Dukes fall to a very good St Bonaventure team, 56-54 and are now 5-2 on the season. Gwathmey scored her 1000 career point in the loss.

That will happen when 2 players go a combined 11 for 50 shooting. Perez was 2 for 21. Clearly it was not her night. Wish she had opted to find some open teammates instead of gunning it so much. We have numerous other talented players. Oh well. Feels weird to lose to a OOC game that's not to a P5 team.

Score was actually 56-45. A 2-21 and a 9-29. 19 misses and 20 misses. How do you let two players chuck up that many shots?

St. Bonaventure is a good team, but not a great team. Drexel handled them pretty easily this year.

JMU's blowout loss to UCLA, loss to St Bonaventure, and dramatic comeback needed to beat Hampton should be concerning.

JMU's best win is against a 3-5 Liberty team and currently have a SOS ranked 309.

Red flag doesn't need to go up yet but this team has yet to show that they will be the same caliber that we have come to expect over the last few years...

(12-07-2015 10:52 PM)Dukesfan71 Wrote:  Score was actually 56-45. A 2-21 and a 9-29. 19 misses and 20 misses. How do you let two players chuck up that many shots?

I only watched the second half but a ton of those shots were not remotely close. Reasonably open looks that just were way off. Barron and Perez combined for 2-19 from 3pt. Some work to do from range.

JMU won offensive rebounds 18-2 and turnovers 12-23. That's how you shoot 23% from the field and have the ball only down 6 with a couple minutes to play.

Personally I'd like to see some more inside out play. Is Griffin just not able to post up and battle to the hoop for a score? Because outside of Mickens' speed I'm just not seeing any real penetration to the hoop.

(12-08-2015 12:07 AM)DolleyMadison Wrote:  St. Bonaventure is a good team, but not a great team. Drexel handled them pretty easily this year.

JMU's blowout loss to UCLA, loss to St Bonaventure, and dramatic comeback needed to beat Hampton should be concerning.

JMU's best win is against a 3-5 Liberty team and currently have a SOS ranked 309.

Red flag doesn't need to go up yet but this team has yet to show that they will be the same caliber that we have come to expect over the last few years...

Agree. It could be a tough year by Kenny's standards. You lose the CAA player of the year to injury, it obviously will hurt. We may end up being middle of the pack in the CAA, which is fine. I am looking forward to the Richmond game Sunday.

I disagree that we'll be in the middle of the CAA, I still think we'll be towards the top, if not right on top. We blew out American, and 3 other CAA teams that are all supposed to be pretty good had much closer games with them. Plus, by losing these games now rather than in the CAA, Kenny will hopefully be able to make adjustments for when bad shooting nights happen. None of the other CAA teams with good records have played many good teams, and those that have played the upper teams have lost by a lot.

(12-08-2015 09:16 AM)GoJMUDukes Wrote:  I disagree that we'll be in the middle of the CAA, I still think we'll be towards the top, if not right on top. We blew out American, and 3 other CAA teams that are all supposed to be pretty good had much closer games with them. Plus, by losing these games now rather than in the CAA, Kenny will hopefully be able to make adjustments for when bad shooting nights happen. None of the other CAA teams with good records have played many good teams, and those that have played the upper teams have lost by a lot.

American is 0-8...

We're 5th in RPI right now in the conference and while I don;t think that is an accurate ranking, we are not playing good enough to be a top 3 CAA team right now.

We're still leading the pack of CAA teams in the mid-major top 25 poll updated tonight. We're 8th, Hofstra is 21st, and William and Mary and Drexel are both receiving votes. We only dropped 2 spots with the loss.

RPI means little at this time of year. I'd say the odds are definately against an at large bid for this team, but I expect this team to show a lot of improvement this year - more so than most. I'd say we'll have the best shot come tournament. If this team has no more injuries it will go on a long winning streak in conference play.

Kenny will have fun with this team.

(12-08-2015 08:29 PM)Dukester Wrote:  RPI means little at this time of year. I'd say the odds are definately against an at large bid for this team, but I expect this team to show a lot of improvement this year - more so than most. I'd say we'll have the best shot come tournament. If this team has no more injuries it will go on a long winning streak in conference play.

Kenny will have fun with this team.

RPI is not as accurate early on in the season but look back at the past couple of years:

2016
RPI 5 weeks into the season - 185
Final RPI - ???

2015
RPI 5 weeks into the season - 27
Final RPI - 31

2014
RPI 5 weeks into the season - 76
Final RPI - 38

2013
RPI 5 weeks into the season - 82
Final RPI - 63

At this rate, it will be hard for the women to crack 100.

if there's one program at JMU that it is NOT time to worry about the sky falling yet, it is Kenny Brooks' program.

