W&M Yet Again?
Posted: March 2, 2013
HARRISONBURG — By the time James Madison tips off in Williamsburg tonight, it will know if it is playing William & Mary for the opportunity to play … William & Mary.
That opportunity, such as it is, would come in the first round of the Colonial Athletic Association men’s basketball tournament next weekend.
Five of the seven seeds are set, with only the No. 3 and No. 4 spots open. George Mason can clinch the third seed with a win at Delaware (that game begins at 2 p.m.). But if the Patriots lose, JMU can take third with a win at W&M at 6 p.m. today
The “reward” for finishing third instead of fourth is another date with the sixth-seeded Tribe — a team that’s knocked JMU out of the CAA tournament twice in the last three years. Whoever finishes fourth plays No. 5 Drexel, a disappointing but dangerous team that started the season as the CAA favorite.
The Dukes are trying not to get wrapped up in all the postseason implications.
“I don’t know who, at this point in the season, we would rather play,” senior forward Rayshawn Goins said, “but we just want to focus on this win — we just want to focus on this win Saturday vs. William & Mary.”
JMU (16-14 overall, 10-7 in the CAA) can clinch its third plus-.500 season in five years under coach Matt Brady, whose future at Madison hinges on the Dukes’ success in the tournament, and, to an extent, this game. Brady, who took over after eight straight losing seasons at JMU, has a contract that expires after this season.
He knows his situation is tenuous, but he is preparing his team for the regular-season finale without eyes on the impending tournament. The Dukes, after losing to Georgia State last weekend, will be playing on six days rest.
“Relative to winning or losing the game, I don’t pay any attention to what the ramifications might be,” Brady said. “We’re going to go there, we’re going to try to play really well; there’s things we’ve got to get better at, and hopefully we’ll win the game. It’s going to be a close game, and it’s probably going to be a two-minute game, and we’re going to need to make a shot or a free throw to win the game, in all likelihood.”
While W&M’s record (13-15, 7-10) isn’t stellar, the Tribe is one of the hottest teams in the CAA.
Even with Goins inactive because of a foot injury, Madison beat William & Mary 81-71 last month at the Convocation Center. Since then, the Tribe has gone 4-2, including a four-point loss to first-place Northeastern and a two-point loss at George Mason. W&M has shown in recent weeks that it can compete with anybody in the Colonial.
“There’s just very little in this league that separates your first- and second-place team, and your seventh-, eighth- and ninth-place teams,” W&M coach Tony Shaver said. “It’s that 1 percent that we’ve got to find a way to garner — we’ve got to find that 1 percent going into tournament play.”
The Tribe’s Marcus Thornton, Tim Rusthoven and Brandon Britt comprise the highest-scoring trio in the league, at 46.8 points per game. Thornton, a sophomore guard and the leader of the bunch with 18.6 points per game, scored 22 in the first meeting at JMU. But he was stymied in the final 12-plus minutes, scoring just one point after Devon Moore switched onto him.
Moore missed several practices this week to be home in Ohio with his sick mother. JMU left campus without is senior point guard aboard the team bus Friday, but Moore travelled separately and is expected to play today, team sources said.
The Dukes could certainly use their top perimeter defender. As a team, William & Mary shot 53.2 percent from the field in the first matchup, despite fair defense by JMU.
They run their stuff,” Goins said Thursday, right after watching film of the Tribe. “They’re a patient team, so we’re going to have to play defense for 25 seconds, 25-28 seconds every possession. We’ve just got to grind it out for the most part. We’ll be all right.”
In the first matchup, reserve guard A.J. Davis guided the Dukes to victory with a season-high 27 points, including seven 3-pointers in the second half.
Adding a much-needed offensive punch, the previously inconsistent senior is averaging 17.8 points in the last six games, dating back to that one.
“A.J. kind of had a mental breakthrough in that game,” Brady said. “He obviously had an outstanding basketball game from an offensive standpoint, but I think he had a breakthrough in terms of mental understanding — the relative value of any one player to his team, and he played both ends in that game. I think subsequently he’s done the same thing just about every game.”
