For entertainment purposes only, the Seahawks are 3-point underdogs in the Richmond Coliseum at noon Friday.
Ken Pomeroy (23-6 predicting UNCW games this season) projects a 72-71 JMU victory, in what?s a virtual tossup. Dukes? victory is 54 percent probable.
The Seahawks have lost 13 of 15, but haven?t lost hope.
Here?s a post from earlier in the week, where JMU beat writer Mark Selig and I traded thoughts.
What happened last time?
JMU won 69-61 on Jan. 18th to snap a five game conference losing streak and send UNCW to its third consecutive victory. Humpty Hitchens poured in a season-high 27 points and the Dukes scored all 13 second-half field goals in the paint. The Dukes were very effective double-teaming Keith Rendleman with two big men, limiting him to 5 of 10 shooting and 12 points, his second lowest total in a CAA game this season.
?A lot of guys took the game for granted, and didn?t give it their all, like it was their last game,? Donte Morales, who scored a team-high 14 points, said after that effort. ?And it showed out there, especially in the first half.?
What did that game mean?
The Hawks fell to 7-10 overall and 3-4 in the CAA. At the time, I wrote that it was a surprising result, and I stand firm in feeling this was the game which sent the Seahawks? season spinning in the wrong direction. Had UNCW won, as Buzz Peterson served a one-game suspension, it would?ve improved to 4-3 in the CAA. Instead, the Hawks fell under .500 in the conference and lost momentum. After a victory over William & Mary on the road, UNCW lost the next four games. And here we all are again, in the 8-9 game.
What does Matt Brady say about his injury-riddled team?
?This is not a scenario we ever would?ve envisioned. In fact, I can tell you that I thought our record would?ve been flipped if we had not been hurt. Going into Friday, I think our guys feel like this is an opportunity for them, for our team. I can say this conference season we?ve been in almost every game. We?ve just gotten worn down with the lack of bodies and strength of our guys. Too many guys playing in the upper 30s (minutes) for our team. We do get tired, and it shows itself in a lot of ways ? shot selection, one or two defensive transition plays a game, or two or three plays like that. I hope that our energy level is really good on Friday and we do play very hard. That?s one of the things I do believe, that we will fight. We don?t always play pretty basketball. We?ve made incremental improvement, we?ve just got to put it together for 40 minutes. That?s been our challenge all season long.
What does Buzz Peterson have to say about his struggling team?
?The guys who are going to work the hardest, lay it on the line, and play unselfish basketball, those are the guys who we?re going to play Friday afternoon. In our situation right now, we just want to go out there and compete hard, if it was a scrimmage and nobody was out there. We want to compete hard, outwork our opponent and try our best to somehow come up with a win.?
Ken Pomeroy (23-6 predicting UNCW games this season) projects a 72-71 JMU victory, in what?s a virtual tossup. Dukes? victory is 54 percent probable.
The Seahawks have lost 13 of 15, but haven?t lost hope.
Here?s a post from earlier in the week, where JMU beat writer Mark Selig and I traded thoughts.
What happened last time?
JMU won 69-61 on Jan. 18th to snap a five game conference losing streak and send UNCW to its third consecutive victory. Humpty Hitchens poured in a season-high 27 points and the Dukes scored all 13 second-half field goals in the paint. The Dukes were very effective double-teaming Keith Rendleman with two big men, limiting him to 5 of 10 shooting and 12 points, his second lowest total in a CAA game this season.
?A lot of guys took the game for granted, and didn?t give it their all, like it was their last game,? Donte Morales, who scored a team-high 14 points, said after that effort. ?And it showed out there, especially in the first half.?
What did that game mean?
The Hawks fell to 7-10 overall and 3-4 in the CAA. At the time, I wrote that it was a surprising result, and I stand firm in feeling this was the game which sent the Seahawks? season spinning in the wrong direction. Had UNCW won, as Buzz Peterson served a one-game suspension, it would?ve improved to 4-3 in the CAA. Instead, the Hawks fell under .500 in the conference and lost momentum. After a victory over William & Mary on the road, UNCW lost the next four games. And here we all are again, in the 8-9 game.
What does Matt Brady say about his injury-riddled team?
?This is not a scenario we ever would?ve envisioned. In fact, I can tell you that I thought our record would?ve been flipped if we had not been hurt. Going into Friday, I think our guys feel like this is an opportunity for them, for our team. I can say this conference season we?ve been in almost every game. We?ve just gotten worn down with the lack of bodies and strength of our guys. Too many guys playing in the upper 30s (minutes) for our team. We do get tired, and it shows itself in a lot of ways ? shot selection, one or two defensive transition plays a game, or two or three plays like that. I hope that our energy level is really good on Friday and we do play very hard. That?s one of the things I do believe, that we will fight. We don?t always play pretty basketball. We?ve made incremental improvement, we?ve just got to put it together for 40 minutes. That?s been our challenge all season long.
What does Buzz Peterson have to say about his struggling team?
?The guys who are going to work the hardest, lay it on the line, and play unselfish basketball, those are the guys who we?re going to play Friday afternoon. In our situation right now, we just want to go out there and compete hard, if it was a scrimmage and nobody was out there. We want to compete hard, outwork our opponent and try our best to somehow come up with a win.?
