When I’m in Philly, I’m not touching a cheesesteak when I can go to Reading Terminal Market & get that Italian pork sandwich with broccoli rabe.

(02-26-2021 06:38 PM)HyperDuke Wrote:  When I’m in Philly, I’m not touching a cheesesteak when I can go to Reading Terminal Market & get that Italian pork sandwich with broccoli rabe.

Solid choice. Had it last year for the first time, would recommend it as well.

Dinics baby

With Wooden going out early, the rust , and no Lewis , I’ll take it . More guys stepped up (Hodge especially) and we were in it until the end with one of their guys going ungodly from 3 .

I would have loved to see them come back and close out , but it was a great learning step . A little too much forcing but I’ll take it .

I was an early fan of Edwards so I’ll tackle him now . Yes he forced some . But I like his fearlessness . What I saw early and I stil see now is his court awareness . I watch him on D and look at his spacing and ball awareness . Love it . That’s where the tipped balls, etc. come from. I think his basketball awareness is why coach was playing him early . I’m assuming he is special in practice . But .......still a freshman .

Bottom line , hard to pull off 3 without Matt and harder without Wooden ......but I’m still bullish on this squad . Not at all thinking we are out of the running for the tourney .


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Dinic's might have my favorite sandwich ever, but give me long hots instead of broccoli rabe. So good.

Johns Roast Pork. Pro tip for all yall non Philadelphians. Hole in the wall down near the stadiums.

Urgies is an authentic cheesesteak, and a good offering for Harrisonburg. They are smart to import Amoroso rolls. My only knock is that the sandwiches are small and not very full compared to what you'd get up here.

More importantly, Wooden...is this injury serious?

(02-26-2021 08:42 PM)Halz87 Wrote:  With Wooden going out early, the rust , and no Lewis , I’ll take it . More guys stepped up (Hodge especially) and we were in it until the end with one of their guys going ungodly from 3 .

I would have loved to see them come back and close out , but it was a great learning step . A little too much forcing but I’ll take it .

I was an early fan of Edwards so I’ll tackle him now . Yes he forced some . But I like his fearlessness . What I saw early and I stil see now is his court awareness . I watch him on D and look at his spacing and ball awareness . Love it . That’s where the tipped balls, etc. come from. I think his basketball awareness is why coach was playing him early . I’m assuming he is special in practice . But .......still a freshman .

Bottom line , hard to pull off 3 without Matt and harder without Wooden ......but I’m still bullish on this squad . Not at all thinking we are out of the running for the tourney .


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I hear ya. If I'm an opposing CAA coach, I would still want no part of us in the conference tourney.

In the post game coach By gave us some hope for Wooden. It didn’t look good when he grabbed his knee after landing from a layup, but coach By said he was close to coming back into the game in the 2nd half, Apparently, it is something that has happened to him before.

It’s bad enough the team is heading into the tourney without Lewis. We need Wooden to be available to have a fighting chance. Fingers crossed.

(02-26-2021 10:59 PM)PhillyDuke Wrote:  Johns Roast Pork. Pro tip for all yall non Philadelphians. Hole in the wall down near the stadiums.

Urgies is an authentic cheesesteak, and a good offering for Harrisonburg. They are smart to import Amoroso rolls. My only knock is that the sandwiches are small and not very full compared to what you'd get up here.

More importantly, Wooden...is this injury serious?

Been to John’s too a few years ago, almost forgot how good it was. Waited in line forever, but worth it. Saw a JMU alum I didn’t know decked out in purple. Guess Dukes fans know where to eat in Filthadelphia

I was only able to watch the first half of the game. Based on what I've seen the last two halves without Lewis, I think it's too big of an ask for this team to win the CAA title in March. It's a damn shame because they would have been one of the favorites with him. I haven't seen all of the CAA teams, but of the ones I've seen I think that NE, Hofstra and Drexel are all capable of winning it. Looking at the standings, perhaps you could throw Charleston in there too. I haven't seen CofC, W&M, DE or UNCW.

Byington is not one to reveal anything at all about injuries, but if Wooden can't play going forward, you'd think Taylor should get some minutes. Also, for JMU to have a chance, Christmas has to be more aggressive offensively. He took only two shots in the last game. He's a solid rebounder and seems to be a disinterested defender, so he's got to make his mark with scoring and rebounding, especially with Lewis and possibly Wooden out.

Do we know anything about Mensah? Will he be available?

I hope that Byington brings in another player with size for next year's team. JMU often seems small versus the opponent.

(02-28-2021 02:40 PM)Dukes84 Wrote:  I was only able to watch the first half of the game. Based on what I've seen the last two halves without Lewis, I think it's too big of an ask for this team to win the CAA

You might have changed your mind if you saw the second half . Agreed.......no brainer that our chances dropped. But this team started to get some flow in the second half . We have multiple scorers who are not afraid to take “the shot”, which we have not had in years past . And the defense is still there . We also have a lot of talent off the bench that will be helpful if we get by the first 2 games and make it to the finals.


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(02-28-2021 02:40 PM)Dukes84 Wrote:  I was only able to watch the first half of the game. Based on what I've seen the last two halves without Lewis, I think it's too big of an ask for this team to win the CAA title in March. It's a damn shame because they would have been one of the favorites with him. I haven't seen all of the CAA teams, but of the ones I've seen I think that NE, Hofstra and Drexel are all capable of winning it. Looking at the standings, perhaps you could throw Charleston in there too. I haven't seen CofC, W&M, DE or UNCW.

