{"id":6391,"date":"2014-01-05T20:32:30","date_gmt":"2014-01-06T01:32:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=6391"},"modified":"2014-01-05T20:32:30","modified_gmt":"2014-01-06T01:32:30","slug":"mens-hoops-turning-the-corner-headed-into-caa-play","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=6391","title":{"rendered":"Men’s Hoops Turning the Corner Headed into CAA Play?"},"content":{"rendered":"

We all had a feeling the out-of-conference portion of the men’s hoops team’s year was going to be a tough time. \u00a0The loss of last year’s three top-scoring seniors (Moore, Goins, Davis), missing arguably their best returning player (suspended G Andre Nation), and having true freshmen playing big minutes, all set up to quickly kill momentum off last year’s NCAA tourney appearance. \u00a0But despite all that, Brady’s team has managed to right the ship a bit after a really tough start. Yesterday they went down to Wilmington to play their CAA lid-lifter against the Seahawks. \u00a0Wouldn’t you know it, Charles Cooke continued to show huge development and the Dukes walked out with a win <\/a>(their 4th of 5 games), a 6-9 record overall, and Andre Nation coming back for Tuesday’s game, the first CAA trip to play the College of Charleston!<\/p>\n

\"THIS<\/a>

THIS guy’s coming back!<\/p><\/div>\n

Nation seems unlikely to solve the Dukes scoring issues, but he will allow everyone to play their more natural positions. Oh yeah, and if you watched the CAA late last season, you know there isn’t a better perimeter defender in the conference. \u00a0Ask Delaware’s guards what it’s like? \u00a0If nothing else, the Dukes will be incredibly active and athletic defensively and should be able to force teams into ugly games (i.e. games they have a chance of winning) the rest of the way. \u00a0We’re not expecting miracles, but a really competitive team with a puncher’s chance come CAA tourney time isn’t out of the question.<\/p>\n

As of this writing, we’ve also been hearing through @FootballScoop<\/a> , who’s been very accurate this year, that Portland St. O-Line Coach<\/a>\u00a0Brad Davis will be the new Offensive Coordinator (or co-OC with Drew Mehringer who came over with Withers from OSU but we’re having trouble figuring out the titles and dotted lines for now) under Coach Withers. \u00a0One thing’s for sure, Coach E seems to be hiring young and hopefully hungry, which is exciting, and if the Davis hire pans out, he’s also thinking way, way outside the old mid-Atlantic comfort zone.<\/p>\n