Ugly Win Tops Last Year

As the team walked into the arena Saturday night, Brady asked Kyle Swanston, "When's the last time you won here?" Kyle didn't really look up and just shook his head. Brady's response: "That's going to change." Then, as the game started, an ugly first half left JMU fans wondering what had happened to the team that took down ODU @ODU. We are currently without Juwann, but we were getting killed in every facet of the game. JMU was down 32-41 at the Trask, the arena of the UNCW Seahawks, at the half after being down 15 at it's worst. We haven't won there for 10 years (lost 15 of the last 19 games with UNCW), and as Brady said, "wins at home are good for the community, but wins away are special." With the start of the second half, things were looking up, though it was still an up-and-down game for awhile. As the minutes started winding down, we finally started hitting our shots and nailing our FT's as they started building up fouls. Julius got the turning point foul, but the CAA Player of the Week and at least the Rookie of the Week honors should go to Andrey Semenov (nicknamed Dirk Nowitzki by his teammates because of his all-around solid play). After a terrible offensive first half, he finally found his stroke and went on to net 25 points, going 10-10 from the FT line. Devon and Julius (as has been said) also played key roles in this game, making the next few years look very promising. The biggest difference between the first half and the second half was effort as we drastically outrebounded UNCW and started looking after the ball more. Ben Louis also had a good defensive and rebounding game, though his offensive side was a bit off as he only went 3-6 from the FT line. JMU ended the game winning by 6, 79-73, grabbing its 14th win and 6th CAA win (3rd on the road). This is the most wins since before the 2001-2002 season (as far as ESPN's records go back) and the most conference wins since the '02-'03. The Dukes travel to Georgia State on Wednesday to hopefully pick up another road win.

DNR: New Stone Wall | Box Score

Ode to Juwann

Okay, so this really isn't an 'ode' or even a poem. I think we just need to take a little bit of time to thank JJ for all that he's done. Juwann has always, at least in my mind, been the foundation of this team. He has always given 110% and does literally everything he can for this team. When he became a senior, this generally reserved individual did not push away the responsibility, but took it upon himself to become the leader and soul of this team. Juwann and Terrance Carter ('08) were always my favorite players because they had more heart than everyone else put together. He has also worked hard to improve his shot over his career. His freshman year, he had a field goal percentage of 48.6 and a free throw percentage of 45.9. So far this year, he has been hitting 57.9% of his field goals and 60% of his free throws, which is a huge improvement. Interesting note: he is also (percentage-wise) our team's top 3pt shooter going 1-1 on the year. Juwann is a quality player and a quality guy that after playing through 3 years of terrible teams, deserves to be healthy to play for a winning team. This is what Andrey Semenov had to say about Juwann: "Being in the game with Juwann is like standing behind a stone wall. You feel very safe. He's reliable. You feel like things are going to come together. Wins are going to come together. Once he's out, the stone wall becomes a glass wall. You're just not as strong as you used to be." All reports so far are that Juwann is okay after what happened on Wednesday night. He was released from RMH that night and seems to be doing fine, though they are still doing tests trying to find out what caused it. This writer is a little worried about the whole situtation and doesn't want Juwann to risk his life trying to get back on the court too soon. But it's his choice and considering he spent 5 minutes trying to push away the gurney Wednesday night after dropping to the floor gasping for air, I'm sure he'll be back as soon as he's cleared to play.

Coach Brady Interview #1

Recently, JMU grad John Theobald ('07) got our own Coach Brady to agree to doing a weekly phone interview where questions posted by CAAZone posters are asked. Here is week 1's interview:

1) This season we have 2 kids from Ohio and next year you have 1 signed from Ohio. Do you focus on certain high school hotbeds? And do you see you and your staff looking at more players from the Hampton Roads/Richmond/DC/Baltimore area? What specific facet of JMU sells the school to these recruits from so far away?

We are trying to attract kids that can play, and eventually start, for any team in the CAA. My two Ohio frosh start for us, are 3rd and 4th in scoring, and will both likely make All CAA Rookie Team. In fact, they might be 1, 2 in voting by the league's coaches.

The 3rd kid from Ohio is Travon Flores and has more potential then the other two, arguably.

Our recruiting base, as you refer to it, will be the Middle Atlantic region. We are, and I always have recruited, this are very hard.

What people do not have any ability to recognize is that the players we need to get from this area would rather go to VCU, George Mason or ODU because they have won. Now that we have PROVEN we will win, players are interested. It doesn't work the other way around. You have to win first. Now that we have arguably the best recruiting class in the league playing for us (Andrey Semenov, high school in Va.), it is somewhat less complicated to get Middle Atlantic kids to JMU.

