The Good Guys return to the Convo for the first time since defeating Radford back on December 4th.
The Seahawks are of course led by 6'7" Sr. Forward, Devontae Cacok. I mean this as a compliment when I say I'll be so glad when he is gone after this season. Just an absolute beast in the paint.
Cacok is averaging a double-double (14.6 ppg & 11.1 rpg). In last year's first meeting in Wilmington, Cacok went for 26 pts and 24 boards in the Hawks' 3 pt win over the guys in purple. Later in the season at the Convo, a game that had to be rescheduled due to mumps outbreak at JMU, Cacok went for 16 pts and 8 rebounds in the Dukes' 1 pt win.
That win by the Dukes broke a 7-game winning streak by UNCW. UNCW leads the all-time series, 40-34. JMU is 20-13 vs the Hawks in Harrisonburg.
UNCW's 2nd leading scorer is 6'7" Jr. Forward, Jeantal Cylla, at 13.1 ppg. He is money at the FT line having hit 47 of 53 for an impressive 88.7% clip. UNCW's 3rd leading scorer is 6'1" Soph. Guard, Ty Gadsden, who is 23 of 40 from outside the arc for an impressive 57.5%.
It will be interesting to see if Rowe deploys Phillips and Wilson in the game at the same time as we saw for (I believe) the first time at Elon. I thought they were effective on the offensive end together.
The Seahawks are 4-10 (3-10 vs D1) and are - like JMU - in desperate need of a win as they've lost 6 straight. Though, 5 of those 6 losses were against Top 100 RPI teams, 4 of them on the road, and the other against a non-Top 100 RPI team was a 4 pt loss at Mercer. Don't let their record fool you.
I expect this game to open as a Pick 'Em or perhaps the Dukes might be a 1 pt favorite. It will be close. I expect the game to down to the wire and maybe into overtime.
(01-01-2019 04:35 PM)Wear Purple Wrote: The Good Guys return to the Convo for the first time since defeating Radford back on December 4th.
The Seahawks are of course led by 6'7" Sr. Forward, Devontae Cacok. I mean this as a compliment when I say I'll be so glad when he is gone after this season. Just an absolute beast in the paint.
Cacok is averaging a double-double (14.6 ppg & 11.1 rpg). In last year's first meeting in Wilmington, Cacok went for 26 pts and 24 boards in the Hawks' 3 pt win over the guys in purple. Later in the season at the Convo, a game that had to be rescheduled due to mumps outbreak at JMU, Cacok went for 16 pts and 8 rebounds in the Dukes' 1 pt win.
That win by the Dukes broke a 7-game winning streak by UNCW. UNCW leads the all-time series, 40-34. JMU is 20-13 vs the Hawks in Harrisonburg.
UNCW's 2nd leading scorer is 6'7" Jr. Forward, Jeantal Cylla, at 13.1 ppg. He is money at the FT line having hit 47 of 53 for an impressive 88.7% clip. UNCW's 3rd leading scorer is 6'1" Soph. Guard, Ty Gadsden, who is 23 of 40 from outside the arc for an impressive 57.5%.
It will be interesting to see if Rowe deploys Phillips and Wilson in the game at the same time as we saw for (I believe) the first time at Elon. I thought they were effective on the offensive end together.
The Seahawks are 4-10 (3-10 vs D1) and are - like JMU - in desperate need of a win as they've lost 6 straight. Though, 5 of those 6 losses were against Top 100 RPI teams, 4 of them on the road, and the other against a non-Top 100 RPI team was a 4 pt loss at Mercer. Don't let their record fool you.
I expect this game to open as a Pick 'Em or perhaps the Dukes might be a 1 pt favorite. It will be close. I expect the game to down to the wire and maybe into overtime.
Go Dukes!
Really nice write-up! Just a note regarding the bold: Ty Gadsden has been hurt the last several games for us, and his return is indefinite.
He's been a near-catastrophic loss for us, as he is not only a terrific offensive threat, he's also been our best on-ball defender.
The other player to watch out for, especially with Gadsden out, is PG Kai Toews. He's just a freshman but his handles, court vision and passing are ridiculous. He's already nearly broken the single season assist record at UNCW a couple times this season.
Some Toews highlights from earlier in the season, in case anyone cares to see them:
(This post was last modified: 01-02-2019 09:51 AM by Seahawk Nation 08.)
(01-02-2019 09:47 AM)Seahawk Nation 08 Wrote: He's already nearly broken the single season assist record at UNCW a couple times this season.
You mean the game assist record, not season record.
The Sagarin, ESPN's Basketball Power Index, and Seven Overtimes pick you. RealTimeRPI picks UNCW.
Yes, that's what he meant. He's also among the national leaders in assists on the season. Point being, he's 100% guaranteed to cause JMU some fits on defense.
*Freshman point guard, DeShon Parker, led the team in minutes at Elon with 37 (off the bench). That is almost double of Greg Jones (13) and Zach Jacobs (7) combined.
*Darius Banks is shooting a very good 46% from outside the arc. He leads the team in that statistic as no other Duke is shooting over 40%. It is strange how we are not setting him up for more attempts - and, how he is turning down attempts when available. In JMU's first 5 games, he took 18 of his 37 (roughly half) 3-pt attempts making 10 of the 18. While he attempted 3 shots from outside the arc this past Sunday at Elon, in JMU's last 5 games he has attempted a total of 6 (making 3). This guy is a weapon from the outside. Let's get him some open looks and he needs to take them. He should be gunning at least 6 or 7 3-pointers a game.
