Never a Dull Trip to Harrisonburg (Recap of George Mason vs James Madison)

Mops have one purpose in life: keeping the court clean.

They're not intended to be used to hit a basketball, and if somehow they do touch the ball, that contact certainly should not result in the ball finding it's way into the basket. Yet that is exactly what happened last Saturday, when the James Madison Dukes hosted the George Mason Patriots.

Near the end of the first half, after taking a weird bounce off the rim of the Mason basket, the ball somehow found itself stuck among the basket supports above the backboard. One of the referees borrowed a long-handled mop from the ballboy, and attempted to poke the ball loose, but he was too short to reach the ball, and Dukes center Rayshawn Goins took over.

His first attempt sparked only some laughter, as the ball popped straight up, then nestled right back where it came from. The second attempt was far more successful, as the ball fell over the front of the backboard, and dropped straight through the hoop, Swish!

I'm not sure Goins could have repeated the feat if he'd tried, and the near-capacity crowd almost lost its collective mind. I feel pretty safe in saying JMU fans have never cheered (and never again will cheer) so loudly for a ball entering an opponent's basket.

***

Something unusual (if not outright bizarre) always seems to happen when I visit the Convocation Center. One year, a friend of mine even gave some Dukes fans from Fairfax a ride back to Northern Virginia after their car was totaled in an accident.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about my first visit to the Convo in 2008, for Dre Smith's NCAA-record breaking 10 of 10 performance from behind the three point arc. The next season provided an entirely different type of drama, as then-freshman Ryan Pearson's controlled-yet-desperate heave from mid-court kissed glass, hit the rim for a glorious millisecond, then popped out, as the Dukes escaped with a 2-point victory. The Madison students promptly stormed the court. It's hard to blame them for being excited about what's now their only win in the last 21 games in the series, but at the time it seemed excessive, adding insult to injury.

Perhaps the best drama of all came in 2010, in what will forever be known by both sides as the Hot Dog Game. Mason was up by 15 midway through the second half and the Patriots seemed well on their way to another beatdown of their southwestern rival. But then, the Dukes, fed by a raucous Convo crowd, went on a run that cut the lead to four. The momentum seemed unstoppable, until, right in the midst of a pair of JMU free throws, a hot dog inexplicably flew onto the court, thrown by a Madison student. The referees had no choice but to assess a technical foul, and the Dukes' surge came to an abrupt end. (JMU assistant coach Rob O'Driscoll re-told the entire tale last year, including what later happened to the kid who threw the hot dog).

2011 provided one of the hardest-fought basketball games I have ever attended. A late morning start time made the drive south a little weird, and I wasn't fully awake until about a quarter-second after I stepped inside the Convo. I have never seen a college arena that electric at 11 AM on a Saturday morning. The nationally-televised heavyweight bout went back and forth for a full 40 minutes, with Cam Long scoring a career-high 30 points for the Patriots while Dukes star Denzel Bowles posted 21 points, 14 rebounds, and 6 blocks. Mason led 33-32 at the half, only to fall behind by 8 in the second half before rallying for a 75-73 victory.

Last season, I was unable to make the trip due to work commitments and a nagging head cold that had left me exhausted. As it turned out, I didn't miss much. The game was ruined by an astounding 63 personal fouls, many of them completely unnecessary. With everyone in foul trouble, neither team could play defense, and when combined with 89 free throw attempts, the final was 89-83 in favor of Mason, a huge score in the normally-stingy CAA.

***

Both teams entered the day with injury concerns.

James Madison has been positively snake-bitten with injuries in recent years, and this season has been no different. Fifth-year senior Andrey Semenov would miss the game with foot and shoulder injuries, and fellow red-shirt senior Devon Moore had left the previous game with an ankle injury, leading to doubts about his availability.

George Mason, meanwhile, lost starting forward and second-leading scorer Johnny Williams to a concussion a week prior. In his place, Jonathan Arledge had started and scored a then career-high 14 points against Drexel two days earlier, but he'd only played 2 minutes against Madison in the previous meeting in Fairfax.

The game began about as well as Mason could have hoped. Unlike other recent road games, they started out hot on offense and energetic on defense. James Madison won the tip but turned it over moments later, leading to a Sherrod Wright three pointer. The Dukes turned it over twice more, and Taylor Bessick picked up two quick fouls, while Mason jumped ahead 11-0. Corey Edwards capped the run with a wide-open three pointer, but Rayshawn Goins quickly countered for the Dukes.

