Boston University lost to the Providence Friars in last night’s NCAA Championship game. It was a pretty big upset, as Providence was the last team in the tourney and BU is one of college hockey’s heavyweights. BU led by Hobey Baker (think Heisman for college hockey) winning freshmen sensation and top American NHL prospect Jack Eichel.
Most people expected the Terriers to win. And they appeared to be on their way, cruising with a comfortable 3-2 lead in the 3rd period when goalie Matt O’Connor picked a very inopportune time to have a blooper for the ages. He caught the puck off a routine dump and then inexplicably dropped it into the goal. It both was unbelievable and unbelievably sad. Just like that it was 3-3. Then a few minutes later Providence scored again to take a 4-3 lead. The Friars held on to steal the championship. Congrats to Providence, but I’m not sure how anyone couldn’t be heartbroken for O’Connor.
BU’s diehard fans were predictably crushed, which got me thinking. Has JMU ever had a loss as painful as BU’s last night? Now obviously, the Dukes have lost plenty of games that hurt us fans, but has there ever been one with the stakes that high, where JMU let it get away in such excruciating fashion?
JMU has had a number of painful losses over the years. It was just a regular season game, but the OT loss to Maine in 2011 still haunts me. Jace Edwards was the QB (and that wasn’t even the bad part), and Maine pulled of some stupid swinging gate 2 point conversion to win. Awful. And the hoops team’s “Hot Dog” game loss to George Mason was brutal. One JMU loss stands out above pretty much all others though for me personally though. Of course I’m talking about the Dukes’ playoff gut punch defeat against Appalachian State in 2007.
To begin with, JMU controlled that game in Boone, NC, compiling 436 yards of offense versus only 330 for the Mountaineers. And the Dukes were in position to win, before giving up 9 points in the final five minutes to lose 28-27. Coughing up a lead like that late was bad, but JMU went to new lengths to make it extra painful. After Appy took a 28-27 lead with 1:10 to go, JMU marched all the way down the field and was in position to win the game with a chip shot field goal. Unfortunately, Jamal Sullivan coughed the ball up inside the 10, App State recovered, and the game was over. I don’t like to talk about it.
That’s the most painful JMU loss I can recall. What about you? Or if we want to be more pleasant, has there ever been a JMU win that was an unexpected and miraculous as Providence’s victory last night?
Both football and basketball seasons are in the rearview mirror. Which is sort of a bummer for fans, and it’s pretty much complete misery for us as bloggers. On the bright side it also gives us a chance to get outside our comfort zones and explore new things. Today we’re going to dive into the exciting world of JMU dodgeball.
Now we know we don’t need to tell anyone about the JMU Dodgeball team. Come on, it’s college dodgeball, just trying getting through a day anywhere in this great country of ours without being dragged into a debate about it. But just for grins, go ahead and pretend you’re not intimately aware of all things JMU Dodgeball related and allow us to bring you up to speed.
Like any club worth a damn, the Dukes are a part of the National Collegiate Dodgeball Association or NCDA for short. But JMU isn’t just some struggling mid-major dodgeball program that can’t compete on the court but is kept afloat by massive corporate dollars and seemingly limitless ticket revenue. It’s a powerhouse program. And by powerhouse, we mean it’s up there with the Central Michigan University and Grand Valley State University programs of the world. You’re damn right we just said it. Anyone who tries to claim JMU isn’t on the level of CMU or GVSU doesn’t know jack about college dodgeball. read more…
Keeping with what has become a sort of an unofficial (and unwelcome) offseason tradition, JMU announced that a basketball player has left the program. This time it’s Hari Hall, who has left to pursue professional opportunities. Professional opportunities in music, not basketball, by the way.
Hall is a member of the hip hop group Bocaj Crew and recently signed a recording deal with Atlantic Records. JMU, or any school for that matter, losing scholarship athletes to pursue rap careers is certainly not something you hear about every day. And an out of context “player leaves to become rapper” certainly sounds kind of crazy. However, according to reports, Hall’s family is struggling financially and he felt like he had to seize this opportunity to help out. We certainly can’t fault him for that and really wish him all the best.
