MBB Game 21 - James Madison - 1/24/15, 4 PM

[Wags]

I know we're playing at Northeastern right now, and there are two more games between that one and this one, but this should help us in the finale of our upcoming season-long, three-game homestand:

JMU finally got fed up with troubled leading scorer Andre Nation and kicked him off the team today:
http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketb ... tball-team

[Polito]

Knew something was going to happen again with this guy, just a matter of time - figured another suspension or that he may end up leaving - wasn't sure about being removed, but this doesn't surprise me

shame, he's a real talent - but gotta have character too - his absence has and will hurt JMU

the CAA is a 3 team race still IMO - just keep battling HU

[Jojogunne]

JMU-Drexel on SNY tonight at 7:00.

EDIT: Just turned the game on. No one's there! Makes out attendance look good.

[Wags]

JMU-Drexel on SNY tonight at 7:00.

EDIT: Just turned the game on. No one's there! Makes out attendance look good.

That was ugly from Drexel.

JMU won, 54-35. Dukes led 17-12 at the half. Dragons shot 24% (12-50).

Damion Lee (the CAA scoring leader) might know how Melo felt earlier in London today:
Lee: 5-12 fg; his teammates: 7-38 fg
Melo: 7-12 fg; his teammates: 21-56 fg

[Jojogunne]

Nice analysis of Drexel's woes by our good friend Gary Moore:

http://midmajorhoopsbb.blogspot.com/201 ... rexel.html

[HUSID80]

JMU got crushed last night by Northeastern. Will they come in to the Mack down or fired up???? Long trip for them.

[ProudofPride]

We open as 10 point favorites.

[Cards]

bad weather, and student classes not in session until Monday - so even as HU is having a good season, I don't expect a good size crowd today. Should pick up quite a bit for following weekend games. We can only hope!

[HUSID80]

It's wet outside...no excuse!

[ProudofPride]

Looks like the refs are getting paid by the whistle again. 10 minutes in and we've already committed 7.

[ProudofPride]

We are awful in the second half. 12 point lead at the half, then JMU goes on a 14-0 run and suddenly has the lead, while we went scoreless for almost 7 minutes, plus we still have almost no 3 point defense, and we keep turning the ball over.
If we lose this, it might be our worst loss of the season.

And now down 5 with 30 seconds left, we're playing the "let's chuck up a 3 and not make it, and then not grab the rebound" game.
18 total points in the second half, after putting up 45 in the second. This team continues to baffle me in different ways pretty much every game.

[Hofstra]

BAD game. Gonna have to fix the defense or we will be left at home during the dance. Just an awful loss

[daHUPride]

One of the worst 2nd halves I have ever seen.
BB and AT shot terribly and they were never taken out in the 2nd half/Our defense was really bad and MN, one of our best perimeter players, plays 4 minutes?
Not being sarcastic, I know these coaches know what they are doing-but I surely don't know what they are doing at times. The last two games I have been at (UNCW and JMU) we have blown leads in the 2nd half and it is like the coaching staff is expecting something different to happen.
Nice game by MK and decent games by JR and JG. Still don't get AW with zero minutes???

[EvanJ]

bad weather, and student classes not in session until Monday - so even as HU is having a good season, I don't expect a good size crowd today. Should pick up quite a bit for following weekend games. We can only hope!

The attendance was 2,826. They had a lot of Boy Scouts. It was out highest home attendance since we hosted Southern Methodist (SMU) on December 1, 2012 and got 3,147.

MN, one of our best perimeter players, plays 4 minutes?

Mailk Nichols had 6 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists in 19 minutes. He made 2 out of 7 field goals and 2 out of 4 free throws.

I went to the game so I wasn't posting during it.

[daHUPride]

bad weather, and student classes not in session until Monday - so even as HU is having a good season, I don't expect a good size crowd today. Should pick up quite a bit for following weekend games. We can only hope!

The attendance was 2,826. They had a lot of Boy Scouts. It was out highest home attendance since we hosted Southern Methodist (SMU) on December 1, 2012 and got 3,147.

MN, one of our best perimeter players, plays 4 minutes?

Mailk Nichols had 6 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists in 19 minutes. He made 2 out of 7 field goals and 2 out of 4 free throws.

I went to the game so I wasn't posting during it.

Sorry. I was strictly talking about the 2nd half - where MN played 4 minutes. And based on the full game stat line - I believe he deserved to play more in the 2nd half - for his defense alone.

[Cards]

I was at the game - msut have been "scout day". Decent number of people at the game, but most were not "real" fans. First "defense" chant came with 2 minutes left in game.

Hofstra's performance was awful. Absolutely no excuse!

One thing really ticked me off - HU was running a "new" play, where guys are passing the ball around the perimeter and then one of the guards cuts to just inside the ful line. He is then fed the ball from the outside. He simply turns and puts up a 12-14 foot jumper. JMU was giving us this play as our shooter was open almost every time. Problem is we can not hit a 12 foot jumper - it was pitiful!!! To make it worse, we ran this play over and over - must have tried to execute it 10 - 12 times. I think we converted once! Why did coaching staff continue to do something new that the team could not convert on. All of a sudden we try to mix short range jumpers into our offense?? We have never done it this season, and its the type of play for a power forward, not our guards. Good play for Djambo next year - but today it was ugly....it was ugly over and over again.

