a lot of work with children with autism and aspergers. Autism Speaks is an outstanding charity and we really encourage you to support them. In fact, if you make a donation online between now and Christmas, please email us the receipt at jmusportsblog@gmail.com. Do that and we’ll go ahead and match all donations until we reach a total of $500.
The blog has attracted a lot more readers than we ever thought it would and we just figured if even a small number of you donate 5 or 10 bucks each, it could add up. We’re not going to pressure anyone and we understand that times are tough and lots of you can’t donate, support other worthy causes, or simply aren’t interested. That’s completely fine. We just thought we’d take a flyer and see if we could get a few folks to support an organization that does a lot of good. We promise not to beat you over the head with this or continually beg for donations. We’ll let you know if anyone takes us up on the offer though and post the totals after Christmas.
Thanks again for reading. We sincerely appreciate it.
JMU President Dr. Lindwood Rose announced today that he will be retiring in June 2012. While we weren’t on campus for the majority of his time in office, we will be the first to admit that he did an outstaning job. His predecessor, “Uncle” Ron Carrier had achieved cult-hero status by the time he left office. Following in his footsteps wasn’t going to be easy for anyone.
Dr. Rose will be leaving with quite a resume of his own. He took on the role of Acting President way back when I was in school in 1997 and became President officially in 1999. The university grew tremendously under Dr. Rose’s leadership adding 25 buildings, expanding enrollment to over 19,000 students, and establishing a Phi Betta Kappa chapter.
This is not JMU Adminstration Blog however. It is JMU Sports Blog, so let’s stick to what we know (or at least pretend to know.) The JMU athletic program that Dr. Rose will be leaving is nothing like the one he inherited. The decline of the basketball program is a topic too big to tackle now, but I think everyone would agree that the growth of the football program has been outstanding. The Dukes won the 2004 National Championship and are considered one of the top FCS programs in the country. Perhaps more importantly however, the student body and alumni support of the team has moved beyond anyone’s expectations. JMU gamedays are now events unto themselves. And with the expansion of Bridgeforth, things are only bound to get better.
Which brings us to this. The party line during Dr. Rose’s tenure has always been that JMU has no plans to move up a level to FBS…during this adminstration. Well, now JMU is set to have a new administration in a few years. I’m just saying.
Well, Men’s Basketball has officially begun their first losing streak of the season with their second straight close loss to questionable competition. This one probably doesn’t sting quite as much as Georgia St. because Marshall is 6-2 and seems to be a decent squad, and, more importantly, it’s out of conference, but it was still marred by too many turnovers and inconsistent play. It was also marred by a 26 to 11 Marshall advantage in free throws attempted. Home cooking? Good news is definitely that Devon Moore’s 19 point effort seems to show signs that he’s finally getting the confidence back that last year’s injury is behind him.
Ladies and Gentleman, your JMU Dukes!
And most importantly, it was marred by a second consecutive travel debacle! This time the bus broke down on the way to Huntington and the whole team had to wait outside in the pleasant local weather to then board a miniature school bus for the rest of the ride. On Saturday, the Dukes not only got stuck in traffic in Atlanta for the Georgia St. game because they failed to consider SEC Football Championship game traffic, but the bus also broke down and they had to hail a series of cabs to get to the arena (an arena where the shot clock literally caught on fire and began smoking during warmups). I think it’s safe to say this is BUDGET (shout-out Katie K)! Not really sure there’s anyone specific to blame, but the incredulous tweets coming out of the players cannot be good for recruiting or morale. Let’s hope the Dukes can find a functional means of transport and get their act together when they travel to take on Radford “University” this Saturday.
Stay tuned for a very special announcement from JMUSB this Friday or Saturday as we reach our first anniversary!
By now we assume you’ve seen the devastating hit that JMU’s own Arthur Moats put on Brett Favre yesterday. Wow! It’s never fun to see a guy get hurt, but um, wow. That was just brutal. In fact if you have a few hours to kill head over to Mister Irrelevant and watch the replay of the hit over and over and over again. The hit has even helped Moats earn the true measure of fame in today’s world, the Twitter hashtag #DontCrossTheMoats. Best. Hashtag. Ever.
Let’s just hope Moats doesn’t dish hits like that out in practice against his new teammate Mike Caussin who was signed by the Bills last week.