*What a start to the CAA schedule for Dwight Wilson. Last weekend in the 2 games, he went 17 of 21 from the field, grabbed 19 boards, and scored 35 points. He's got his work cut out for him against Cacok tomorrow night though. We'll see if Phillips plays the 4 some with Wilson at the 5 more moving forward.
One thing is for certain, we do not want Wilson defending Cacock. He ran laps around Wilson last year and it looked like warp speed vs slow motion in the paint.
Develle Phillips will probably foul out but that is okay if he prevents easy put backs on offensive rebounds. JMU will have to get Jacobs or Jones to play the role of goon in the other minutes. If they play chippy enough they can get Cacock to foul out with them and he has a propensity to get a lot of fouls because he is so active in the paint. Hopefully Rowe learned from last year and will soft double Cacock even when he doesn’t have the ball to keep him off the boards.
The Dukes will be best served to ugly up the game in the paint and win with their guards.
I have only seen PG Toews play a few minutes so it will be interesting to see if he will be as effective in conference play. It is hard to quantify a value on PG play, but I think it is the most important position on the floor. Does this mean we won’t see the mighty might community college PG that UNCW has to play long stretches last year?
UNCW has lost 6 in a row.
JMU has lost 4 in a row.
The good news is that somebody has to win this game.
The Dukes absolutely need to win as the remaining 17 people in our fanbase have recently snapped. The angry mob is getting restless.
JMU 74
UNCW 68
Dukes havent given me a reason to pick them all season. I'll watch though because its a thursday and I hate myself. This is first CAA game for the freshman students, hopefully more than 500 show up.
(01-02-2019 03:43 PM)jmuduke10 Wrote: Dukes havent given me a reason to pick them all season. I'll watch though because its a thursday and I hate myself. This is first CAA game for the freshman students, hopefully more than 500 show up.
Students aren't back from break yet. Lucky them. They have an excuse not to show.
(01-02-2019 03:43 PM)jmuduke10 Wrote: Dukes havent given me a reason to pick them all season. I'll watch though because its a thursday and I hate myself. This is first CAA game for the freshman students, hopefully more than 500 show up.
Students aren't back from break yet. Lucky them. They have an excuse not to show.
Thats right. Good point. Plenty of ugly yellow seats on MadiZone
(01-02-2019 03:43 PM)jmuduke10 Wrote: Dukes havent given me a reason to pick them all season. I'll watch though because its a thursday and I hate myself. This is first CAA game for the freshman students, hopefully more than 500 show up.
Students aren't back from break yet. Lucky them. They have an excuse not to show.
Thats right. Good point. Plenty of ugly yellow seats on MadiZone
Things I can count on tomorrow night...
1. The Good Guys will come out hot and build a 13 point lead only to go the next 7 possessions without scoring while committing 5 turnovers (3 charges). During that time some guy off UNCW's bench will hit 5 3-pointers and the Seahawks will take the lead back.
2. The game will go down to the last shot...maybe again in overtime.
3. The JMU Pep Band will keep my much better half and me entertained.
4. The Chicken Critters early bird dinner meal at Texas Roadhouse before the game will rock as usual. So will the Sam Adams Winter Wheat on draft.
5. Dozens of us in attendance at some point during the game will look at the person next to us and say "we really need to get a life."
(01-02-2019 08:53 PM)Wear Purple Wrote: 4. The Chicken Critters early bird dinner meal at Texas Roadhouse before the game will rock as usual. So will the Sam Adams Winter Wheat on draft.
Sam Adams and JMUMBB elicit the same reaction when I interact with them nowadays: "Why am I doing this? I remember this being better before."
(01-02-2019 02:10 PM)Wear Purple Wrote: This and that...
*Freshman point guard, DeShon Parker, led the team in minutes at Elon with 37 (off the bench). That is almost double of Greg Jones (13) and Zach Jacobs (7) combined.
*Darius Banks is shooting a very good 46% from outside the arc. He leads the team in that statistic as no other Duke is shooting over 40%. It is strange how we are not setting him up for more attempts - and, how he is turning down attempts when available. In JMU's first 5 games, he took 18 of his 37 (roughly half) 3-pt attempts making 10 of the 18. While he attempted 3 shots from outside the arc this past Sunday at Elon, in JMU's last 5 games he has attempted a total of 6 (making 3). This guy is a weapon from the outside. Let's get him some open looks and he needs to take them. He should be gunning at least 6 or 7 3-pointers a game.
*What a start to the CAA schedule for Dwight Wilson. Last weekend in the 2 games, he went 17 of 21 from the field, grabbed 19 boards, and scored 35 points. He's got his work cut out for him against Cacok tomorrow night though. We'll see if Phillips plays the 4 some with Wilson at the 5 more moving forward.
Wilson is definitely a bright spot with room to continue to improve.
Phillips on the other hand is very disappointing. He is a fouling machine that cannot stay on the court and often does not even seem to want to be on the court when he is. Phillips has the WORST body language of any player I have ever seen at JMU.
Just saw a post on JMUsports about the game time update for the Saturday game. What were they thinking with picture they posted?! An action shot with mostly gold seats as the background. Geeeesh...
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MBB: Dukes host UNCW (Thursday, 7pm, MadiZone)
MBB: Dukes host UNCW (Thursday, 7pm, MadiZone) 
