(01-21-2023 05:11 PM)HyperDuke Wrote:  This team can be exciting, but they aren’t consistent and they’re generally sloppy. I watched the NFL game instead of this one while JMU Basketball was at halftime vs Troy.

Good thing you're here to defend women's basketball by putting down the men after a poorly worded thread title by one poster. Cause people use men's basketball's success to put down the women so often at JMU. Gotta make sure they're using one JMU team to **** on another JMU team properly!

I was on the road all day today so barely got to watch any, did get to listen to most though. If you told me Wednesday we'd go 1-1 on this tough road trip I'd have been pretty happy with that, but doing it by getting dominated one of the games not so much.

Less and less room for error for the all important top four seed. Not sure how many more to think we can drop, but we still have the return game against a strong Marshall team and we still have 6-2/16-4 Louisiana coming to Harrisonburg. Can't be dropping anymore that should be sure things like those TXST and App State losses. At least Freidel has started to heat up some games, hopefully his shooting can be a big impact from here on out.

(01-21-2023 10:56 PM)KickItToScotty Wrote:  

(01-21-2023 05:11 PM)HyperDuke Wrote:  This team can be exciting, but they aren’t consistent and they’re generally sloppy. I watched the NFL game instead of this one while JMU Basketball was at halftime vs Troy.

Good thing you're here to defend women's basketball by putting down the men after a poorly worded thread title by one poster. Cause people use men's basketball's success to put down the women so often at JMU. Gotta make sure they're using one JMU team to **** on another JMU team properly!

Sorry if it comes across that way. I want the men’s team to do well too.

(01-21-2023 09:07 PM)Bawlmer Duke Wrote:  Byington knows the league. He’s building from nothing.

I assume if you were to compare basketball budgets to final RPI, NET, etc. for the last 25 years, JMU would be the most underperforming team in all of D1. We obviously hadn't made huge investments until the new arena, but we've spent enough that we should have better results.

So yeah, there's no doubt Byington is rebuilding. That said, it's his third season. If there's no clear upward trajectory by the end of this season, I think it's time for a change.

(01-22-2023 12:32 AM)We Are the Dukes of JMU Wrote:  

(01-21-2023 09:07 PM)Bawlmer Duke Wrote:  Byington knows the league. He’s building from nothing.

I assume if you were to compare basketball budgets to final RPI, NET, etc. for the last 25 years, JMU would be the most underperforming team in all of D1. We obviously hadn't made huge investments until the new arena, but we've spent enough that we should have better results.

So yeah, there's no doubt Byington is rebuilding. That said, it's his third season. If there's no clear upward trajectory by the end of this season, I think it's time for a change.

Your last sentence is a laugh. By the end of this season should JMU finishes with its 3rd consecutive winning season under Coach B would you not define that as an “upward trajectory”?

To date the team is 4-4 in conference. It’s 2-2 on the road, with both road wins against two of the leagues best teams. Sometimes fan perspective gets a little distorted when measured against hopes and dreams. I see real progress with MBB. There’s not a team in the country that can take JMU MBB as an easy out.

(01-21-2023 06:15 PM)JasonBonely Wrote:  Whoa, I always thought that guy's name was Brent Farr. Learn something new every day.

Till the day I die- can’t figure out how the “r” is pronounced before the “v” in Favre.

I was out and about and didn’t catch the game, but I looked at the box score and one thing really stands out to me: 11 assists to Southern Miss’s 23. Kinda sums up the season. And you can get by on 11 assists if you have a couple of studs who are buckets, but we don’t have those guys.

(01-22-2023 02:39 AM)olddawg Wrote:  

(01-21-2023 06:15 PM)JasonBonely Wrote:  Whoa, I always thought that guy's name was Brent Farr. Learn something new every day.

Till the day I die- can’t figure out how the “r” is pronounced before the “v” in Favre.

A friend of mine was pronouncing Chargers QB Justin Herbert’s name “Ay-Bear” like former NFL QB Bobby Hebert, but I told him no, it’s just Herbert. Like Herbert the Pervert.

You should ask over on the Louisiana forum. It stumps me too.

(01-22-2023 09:01 AM)Dukes94 Wrote:  I was out and about and didn’t catch the game, but I looked at the box score and one thing really stands out to me: 11 assists to Southern Miss’s 23. Kinda sums up the season. And you can get by on 11 assists if you have a couple of studs who are buckets, but we don’t have those guys.

What stood out to me was Southern Miss shot 60 percent from the field. That was impressive. My other observation is that our bigs are getting knocked around. We need to get tougher inside. And Morse can’t go 0-6 from the field! Go Dukes!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

(01-22-2023 02:39 AM)olddawg Wrote:  

(01-21-2023 06:15 PM)JasonBonely Wrote:  Whoa, I always thought that guy's name was Brent Farr. Learn something new every day.

Till the day I die- can’t figure out how the “r” is pronounced before the “v” in Favre.

Because it's French, and the French love nothing more than pissing off English-speakers.