Hall flashed a lot of talent during this past season as a freshmen. He only played in 19 games due to suffering a concussion, but averaged 5.8 points and 2.7 boards a game. He reached double-figures in scoring 4 times, including an impressive 15 point performance in the season opener against UVA. As the saying goes, he had tremendous upside.
This will inevitably hit a nerve with the anti-Brady crew. And there’s no denying that there is a pattern of players leaving the program under Brady. In this situation though, it really sounds like a guy just chose to take a chance on something other than hoops so he can help out his family. Good luck to him. He’ll be missed.
This guy’s back. No need to say more than that yet.
Everything you need to know about Spring Football can be found here at JMU Sports. But the best thing is that “they” have finally gotten around to opening up Godwin Field to tailgating for the Spring Game. If tailgating the Spring Game doesn’t signal FBS then nothing does (settle down, that’s just a bad joke).
No decision yet on a JMUSB presence at the Spring Game, but we will likely be attending two of this year’s Coaches Caravan events with Rob likely making one of the NoVa stops and me planning for a quick trip to Charlotte (If anyone from the Triangle or the Triad is interested in carpooling let me know). These events are always odd in that they’re fun for reasons we seemingly fail to anticipate every year – namely that we always forget through the long winter that follows football season how great it is just to hang out and talk JMU sports with other Dukes – and hilariously underwhelming when it comes to what we actually want to hear – obviously something other than #CAA4Lyfe. That said, they’re usually free and always a beacon of news in the relative offseason (noting that hopefully one of our Diamond Dukes squads will still be playing in Mid-May of course). You can sign up for your event here.
Well, Rob’s finally been forced to leave me at the controls this week. So get ready for Sun Belt bitching, Strategic Plan slashing, and spring game updates a Softball post! You’re damn right I’m kicking off the week with an entire post about the blazing hot JMU Softball squad. The numbers speak for themselves (cough, Men’s hoops, cough): The 25th ranked and climbing Dukes are 27-6 overall after a 6-0 start to CAA play and currently RIDING AN 18 GAME WINNING STREAK! That’ll get the attention of even the most jaded fans of non football and hoops. And that winning streak includes two-game sweeps of UNC and UVA, plus wins over Maryland and a ranked UCF team. The Dukes also beat a ranked Minnesota team and played #3 Alabama very close earlier in the year. Honestly, but for a blowout loss to #5 Michigan, the Dukes have played a top-notch schedule and been right there all season. Which is all the more impressive considering the early part of the season was played under almost unprecedented weather issues and reschedulings almost everywhere JMU went.
Don’t worry, Jailyn Ford is still a star, just at the plate equally to the mound now!
Freshman Pitcher Megan Good has been so fantastic that last year’s freshman phenom Jailyn Ford, who you may remember led the Dukes to a superb season, a CAA title and an opening win in last year’s NCAA regionals, is now a hitting superstar and the secondary woman in the circle (see, we’re learning). Good has run her record to 16-0 with a 1.04 ERA and a ridiculous 114-21 K/BB ratio. Oh yeah, she’s also hitting a cool .415, trailing only the team’s true badass hitting star Erica Field. For now, that’s about the extent of what we can offer on the subject (though you can explore a lot more here at JMU Sports), but if these women keep rolling (less than 5 weeks to postseason play), there’s gonna be a whole lot more interested Dukes fans real quick – keep it up ladies!
It’s the offseason for both hoops and football and Throwback Thursday, so we might as well take a look back. Way back. All the way back to 1988 in fact when one Charles “Lefty” Driesell was in his first year as head coach of the JMU Dukes.
The video above is of JMU’s first home game under the Lefty regime. As you can see, things were quite a bit different then. The convo was packed and in full “Electric Zoo” mode, a certain alum with a “Daaaagggggeeeerrrr” of a catch phrase was on the play by play, and the sideline reporter just might have been a New York Times best selling author. And the Dukes beat VMI 94-92.
h/t @bpmarkowitz for the video
Kenny Brooks and the ladies dropped their opening round game of the NCAA tournament to Ohio State. The Buckeyes won by the score of 90-80 thanks to a trio of hot shooters. Ameryst Alston poured in 28 points and freshmen Kelsey Mitchell and Alexa Hart added 23 and 20 respectively. Precious Hall led the Dukes with 28 points, but it was Ashley Perez who kept JMU close in the second half by going 6 of 9 from deep on her way to 20 points.