That opportunity, such as it is, would come in the first round of the Colonial Athletic Association men’s basketball tournament next weekend.
Five of the seven seeds are set, with only the No. 3 and No. 4 spots open. George Mason can clinch the third seed with a win at Delaware (that game begins at 2 p.m.). But if the Patriots lose, JMU can take third with a win at W&M at 6 p.m. today
The “reward” for finishing third instead of fourth is another date with the sixth-seeded Tribe — a team that’s knocked JMU out of the CAA tournament twice in the last three years. Whoever finishes fourth plays No. 5 Drexel, a disappointing but dangerous team that started the season as the CAA favorite.
The Dukes are trying not to get wrapped up in all the postseason implications.
“I don’t know who, at this point in the season, we would rather play,” senior forward Rayshawn Goins said, “but we just want to focus on this win — we just want to focus on this win Saturday vs. William & Mary.”
JMU (16-14 overall, 10-7 in the CAA) can clinch its third plus-.500 season in five years under coach Matt Brady, whose future at Madison hinges on the Dukes’ success in the tournament, and, to an extent, this game. Brady, who took over after eight straight losing seasons at JMU, has a contract that expires after this season.
He knows his situation is tenuous, but he is preparing his team for the regular-season finale without eyes on the impending tournament. The Dukes, after losing to Georgia State last weekend, will be playing on six days rest.
“Relative to winning or losing the game, I don’t pay any attention to what the ramifications might be,” Brady said. “We’re going to go there, we’re going to try to play really well; there’s things we’ve got to get better at, and hopefully we’ll win the game. It’s going to be a close game, and it’s probably going to be a two-minute game, and we’re going to need to make a shot or a free throw to win the game, in all likelihood.”
While W&M’s record (13-15, 7-10) isn’t stellar, the Tribe is one of the hottest teams in the CAA.
Even with Goins inactive because of a foot injury, Madison beat William & Mary 81-71 last month at the Convocation Center. Since then, the Tribe has gone 4-2, including a four-point loss to first-place Northeastern and a two-point loss at George Mason. W&M has shown in recent weeks that it can compete with anybody in the Colonial.
“There’s just very little in this league that separates your first- and second-place team, and your seventh-, eighth- and ninth-place teams,” W&M coach Tony Shaver said. “It’s that 1 percent that we’ve got to find a way to garner — we’ve got to find that 1 percent going into tournament play.”
The Tribe’s Marcus Thornton, Tim Rusthoven and Brandon Britt comprise the highest-scoring trio in the league, at 46.8 points per game. Thornton, a sophomore guard and the leader of the bunch with 18.6 points per game, scored 22 in the first meeting at JMU. But he was stymied in the final 12-plus minutes, scoring just one point after Devon Moore switched onto him.
Moore missed several practices this week to be home in Ohio with his sick mother. JMU left campus without is senior point guard aboard the team bus Friday, but Moore travelled separately and is expected to play today, team sources said.
The Dukes could certainly use their top perimeter defender. As a team, William & Mary shot 53.2 percent from the field in the first matchup, despite fair defense by JMU.
They run their stuff,” Goins said Thursday, right after watching film of the Tribe. “They’re a patient team, so we’re going to have to play defense for 25 seconds, 25-28 seconds every possession. We’ve just got to grind it out for the most part. We’ll be all right.”
In the first matchup, reserve guard A.J. Davis guided the Dukes to victory with a season-high 27 points, including seven 3-pointers in the second half.
Adding a much-needed offensive punch, the previously inconsistent senior is averaging 17.8 points in the last six games, dating back to that one.
“A.J. kind of had a mental breakthrough in that game,” Brady said. “He obviously had an outstanding basketball game from an offensive standpoint, but I think he had a breakthrough in terms of mental understanding — the relative value of any one player to his team, and he played both ends in that game. I think subsequently he’s done the same thing just about every game.”