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.
Yesterday we ran a poll on the blog asking folks if JMU should play in the CIT or CBI tournament. The 78% of you who voted “Yes” are going to be happy. It was announced yesterday afternoon that JMU has accepted an invitation to play against USC Upstate. The game will take place on the road in Upstate’s Hodge Center, which has a capacity of 818 fans. read more…
[polldaddy poll=8717297]With an NCAA bid out of the picture due to losing in the CAA tourney, the Dukes still have a shot at postseason play. The NIT ain’t gonna happen, but other options still exist. The CollegeInsider.com Tournament (CIT) and College Basketball Invitational both could offer JMU to get in some more time on the court. The CBI has a 16 team bracket with a best of 3 championship series between the finalists. The CIT is open to 32 teams and is geared for mid-majors. We could argue about which tournament is more “prestigious”, but come on. Whichever one was determined to be “best” would still just be a race to determine the 101st place team in the country.
Regardless of tournament status, both the CBI and CIT would provide an opportunity for Brady and the Dukes to continue practicing and playing games. There’s an argument to be made that doing so could pay dividends next year and give players another opportunity to advance. Of course there’s a counter-argument, that the team could be well served by resting and focusing on the off-season program. Matt Brady has said that JMU is considering pursuing a bid for one of the tourneys. What do you think? Should JMU go for it or should they just pack it in and focus on the off-season?
After defeating Hofstra twice during the regular season, JMU dropped a close one to the failed to show up against the Pride in the CAA tournament. Hofstra beat the Dukes 74-57. If you were at the game or watched it on television, you know the story. JMU came out lifeless and got beat on both ends of the court. The Dukes didn’t protect the ball, hit the glass, defend, or shoot particularly well. Other than that though, things were swell.
Save a CIT or CBI tournament bid/payment for entry, JMU will finish 19-13 and as Regular Season Quad-Champions.It’s a little easier to write off a flat performance during the regular season. Come tournament time though, you expect teams to come out sharp and focused. JMU was off from the opening tip this tourney. I lost track of how many times the Dukes turned it over by losing their dribble, stepping out of bounds, or mishandling a simple hand off. Hofstra turned those mistakes into 23 points off turnovers.
Perhaps more aggravating than the sloppy ball control, was the way JMU just essentially conceded the lane to Hofstra. The Pride dominated down low to the tune of 46 points in the paint. They were able to do this of course because JMU did much more watching than boxing out. For fans of fundamental basketball, it was an ugly affair.
All season long Hofstra’s poor defense was its Achilles heel. The Dukes didn’t exactly take advantage of that relative weakness. They shot only 37% from the field overall and were a terrible 5 for 22 from long range. Bad shooting nights happen. Good teams find a way to overcome them by working for easy looks and getting to the line. JMU did not do that against Hofstra. There were long periods of the game, where Ron Curry’s teammates on the floor looked content to let him try to pull the Dukes back on his own. Players seemed to alternate between standing around watching and playing hot potato with the ball on the perimeter. It was really just a total lack of offensive creativity.
Clearly, the game left me frustrated. Maybe I’m making it seem worse than it was. Or maybe it was even worse than I’m indicating. The fact is that JMU got boat raced by a team it had beaten twice already. Hofstra definitely has more talent, but the Dukes didn’t look prepared to play. Whether that’s an indictment of the coaches and players, or just an inopportune time to have an off night is a question for another day.
The CAA basketball awards were handed out last night and a few Dukes were honored. Junior Ron Curry was selected as All CAA Second Team and Yohanny Dalembert made All CAA Third Team. Both players were clearly deserving of the honor. Curry had a legitimate argument for the First Team, which he just narrowly missed, receiving the 6th most votes of any player in the league. He took a huge step forward this season and averaged 13.8 points per game and had an assist to turnover ratio of 1.9. His long range shooting was night and day from last year. As a sophomore he shot 24% from behind the arc, but improved to 42% this season. Perhaps most importantly, he established himself as the Dukes’ leader after Andre Nation was dismissed from the program. We’ve got no beef with any of the guys who made the league’s First Team, particularly Player of the Year Marcus Thornton from William & Mary or Damion Lee from Drexel. The reality is that you probably could swap Curry and anyone other than Thornton or Lee from the First Team and nobody would scream too much. Ron had a great year and has probably positioned himself to be in consideration for All CAA First Team and even Player of the Year next season.