It wasn’t exactly a plodding, grind ’em out, defensive struggle. JMU managed to get off 79 field goal attempts for the game. In a weird twist, the Dukes shot 38% overall and 38% from long range. They won the battle of the boards, out rebounding Ohio State 44 to 41 and also bested the Buckeyes in assists 19 to 16. The difference came down to shooting. Ohio State made 48% of its field goals and routinely got to the line, making 26 of 34 from the stripe. The Dukes on the other hand, only attempted 10 free throws and made 9. That’s a huge difference in a relatively close game. read more…
Hahahaha, the CIT, hahhahaha. We were willing to overlook the scam nature of the CIT and rationalize it if they won. But a Total collapse down the stretch, waste of an opportunity, very odd finish. And now we’re just glad we’re not the players taking a miserable 7 hour ride back after that place and that tourney. I mean, you know that feeling of regret you students woke up with on Spring Break? That’s pretty much us tomorrow after live-tweeting a CIT game in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
Hopefully the last time we’ll have to use this picture till June 1st.
I guess that’ll about cover the CIT.
On the incredibly positive side of the JMU sports ledger (no, not “conference realignment” news), the incredible (dare we say dynastic) Women’s Hoops team is bound for the Big Dance once again! The facts are as follows: #12 JMU v. #5 Ohio State, Greensboro Regional, in Chapel Hill, NC for the first two rounds, to play the winner of #4 North Carolina v. #13 Liberty, 1:30 p.m. Saturday on ESPN2. So basically the Everett Withers region. Also a chance to avoid the top 10 nationally before the Final Four for a chance to go just down the street to Greensboro (aka JMUSB HQ South) and take out the tourney’s most vulnerable top seed. The Buckeyes have arguably the nation’s best freshman (is fresh”man” still the preferred nomenclature?) in Guard Kelsey Mitchell, but their up-tempo style will be nothing new or intimidating to the equally capable Dukes. Should be a shootout assuming Precious Hall just shoots like her old self. If they can win Saturday, we’ll have a guaranteed JMUSB presence for this run for at least the next three games. No active Ohio State player has played in the NCAA tourney while JMU’s roster is mostly battle-tested.
Those are mostly positives. For a much more eloquent window into how we really feel, please check out the [most dedicated to her fans, subject matter, and craft] excellent LadySwish blog here. We’re just going to assume despite no empirical evidence that the 12/5 upset happens the same way on the Women’s side because Dukes!
Lastly, just do yourself a favor and go follow @JMUMBBManagers for next year no matter what happens with the program this offseason. You can thank us fall camp.
As expected, Kenny Brooks and the JMU women’s basketball team went a perfect 3-0 in the CAA Tournament and took home the league championship. It was the Dukes second straight CAA title for the Dukes and 4th overall for Brooks. JMU was pushed to its limits in the final against Hofstra, but managed to grind out a 62-56 win. The victory moved JMU to 29-3 on the season. The Dukes will find out where they’re headed in the tourney when the women’s bracket is revealed on Monday.
Hofstra was the one CAA team to defeat the Dukes all season and almost beat them again with the NCAA tourney bid on the line. JMU struggled from the field, hitting only 23 of 68 in the final. CAA Player of the Year, Precious Hall had a rough day making only 1 of 20 shots. Fortunately, the team was pretty much lights out from the charity stripe, knocking down 15 of 17, which helped the close out the game. Junior Jazmon Gwathmey led the way with 17 points, 11 boards, 3 blocks, and 2 assists and was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. Toia Giggetts was the only other Duke in double figures, with 14 points. JMU now moves on to the NCAA tourney with a chance to make some noise.
