Because I'm a college basketball junkie, I tend to find myself watching odd mid-major games jus to pass time or just because they strangely interest me. Well, this Saturday I sat and watched one of those games that not a ton of people care about, and that game was James Madison at Towson. Here's a couple of my thoughts and musings from watching the game:
Towson's still not very good. The Tigers made headlines a few weeks back for finally winning a game, defeating UNCW and snapping a historic losing streak dating back to December 29th, 2010. Sadly, this hasn't made the Tigers any better as a team overall. There were points watching this game where I had no faith that Towson would score, although I'll give them this much: they at least look like a Division I team these days.
JMU is not much better. James Madison has struggled this season, and you could see why during this game. Their offense is based heavily around the three point line, but they only have a few true three point shooters, which seems counterproductive. Their rebounding is also atrocious, and they just gave Towson far too many opportunities for easy baskets.
This became of battle of who wanted it least. The ending of this game was incredible, in that JMU continued to give Towson chances to win it, and Towson continued to refuse to take them. After JMU hit a couple of free throws to stretch their lead to three, they fouled Towson intentionally with five seconds to play. Towson hit their first free throw, and purposely missed the second. JMU got their hands on the rebound...and knocked it out of bounds with three seconds left, giving the Tigers one last shot. Naturally, Towson airballed their final attempt at a win.
Give the Towson faithful credit. It actually looked like the Tigers had a decent sized crowd, and they were quite loud as the game's final moments started. It's nice to see that Towson still has some strong support, even if they are 1-24.
I think that the bottom line is that they are just average mid-major teams. And compared to good division one programs, average mid-major teams are not very good at all. As much as a I love Cinderalla stories, whenever I watch a Duke, UNC, or even a team like Florida State play, the game seems so much cleaner than those of a JMU or ODU. You do not see balls getting fumbled around on the court, three point shots banging off of the backboard, they are just two completely different games.
ReplyDelete