By the way, we just took a transfer from Texas A&M, named Denzel Bowles, who was a Top 75 player in the senior class nationally.

We signed an outstanding prospect in the Fall from Danville, Va., named Darren White.

2) Swanton's 3pt shooting is becoming an anomaly. He was red hot earlier this year and lately hasn't been very successful behind the arc. Has he changed his approach? Are you using different offensive sets? Are conference opponents guarding him differently than the OOC opponents were?

Kyle Swanston is going through a really difficult stretch. We don't do anything differently now than when he was shooting almost 50% from 3 in the non conference portion of our schedule. We are conscience of trying to get him more open shots, if anything. Hopefully, he will have some good games by season's end.

3) While on-court success is obviously the primary factor when looking to generate fan interest, bringing premiere competition to campus is also a major influence in creating the necessary buzz to get JMU where it needs to go. What level of OOC teams do you want to bring in ? Would you consider bringing in an AP Top 25 type program?

Top 25 programs rarely, if ever, leave their home arena to play a non conference game. If television will pick up the game, they would CONSIDER a road game.

If you were thinking Georgetown a few years back, I can assure you it was because they felt very strongly that they could pick up a road win with little chance of losing.

You need only go to the BCS schedules to verify what I and every other Mid Major Coach realize. We play Top 40 teams on the road for a guarantee check, or we enter into Neutral arena tournaments with the hope of beating them there.

4) In regards to football, do we need to pass more (long standing fan joke)?

As far as passing the ball more in football, I am a big fan of Kurt Warner. I am a bigger fan of Mickey Matthews record and his seasons of 10 wins. Sorry.

5) Based on the fact that Seton Hall beat VT, who beat #1 Wake Forest, should JMU be the #1 team in the nation?

As far as the fact that the polls have so far failed to give the JMU hoops team its proper place NEAR the top of the Top 25 polls, that only shows that they just don't get it.

Of course we should be in top 5. Bring on Wake. Or Duke. Whoever. Let us prove it on the court."

Thanks again to JMU Men's Basketball coach Matt Brady for the great answers!

JMU's Sweep at the Ted, Dawn on Fire

On January 7th, the JMU Men's Basketball team won their first ever game at ODU's Ted Constant Center (which opened in 2002). Sunday, January 25th, would see the JMU Women's team do the same. According to Dawn Evans, they had a chip on their shoulder after a blowout loss at the Ted last year, which was JMU's worst loss of the season. After getting off to a rough start going down 3-14, all they needed was a little jump start by Brittany Crowell (told you I liked her). She nailed a 3, getting the Lady Dukes on a 18-3 run, putting them on top 21-17. Then, just when ODU came back to tie it up at 23, Brittany nails another one from behind the arc. On the ensuing possession, Nina Uqdah stole the ball and got it back to Brittany, who nailed her second 3-pointer in a row. This marked the third game in a row where Brittany has hit three 3-pointers...not too bad for a freshman. The rest of the game was a mess of fouls and free throws, which combined with the tv timeouts to make a very lengthy game, which showed in the players faces towards of the end of the game. One-by-one, our players started fouling out. We ended up having Lauren Jimenez, Jalissa Taylor, and Courtney Hamner foul out and Nina finished the game with 4 fouls.

JMU had the lead from midway through the first half, but had to hold onto it at ODU's home turf, with some of our key scorers fouling out as time was winding down. Luckily, one of our Lady Dukes just happens to be the nation's leading scorer. She also happens to love taking over the game in these situations. Dawn Evans ended up scoring 30 points or more for the sixth time in her career and the fifth time this year, which are both JMU records (both previously held by T Young, now a star on the Atlanta Dream). Dawn went 50% from the field and 11-13 from the FT line, netting her 36 points. This performence led to her fourth CAA Player of the Week honor of the season. She also increased her average PPG, taking it up to 24.8, remaining #1 in the NCAA by 0.9. Strong performances by Nina (8 pts, 8 reb, 2 a, 2 s) and an injured Kisha (4 pts, 7 reb, 4 a) along with the rest of the team playing good defense helped lift up this team to show that they can compete and beat the best in the conference. Currently, tied for first, the Dukes will try to hold their position at Towson on Thursday night.

DNR || The Breeze || JMUSports || Box Score

A Tough Loss

Saturday night's loss to Hofstra was one of the hardest, but best losses of the season. First off, I would like to thank all the students who showed up to the game (and some friends at the Wesley Foundation for working concessions). 2,200 students tickets were given out and a total of 5,023 people showed up for the game. From 'Dukie', a JMU alum, on the CAAZone boards:

I wish you students could know how much impact you have on the enjoyment of a game and on creating a home court environment. When you folks show up and get into it, it makes driving all that way worth the trip. Even though JMU lost last night, we all have to admit we were entertained for 40 minutes. The Dukes played well enough to win and Hofstra had a good shooting night. I was impressed with how Hofstra handled the pressure of the road crowd.

