completely different team on the floor tonight than the last game or two at home.

(01-09-2016 06:53 PM)Hart Foundation Wrote:  Back on track. Need to win on the road in Boston or New York next week

@ Northeastern is IMO the toughest game on the conference schedule for the Dukes. Big road trip so it's good to get a comfortable home win against Skerry and the paper Tigers.

(01-09-2016 07:10 PM)Deez Nuts Wrote:  completely different team on the floor tonight than the last game or two at home.

agreed. determination and fight. good to see Kent being aggressive and showing some fight.

As bad as the 2 home CAA losses were to start the conference season, JMU is only one game out of first. There are no more undefeated teams after only 4 games.

(01-09-2016 10:11 PM)Hart Foundation Wrote:  As bad as the 2 home CAA losses were to start the conference season, JMU is only one game out of first. There are no more undefeated teams after only 4 games.

The CAA and the Northeast are the only two conferences with nobody undefeated in conference.

The silver lining in this years conference losses to date (I know it's early) is despite how you feel about the JMU team you have to admit that they could easily go on the road and win at Elon and at Charleston to even the score with these teams.

Next week will tell us a lot in terms of how competitive they are @ Northeastern and Hofstra. I think they will be. Last year they couldn't compete with the top 3 in the conference. This year I think will prove to be different- which helps in terms of chances at the regular season title and also chances at the conference tournament title in Baltimore.

The margin for error with any team in this league including Drexel is not much. The players better be mentally prepared for a dog fight every night. What disturbed me the most about the two losses was the lack of energy. The body language was just horrible. Yesterday I saw a team wanting to win and competing hard.

The officiating was bad. So many calls that were head scratchers and our team remains careless with the ball at times. Making good passes needs to remain an emphasis in practice time. I did see more guys going to the rim for rebounds yesterday. Our bigs still had trouble finishing at the rim on shots but at least they were rebounding and not giving a bunch of second chances.

We match up well with Towson. They are big and physical but not quick. Defensively, you can guard right at the 3 point line and not have to extend which cuts down the lanes for dribble drives and entry passes. It also makes it easier to rebound because Towson can't spread you out if they don't have shooters.

Hofstra will be a challenge if we try to go big on them. I say we try to match their quickness and see if our athletes are better than their athletes. I believe we would have beaten Charleston and Elon had we gone with a smaller line up. I think our guards are as good as any in the league. Instead, long rebounds led to second shots as their quicker players got to the ball first.

Looking forward to how the Dukes fare on the road against 2 of the CAA ' s top teams.

JMU is definitely better this year. Are they good enough to steal some road games? The Dukes can't play poorly and still win these games unlike some other conference opponents.

(01-09-2016 10:11 PM)Hart Foundation Wrote:  As bad as the 2 home CAA losses were to start the conference season, JMU is only one game out of first. There are no more undefeated teams after only 4 games.

True but I think those two losses will haunt us because we still have 6 games vs Hofstra, Northeastern and the Tribe. To me, they are the top 3 teams and we will be lucky to win two of the six. All other games will be hard to win as well. On the bright side, we have won 10 out of 12.

(01-10-2016 10:20 AM)Hart Foundation Wrote:  Looking forward to how the Dukes fare on the road against 2 of the CAA ' s top teams.

JMU is definitely better this year. Are they good enough to steal some road games? The Dukes can't play poorly and still win these games unlike some other conference opponents.

I have actually more confidence in JMU on the road than at home. They seem more focused, have more energy, and shoot better from outside away from the Convo.

They were a solid road team last year as well. I don't think they'll lay an egg on the road this week I think they'll play competitively. Northeastern and Hofstra will both be tough games though.