{"id":2227,"date":"2011-03-15T21:24:41","date_gmt":"2011-03-16T01:24:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=2227"},"modified":"2011-03-15T21:50:29","modified_gmt":"2011-03-16T01:50:29","slug":"jmu-loses-in-first-round-of-tournament-for-101st-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=2227","title":{"rendered":"JMU Loses in First Round of Tournament for 101st Place"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>OK folks, I’m going to come clean and just let everyone know that the game is technically still going on as I write this. The Dukes\u00a0trail Davidson\u00a083-57 with under 4:00 minutes to go though, so I think we can call it. Plus, since I’m struggling to find anything at all worth saying about this one,\u00a0the final buzzer will probably sound before I post this anyway. So, yay blogging ethics or something. And boo JMU Dukes effort.<\/p>\n

I honestly didn’t really know much about the College Basketball Invitation Presented by Zebra Pen<\/a>\u00a0before the Dukes got a bid. It’s obviously not the most prestigious tournment, falling below the 68 team NCAA Tournament\u00a0and 32 team\u00a0NIT, and just nudging out the College Insider Tournament.\u00a0I guess you could say that\u00a0if the NCAA tourney is the Big Dance, this tournament is probably more like an ice cream social. That doesn’t mean it’s a waste of time though. It could have been a nice chance for the Dukes\u00a0to\u00a0put the William & Mary loss behind them, \u00a0notch a few more wins, and build some momentum for next season. It’s been done before. Five teams in the real March Madness played in the CBI last year. Unfortunately, JMU just didn’t show up tonight\u00a0and got absolutely destroyed by a team they should have beaten.<\/p>\n

The game was broadcast on HDnet, a channel I don’t get, so I was forced to listen to the broadcast on Madizone. It’s alwasy tough to provide any real analysis without seeing the game, but this game got\u00a0so ugly I probably wouldn’t have much to offer even if I had watched from courtside seats. It was too frustrating to pay close attention to. Here’s what you need to know though, everything the Dukes did to drive fans crazy this year, was on display tonight. Apparent lack of effort? Check. Careless turnovers? Check. Poor shot selection? Check. Terrible perimeter defense? Check. I could go on and on, but you get the point. It really just seemed like the Dukes didn’t want to be there. Either that, or Davidson\u00a0and William & Mary are both some sort of goofy white guy kryponite for the Dukes.<\/p>\n

It would be\u00a0easy to dwell on the negative and slam Brady, Denzel, and the rest of the Dukes tonight. I’m going to refrain from that for now. I’ll give it a few days and try to enjoy March Madness before attempting to analyze this season. It definitely had some bright spots, but this was a terrible way for it to end.<\/p>\n