YoYo made All CAA Second Team and the conference’s All Defensive Team. While Curry was an honorable mention All CAA selection in the preseason, Yohanny wasn’t really on many people’s radar. Of course after watching him his freshman year, most JMU fans saw the tremendous potential. As charter members of his fan club, it was awesome to see him take a huge step toward reaching that potential this season. He’s not done yet though and definitely has the chance to become a downright dominant CAA player as an upperclassman. In his second year at JMU he averaged over 11 points and nearly 6 boards a game. He also eclipsed the 20 point mark twice.
While it tends to be less celebrated by fans than the other All CAA honors, the All Academic team is a huge honor. And the Dukes were lucky to have Dimitrije Cabarkapa selected. He came out of nowhere late this season to make an impact on the court and become a fan favorite. It’s great that he’s also leading the way classroom as well.
Overall, this was a season of exceeding expectations for the Dukes. They took a share of the conference title and earned the 4th seed for this weekend’s tourney, despite being picked to finish 5th in the league. And they did it without the services of the most talented guy on the roster, Andre Nation. Four of the five players picked to the preseason All CAA First Team ended up making the final team. The only exception was Andre Nation, who was selected to the First Team in the preseason, but dismissed from JMU’s program by Matt Brady during the season. While that’s disappointing and almost tragic in some ways, it also makes JMU’s accomplishments this season more impressive. The Dukes jettisoned their most talented player, but instead of packing it in and going home, they kept playing. They played better actually. And now they’ve got a shot to return to the Big Dance with three wins in Baltimore.
Our buddy Zac (@ZPriceIsRight) contributed some fun guest posts during football season, so we recently asked him if he’d like to submit something about hoops. Thankfully he agreed. Here’s his take on the Andre Nation-less Dukes and Bill Simmon’s famous “Ewing Theory.”
Guess who quietly finished 2nd in the CAA in 3Pt. FG%?
As unbelievable as it seemed at certain points this season, the Dukes Men’s hoops team managed to work their way back to hanging one of the strangest, most asterisk-affixed banners you’ll ever see in college sports. After downing Hofstra to sweep the season series from the Flying Dutchpeople (it’s ok to slur the Dutch so long as its not gender-biased. we kid, we kid) on Saturday, the Dukes managed to finish the season in the CAA’s first ever four-way tie for a championship. Seriously, before we get into the reasons this will go down as one of the strangest seasons and records you’ll ever see, we think it deserves an unqualified congratulations up front. If you had this squad joining the dominant women at the top of the conference standings before the season, or ever mid-season-post-Nation-suspension, you’re lying. A 12-6 conference mark in a weak CAA may not be the sign anyone’s ready to challenge Kentucky just yet, but this team worked their butts off in all but about three games, weathered a stormy early season on and off the court, gained confidence and cohesiveness as the season went along and absolutely earned every bit of that four-way tie. Congrats to Coach Brady and the whole program!
That they finished with the four-seed by virtue of a winless record against the other three co-champs takes zero away from the title in our opinion. JMU had the all-time classic “no bad losses, no good wins” resume by finishing 12-0 against the six teams that finished beneath them. And we’d much rather them get to the shared title this way than be in William & Mary or UNCW’s position where you squandered opportunities against lesser foes throughout the season. The Tribe in particular stand out as disappointments and potential upset fodder next weekend with a worse record against Elon, Charleston, and Towson than they have against the three they split the title with. And of course that 1 seed comes with a quarters matchup against none other than the winner of that Elon/Towson game.
The Dukes on the other hand will run it right back with Hofstra in the 4/5 matchup at 2:30 p.m. Saturday. A win there would lead to a 2:30 game again Sunday vs. the WM/Elon/TsU survivor, but we can worry about tourney previewing later this week. For now, CONGRATULATIONS CAA CHAMPS!