Madison managed to pull within 13-10 with a layup out of the under-16 timeout, but then both teams slowed down as the game became a bit of a defensive struggle, with Mason maintaining a 3 to 8 point lead. Every time the Dukes got the lead down to three, the Patriots responded. A.J. Davis hit a huge three-pointer for the home team to cut the lead to 19-16, but almost immediately Patrick Holloway responded with a trey of his own.

This year, the annual task of providing me an unusual incident fell to the Convo itself. With around two minutes to play in the first half, both baskets rebelled. First, as mentioned, Goins got to play stick-ball with the backboard above the Mason basket. Then, on the very next possession, the officials noticed that the net on the Madison basket was torn. An 11-minute delay ensued, while the damaged net was cut down and a new net installed. To their credit, the JMU cheerleaders attempted to fill the time with increasingly imaginative stunts, from walking nearly the entire length of the court on their hands, to building a pyramid at center court.

I've seen some strange facilities problems over the years (such as a nail that popped out of the Towson Center's old floor and had to be hammered back into place) but I've never seen two incidents quite like Saturday's occur back to back. And that's one reason I love college basketball so much: Just when you might foolishly start to think you've seen it all, something unimaginable happens.

The pace had picked up just before the delay, and the long break had surprisingly little noticeable impact on the players. Both sides were whistled for a number of fouls in the last three minutes, with Mason converting all 4 free throws while the Dukes made just 3 of 5 -- foreshadowing what would be a game-long problem for Madison. The Patriots took a modest 32-27 lead into the locker room.

The halftime show consisted of two parts. First, the new net apparently hadn't been installed correctly, and had to be taken down and re-done for a second time. Then, there was a contest for JMU students called Madison's Got Talent, for which students had submitted videos in advance, and three acts had been chosen to compete for a $1000 prize. The first contestant was a singer (one of the Madison cheerleaders) who drummed a beat on a plastic table with a paper cup while she sang (you had to be there), and the other two were guitar/vocal acts.

I was a little apprehensive as the second half began. Perhaps Mason's biggest problem this season has been maintaining consistency and effort for an entire game. Just two nights earlier, the green and gold had blown a 20-point first half lead in a loss to Drexel. All season, they've played lots of good halves of basketball games, only to let their guard down and fail to play a complete games. But for once, the second half began in a positive way, with Sherrod Wright assisting on baskets by big men Erik Copes and Jonathan Arledge on the Patriots first two possessions.

Juniors Wright (22 points and a career-high 11 rebounds) and Arledge (a career-high 19 points) became the offensive formula for the Patriots throughout the second half, as the visitors maintained their intensity and survived everything the Dukes threw at them.

It was only a matter of time before the Dukes made a run, and it began with 11 minutes remaining and the Patriots holding a 50-41 lead. A pair of Dukes free throws and a Charles Cook trey made it 50-45, before Core Edwards answered for Mason. Then Moore (25 points, 5 assists), showing no signs of his ankle injury, took over the game for the Dukes, scoring two traditional three-point plays and hitting a jumper from beyond the arc. All of a sudden, it was 56-55, with around 6 and a half minutes remaining, and George Mason was forced to call a time out.

Arledge converted a layup, and Wright followed with a layup-and-one to stretch the lead back to 6, but the Dukes came right back, with a pair of Cooke free throws and another Moore layup. And so it continued, with Mason clinging to a lead of one to six points. Madison closed the gap several times, but never managed to tie or take the lead. And yet, with their crowd behind them, it almost seemed inevitable to me that the home team would find a way to break through and take at least a momentary lead. There was just too much time left.

Then, with 1:40 to play and the score 65-62 in their favor, the Patriots got a big break.

Moore missed a three-point attempt, and the Dukes turned the rebound over. The ball found Wright on the break, who went up against Goins for the layup attempt. Goins swung his arm wildly in an apparent attempt to block the shot, but Wright had faked his shot, and the big man missed badly and caught the side of Wright's head instead, sending him crashing to the floor.

All attention was immediately on Wright, who lay motionless on the court for several seconds, before popping up uninjured, a smile slowly crossing his face. The officials consulted the monitor, and ruled the foul to be a flagrant-1 on Goins -- which meant two free throws and possession for Mason. The partisan crowd erupted in anger, their frustration with a game's worth of inconsistent officiating boiling over.