(01-22-2023 01:50 AM)Longhorn Wrote:  

(01-22-2023 12:32 AM)We Are the Dukes of JMU Wrote:  

(01-21-2023 09:07 PM)Bawlmer Duke Wrote:  Byington knows the league. He’s building from nothing.

I assume if you were to compare basketball budgets to final RPI, NET, etc. for the last 25 years, JMU would be the most underperforming team in all of D1. We obviously hadn't made huge investments until the new arena, but we've spent enough that we should have better results.

So yeah, there's no doubt Byington is rebuilding. That said, it's his third season. If there's no clear upward trajectory by the end of this season, I think it's time for a change.

Your last sentence is a laugh. By the end of this season should JMU finishes with its 3rd consecutive winning season under Coach B would you not define that as an “upward trajectory”?

To date the team is 4-4 in conference. It’s 2-2 on the road, with both road wins against two of the leagues best teams. Sometimes fan perspective gets a little distorted when measured against hopes and dreams. I see real progress with MBB. There’s not a team in the country that can take JMU MBB as an easy out.

I agree. Also, is it possible our conference football success has Belt teams gunning for us? Did you see any of the antics in the crowd at S. Miss? Those people act like we are a long time rival or something. I think they hate us already.

And, the zebras are killing us the past two games. We get called for breathing on an opponent, yet opponents can maul our players with no call. It must be frustrating for our players, but success may have put that bullseye squarely on our backs.

"Those upstart Dukes, who the hell do they think they are coming into our conference and dominating from the jump!? F**k them very much!"

(01-21-2023 11:08 PM)HyperDuke Wrote:  

(01-21-2023 10:56 PM)KickItToScotty Wrote:  

(01-21-2023 05:11 PM)HyperDuke Wrote:  This team can be exciting, but they aren’t consistent and they’re generally sloppy. I watched the NFL game instead of this one while JMU Basketball was at halftime vs Troy.

Good thing you're here to defend women's basketball by putting down the men after a poorly worded thread title by one poster. Cause people use men's basketball's success to put down the women so often at JMU. Gotta make sure they're using one JMU team to **** on another JMU team properly!

Sorry if it comes across that way. I want the men’s team to do well too.

All good, glad that wasn't the intent. Just a huge pet peeve of mine when people use the women's success to insult the men's team or go out of their way to point out that they don't support the men, only the women(or that there's any JMU program they don't support).

(01-22-2023 01:50 AM)Longhorn Wrote:  

(01-22-2023 12:32 AM)We Are the Dukes of JMU Wrote:  

(01-21-2023 09:07 PM)Bawlmer Duke Wrote:  Byington knows the league. He’s building from nothing.

I assume if you were to compare basketball budgets to final RPI, NET, etc. for the last 25 years, JMU would be the most underperforming team in all of D1. We obviously hadn't made huge investments until the new arena, but we've spent enough that we should have better results.

So yeah, there's no doubt Byington is rebuilding. That said, it's his third season. If there's no clear upward trajectory by the end of this season, I think it's time for a change.

Your last sentence is a laugh. By the end of this season should JMU finishes with its 3rd consecutive winning season under Coach B would you not define that as an “upward trajectory”?

To date the team is 4-4 in conference. It’s 2-2 on the road, with both road wins against two of the leagues best teams. Sometimes fan perspective gets a little distorted when measured against hopes and dreams. I see real progress with MBB. There’s not a team in the country that can take JMU MBB as an easy out.

I'm glad you see it. I'm hoping I do too by the end of the season. We'll see.

It's a little tough to know how to feel about Byington and the MBB program overall right now imo. Yeah there's absolutely progress since the Lou Rowe era, but holy hell I would sure hope so! I think our standards should be high, especially now with the new arena, but it's also hard to expect an instant turnaround. I think we all came in to the year at least thinking a top 4 seed and a solid showing in Pensacola should be reasonable expectations so we'll see if the guys can meet those or at least come very close on the seed and show well in the tourney. I don't think we expected Marshall and Southern Miss to be as strong as they are so that's good but also makes the seed tougher to get.

One big thing to me is seeing how his HS recruits develop in a year or two. We have a team full of Byington's guys + Wooden, but a ton of them getting playing time are transfers. Maybe that's something he plans to continue long term, but if his plan was for that to be more of a temporary thing to accelerate the turnaround then let's see if we keep showing progress with Blaine and Roberson next year along with whoever he brings in with Morse, Molson, Offurum, Sule gone. Last year's guys were clearly a swing and a miss. Brown looks like more of a home run while Strickland, Amadi, and Edwards have panned out very well.

I think the progress we see the rest of this year and then next year will really decide it for me either way. If he does plan to build mostly through HS recruits long term and this year ends up 1/3 while last year was 0/3 then that's not a good sign, especially if he doesn't do any better next year. If a transfer heavy roster is going to be more of an ongoing thing for him though, then we're already getting to where we have a roster loaded with his guys and built the way he wants to build it. Years three and four should probably be getting to where we want to be.

