Game Day again!!!

The Lady Dukes head up north a bit to face the Towson Tigers this afternoon. Will be heading out in a couple of hours to pick up the younger daughter and head up to the game. After Fridays convincing win over Northeastern we expect the Dukes to keep rolling along. Team played very well Friday and we are looking forward to a repeat today.

Hope to see some Purple and Gold in the seat today at SECU Arena. If you have not been there yet consider making the trip. While a small venue (5000 seats) it is a very nice facility.

Brian

Just got home from the game. Nice turnout of Purple and Gold fans this afternoon. Tight game for about a 1/4 and a half then the Dukes broke it open. The lead got to 20 a couple of times before Towson pulled to within 5 or so and the Dukes stretched it out for the 64-55 win.

Three Dukes in double figures plus the Dukes recorded 11 blocks, 7 by Kayla and 4 by Devon. Towson which came into the game boasting about their block statistics managed 1. The Dukes also moved the ball around well and had 14 assists on 24 made shots from the field.

Game got a bit sloppy in the later stages and turned into a foul fest. Neither team held on to the ball well, both had 22 turnovers which is worrying me. Too many bad passes.

Overall a nice effort by the Lady Dukes and they run the record to 12-1 in conference. Drexel, Elon and Delaware all won along with W&M so the Dukes still sit on top of the conference with Drexel at 11-2, Elon at9-4 and Delaware at 8-4 (missing a conference game it seems?).

Important game coming up next Friday vs Delaware at Newark. Will be a tough one no doubt.

Brian

Looking at the standings, a few observations with 5 or 6 games left in the regular season...

-Elon pretty much has the 3-seed locked in now. They are done with both JMU and Drexel. They likely run the table the rest of the way and finish 14-4.

-Delaware is 8-4 and a half game behind Elon, but still must face JMU twice and Drexel (at home)...and, have to travel to W&M.

-W&M and NE are both 7-6 currently. W&M still has to travel to Drexel, Elon and JMU. That's 3 very likely losses and finishing 9-9 at best. NE is done with JMU and Drexel, has 4 very winnable games and 1 likely home loss vs Elon left.

-The top seed of course likely comes down to JMU's game at Drexel on Feb. 23rd. That is, barring any significant upsets. JMU's next game this upcoming Friday at Delaware could be a land mine if the Dukes don't bring their A game, for instance. The Sick Chickens already beat Elon at home earlier this season by 14.

-If Drexel defeats JMU and no upsets take place, then Drexel & JMU are tied for the top seed. They will have split the season series so the first tie-breaker rule doesn't break the tie. The next rule has them go down to see how they did against the 3rd seed and then 4th and so on until they break the tie. With Elon the likely 3-seed, the tie breaker won't be solved there because both Drexel and JMU went 1-1 vs Elon. And, this tie breaker won't solve anything because Drexel and JMU each will have gone 2-0 against everybody else. After that, the next rule comes down to a coin toss. CAA Tie Breaker rules (scroll down to section 4.07 page 43 from the handbook)... http://www.nmnathletics.com/fls/8500/sup...ByLaws.pdf

Hopefully, the Good Gals take care of business and these tie breakers are a moot point. If the LD's can secure the top seed, this means most likely Drexel and Elon battle it out in a semifinal while the most likely scenario is the Dukes will get the winner of 4-seed NE and 5-seed either W&M or Delaware in the semifinal.

Fun time of year for hoops fans...getting closer to tournament time.

Some comments (I didn't see the game). Kayla is already tied for 5th in all time blocks in the JMU record book. Since she is only a (redshirt) sophomore, if she continues her current ways, she should own the record by the time she graduates. Not too shabby, eh? I don't know if anyone keeps count of steals, but it seems to me that Logan ought to be somewhere on that record count too. She is a very accomplished ball thief.

As far as the sloppiness towards the end of games, has anyone noticed that Coach tends to put in a group that doesn't seem to be used to playing with each other when the score gets comfortably high? We noticed that especially in the Northeastern game. That was when the passing got sloppy and the fouls got called.

Does anybody have any further information on Jackie Benitez or Breyenne Ballard?

O to P

Actually I have noticed more than a few bad passes (too high is the common one or into a crowd of players around the basket) from the starting 5 and the first couple off the bench. Turnovers like that drive me nuts. Need to clean that up a bit heading towards tournament time. 15 to 20 turnovers a game is going to cost the Dukes a win one of these days.

Hopefully we will hear something about Jackie and Bre. Maybe at the fan and press thingee tomorrow. I sent a couple of questions to Curt D. to ask Coach O tomorrow so we shall see what transpires.

Go Dukes!!

Brian