Because the Patriots' athletic trainer had come out to check on Wright, by rule he had to leave the game, and thus could not take his free throws. Head coach Paul Hewitt chose the silky-smooth Arledge instead, who sank both despite the dim from a furious Dukes student section mere feet away, and then scored a layup on the ensuing possession, giving the visitors a 7 point lead with a minute to play. From there, the game was effectively over, and Mason hung on for the 74-63 win, their 20th in the last 21 meetings in the rivalry.

In a strange way, it felt like the Hot Dog Game all over again, only without the absurdity of perfectly good food being thrown onto the court.

***

For the Dukes (13-11, 7-4 after Saturday), the biggest disappointment had to be their free throw shooting, as they missed 11 of their 28 attempts from the charity stripe -- which equaled the margin of victory in the game. Likewise, their promising freshman class of starters Taylor Bessick (4 fouls in 4 minutes), Ron Curry (0 points in 12 minutes), and Andre Nation, as well as reserve Charles Cooke, combined for only 11 points. The seniors -- Moore, Goins (13 points, 9 rebounds), and AJ Davis (9 points) -- can't carry the load on their own.

On the opposite side, the visiting Patriots (13-9, 6-4) played one of their most consistent games of the entire season, leading the entire game and withstanding a furious charge in the second half from the Dukes. Far too many times this season, Mason has taken 7 or 8 minutes or even an entire half off on either offense or defense. Saturday, the lapses were there, but they were limited in duration, and this allowed for a new kind of consistency.

The continued emergence of Jonathan Arledge as a complementary scorer to Sherrod Wright, a renewed emphasis on rebounding (35-25 advantage), good free throw shooting (23 of 26), and shortening their sometimes-lengthy lapses in attention on defense all played a role in the win, and are trends that need to continue for George Mason to be the contender everyone expected them to be this season in the CAA.

Humpty Causes Hofstra a Great Fall

Sometimes, there are long stretches where one team has another team's number.  When Hofstra first joined the CAA in 2001, they lost their first three games in conference with James Madison and had lost four in a row overall to JMU.  But starting in 2004, the Pride have gone on a twelve game winning streak vs. the Dukes.

Though the series record indicates one team's dominance over another, the results have been quite close.  During Hofstra's streak vs. JMU, nine of the twelve games were decided by seven points or less.  Three of the games went into overtime; a 92-90 win in January of this year, a 99-96 double overtime game in February 2009 and the all time gem, a 95-88 triple overtime game in February 2005.

So when the Dukes made the all familiar trip to Hempstead yesterday to face the Pride in the conference season opening game for both teams, it seemed one thing would be certain. It would be a close game.  And sure enough, the game lived up to that billing.

My older son Matthew was looking forward to yesterday.   For not only was there a basketball game, but Saturday was the long awaited day for putting up the Christmas decorations outside our house.  Now for me, I actually enjoy decorating for Halloween, not so much for Christmas.  But to placate a six year old boy and his four year old brother, I took down the decorations from the garage and spent the better part of the late morning and afternoon hanging Christmas lights and getting out several decorative inflatables.  Needless to say I was happy to leave for the basketball game when it was time.

The game started out with JMU's leading scorer on the season, A.J. Davis picking up two quick fouls in the first five minutes. But Madison hung in there, thanks in large part to their offensive rebounding. In the first half, the Dukes had eleven offensive rebounds which led to eleven second chance points.  JMU took a 22-17 lead with 7:45 left in the first half on a three pointer by Armon Marks, which was their only successful three point shot at that time.  The Dukes, the best three point shooting team in the CAA, would be only two of eleven from beyond the arc in the first half.

While JMU's leading scorer was on the bench with as many fouls as points, two, Hofstra's leading scorer for the season, Mike Moore, was basically unstoppable.  Moore hit four three pointers in the first half  (Hofstra was 5 of 10 from beyond the arc in the first half) and scored twenty of Hofstra's thirty one points.  After the Dukes had taken that five point lead, the Pride would go on a 14-2 run, with Moore scoring half those points.

However, JMU coach Matt Brady made a critical decision with a minute left in the half.  He went for a two for one possession.  The Dukes would miss two three pointers on their first possession and a Moore jumper would be the final points for Hofstra in the first half.  But due to the two for one possession, the Dukes got the ball back and called timeout.  Off the timeout, Humpty Hitchens, another transfer from Akron, hoisted a sixty foot prayer right before the buzzer.

As the buzzer sounded...nothing...but...net.