One of the only good things about JMU’s loss to UNCW was the fact that our favorite CAA hoops writer from the past, Brian Mull, came out of semi-retirement to cover the game. Mull covered UNCW and the CAA at large back in the day for the Wilmington Star News and he was great. After UNCW got out to an insurmountable lead the other night, he mentioned via Twitter that he wasn’t sure “Abdulai Jalloh, two girls and a plate of chicken can save JMU now.” Given the state of mind we were in at the time, it went right over our heads. But then Mull followed up with an explanation and oh what an explanation it is. It goes like this:
After setting the Trask Coliseum scoring record with 37 points in a 99-85 UNCW victory, Jalloh came into the interview room to talk with JMU beat writer Dustin Dopiriak. Only, he didn’t come alone, nor did he leave emptyhanded. By his side were two young local ladies he’d recently befriended. While conducting the interview, he talked to the ladies about a return trip to Wilmington and also piled high on a plate leftovers from the pregame media buffet.
That’s amazing. Jalloh was a heck of a player and we knew he loved to score buckets. He also apparently liked to take the all the food and women too. If we retired jerseys here on JMUSB, Jalloh’s might be the first one hoisted the rafters.
JMU went on the road to face UNCW in a first place showdown tonight. It went, poorly. The Dukes entered the game in a four way tie for first place and a chance to capture the regular season crown with two wins and help. Instead, they got blown out 74-54 and now need to beat Hofstra in the regular season finale to avoid falling to fifth.
There isn’t much to say about the game. UNCW led wire to wire. It was never really close. The Seahawks burst out of the gate ready to play. They were energetic, spreading the ball, getting good looks and crashing the boards. To say JMU came out sluggish would be an understatement. The Dukes opened the game looking completely overwhelmed by the UNCW full court press. Seemingly before JMU even broke a sweat, UNCW had raced out to a 19-3 lead. The lead was stretched to as many as 18 points before a late run by JMU got them to within 11 at the half. UNCW rattled off 7 straight after the break and it that was all she wrote. It was never much of a game after that.
The Positives
Ron Curry had 23 points. He hit 5 of 7 from long range. Yohanny Dalembert had 11 points on 5 of 10 shooting. It’s clear those two guys can score consistently against CAA competition. The fact that they were both able to score in the first half despite getting virtually nothing from their teammates speaks volumes. And Cabarkapa reached double figures again, with 10 points. Most of them came from the line or during garbage time. Still though, this is a guy who didn’t even get off the bench in 12 of JMU’s first 15 games. Now he’s reached double figures in 3 of the last 4. He’s like some sort of mid-major college hoops Serbian Jeremy Lin.
Everything Else
Nothing else worked tonight. JMU’s starters other than Curry and YoYo gave the Dukes virtually zippy. Jackson Kent scored 5 points. Joey Mclean and Tom Vodonavich both went scoreless. The trio combined to attempt only 8 shots. It’s neither necessary nor expected that those guys score in double figures night in and night out. They’ve got to be aggressive enough to force the issue and try to create their own shot or at least attempt open jumpers though. At times tonight they treated the ball like a hot potato, rapidly unloading it for YoYo or Curry before even attempting to draw a defender or look at the basket.
The Dukes also really struggled with ball control, turning it over 15 times for the game. It was just a downright ugly night for the offense. JMU managed only .83 points per possession. That’s the Dukes worst mark in CAA play this season. And it’s exactly what happens when a team is sloppy with the ball and 3/5 of the lineup stands around watching.
This was a discouraging loss, but it’s not the end of the world. Yes, it means JMU will end the regular season winless against the CAA’s top 3 teams. Crazy as it might sound, we still think this team is performing above expectations and on the right track. As it was pointed out to us on Twitter tonight, roster turnover has forced some guys who are probably suited to be bit players into prominent roles. As long as it doesn’t kill their confidence, that should pay dividends next year and the year after. Plus, unlike JMU, the top contenders have all demonstrated that they can play down to the level of competition some nights. There are going to be upsets in Baltimore. All that means is that the tourney is completely up for grabs. The Dukes aren’t going to be on anyone’s list of favorites, but they’re one of about 6 teams that could cut down the nets if they get hot for a weekend.