This team has five more home games. As good as things were last night, they can get even better. When I was a student, I can remember having to sit in the 300 level for some games and in the bleacher aisle for others. There was a good student crowd last night but there was room for more. You also can get even louder especially in the first half.

For those of you who were behind the Hofstra basket in the first half, you are suppose to wave your arms and yell when the opposing team is shooting free throws. Your fellow students on the other side of the court did a very nice job of this in the second half.

All of the remaining home games are extremely important. We all witnessed last night the difference 2 or 3 points can make in league games. I believe the home crowd can make that kind of difference or more. Please do not give up on this team. They need you! Years from now, you can say "I remember when JMU basketball turned the corner" and you can say you were part of it!

Hope to see the student section filled to capacity at ODU. Everyone is to bring no less than three friends with them to the game. Peer pressure is a beautiful thing and in this case, won't be the type of peer pressure your parents said you should ignore.

I hope this illustrates how important the students are. If the students get into it, then the older crowd gets into it and the place gets back to the times of the Electric Zoo...the students must be the catalyst though.

The game turned out to be what was predicted...unpredictable. Neither team had a lead over 8 and it came down to the very end in what was a very exciting game, despite the heartbreaking conclusion. The Hofstra team that showed up in the first half was a team that JMU could beat. They shot 39% in the opening period, letting JMU keep it's lead of 34-30 by hitting 14 of 19 FT's. Unfortunately for JMU, whose FG% was only 36% for the game (20% from 3pt range), the Hostra team that beat Northeastern showed up in second half. Our visitors from the north shot a solid 54%, allowing them to creep their way back up. As the clock ticked down to :13, Andrey Semenov missed a layup, but Juwann James got the rebound and put it back up, getting fouled on the shot, getting his chance at 2 FT's. “I feel like I want to be in that position,” James said. “A chance to win the game. Just like any other of my teammates, I think they would love to be in that position too. That’s the time that as a senior, you know, you gotta step up and make those shots and I did it.” After making both shots, JMU was up 68-67, with Hofstra getting the ball back. Coach Brady kept our guys in man-to-man defense as they passed the ball in to Jenkins. Jenkins took the ball down the court, made some nice moves to get a decent look, and rolled it just over the rim and in, giving Hofstra the 1 point lead with 1.9 seconds left. Dazz took the ball and heaved it down the court. Unfortunately, Hofstra's Urbutis got a piece of it and Pierre had to rush his shot, which fell short of the basket and a W next to JMU in the scorebook. Juwann fell to the ground from mental and physical exhaustion after playing a superb performence for 25 minutes against a big team inside. He was definitely JMU's MVP of the game as he went 7-12 from the field and 6-8 from the free throw line, coming through in the clutch in his biggest pitfall (of which he has taken great strides in improving). This drops us down to 13-7 (5-4), but it by no stretch of the imagination means we're out of the race for the CAA's top 4, just makes it a little more difficult. Everyone needs to show up and get loud for the Dukes again on Wednesday night so that we can complete a sweep against ODU this year!

DNR: Jenkins, Hofstra Beat Dukes || Box Score
Breeze: Crowd | Not Enough

Hofstra vs. JMU Preview

After 8 straight losses to Hofstra, hopefully this will be the year when we pull our selves off the ground, dust off our shoulders, and defend that #4 spot we've been clinging to for the past couple weeks. Kenpom has predicted JMU to beat Hofstra 68-62, with a 75% chance of getting the win. Hofstra is 6-2 at home and 3-4 on the road. They lost to Drexel at home by 7 and at Drexel by 18, lost at Northeastern by 23, but won by 5 at home, lost by 8 at VCU, and beat WM and UD at home by 10 and 5, respectively. They are fairly inconsistent and it looks like it could be a close game. I doubt that they will get the upset since it's at our place, but they will definitely play us hard. Their best wins are against East Tennessee St and Northeastern, but have have no worse losses than losing to Drexel (#145) twice. At 13-7 (5-3) we are ranked #131 in Division 1 and at 12-7 (4-4) Hofstra is ranked #167. This bodes well for us because we are at home. Plus, I think we will see Devon Moore at 100% again, meaning our offense will be clicking much better than it was on Wednesday against Towson. The Dukes need to keep their focus for the next 4 games leading up to George Mason. The Patriots are currently tied for 1st in the conference with a 7-1 conference record, but I don't think they'll make it past playing at VCU today, which will put them at 7-2. If we win today, we will be 6-3. Assuming both teams win out until our matchup at the Convo on Feb. 7, we will be a 17-7 (9-3) team playing a 17-5 (10-2) Mason at home, which could be very interesting if the Dukes stay healthy. Everyone needs to come out tonight to the Convo at 7pm and get loud for our Dukes!

