The first Know! Your! Foe! for 2010-11 is up, previewing a future Princeton opponent with someone who knows the team well. This time out I talked on the phone with reporter Mark Selig, who covers the James Madison Dukes for the Daily News-Record.
Mark humored my questions about the Tigers' next adversary and offered up a detailed preview of a team that sounds like a challenge for Princeton to defend in the first meeting between the two schools.
Between our conversation and my hitting publish JMU defeated The Citadel 74-67 on Saturday night in Charleston, SC for their first win of the season. Big man Denzel Bowles led all scorers with 20 points on 10-12 shooting. Power forward Rayshawn Goins added 13 points and 10 rebounds. The Dukes outscored The Citadel 36-14 in the paint.
Can you talk about the problems that 6'10" forward Denzel Bowles presents? 31.4% of the team's possessions went through him in 2009-10 as he nearly averaged a double-double (20.8 ppg and 9.2 rpg).
He's just a really skilled post player. They can put him on the high block or the low block. He can get to the rim with a couple dribbles and when he's on the low block he just seems to have a great touch down there. He makes a lot of layups and dunks. He has an arsenal of moves - hooks shots, he's got little turns. Offensively he really is a load for other teams to stop. He might not be overly athletic but he's just so skilled he can get a lot of good shots down there.
Last year he was one of their only options so they just fed the ball to him very frequently. They would go 'four out, one in' with him and they would run their offense through him. He is also a very good passer. I think he led the CAA in assists for a big man last year. You put a double team on him and he's very good at passing out of it - that's another way he can beat you.
While Bowles works inside, there's junior Julius Wells, who made 91 three pointers last season. How do the two complement each other?
He's a dangerous shooter. The thing is, he shoots a lot. It takes him a lot of shots to get his points. That one thing the coach, Matt Brady, is really stressing this year with Julius. He wants him to improve in other areas and maybe his stats go down but he has a better year. He's a pretty athletic guy. He can get to the rim, but his shooting threes is kind of his calling card. He loves to do it - he'll do it in transition, he'll do it if he's not open, he'll do it if he is open. At times he can get hot and he can be real dangerous but there are other nights where he can go 5-15 and take the game away from the team a little bit.
What might surprise people about this year's team?
For people around the team it is obvious. It is a completely different team from last year. Their point guard Devon Moore is back from a torn ACL. He missed the entire season last year after playing his freshman year. Their shooting guard is a transfer from Akron named Humpty Hitchens. He did not have to sit out the transfer waiting period because his father passed away. They have a couple more transfers on the bench. They have another forward on the bench Andrey Semenov who was out pretty much all of last season with back injuries.
You can't really look at last year's team (13-20, 11th place in the CAA - JS) and try to base this year's success off all that. There are so many new parts. It might take them a while to get used to each other, but they have a lot more talent than then had in the past.
Last year James Madison forced a lot of turnovers but did not take very good care of the basketball. Do you expect that to be the same in this campaign?
If game one is an indication, then no. They played at Kansas State and had 26 turnovers in that game. That's more than they had in any game last year but I think that that's a product of the first game of the season and playing at very loud place. You're going to make some mistakes.
They should protect the ball better than that with their point guard Devon Moore back. He is a really good point guard - he can penetrate and knows how to take care of the ball. With him in the fold they should be better off turnover-wise.
Last year they were playing a kid named Pierre Curtis at point guard who was kind of a combo guy. They didn't really have a pure point guard and now they do.
What goes right for the Dukes to beat Princeton?
I've never seen Princeton play so I can't really comment on how the two teams match up against one other but in a typical James Madison win Bowles is going to get you a double-double of 20 points and 10 rebounds. They need Wells to use his discretion and shoot good shots, don't force the ball. It should really be a balanced effort. There are so many guys on this that that can score this year it seems like each game it might be a new guy that is is capable going for 15 or 20 points and leading the team. A good, balanced effort this year is going to be their best shot at getting wins against quality opponents.
On the defensive side, that's one thing to really stress going into the season. Their defense last year was pretty bad at times. It started at the perimeter. Their guards weren't really quick and always got beat of the dribble. On the back line of defense they don't really have any shot blockers. Bowles is far from a great defensive player and this new guy they have Rayshawn Goins, the power forward - he could be a defensive player in terms of positioning but he's not going to block a lot of shots. I don't think he can jump over a stack of papers. The onus is really going to be on those guys to get good positioning down low defensively, maybe take some charges and disrupt shots without blocking them necessarily.
Conversely, how do the Tigers get the victory?
It starts with the obvious. If you shut down Bowles it takes them out of a lot of things they want to do. They like working through him so much. Against Kansas State Bowles didn't play that well (11 points were the fewest he's scored in a game as a Duke. - JS) but they were doing a lot of fronting with two very large players on him. I don't know if Princeton really can offer that kind of defense against a guy like that. He missed some layups and got kind of out of his game.
It is tough to say with this James Madison team. They're so new to everybody.
I do think they're very talented this year. They're going to have a lot of balance but you can catch them on a bad shooting night and you can probably catch them on a bad free throw shooting night.
A team like Princeton that's good defensively, if they can get in their heads and James Madison is struggling to score more than 30 points in the first half then maybe that can carry over and Princeton can sneak out a low-scoring win.
What's the atmosphere like at the JMU Convocation Center? The Dukes are 27-13 at home the last three seasons. Do you sense excitement around town/campus for the first home game of 2010-11?
With the die-hard fans there's a lot of excitement for the season because people realize this is probably going to be the best team James Madison had fielded in the last decade. I still don't think this has transcended to the general Harrisonburg area population. I don't sense there is a huge excitement yet. It is more of a reactive fan base. If they get off to a real hot start then people might start following them.
When it comes to the attendance at the Convocation Center. It holds a little over 7,000 people and I would be absolutely shocked if they filled it half way for this tournament. It is Thanksgiving week and the students are off on break starting Friday.
They don't draw a ton of fans unless it is a weekend against a rival like George Mason.
Thanks for your time, Mark. Princeton (1-1) and James Madison (1-1) open the Dukes' home slate as part of the College Basketball Experience on Monday night at 7:00 pm ET.