Byington is not one to reveal anything at all about injuries, but if Wooden can't play going forward, you'd think Taylor should get some minutes. Also, for JMU to have a chance, Christmas has to be more aggressive offensively. He took only two shots in the last game. He's a solid rebounder and seems to be a disinterested defender, so he's got to make his mark with scoring and rebounding, especially with Lewis and possibly Wooden out.

Do we know anything about Mensah? Will he be available?

I hope that Byington brings in another player with size for next year's team. JMU often seems small versus the opponent.

I think to expect guys who haven’t contributed all year to magically play a role in the CaaT this season is unrealistic. They have a rotation of guys for a reason and even if Wooden is out barring an injury or foul trouble I’d expect Christmas to start at 4 and Jacobs to play more minutes and or Harvey play more and they go small over Taylor or Mensah playing.

I think they have enough to compete and agree that Christmas has to be more aggressive offensively in order for JMU to advance far. Mostly they need to look for Christmas from 3 - it gets him into the flow of the game when his 3 point shot is going in and opens up his entire game.

I am not convinced JMU would have won the last game with Lewis in the lineup. JMU scored enough points to win. Turnovers, points given up and free throws missed in the second half were the reasons for the loss. All correctable things.

Drexel got more balanced scoring this time and had one guy who did not miss from three plus another who doesn’t play much make one late in the game. It was a one possession game with 13 seconds left and the Drexel defender blocks the shot. Good play by him not a great shot selection by Hodge.

I don’t count this team out. By has put together a deep roster. They will play hard without fear. I like that about this team.

But Christmas only shoots 31% from 3. He’s the last guy I want chucking it and wasting his football frame playing a finesse game on the perimeter. We saw a peek last game of who should get more 3 pt attempts and that is Hodge. Coach By has praised him as the best shooter all year, but it hasn’t shown consistently. By the numbers he is 4th best on the team. If Lewis and Wooden are out due to injury, then Hodge becomes the 2nd best remaining. Maybe that plays into JMU’s favor if opponents don’t prioritize him on the scouting report and then he shows us why coach By has been saying that all year. The 3 pt shot is the great equalizer

Just as important, I think The defense is going to have to be really good on ball pressure to create even more turnovers than usual. Otherwise, teams that have a competent big will score a lot in the paint during half court sets which tend to increase in grind it out tourney play. That’s where the Wooden injury has me most concerned. Yes, he is a part of the offense that will be missed, but on the other end Jacobs can’t defend the post all by himself for 40 minutes. It has been a concern this year even with Wooden helping defend the paint.

We are only 6 days away from seeing how it shakes out.
Besides CoC without their leading scorer and best defender, are there any other key players in the CAA who won’t play?

(02-28-2021 04:26 PM)Hart Foundation Wrote:  But Christmas only shoots 31% from 3. He’s the last guy I want chucking it and wasting his football frame playing a finesse game on the perimeter. We saw a peek last game of who should get more 3 pt attempts and that is Hodge. Coach By has praised him as the best shooter all year, but it hasn’t shown consistently. By the numbers he is 4th best on the team. If Lewis and Wooden are out due to injury, then Hodge becomes the 2nd best remaining. Maybe that plays into JMU’s favor if opponents don’t prioritize him on the scouting report and then he shows us why coach By has been saying that all year. The 3 pt shot is the great equalizer

Just as important, I think The defense is going to have to be really good on ball pressure to create even more turnovers than usual. Otherwise, teams that have a competent big will score a lot in the paint during half court sets which tend to increase in grind it out tourney play. That’s where the Wooden injury has me most concerned. Yes, he is a part of the offense that will be missed, but on the other end Jacobs can’t defend the post all by himself for 40 minutes. It has been a concern this year even with Wooden helping defend the paint.

We are only 6 days away from seeing how it shakes out.
Besides CoC without their leading scorer and best defender, are there any other key players in the CAA who won’t play?

I don’t disagree have just noticed that Mike can stroke it from outside and often needs that for the rest of his game to get going. Make it a priority to get him going early - same with Hodge from 3 and Amadi with a couple of layups /dunks - those 3 probably have the highest standard deviation in scoring game to game. Ideally Christmas would shoot 2 from 3 from deep and do his damage after mid range at the basket and on the boards.

Christmas is a very good shooter and absolutely an above average rebounder. He does have a FB body and can dominate if he gets going...which he had been doing the previous 3-4 games prior to Drexel. His performance against Drexel was a head scratcher to me, and hopefully he’ll set that flat performance behind him and turn out strong for the CAAT. The entire team should be stroked that they are playing on their home court for an opportunity to play in the NCAAT.

Speaking of Christmas, who has the funkiest extreme head tilt of all time while shooting? It might be him. I bet his eyes see the rim at a 45 degree angle when he releases it.

Maybe Jamaal Wilkes of the showtime Lakers could stake a claim?

Nobody cares what it looks like as long as it goes in at a high rate. Give me Rick Barry granny style free throws if they are going to be money every time.

I was going to say Mario Elie, but that may have just been in NBA Hangtime for the N64. His avatar would shoot the corner three with his head resting on his shoulder. Don't know if that was an exaggerated video game descriptor of real life though.

Haha Elie did have a funky shot!

(02-28-2021 04:26 PM)Hart Foundation Wrote:  But Christmas only shoots 31% from 3.

Shooting 31% means the player needs to be defended/picked up at 3 point line. Spreading their defense is a very good thing for our offense.