{"id":10775,"date":"2019-02-04T09:59:53","date_gmt":"2019-02-04T14:59:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=10775"},"modified":"2019-02-04T09:59:53","modified_gmt":"2019-02-04T14:59:53","slug":"holy-crap-the-dukes-won-a-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=10775","title":{"rendered":"Holy Crap the Dukes Won a Game"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"If you’re not paying attention to men’s hoops (and all indications are that most of you are not), the Dukes got off the schneid with a win down in Wilmington. JMU eclipsed the century mark and managed to beat UNCW by the score of 104-95. The story of the game was the Dukes’ free throw shooting. JMU knocked down 30 of its 33 attempts from the stripe. That’s good. Here are a few quick numbers from the game.<\/p>\n

9<\/strong><\/p>\n

That’s the number of minutes JMU’s top bench players played. Develle Phillips, Zach Jacobs, and Greg Jones each earned 9 minutes off the bench. Matt Urbach got 6 minutes of run. All of this is to say that Rowe continued to rely heavily on his starters. Four of the five JMU starters played 35 minutes or more. That’s a lot. And it’s indicative of how Rowe has relied on his core guys to log a lot of minutes. Whether or not it has anything to do with the frequent late game collapses is up for debate. The guys got it done this game.<\/p>\n

0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The number of combined turnovers by Matt Lewis and Stuckey Mosley. This, as much as the hot shooting, had a lot to do with the win. Mosley and Lewis are both talented players, but have struggled to take care of the ball at times this season. They had no such issues against the Seahawks. Both guys have the ball in their hands a lot, so it was encouraging to see them not cough it up. The Dukes have a chance to maybe rattle off a few wins with upcoming games against weaker CAA teams. Limiting the turnovers will improve their odds dramatically.<\/p>\n

.454<\/strong><\/p>\n

The combined CAA winning percentage of the Dukes’ next 3 opponents, Towson, Drexel, and Delaware. Now, that collective number is still better than JMU’s woeful .273 mark. However, it’s about as good as things get for JMU relatively speaking. Under Rowe this year, JMU has 10 wins. Two of them were against non-D1 competition though. The Dukes have never managed more than 10 wins in an entire season in the Rowe era. They’ve got 7 games to go and at least a puncher’s chance to end this year on a high note and maybe carry some momentum into the CAA tourney. I wouldn’t bet the house on them doing so, but you never know.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n