Keeping with tradition, the coaches and players cut down the nets after winning the championship. Kenny Brooks had a little something up his sleeve though. After all of the players and staff had taken a piece of the net, Brooks invited Chad Reep, the Director of the JMU Pep Band, to make the final cuts. It was completely unexpected. It was also completely awesome. Reep and the entire Pep Band have really stepped up their game the past few seasons. They’ve helped make the convo an incredibly tough place for opponents to play. And they’re tireless supporters of both the men’s and women’s teams. So it was great to see Brooks give Reep and the Pep Band a place in the spotlight. And it added a little something extra on an already exciting day.
Well, it’s been a while for me, but one great way to keep working the kinks out is to go back to our old Old Guys Leave Friday Roundup.
First, a few notes and thoughts on the Women’s CAA Hoops tourney this weekend. Unfortunately for everything but recruiting, the CAA has rented out the dingy VFP Post of tourney sites again, the world-famous ghetto-fabulous Show Place Arena in scenic (actually, it is scenic and the incomparable Rosaryville Mountain Bike trail is just down the road) Upper Marlboro, Maryland. JMU is the heavy, heavy, heavy favorite after rolling through CAA play at 17-1 and sporting a 26-3 overall record. Of course, that “-1” came just a couple weeks back at the hands of 4th seeded Hofstra so this ain’t a sure thing. And as always, WBB is even worse than the men’s side when it comes to national, and selection-committee, disrespect for low-majors so despite the gaudy record and hanging around the fringes of the Top 25 all year, the ladies need to take care of business this weekend in order to feel comfortable on Selection Day. Dukes start the tourney Friday at noon against a Towson team they should mop the floor with, but as we’ve seen in year’s past, sometimes the toughest part about this tourney is being mentally charged in front of twenty-seven fans at an agricultural arena. Thanks goodness for Chad Reep and the JMU Pep Band!!!
CAA POY
Also from the amazing women’s side of the story, Kenny Brooks – best man in the Valley – took home another CAA COY award this week while Precious Hall won CAA POY honors. Lady Okafor won a slot on the 1st team as well as the Dean Ehlers Leadership Award. Point guard Angela Mickens made the second-team, and do-everything badass Jazmon Gwathmey was actually kind of robbed only making the third team. Mickens and Okafor also made the all-defensive team and Okafor made all-academic for good measure! Way to go Dukes and thanks for another great CAA run – now go cut some nets down!
Next, in case you haven’t noticed, and based on the weather and Spring Break we’re guessing you haven’t, the JMU Lacrosse team is currently ranked 15th in the country and just came from way behind to knock off #9 Penn State on the road this week! That runs the Dukes’ record to 6-1, including a 2-1 record against ranked foes, and makes six straight wins since a season-opening and nothing-to-be-ashamed-of 13-9 loss to #2 North Carolina. JMU hosts Rutgers this weekend. Rob is definitely our lacrosse expert, but the one thing I know is teams that get high enough up in the rankings early on tend to stay there, so keep your eyes on what could be an all-timer type season from the women!
Moving on, Softball seems to have shaken off this crazy-weather/cancellation-filled early season and a few tough losses to BCS Conference teams (in addition to a couple wins over those teams too) to run their record out to 12-5 and begin the process of living up to quite a bit of preseason hype surrounding Jailyn Ford and company.
Finally, Rob mentioned he was in favor of accepting the CIT bid earlier this week and I just wanted to note I couldn’t agree more. We’re not in favor of losing money here (or risking scheduling conflicts should the women end up in the NIT – please please please don’t let this be the case), so we don’t even have a problem with traveling either, but whatever your issues with the team or Brady, these kids got better throughout the season, tied for the CAA title, and deserve another chance that the young team can clearly use to learn about tournament play. We’re also squarely in the “Keep Brady” camp, not because we’re homers (though we obviously are), but simply because we do NOT believe anyone can procure a preferable alternative in the poop-fecta that is the CAA/Convo/rudderless administration state of the program AND because we’d like to see him grow with this team that showed flashes. YoYo and Curry make them a clear contender next year and no reason to mess that up just now. Of course, if everyone transfers, we’ll feel differently, but this year feels different in that regard and no reason we’ve heard so far to think any of the starters are leaning that way.