(12-09-2015 12:07 PM)Deez Nuts Wrote:  if there's one program at JMU that it is NOT time to worry about the sky falling yet, it is Kenny Brooks' program.

Agree.....and the best player is out for the season....so a lot of adjusting and learning on the fly going on.

We are so low in the RPI because we have a terrible SOS so far. This current stretch of 4 games will help. @St Bonaventure, @Richmond and then a neutral site tournament where we play WVU and Baylor will instantly raise our SOS ranking at least 100 spots. If we can beat Richmond and find a way to upset WVU, we will be back to where we usually are in the RPI.

Hopefully the team gets healthy this week and can put in a good performance against Richmond this weekend.

(12-09-2015 12:10 PM)ShadyP Wrote:  

(12-09-2015 12:07 PM)Deez Nuts Wrote:  if there's one program at JMU that it is NOT time to worry about the sky falling yet, it is Kenny Brooks' program.

Agree.....and the best player is out for the season....so a lot of adjusting and learning on the fly going on.

Can someone on here not critique things without the claim that the sky is falling? But one cannot argue that the women are not playing great basketball right now.

That UCLA team that beat us by 30 only a 1-8 Cal State Bakersfield team by 14 and a 3-3 LA Tech team by 11.

Saint Bonaventure lost to 3-4 (and conference rival) Drexel.

We needed a miraculous comeback to beat (now) 1-7 Hampton team.

I'm not claiming the sky is falling, the women are bad, Kenny isn't any good, or anything else you could possibly read into my comments.

However, I would not be surprised if the men end up with a higher RPI by the end of the season and have a better season overall.

(12-09-2015 02:18 PM)DolleyMadison Wrote:  

(12-09-2015 12:10 PM)ShadyP Wrote:  

(12-09-2015 12:07 PM)Deez Nuts Wrote:  if there's one program at JMU that it is NOT time to worry about the sky falling yet, it is Kenny Brooks' program.

Agree.....and the best player is out for the season....so a lot of adjusting and learning on the fly going on.

Can someone on here not critique things without the claim that the sky is falling? But one cannot argue that the women are not playing great basketball right now.

That UCLA team that beat us by 30 only a 1-8 Cal State Bakersfield team by 14 and a 3-3 LA Tech team by 11.

Saint Bonaventure lost to 3-4 (and conference rival) Drexel.

We needed a miraculous comeback to beat (now) 1-7 Hampton team.

I'm not claiming the sky is falling, the women are bad, Kenny isn't any good, or anything else you could possibly read into my comments.

However, I would not be surprised if the men end up with a higher RPI by the end of the season and have a better season overall.

Dolley -- I did not take it like that at all. But more so than in the recent past Kenny has his work cut out for him b/c with Hall on the shelf this team is a work in progress. I don't think we will have a good handle on this team until mid/late January. I am not surprised in the least by the erratic ups/down thus far this season. With Hall out, I am just spit balling here, but Kenny has to find a way to replace about 25% of the offensive output.

(12-09-2015 02:45 PM)ShadyP Wrote:  

(12-09-2015 02:18 PM)DolleyMadison Wrote:  

(12-09-2015 12:10 PM)ShadyP Wrote:  

(12-09-2015 12:07 PM)Deez Nuts Wrote:  if there's one program at JMU that it is NOT time to worry about the sky falling yet, it is Kenny Brooks' program.

Agree.....and the best player is out for the season....so a lot of adjusting and learning on the fly going on.

Can someone on here not critique things without the claim that the sky is falling? But one cannot argue that the women are not playing great basketball right now.

That UCLA team that beat us by 30 only a 1-8 Cal State Bakersfield team by 14 and a 3-3 LA Tech team by 11.

Saint Bonaventure lost to 3-4 (and conference rival) Drexel.

We needed a miraculous comeback to beat (now) 1-7 Hampton team.

I'm not claiming the sky is falling, the women are bad, Kenny isn't any good, or anything else you could possibly read into my comments.

However, I would not be surprised if the men end up with a higher RPI by the end of the season and have a better season overall.

Dolley -- I did not take it like that at all. But more so than in the recent past Kenny has his work cut out for him b/c with Hall on the shelf this team is a work in progress. I don't think we will have a good handle on this team until mid/late January. I am not surprised in the least by the erratic ups/down thus far this season. With Hall out, I am just spit balling here, but Kenny has to find a way to replace about 25% of the offensive output.

We miss that signature inside presence we had for the previous four seasons.

Women crushed Richmond today. They played great. Jazz was smooth and Mickens had 10 assists. Destiny Jones played and that helped. Impressed.

Glad to see Destiny made it into a game finally. The Lady Dukes will appreciate her toughness and team play!!

Brian