I am blown away by their ability to work and trust in one another.

Matt is playing more of a team game that I thought was possible. He does not force things. He could easily try to pump up his stats with being more aggressive on offense, but he does not.

Amazing the impact on Lewis - coach B has had in only a few months.

Matt took that game over with staying in control and plays that got the team much needed points at the free throw line.

I recall Houston saying how crucial it was his team bought into him his first year, and I'm seeing that with coach B's players.

This team has a ways to go to reach their potential, but you can see them coming together as a team. I don't think I've felt this optimistic about Men's basketball since about Brady's 3rd or 4th year.

My goal remains the same - playing like a top 4 CAA the end of February, and at least the semis in the CAA tournament.

And the freshmen play defense! The last few years we had to decide between talented offensive players and less talented playrrs who at least worked on the other end. This year, the freshmen have provided great energy and it looks like the team is pushing each other. We still have lapses, but way better than the past 3 years.

Defense looks massively improved. They make very good switches for the most part and don't let players get lost in the shuffle

Byington has always been a defensive-minded coach going back to when he was an interim at CofC in 2012. He was 7-4 after Bobby Cremins took a leave of absence.

In 4 of the wins he held them below 60 points. I remember he made Trent Wiedeman into a very good player. He transferred to join Byington at Georgia Southern.

His 2nd season at Georgia Southern he took them to the conference tourney title game. They lost to Georgia State there allowing just... 38 points. But they only scored 36.

A nice win today.

If only Dukester could be more clear, I think what he is trying to say - Lou Rowe was a bad coach.

What's really incredible to think about is that this is after a crazy offseason, barely having a non-conference schedule (against D1 teams), and having most of our conference games canceled so far. If we can smooth out some of the rough patches and keep the energy up for the whole game...we have a legit shot THIS year, which I wouldn't have expected. Some of the players certainly need to gain some toughness inside and not fall back to old (bad) habits when things aren't going their way, but this team is already far ahead of last year's team and (can't believe I'm saying this about a JMU MBB team) is improving game to game. They're making adjustments and the individual players are also getting better. My confidence waivered a bit in some of the early games, but I'm back on hype train.

A solid road win. Matt appears to be improving as a team player, and several of the Freshmen are flashing signs of real effort and talent. Those are all signs of good coaching. The future looks bright for JMU MBB.

This has been a horribly difficult time in the lives of so many, and the COVID crisis will likely not abate until late into the 3rd quarter of 2021 (at the earliest). Here’s to wishing Coach B and staff continued good luck in recruiting and molding the pieces they have put in place. It’s exciting to see a glimmer of light at the end of a very dark period in our history.

(01-25-2021 06:09 AM)Longhorn Wrote:  A solid road win. Matt appears to be improving as a team player, and several of the Freshmen are flashing signs of real effort and talent. Those are all signs of good coaching. The future looks bright for JMU MBB.

This has been a horribly difficult time in the lives of so many, and the COVID crisis will likely not abate until late into the 3rd quarter of 2021 (at the earliest). Here’s to wishing Coach B and staff continued good luck in recruiting and molding the pieces they have put in place. It’s exciting to see a glimmer of light at the end of a very dark period in our history.

I was thinking about the two game scheduling this weekend and how the Men's and Women's coaches are approaching them.

Obviously you should try to win every game, but based on where the two programs are, I think I would do what Sean is trying to do and build goals for nothing less than weekend sweeps.

Once again I want to win every game, but my message if I'm coach B is to never be swept. My reasons for this is to not set too high a bar for a team that is still coming together, and if they can avoid sweeps and have a couple sweeps on their own they could get a top 4 seed. Right now I feel we are a middle of the pack CAA team which is certainly on the rise.

This team is getting better by the game. I was going to post Saturday I felt we played well. The difference seemed to be they could not miss an open three, and we gave away too many uncontested drives to the basket. We seemed to tighten up on that on Sunday. Plus it did not hurt of us Sunday their big guy was out.

I think a big three is emerging from our team.

