James Madison Dukes
Overall Record vs. D-I: 13-10
CAA Record: 6-4 (4th)
RPI: 158
SOS: 135
KenPom: 182

JMU doesn't have a win against any of the teams above them in the standings (0-4) but doesn't have any losses against teams below them either (6-0), giving them a nice spot in the standings but having provided little evidence that they can contend in Baltimore. This will be their opportunity to knock off a legitimate contender. The Dukes are coming off their worst performance of the season; a blowout loss at home to rival William & Mary, 84-65.

In conference-only games, the Dukes are a middling team; 7th in scoring and 5th in scoring defense. Their strengths are 3-pt shooting (2nd) and obtaining steals (3rd). Their weaknesses include free throw shooting (9th), defending threes (8th) and offensive rebounds (9th).

JMU is led by Junior guard Ron Curry, who in CAA-only games is 10th in scoring (14.7), 4th in assists (4.0), 4th in steals (1.5), 10th in 3-pt shooting (.372), and 4th in A:TO ratio (1.8). In short, the guy does it all, and has a strong likelihood of being a CAA 1st-teamer. Sophomore forward Yohanny Dalembert (12.2 ppg, 5.1 rpg) has also been a big-time performer for the Dukes in the interior. He ranks 2nd in the CAA in FG % (.640) and 2nd in blocked shots (1.5).

Head Coach Matt Brady, in the final year of his contract, has had mixed reviews this season. While JMU has beaten the teams they need to beat, they haven't been very competitive at all in their four big games against Northeastern and William & Mary, losing all four games by an average margin of 14 points. And in their most recent loss to the Tribe, he was criticized for not taking enough blame for himself. These types of deficiencies are keeping the former Marist coach from proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that he deserves to be in charge next season. Wednesday night's game against UNCW will go a long way towards showing which direction his stock is going.

Oh, and just to add a little fuel to the fire, a JMU fan said the following in their UNCW-JMU preview thread:

http://csnbbs.com/thread-725392.html

Quote:We have a matchup of 2 teams who aren't good enough to win the regular season, but could slip into the bottom 4 and the dreaded play - in games if they fade in the 2nd half of the year.

Let's go for a wainwright nostalgia game.

JMU 43
UNCW 41

Whaaaat? Talk about homerism. Seems like news to me that we're "not good enough to win the regular season".

(02-03-2015 11:46 AM)Seahawk Nation 08 Wrote:  Oh, and just to add a little fuel to the fire, a JMU fan said the following in their UNCW-JMU preview thread:

http://csnbbs.com/thread-725392.html

Quote:We have a matchup of 2 teams who aren't good enough to win the regular season, but could slip into the bottom 4 and the dreaded play - in games if they fade in the 2nd half of the year.

Let's go for a wainwright nostalgia game.

JMU 43
UNCW 41

Whaaaat? Talk about homerism. Seems like news to me that we're "not good enough to win the regular season".

Denial............... The difference between us and them is we have beaten the top half of the league

(02-03-2015 11:49 AM)Seahawkhoops Wrote:  

(02-03-2015 11:46 AM)Seahawk Nation 08 Wrote:  Oh, and just to add a little fuel to the fire, a JMU fan said the following in their UNCW-JMU preview thread:

http://csnbbs.com/thread-725392.html

Quote:We have a matchup of 2 teams who aren't good enough to win the regular season, but could slip into the bottom 4 and the dreaded play - in games if they fade in the 2nd half of the year.

Let's go for a wainwright nostalgia game.

JMU 43
UNCW 41

Whaaaat? Talk about homerism. Seems like news to me that we're "not good enough to win the regular season".

Denial............... The difference between us and them is we have beaten the top half of the league

True. But we must recover from drexel and play well to beat these guys. It's a CAA road game & by their very nature they (conference road games) are no cakewalk.

Actually this is pretty much a must-win game for the Seahawks if we harbor dreams of a regular season CAA Championship (along with its automatic NIT bid). Falling two games out of first place in the second half of the season becomes a really tough hill to climb.

