A common refrain on these boards is to hammer the JMU MBB program because it doesn't measure up to the team you followed when you were a coed- those were the good old days and I'm sorry that I missed most of them.

The good news is that in 2020-21 JMU MBB will have a new arena and they are building towards something. There is some promising young talent on this roster and it will be fun to watch them develop. It remains to be seen whether Rowe can get this team to win and this program on the up swing again and whether the young talent will stay in the program (an issue for the prior coaching staff) but I am cautiously optimistic. The team struggled offensively last season and Rowe is a defensive minded coach. Early on I'm happy that this years team has shown the ability to score on offense but the lack of experience and interior play has really hurt them. They have also cleaned up the turnovers from last year- proving that when last year's team struggled getting shots from 3 or with ball control it was more a product of the personnel (lack of athleticism) than the system or the coaching. There are 3 seasons in hoops- OOC, Conference, and Conference Tournament. I wouldn't expect the fans that still hope for the good old days to follow this team consistently but the schedule allows you to have hope at the start of each new season. The experience this team is gaining should yield improvement with each season this year.

The Dukes next game vs. Mason at home looks to be their toughest opponent leading up to the road game at Florida on 12/20 (final OOC D1 opponent). At Citadel, vs Charlotte, at Richmond, and at FIU should be all games the Dukes have a chance to win. Tough loss vs. Radford but let's see how the guys play vs. Mason later this week.

Blah, blah, blah. We should never lose to Radford. They're a crappy school in a bush league conference (which is saying something when you're in the CAA), in a little dying town, with an enrollment less than half of ours and an athletics budget a third or a fourth the size of ours. Lou Rowe was a celebrity hire with no head coaching experience. This is what you get.

Congrats to Matt Lewis...CAA Rookie of the Week.

http://www.jmusports.com/news/2017/11/27...onors.aspx

(11-27-2017 01:40 PM)Dukes94 Wrote:  Blah, blah, blah. We should never lose to Radford. They're a crappy school in a bush league conference (which is saying something when you're in the CAA), in a little dying town, with an enrollment less than half of ours and an athletics budget a third or a fourth the size of ours. Lou Rowe was a celebrity hire with no head coaching experience. This is what you get.

Gotcha- JMU MBB has been losing games to teams like this for the the last 20 years. The last JMU tournament team lost at Hampton.

Simply put, JMU should never lose.

(11-27-2017 06:54 PM)NJDuke97 Wrote:  

(11-27-2017 01:40 PM)Dukes94 Wrote:  Blah, blah, blah. We should never lose to Radford. They're a crappy school in a bush league conference (which is saying something when you're in the CAA), in a little dying town, with an enrollment less than half of ours and an athletics budget a third or a fourth the size of ours. Lou Rowe was a celebrity hire with no head coaching experience. This is what you get.

Gotcha- JMU MBB has been losing games to teams like this for the the last 20 years. The last JMU tournament team lost at Hampton.

Losses to the Hamptons and the Radfords are exceptions to the rule for good teams--slip-ups that will happen to good teams over the course of a season. The only one of Lefty's teams to make the NCAAs lost to American. But that was en route to a 10-4 conference record.

Losses to Radford are going to be the norm with Louis Rowe.