I think JMU was absolutely right to not be satisfied with where Brady had the program so we should want to see Byington clearly raise the bar from the Brady era, not from the Keener and Rowe eras. Especially with the new arena. I'm optimistic, but definitely not totally sold.

Why can’t we expect a quick turnaround? I don’t buy that you can’t in hoops.

Football? Yes. Much harder because of the number of players. But in hoops, turnarounds can, and often do, happen in 1 year.

Case in point, the team we just lost to. Everyone’s fav in the Sun Belt now. And a school without a great hoops tradition at all.

Last 3 years against D1 schools:

2021-22: 5-26
2020-21: 6-17
2019-20: 6-22

That’s Keener-esque. Rowe-like.

But this year: 14-4 and looking like strong contenders for ncaa bid.

It’s year 3 for By. In a jewel of a venue. Excuses don’t exist anymore. It’s time to win. Period. Or seat rightfully should be very warm.

Instant turnarounds are possible, I just don't know if I'd say it's very reasonable to flat out expect it and demand it though. There are examples of really good coaches who instantly turned a program around and really good coaches who took a few years. Just my opinion though, and in either case Byington is in year three so it's getting to where we need to see him meeting our standards now or soon.

How quickly it’s been forgotten how poor the overall team talent had fallen under Rowe.

And enter Coach B…along with the restrictions on recruiting due to COVID. JMU fans were losing their mud over what kind of misfit recruits Coach B would bring in. Only to see Coach B’s inaugural team finish first in the regular CAA season.

Followed by year two, when a healthy JMU team posted an early season historic win over UVA, only to see COVID and injuries devastate the rest of the season. A difficult season which was compounded by the CAA screwing JMU out of post-season tournament eligibility. Still, the team posted a winning record. And Coach B recruited more talent (transfers and HS studs) to fill needs and prepare for SBC play.

Now in year three, the team’s new recruits (transfers like Mezzie and Friedel, as well as Freshman Brown) have come together to post a winning record. Yes, there have been disappointing losses (a couple of those losses being real head-scratchers), but the team has also posted some solid road wins over top conference opponents.

To date, the team’s depth, level of talent, versatility, and NET Year over last is much improved.

As I’ve shared before, this edition of JMU MBB is not flawless, but it is competitive. It fights. It generally plays solid D. And it has a legit shot at winning the SBC tournament if things fall the right way.

From my seat, virtually all metrics indicate that JMU MBB is moving in the right direction. Those JMU fans who think progress should be faster, or more pronounced, or that there is too much reliance on transfers vs HS recruits…yadda, yadda, yadda…are entitled to share their opinions. That’s what sports message boards are all about. My recommendation, however, is that at this point in the 2022-23 season, the focus should be on more rooting, and less second guessing. There will be plenty of time for an autopsy at seasons end.

(01-22-2023 01:16 PM)Purple Wrote:  

(01-22-2023 02:39 AM)olddawg Wrote:  

(01-21-2023 06:15 PM)JasonBonely Wrote:  Whoa, I always thought that guy's name was Brent Farr. Learn something new every day.

Till the day I die- can’t figure out how the “r” is pronounced before the “v” in Favre.

Because it's French, and the French love nothing more than pissing off English-speakers.

But that’s not how it would be pronounced in French. This is pretty specifically olddawg’s point.

(01-22-2023 01:39 PM)KickItToScotty Wrote:  

(01-21-2023 11:08 PM)HyperDuke Wrote:  

(01-21-2023 10:56 PM)KickItToScotty Wrote:  

(01-21-2023 05:11 PM)HyperDuke Wrote:  This team can be exciting, but they aren’t consistent and they’re generally sloppy. I watched the NFL game instead of this one while JMU Basketball was at halftime vs Troy.

Good thing you're here to defend women's basketball by putting down the men after a poorly worded thread title by one poster. Cause people use men's basketball's success to put down the women so often at JMU. Gotta make sure they're using one JMU team to **** on another JMU team properly!

Sorry if it comes across that way. I want the men’s team to do well too.

All good, glad that wasn't the intent. Just a huge pet peeve of mine when people use the women's success to insult the men's team or go out of their way to point out that they don't support the men, only the women(or that there's any JMU program they don't support).

Yeah, my posting yesterday about “JMU Basketball” wasn’t to diminish the men. Hart had been intentionally unfriendly to our historically successful women’s basketball team with his two most recent thread titles. If what I was doing was rude toward the men, it stands to reason that what he does with thread titles is rude toward the women. He’s a pretty weird guy though, so maybe I should just let him be strange without pointing out the strangeness.

(01-22-2023 01:16 PM)Purple Wrote:  Because it's French, and the French love nothing more than pissing off English-speakers.

They're good at it. It's funny - being a common latin-based language, it's not hard to read it if you know a couple others. But spoken French is just undecipherable to me. I think it's how they have different word boundary sounds or something.