Not to mention Saturday night's W&M game is a TV game where we'll be retiring Goldsberry's number. It'd be nice if on top of all that, this game is a showdown for 1st place. Only way that can happen is if we beat JMU.

We are 4 point dogs at present. Quite honestly I feel better about this team when they are underdogs.

Look, I don't think the JMU poster is too far off the mark. I've thought a few times we could win it all, but then our offense or defense collapses and we score 20 in a half or give up 50 in a half. Yes, we are 7-3, but that record includes some really close games and 2 overtime wins. Our only dominant game was against Elon. The reason I am concerned about the second half of the season, is that many of these players had not played against a press like ours with VCU gone. Well, now they have. And now coaches have a chance to use game tape to help them the next time around.

IMO, the presence of UNCW and a VCU/Louisville style press will help the CAA be better prepared to face a press in the future. That can only help the conference as a whole. But I am concerned about this team, this year. A win at JMU would give me some confidence, but I don't know that I feel like we should solidly be favored in any games from here on, except Elon.

2.5 point dogs now.

82, I'm not saying we don't have issues. What I would argue is that we've shown we have the kind of upside to beat the top teams in the league. It took an enormous comeback (one of the top 30 in NCAA history) for the best team in the league to beat us in their house. We've already beaten Northeastern on the road. We'll lose some more games this year, particularly to veteran coaches, because now there's some tape out there on how we play and the shock factor is over. But with our veteran backcourt, a sure-handed freshman in Talley, and our depth in the post, the upside is there for this team to win 3 straight in Baltimore. Will it happen? Maybe not. But we belong in that conversation with W&M and Northeastern.

JMU, meanwhile, has shown no signs that they can beat the teams they're not SUPPOSED to beat. We pretty much know what Matt Brady is capable of as a coach. Yes, they've won the league under him before, but with more talent than they currently have and in perhaps the least competitive year of basketball in a long time for the CAA (conference was ranked 22nd in the NCAA that year, no clear "best team"). It's very difficult for a coach to be in the final year of his contract (meaning he doesn't have the full endorsement of the higher-ups) and get the max out of his team. They already kicked one player off the team, and their freshman class this year was weakened by the simple fact that he couldn't promise any of the kids he brought in that he'd be there next season. Keatts is not dealing with that kind of situation at all.

Basically it was wrong for the JMU poster to lump us in with them. He made it sound like the Dukes are the type of team that have a good chance to plummet in the standings, which is probably true. But we are not in that category. The loss to Drexel didn't change much for us; we're trending up.

They have video, but they still to execute. We didn't do a good job on the trap against Drexel. Sometimes a team will figure such a press out and bust it. But I think we can shore up the press easier than most teams can break it

(02-03-2015 03:37 PM)SEA33HAWK Wrote:  They have video, but they still to execute. We didn't do a good job on the trap against Drexel. Sometimes a team will figure such a press out and bust it. But I think we can shore up the press easier than most teams can break it

Yep. And we've also proven we can beat teams a lot of different ways. I don't think we'll panic again like that when the press doesn't work.

It's been a long time since we have had other option to go to if needed.

A lot of very good points in this thread. Sorry, I've been smashed with work.

Like I said, I'm less worried about "the second time around the league", etc due to how we managed that with Hofstra, at Hofstra I might add. On top of that, this is our first crack at JMU. We'll see how they do with our press.

I think we win by 7+.

Now we are 4.5 dogs.

(02-03-2015 08:01 PM)Proff Wrote:  Now we are 4.5 dogs.

Not really surprised. Not really worried either. Interested to see if the guys take that loss at Drexel as motivation to get back on track.

JMU has been playing a ton of zone D...daring teams to beat them with the 3.

Who do they think they are, Syracuse?

Back to 4.0 dogs.

http://www.jmusports.com

Using that link will get you to an option to watch live. It's nice to see them using our new logo.

http://portal.stretchinternet.com/jmu/

That link will get you directly to the live option without seeing our logo.

Game time is 6:30 est. 3:30 est for me. Glad I'm taking a couple vacation days and won't miss any of the first half.