Easy boys and girls! You are going to jinx them. Stay calm and see what happens.

Matt Lewis has improved, no doubt, but yesterday I thought he hurt the team down the stretch by taking nearly every shot (and missing nearly all of them) and missing three free throws. He reverted back to his old form in which JMU collapses at the ends of games with sizable leads. Earlier in the game he was better by involving his teammates.

JMU played with a lot of intensity yesterday, which they did in the second half versus VCU and most of the game versus FL Atlantic. I was pleasantly surprised by the win.

And I agree with Nation in that the three freshman set the tone with respect to effort and energy (and that's why you see them start, although Edwards hasn't started of late).

A good win for sure, since NE is the best coached team in the league (and most accomplished this year). Not having the bruiser hurt them, of course. NE is a very young team as the announcers pointed out. Of the top 4 scorers on Saturday, two were sophomores and one was a freshman for the Huskies. CAA is definitely down this year, so it's ripe for the taking. I thought Towson looked pretty bad in their game versus JMU, for example, a week or so back.

(01-25-2021 07:00 PM)Dukes84 Wrote:  Matt Lewis has improved, no doubt, but yesterday I thought he hurt the team down the stretch by taking nearly every shot (and missing nearly all of them) and missing three free throws. He reverted back to his old form in which JMU collapses at the ends of games with sizable leads. Earlier in the game he was better by involving his teammates.

JMU played with a lot of intensity yesterday, which they did in the second half versus VCU and most of the game versus FL Atlantic. I was pleasantly surprised by the win.

And I agree with Nation in that the three freshman set the tone with respect to effort and energy (and that's why you see them start, although Edwards hasn't started of late).

A good win for sure, since NE is the best coached team in the league (and most accomplished this year). Not having the bruiser hurt them, of course. NE is a very young team as the announcers pointed out. Of the top 4 scorers on Saturday, two were sophomores and one was a freshman for the Huskies. CAA is definitely down this year, so it's ripe for the taking. I thought Towson looked pretty bad in their game versus JMU, for example, a week or so back.

With regards to Lewis' play yesterday, I agree. He often takes bad shots down the stretch. Not bad in the sense that it's a contested, low percentage shot, more that it's a situationally bad shot. Too early in the shot clock when we have a tenuous lead, or taking the ball to the rim without an outlet when the D converges. I cringe when he launches a 3 when we're up 8, but I know what he's thinking. Man, if I hit this, it's the nail in the coffin. I do have to hand it to him, he does not lack confidence. But there is such a thing as misplaced confidence, and I think that applies to Matt sometimes. I see progress, but I think it's going to take the remainder of the year. He's beginning to understand that he has more options surrounding him than in previous years.

While NE might be a young team this year, so are we, so if nothing else that puts on equal footing when it comes to that excuse/rationale.

(01-25-2021 07:00 PM)Dukes84 Wrote:  Matt Lewis has improved, no doubt, but yesterday I thought he hurt the team down the stretch by taking nearly every shot (and missing nearly all of them) and missing three free throws. He reverted back to his old form in which JMU collapses at the ends of games with sizable leads. Earlier in the game he was better by involving his teammates.

Two people can see things very different.

Two of the three missed free throws were with JMU up 7 with 11 seconds to go. The game was over.

The last 9 minutes (with the game in question) he hit 7 of 8 meaningful/huge free throws for a team that was badly struggling from the the FT line the prior 30 minutes of play Saturday & Sunday in Boston.

The last 10 minutes of the game coach B put the ball in his hands, as I think he will continue to do late he games. He brought the ball up each time. I think Matt only took one outside shot the last 10 minutes, and that was with the shot clock expiring. I don't have a problem him taking the ball to the rim with the game in question.

While Morse had the game of his college career shooting, and even Amadi was hitting from out side, I like Matt taking to the hoop late in games. He hurt them because they had three players in foul trouble, and two fouled out. If some of those drives to the basket fell we are talking 3 point plays. I don't mind some Culuko wins, but those are 50-50 at best. I think we can build off taking the ball to the hoop late in games which will provide opportunities for assists to open shooters in future games.