The officials reviewed the play to make sure the shot came before the buzzer, which it clearly did from our vantage point.  The officials confirmed that it was good.  And due to the Dukes second only successful three pointer in the half, instead of Hofstra going into the half up seven, they were only up four, 31-27.  Hofstra coach Mo Cassara was none too pleased, as if he knew that shot might come back to haunt the Pride.

At half time, there was your classic youth basketball game for entertainment.  But Matthew was pleading for me to get him a pretzel.  And since I can't say no to my cute six year old son, we waited on a long concession line while I tweeted updates on the game.

It was clear at the start of the second half that Coach Matt Brady told his team "Whatever you do, don't let Mike Moore beat us."  And the Dukes took him out of the game.  For the better part of the last twenty minutes, Moore barely touched the ball.  He would only have five shot attempts in the second half, hitting only one of those.

But early on, it didn't seem to affect the Pride.  Hofstra actually extended it's lead using a 10-2 run.  After Nathaniel Lester hit his first three pointer since the first game of this season, the Pride were up 43-33.   The lead was still ten, 47-37 after a Stephen Nwaukoni layup with a little more than eleven minutes remaining in the game.  JMU looked off in their shot selection and the rest of the Hofstra players were chipping in despite Moore being held scoreless.

But twice already in this early season, Hofstra had similar leads, only to see them evaporate and lose the game.  Against Florida Atlantic, the Pride were up 36-27 before going on a three for eighteen shooting drought and lost 62-60.  Against Boston University, the Pride were up 42-35 before shooting two of fifteen for the rest of the game and lost 68-61.  

Unfortunately for Hofstra, history would repeat itself yesterday.   With Moore being held scoreless, the Pride would shoot one of eight from the field over the next seven minutes. Meanwhile, JMU's vaunted three point shooting came to life.  Hitchens nailed two three pointers and Julius Wells added one as well.  The Dukes went on a 13-3 run and tied the game at fifty on Alioune Diouf jumper with six and half minutes left.

The Pride would retake the lead in large part to guard Shemiye McLendon.  First McLendon gave a pretty feed to forward Moussa Kone for a resounding dunk.  Then McLendon channeled his inner Vinnie Johnson (they wear the same jersey number, 15), and buried a slightly off balance eighteen foot jumper.  Hofstra was back up 56-52 with three minutes left.

After the teams traded turnovers and Hofstra's Dwan McMillan missed an open jumper, Davis came alive for James Madison.  First, he buried a three pointer to cut the lead to one, 56-55.  Then after a turnover by McLendon, the Dukes called timeout.  My friend Mal predicted that they would call a play for Davis.  Sure enough, off the inbounds play, they got it to Davis, who hit a layup and was fouled by Kone.   He would hit the free throw for the three point play. James Madison was up for the first time since four minutes remaining in the first half, 58-56 with a minute left in the game.

But Hofstra finally got Moore involved after JMU's imposed nineteen minute sabbatical.  Moore hit two free throws for his first points of the second half and the game was tied at fifty eight.  But Hitchens, the proverbial thorn in the Pride's side, nailed a jumper to put Madison up two, 60-58 with thirty nine seconds left.

To Hofstra's credit, they didn't waste time with the ball and went after a good shot immediately. That good shot was a Moore layup that tied the game at sixty with twenty six seconds left.   JMU wound down the clock and with about three seconds left, Hitchens hit another jumper over McMillan's outstretched hand.  The Dukes were up 62-60, but Moore had one last chance.  He hoisted a sixty footer from almost the same exact location Hitchens hit his three pointer at the end of the first half.

As the buzzer sounded...nothing...but...backboard.

James Madison had won 62-60.  Hitchens' sixty footer at the end of the half did come back to haunt Hofstra.  He led JMU with twenty points, while Davis had ten of his twelve points in the second half.  Moore had twenty four to lead all scorers, but the Dukes holding him in check in the second half was huge.  David Imes was the only other double figure scorer for Hofstra with ten points.

For once, a Humpty caused someone else's great fall.  All the Hofstra players and all the Hofstra fans couldn't keep the streak alive again.   After twelve straight losses, the Dukes finally had a win against the Pride.

James Madison vs. Hofstra Preview

As noted in my previous post, it's the first day of CAA conference play.  Outside of VCU and UNCW, all ten other teams are playing against each other today.  And in Hempstead, we have a rematch of the classic overtime thriller from last season where Hofstra rallied in regulation against James Madison and won in overtime 92-90.  When the Pride joined the CAA in the 2001-02 season, the Dukes won the first three games in the series.  Since then, Hofstra has won twelve straight.   Here are seven things to look for in today's game.

