Senior Night vs. VCU

Tonight we honor our three seniors. Two of them have been with us for four years...three of those years were arguably the darkest days in JMU Men's Basketball history. They suffered through seasons that Dukes going 5-23, 7-23, and 13-17. This year, they finally have a good team behind them. Senior Juwann James has been the heart and soul of this team since he began here. This season, while he was only able to play in 18 games so far, he has averaged 15.2 points, 5.2 rebounds, 0.9 assists, 1.1 steals, and 0.8 blocks per game. He has worked hard to improve his free throw shooting over his career. As a freshman, he hit only 45.9% of his FTs. This was followed by years of 54.1% and 55.5% free throw shooting. This year he has upped his percentage even more and is hitting 62.6% of his free throws. He has poured his heart and soul into this team. Not only that, but he has done so with the utmost amount of class you can imagine. This quiet leader has also stepped up into his senior role of leader this year and become more outspoken to improve his team. There is no doubt that he is the leader of this team when you talk to the other players. Andrey called him "a stone wall." Senior Kyle Swanston has also worked hard to put this team where it is now. He has 12.1 points per game this season and has a 40.7% 3pt average. In his career he has hit 190 total shots from behind the arc (4th all-time for JMU) and is a big reason why this year the Dukes set a new program record for three pointers. His career average of 34.8% for behind the arc ranks him seventh at JMU.

Tonight the Dukes play VCU, the number 1 seed in the conference, without freshman PG Devon Moore and possibly without Kyle Swanston. Tonight is a game that is all about pride. Tonight JMU plays to assert themselves in this conference and build up steam going into the CAA tournament.

And a quick shout out to the cheerleaders who are having their senior night at this game as well. Especially Courtney Doherty and Greg Perrow (famous for starting a JUM chant and messing up teaching the fight song at the 07-08 freshman pep rally) who have supposedly been working on some special moves for tonight.