DNR: Hofstra Game Pivotal For JMU? || JMUSports.com Preview
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Missing Kisha, Liking Brittany

Last night was a little rough for the Lady Dukes, and telling of how integral Kisha Stokes is to our women's basketball team. We were putting in the effort (won the rebound battle 48-32 and were going after some steals), but at times the Lady Dukes just couldn't put it all together. Jalissa Taylor was definitely putting in some effort as she was pushing through anyone in her way and picked up her first double-double of her career. Congrats to her, as I'm sure this is only the first of many double-doubles in her career. Last night it seemed we just missed some shots we should have made (there were many 3's that were very close to going in). During the last several minutes of the game last night, Kenny, who has maybe the calmest demeanor of any coach in the CAA, was more angry than I have ever seen him... We were rushing shots and making unforced turnovers instead of slowing things down and taking good shots. The refs weren't helping any, either. There was a foul on Lauren called where she was standing still, arms straight up, and then a few minutes later on the other end of the court, a Mason player had her arms at a 45 degree angle to block a shot, hit our shooters arm, and there was no call. The ref that made the call on Lauren was standing 3 feet from the play...I really don't think he likes coming to the Convo anymore... Through all this, there were a few bright spots. First, we came out with the W and you can be sure that Kenny will have some things for the team to work on. Dawn, even on an off night where she only hits one 3-pointer, still ended up with a team high 18 points. And the best thing about last night, was probably Brittany Crowell's shooting from behind the arc. She went 3-7 and is now our most accurate 3-point shooter going 14-37 for the season (.378%). Let's hope Kisha can come back soon, we can keep the tempo slower, and we can find some open shots, because if we do, we'll be in good position at the end of the year for the CAA tournament. The ladies are at ODU on Sunday, so anyone in the area should go show your support!

DNR: Dukes Barely Beat Mason || Box Score

Towson - 13 wins

Earlier in the season, we lost to Towson by one after dominating most of the game. Our players and coaches would not let this happen again. A decent crowd (3,309) showed up to watch the game and our students seem to slowly be trickling back in. Just a side note: make sure to get to games about 20-30 minutes earlier if you don't have a parking pass, otherwise the Convo lots fill up and parking over at Festival is really annoying. After a slow start, the Dukes showed they came out to play...or at least came out enough to beat the Tigers. It seems we're still a really streaky team from the 3pt arc, but Wells seems to be finding his shot and is quickly becoming our most dangerous shooter. Inside, Juwann continues to be a force on defense and offense. He had a game high 17 points last night, while Wells led rebounding with 10. Pierre also had a good game, heading up the assist column with 6. JMU went 11-14 for FTs, with Juwann going 1-4 and still not being able to pull together his shot (32-53 for the year). Granted, he has improved his percentage since last season, but he seems to have been really off the past few games. Overall, it was a decent game, but if we can ever put together a complete game and hit more of our 3-pointers we could make some noise against the top-tier CAA teams. Right now, we just need to stay healthy and get some W's. Speaking of winning, our team has already equaled their overall and conference wins from last season by going 13-7, 5-3. With 11 games left, a winning record is almost guaranteed. We actually still have a chance to get 20 wins...never thought I'd say that this year. Ken Pomeroy, kind of like the Sagarins of college basketball but better, is predicting us going 19-11 (http://kenpom.com/team.php?team=James%20Madison), which doesn't include the Bracketbuster game or the CAA tournament. This would most likely give us the #4 spot in the conference, which would give us a first-round bye in the CAA tournament. That having been said, we still need to keep playing hard in this home stretch, which picks back up on Saturday afternoon at 2pm against the Hofstra Pride. It is a must win and we need everyone there to show our support.

Box Score

Welcome

to the Windbreaker, the anti-Breeze blog (get it?). I, along with many other people, have gotten tired of the negative bias and inaccuracies in our school's newspaper...thus, this blog was born. If I ever list numbers, I'll try to back them up. If I ever say "something like" or "around"...I probably just got lazy or couldn't find the answer. Just to be clear, I really dislike the current editor-in-chief of the Breeze. We made it to the semifinals of the highest level of college football that crowns a true champion and our basketball team has already equaled the win total that we had last year...with 12 games left in the season...and he stills talks badly about our teams... This will probably be as biased positively for JMU as the Breeze articles are biased negatively, no one who knows me would expect anything different. GO DUKES!