Posted on November 8, 2007
2004-05: 6-22 + ’05-06: 5-23 + ’06-07: 7-23 = 18-68 record in the Dean Keener coaching era.
At this point in JMU’s recent history, Friday’s season opener against the Siena Saints could simply be a game of pride for the men’s basketball team.
But the Dukes aren’t treating this season as an attempt to just salvage Keener’s regime.
The Colonial Athletic Association coaches have slated the Dukes as the seventh-best team in the preseason poll despite three straight seasons of finishing no higher than eleventh in the twelve-team league.
A win or loss in this first game isn’t likely to be a strong indicator of whether or not Madison will meet or exceed the expectation, but how they play should speak volumes.
“You never feel that you’re 100 percent ready, but I probably feel as good this year as at any time because of the experience and depth that we have.” Keener said Monday at his press conference. “And also the trip to Spain, having practiced 10 days in August and having the opportunity to play five games overseas.”
Much of the experience and depth will come from three transfers that Keener and his staff attracted to Harrisonburg in 2006. For the first time junior guard Abdulai Jalloh, sophomore forward Dazzmond Thornton and senior forward Terrence Carter will take the court together.
Jalloh is the much-publicized transfer from St. Joseph’s who in his sophomore season led the Hawks in scoring and rebounding on his way to earning second-team All-Atlantic 10 honors. Jalloh played against Carter in high school, creating a bond that also helped Keener snag both Maryland natives.
Thornton transferred after his freshman year with three-time National Championship coach, Bobby Knight, at Texas Tech. The 6-foot, 7-inch forward was lured to JMU with the help of sophomore Pierre Curtis, whom he played with at East High School in Denver.
Carter, who was recently voted by the team as captain, joined the Dukes after two years at Southeastern (Iowa) Community College. Because he didn’t transfer from another Division 1 program Carter was permitted to play last season and started in all but four of JMU’s 30 games. At 6-foot-5 Carter is a versatile forward with the ability to play with his back to the basket as well as shoot from the perimeter. Carter was second on the team in scoring last season with 12.8 points per game, only behind junior forward Juwann James.
“Terrence was voted by his teammates and it’s very deserving on a lot of levels,” Keener said. “He was the clear choice and I don’t think anybody was within six votes, that gives us a person who has pinpoint responsibility.”
The new additions will likely open up the offense for James, whom after garnering the CAA Rookie of the Year honor in 2005-06 season, became the recipient of unwelcomed double-teaming throughout 2006-07.
“I’m not really worried about my offensive skills, but just with the guys we have now I’m gonna be able to get open and get the shots I need,” James said.
The Dukes know what James can do in the current system, but it is Jalloh, deemed the “savior” of JMU basketball by local media, who could be the one piece to the puzzle Keener inherited.
“Let me say that the one word that I hate more than anything else is savior,” Keener said. “In my humble opinion there is one savior and I try to talk to him each night before I go to bed and when I get up in the morning.”
Keener’s ability to talk to the ultra-competitive Jalloh and get him to mesh with a team not used to having a player of his caliber could actually save his job.
Jalloh scored a career-high 30 points in a game against Ohio State as a sophomore under coach Phil Martelli, a scoring total JMUcouldn’t have expected from anybody during the three seasons.
The new-look Dukes will make their premiere against a Metro-Atlantic Athletic Conference team, in Siena, that was voted as the preseason favorite to win the league.
Joining Jalloh in the backcourt is sophomore Pierre Curtis, a CAA All-Rookie honoree last season. Their counterparts include Siena’s backcourt of Kenny Hasbrouck and Edwin Ubiles, both preseason First-Team selections in the MAAC.
The backcourt battle will be an early measuring stick of how well Curtis and Jalloh will co-exist on both ends of the floor. Both have the ability to penetrate and shoot from the outside.
“We’ll be a lot quicker in the backcourt this year,” Curtis said. “Both of us will be able to create a lot more open shots for our teammates and ourselves.”
JMU fans should be intrigued to see how Curtis and Jalloh play together, but the two guards shouldn’t expect a sell-out crowd. The average attendance at the Convocation Center last year didn’t even reach half of the 7,156-seat arena.
“I guess a lot more people heard were gonna be better and we obviously think we’re gonna be a lot better,” Curtis said. “Now we just have to go out there and prove it and more people will come to games.”
Will Curtis’ assumptions on his team’s improvement be prophetic or will the Dukes continue to be the Dukes our generation is so accustomed to being disappointed by.
Against the Saints tomorrow, JMU will find out if one of its own deified players can use his ‘divine’ abilities to start the season off with a win, turn JMU’s basketball program around, pack the Convo and validate the efforts Keener has made in what still could be a short stay.
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