1. Expect a High Scoring, Close Game - First you have JMU who leads the CAA in scoring and is next to last in scoring defense.  Second, you have Hofstra who is third in the CAA in FG percentage at 44.3, but is also next to last in the CAA in FG percentage defense at 46.6 percent.  The Pride are allowing a stunning 54.6 percent of two point field goals attempted.
   
   Third, when the Dukes and the Pride get together at the Mack Center, there is a history of high scoring, overtime games.  There have been three overtime games in the past six years where the winning team, Hofstra, has scored in the 90's; the aforementioned game from January, a 99-96 double overtime game in February 2009 and the all time gem, a 95-88 triple overtime game in February 2005.
2. JMU Star Transfer Part Deux - Matt Brady has lots of success with transfers.  First Denzel Bowles, now A.J. Davis. Davis, a transfer from Wyoming, is averaging 22 points per game. Hofstra's best player, Mike Moore will likely be responsible for guarding Davis.  Should be an interesting matchup.
3. Rise and Fire - Two of the top three point field goal shooting teams in the CAA play today.  The Dukes hit as many three pointers, ten, as the Pride attempt in a game (sixty nine three point attempts in seven games).  James Madison leads the CAA, shooting nearly 47 percent from the field, while Hofstra is second at 43.5 percent.  The Dukes have four of the top ten three point percentage shooters in the Colonial; Davis at a ridiculous 59 percent, Humpty Hitchens at 51.7 percent , Andrey Semenov and Julius Wells.
   
   Mike Moore is third in the CAA in three point FG percentage, shooting 48.4 percent (15 of 31). But, as noted by John Templon earlier this week, Hofstra should try attempting more three point attempts.  In fact, the Pride are averaging seven less attempts per game than last season. Hofstra is actually very good at defending the three, allowing only 32 percent of three point field goals attempted.
4. Charity Begins at the Line - As mentioned in my CAA Notes from earlier today, Hofstra is averaging twenty nine free throw attempts per game, more than double what Drexel averages per game.  The Pride have 204 free throw attempts.  Georgia State is next with 161 free throw attempts.  When you are hitting seventy percent of those attempts, you tend to stay in games.
   
   Meanwhile, James Madison is only ninth in the CAA in free throw attempts, with one hundred less attempts than Hofstra. This may be due in large part to their three point shooting prowess.  The advantage goes to Hofstra in this category.
5. Paging Nathaniel Lester - In two games vs. LIU and Rhode Island, Lester scored a total of fifty five points.  In his other five games combined, Lester has scored a total of forty five points. Though he is averaging a respectable 14.3 points per game, he is struggling from the field, shooting 36 percent from the field and 21 percent from beyond the arc.  In fact, after going 3 of 4 from three against LIU, he has missed his last ten three point attempts.  Against Florida Atlantic and Boston University, in the two games combined, he only hit one field goal in twenty two attempts.  Simply put, Lester has to be more consistent.
     
6. Ball Possession - James Madison is first in the CAA in assists, averaging 14.2 per game with Hitchens leading the CAA at 6.0 assists per game, as well as assists to turnovers per game at 2.1.  Hofstra's Dwan McMillan is third at 4.0 assists per game and fifth with .6 assists to turnovers per game.  The problem is Steve Mejia is the starting point guard for the Pride and he is not in the top fourteen in either category in the CAA.  In fact, Hofstra is tenth in the CAA in assists per game at 9.9.  Advantage James Madison.
7. Pride Must Avoid a Shooting Drought - The Pride had two substantial leads in their games vs. Florida Atlantic and Boston University.  In both games, they went cold from the field in the second half and lost both games.  Against the Owls, after being up 36-27, the Pride shot 3 of 18 from the field over an eleven minute period in the second half.  Against the Terriers, after being up 52-45 with ten minutes left, the Pride shot 2 of 15 from the field for the rest of the game.  They can't afford that against the Dukes.

How willl this game turnout?   Well, using lines from TV shows and movies: 

• If Hofstra Coach Mo Cassara yells "THEM DUKES! THEM DUKES!" like Boss Hogg from "The Dukes of Hazzard", it's a good day for James Madison.  
• If  James Madison Coach Matt Brady yells "Come on Julius, get in front of the damn ball! Don't give me this "olé" bulls___" like Lou Brown from "Major League", then it's a good day for Hofstra.

Either way, expect a very close, high scoring game.  History often repeats itself in this series.