Of course all shooting was off in the second half, but this out of place play really got to me.

And where was Green down the stretch. with about 6 minutes to go in the second half I leaned over and said to my daughter (she plays hoops in high school) Watch green take over now....he'll start driving to the hoop most times down the court and he'll take over the scoring with foul shots. That's how he leads the nation in fouls shots. WOW - was I wrong. The guy never went to the line. Again....why change the offense?? this is greens strength - hes very good at it - and don't tell me that JMUs defense took that away!

I watched some of the W&M - Northeastern game on TV (2 pm). The way we have been playing recently, we will not beat either of these teams. I am very sad to say this.

[Wags]

This team is way too stubborn offensively at times... 9-16 from 3 while putting up 45 and building a 12-point lead, even without Tanskley over the final 16:25 of the first half. But then only 2-15 from 3 in the second half, while taking only TWO free throws!! For goodness sake, stop settling for jumper after jumper after jumper and drive the ball to the hole and get to the damn line! You're at home where you should get at least somewhat of a friendly whistle in a close game down the stretch. Yet no effort whatsoever to get to the line, really throughout the game, and especially in the second half.

Not sure how you're going to win when you get TWO free throw attempts (and make none) during the entire second half, and your two leading scorers combine for only TWO points in the final 16 1/2 minutes!

After Green puts us up, 52-40, with 16:31 left (just before JMU scores the next 14 -- a stretch during which Coach never calls timeout, as we miss 7 straights shots and turn the ball over 4 times, by the way), Green does not score again and Tanksley scores only TWO from that point on. Tanksley, I think just couldn't get in the flow during the second half after the two quick fouls made him sit for most of the first half. But he played the whole second half, and if you're the team's leading scorer, find a way in the second half regardless of what happened with the foul trouble earlier.

We score 52 over the first 23 1/2 minutes, and then 11 over the final 16 1/2, in a game we really needed.

JMU took twice as many FT's (20-10) and made 11 more (17-6). Ballgame.

Curry, all by himself (10-13), got to the line more than we did for the game. Disgraceful. His penetration killed us and after Gustys showed promise earlier this season, he was soft in the middle today (in the 9 min he was limited to, because he wasn't doing the job).

The silver lining in losing 2 of 3 during a 3-game homestand we probably could have and should have swept, is that we're right in the mix with W&M beating NU today... so it's them, along with UNCW, each at 6-2, then us and JMU at 5-3. But we're going to have to pick up our game at both ends of the floor if we are to stay in the mix. We have quickly gone from a legit CAA title contender to only the fifth best team in the league, as NU, W&M, UNCW and JMU are all playing better than us right now.

A win at W&M will just as quickly change all that. But LOTS of work to do before Wed. to entertain that notion.

[HUSID80]

I was at the game - msut have been "scout day". Decent number of people at the game, but most were not "real" fans. First "defense" chant came with 2 minutes left in game.

Hofstra's performance was awful. Absolutely no excuse!

One thing really ticked me off - HU was running a "new" play, where guys are passing the ball around the perimeter and then one of the guards cuts to just inside the ful line. He is then fed the ball from the outside. He simply turns and puts up a 12-14 foot jumper. JMU was giving us this play as our shooter was open almost every time. Problem is we can not hit a 12 foot jumper - it was pitiful!!! To make it worse, we ran this play over and over - must have tried to execute it 10 - 12 times. I think we converted once! Why did coaching staff continue to do something new that the team could not convert on. All of a sudden we try to mix short range jumpers into our offense?? We have never done it this season, and its the type of play for a power forward, not our guards. Good play for Djambo next year - but today it was ugly....it was ugly over and over again.

Of course all shooting was off in the second half, but this out of place play really got to me.

And where was Green down the stretch. with about 6 minutes to go in the second half I leaned over and said to my daughter (she plays hoops in high school) Watch green take over now....he'll start driving to the hoop most times down the court and he'll take over the scoring with foul shots. That's how he leads the nation in fouls shots. WOW - was I wrong. The guy never went to the line. Again....why change the offense?? this is greens strength - hes very good at it - and don't tell me that JMUs defense took that away!

I watched some of the W&M - Northeastern game on TV (2 pm). The way we have been playing recently, we will not beat either of these teams. I am very sad to say this.

JMU plays a rare 3-2 defense and we worked on getting the ball in the middle as that's an area this defense gives you...we did hit a few in there but not enough...but we have got to make plays and we did not in the second half. Our best effort was against UNCW in the second half of the first game when Green and Tanksley drove to the hoop aggressively and we got fouled...went to the line something like 42 times...since then we have not done that....and lost two CAA games no doubt we should have won. When the threes don't go we need something else...or we're in trouble.

Lost in all this is the great play of Kone...he simply needs to get the ball more...

[pridehoops2015]

been a fan for a while. cant remember a worse loss. we fell apart.

[stuball888]

we used to employ a 3-2 zone when we had Uter and Kieza in their senior year. You need weakside help when you use that zone. Kieza was very good at that.