Wednesday, February 25, 2015

#CAAhoops Primer: JMU Postures for Regular Season Championship tonight at UNC-Wilmington

The last time I posted on here, JMU Men's Basketball was 13-9 and a few hours away from getting shellacked, 84-65, by Marcus Thornton and the Pantless Gryphons.


But today, things are different. The Dukes have endured February brilliantly, posting a 5-1 record this month with two games left in the regular season. More importantly, they genuinely look like a better team every time they step on the court. Matt Brady has the boys cooking. They haven't lost a game in three weeks. And they're staring down the biggest men's basketball game in two years.


Yep. Today's the day. UNC-Wilmington hosts the JMU Dukes tonight. Here's what you need to know.


Once again, the CAA is a clusterf... well, you know.

Every year, it feels like the Colonial Athletic Association has a pair of teams vying for the title right down to the final week. But this year takes that narrative to a whole new level. Four teams -- Northeastern, William & Mary, Wilmington, and the aforementioned Dukes -- have identical first-place 11-5 records. According to Yeager and the boys in the CAA office, that officially makes the CAA the "most competitive regular-season race in the nation." Is this conference ever not fun?

Anyway, there's a lot at stake in the mid-week games. Of the four first-place teams, tonight's contest in Wilmington is the last time any of the four will play either of the other three teams, at least until a potential matchup in the CAA tournament. In fact, with the exception of JMU's Saturday game against Hofstra, there are no regular season games left where one of the first-place teams will play an opponent with a record over .500.

Translation: if someone is going to drop a game, it's going to mean choking on their own vomit harder than Krysten Ritter did in Breaking Bad.


JMU is on the verge of its first conference title in 15 years.

I touched on this briefly in the last Consortium, but JMU hasn't won at least a share of the CAA title since the 1999-2000 season, AKA the last good season before the arrival of one Matthew Crenshaw Brady. (Editor's Note: Matt Brady's middle name is definitely not Crenshaw.) If they win out, they'll have earned a piece of it, even though they would probably play as only the No. 3 seed in Baltimore next weekend.


Matt Brady can lock up his fourth 20-win season as head coach in Harrisonburg.

Again, I touched on this during the last Consortium post with Proffitt, Carleigh, and JMUSB, but Matt Brady has survived this long in Harrisonburg by racking up 20-win seasons every other year. Normally, he needs the postseason tournaments to finish out. This year, with a big win tonight at Trask and a win at home over the Pride on Saturday, Brady will hit the mark before even looking at Baltimore-bound Greyhounds.


The more things change, the more they stay the same:

A stat I pointed out during the last post: JMU was 6-0 against the teams below them and 0-3 against the teams on their level. JMU is now primed to grab a part of the conference title, but has anything really changed? The Dukes are 11-5 in conference play, with 11 wins against the bottom six teams and 5 losses against the rest of the top four. If the Dukes want the championship, they're going to have to earn it tonight. They're going to have to beat someone that's actually good.


Big Play: 

Ron Curry is playing all-conference basketball, and his thumbprints on JMU's winning streak are hard to miss. But I would argue that it's the Bigs for JMU who are elevating the team's game to championship levels. Tom Vodonavich is finally settling into his role as a glass-crasher, and Dalembert's game continues to look more and more polished. If they combine for 15 rebounds or more, watch out.

But it's not just those two guys. Paulius Satkus is playing better minutes down the stretch as well, Jackson Kent is averaging nearly four boards a game, and Dimitrije! The Serb! My Lord. You know what? Serb gets his own bullet point.


It's spelled C-A-B-A-R-K-A-P-A.

Back when I was at the Breeze, we ran a feature in one of our Sports Supplements about a bigass Eastern European dude who had just showed up in Harrisonburg to ball for Brady. We didn't even attempt to pronounce his name correctly; we just called him Serb. He rolled with it. In fact, he was one the coolest and most down-to-Earth people I ever met at JMU. The fact that he was a full foot taller than me was just happen-stance.

Serb is my fucking hero. The dude is a monster. I prayed every game that Brady would just cut him loose and let him out there to posterize some poor guard from Philadelphia or Trenton. But the word I kept getting from the team and guys around them was that his game was just way too raw to ever put him out on the floor. He was an offensive liability.

And then, February happened. And every time he subs in, I catch myself yelling inside my own head, SERBIAN KOBE HAS ENTERED THE GAME! SERBIAN KOBE HAS ENTERED THE GAME! HEAT CHECK, AISLE TWO! WHO WANTS TO CHECK THE 7-FOOTER WHO MAKES IT RAIN LIKE HURRICANE ANDREW?!

Yeah. I'm kind of a fan.


Closing Time:

JMU is 16-0 when leading with five minutes to play, per tireless JMU ambassador and FOTB Curtis Finnigan Dudley. (Editor's Note: Curt Dudley's middle name is definitely not Finnigan.)

Draw a straight line to Ron Curry for this one. Strong ball distribution and ball security from Curry and Co. is a huge factor in the Dukes' new-found ability to actually close games out, which is definitely something that hasn't historically been a strength. When Wilmington breaks out the press tonight, all eyes will be on the guards -- but mainly Curry -- to maintain possession of the ball.


Baltimore or Bust?

JMU is the hottest team in the conference right now, and for sheer streakiness alone, should probably be considered the favorite to win the CAA tournament. A win tonight keeps them on pace for one of the top three seeds there.

But let's hold off on the Baltimore chatter for just a few more days. JMU has as good a shot as anyone as lifting the CAA trophy in the harbor and reaching its second NCAA tournament in three years. That would be huge, and it would validate 2013 as not just lightning in a bottle, but a distinctive upward trend for Brady's program after seven erratically dichotic years.

But for now, focus on what's right in front of the Dukes: a shot at the CAA regular season title. It's been 15 years since the JMU men could claim a portion of that banner. Isn't it about time?

(#itsaboutdamntime.)