Can easily say he was 1-8 in FGs the second half, and missed a couple FFs with 11 seconds to go if you just read the box score. But I saw a confident player that willed his team to a big win. He used a lot of the clock late in the game, and NU did not want to put a senior who had just hit 7-8 free throws back at the line the last few minutes of the game.

No matter how you see Matt's play, it was a good win for JMU.

I continue to be optimistic about this year, and the direction of the program.

Where I'm at right now is we've shown we can beat anyone in the CAA if Lewis or Morse go off. The next question is can we beat a Towson caliber team without either having a great game. That would put us in the top 4 of the CAA caliber. Not sure if we're top 4, but we are certainly at least middle of the pack, which is an improvement over recent history.

People are generally hard on Lewis on these boards. Maybe he’s a symbol for the Rowe era or that he was given too much rope by the prior staff. The missed free throws at the end were I believe from being tired after two days of two games I’m sure he won’t make that mistake again. He had a challenging weekend as teams game plan to stop him but he continues to look for his teammates/ for example there were a couple of missed conversions on assists between 3 point shots or layups Dunks that Matt facilitated. He’s a very good player and plays at a high level. He’s improved each year. It’s really undeniable but folks will always look to pick on him or label him as selfish or someone who takes a lot of bad shots. I don’t see it and I think he’ll continue to prove folks wrong.

I think Dukes84 assessment was fair. That's not a huge swipe at Lewis. He is the leader of the team and plays with a ton of confidence for good reason. But I think the "deja vu" reference was warranted. It seemed the ball movement stopped near the end when he took less desirable shots early in the shot clock. Without going back and reviewing the last few minutes, I was thinking at the time it was a bad move...even if it goes in (which they didn't). His game is great and it's not a huge knock on him to think he can even be better if he uses better judgement in closing out games. I liked the "nail in the coffin" reference. I think it does speak to his confidence which is a great asset. But I think Coach B looking at the tape might advise him to use all the tools this team has for higher percentage looks and/or get some teammates underneath for some boards at least.

(01-26-2021 01:39 PM)Halz87 Wrote:  I think Dukes84 assessment was fair. That's not a huge swipe at Lewis. He is the leader of the team and plays with a ton of confidence for good reason. But I think the "deja vu" reference was warranted. It seemed the ball movement stopped near the end when he took less desirable shots early in the shot clock. Without going back and reviewing the last few minutes, I was thinking at the time it was a bad move...even if it goes in (which they didn't). His game is great and it's not a huge knock on him to think he can even be better if he uses better judgement in closing out games. I liked the "nail in the coffin" reference. I think it does speak to his confidence which is a great asset. But I think Coach B looking at the tape might advise him to use all the tools this team has for higher percentage looks and/or get some teammates underneath for some boards at least.

Not saying fair or not fair - just two people seeing the same events different. I respect '84s opinions as much as anyone in regards to men's basketball. We usually are pretty similar in how we see things.

From their comments it seems to be a real bound emerging between Morse and Lewis. Loved that Lewis was so complimentary of what Coach B has done in building and coaching this team. It's nice to see a confident bunch for Men's basketball. It's been awhile. I found myself hoping Sunday that Matt might come back for one more season, but I know that is a longshot at best.

I am pleased to see that JMU men's basketball seems to be relevant once again. Hat's off to coach B.

(01-29-2021 08:55 AM)JMUTEKE Wrote:  I am pleased to see that JMU men's basketball seems to be relevant once again. Hat's off to coach B.

Welcome back TEKE!

(01-29-2021 09:00 AM)Dukester Wrote:  

(01-29-2021 08:55 AM)JMUTEKE Wrote:  I am pleased to see that JMU men's basketball seems to be relevant once again. Hat's off to coach B.

Welcome back TEKE!

Amen! Where have you been brother? Hope you are well.

Blast from the past. Good to hear you chiming in Teke!