{"id":6485,"date":"2014-02-03T07:25:20","date_gmt":"2014-02-03T12:25:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=6485"},"modified":"2014-02-03T07:25:20","modified_gmt":"2014-02-03T12:25:20","slug":"dukes-play-hard-but-lose-tough-one-to-tribe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=6485","title":{"rendered":"Dukes Play Hard, but Lose Tough One to Tribe"},"content":{"rendered":"
Before we get to hoops, we’re going to quote none other than PrimeTime himself, Deion Sanders, who said on NFL Network pregame today: “When is Charles Haley going to get the Hall of Fame call?!…I feel this is a continuous slap in the face.” Neon – we couldn’t have said it better. Hopefully last year.<\/div>\n
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Now on to basketball. \u00a0We’re not ones for moral victories, and those certainly don’t exist in a wide-open CAA, but we were definitely able to walk away from today’s 81-79\u00a0loss to William & Mary<\/a> feeling that the Dukes recent surge isn’t a mirage and that anything can happen in Baltimore in five weeks! \u00a0The Dukes were surprisingly a little too amped up and nearly let the game get away from them with sloppy, overanxious play in the first half. \u00a0But we’d rather have them pressing when screwing up then slacking, and the boys brought solid effort throughout the game. That fight brought them back from a huge first-half deficit, a second double-digit deficit in the last ten minutes, and nearly a seemingly impossible deficit in the last twenty seconds. When the ball left Semenov’s hand off the intentional miss late in the game, I was already rising off the couch for a full leap. Alas, it wasn’t to be today thanks to what’s become routinely poor free throw shooting, a few too many clutch turnovers, and another blazing shooting performance from behind the arc from the pantless Griffins. But even after all of that, the Dukes nearly rode the re-developing chemistry and defensive swagger of the Cooke, Nation, Curry trio and a vintage performance from Semenov that hopefully will serve to remind the whole team how valuable he can be, especially since he’s really the only threat from deep, to a comeback victory over a solid team. \u00a0Overall, a good showing from the Dukes on National TV today and we share Coach Brady’s postgame optimism, at least for today.<\/div>\n
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One note from the “beating a dead horse” brigade: Seriously, Jeff Bourne and company: for the love of everything rational, please find a way to switch out these deadbeat STH’s on the side of the court we see for tv games for students. \u00a0Students that we could hear on tv, but couldn’t see. I can’t tell you how frustrating it is to get the following text from an old friend (Providence grad\/fan). “Hey TD – watching the Dukes play W&M on national tv and NO ONE is in the stands. What’s up. There’s your topic for your next JMU fanboy blog.” Ugh.<\/div>\n
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Finally, our favorite tweet of the Super Bowl came from our buddy @Dukie95, who said at the start of the 4th quarter: “Bobby Wilder on the phone for John Fox….he has an idea.”<\/div>\n
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Signing Day this week, Go Dukes!<\/div>\n