Drexel loses seventh straight, falling to James Madison
IT'S BEEN 12 years since Matt Brady coached his last game at Saint Joseph's, those Hawks seconds away from the 2004 Final Four. Brady left Phil Martelli's staff soon after for his first head-coaching job at Marist and parlayed success there into the job at James Madison. He brought what might be his best JMU team to the Daskalakis Athletic Center on Thursday night to play Drexel, which does not have one of its best teams.
IT'S BEEN 12 years since Matt Brady coached his last game at Saint Joseph's, those Hawks seconds away from the 2004 Final Four. Brady left Phil Martelli's staff soon after for his first head-coaching job at Marist and parlayed success there into the job at James Madison. He brought what might be his best JMU team to the Daskalakis Athletic Center on Thursday night to play Drexel, which does not have one of its best teams.
If you just walked in off the street with no context and no idea of the records, you would have thought early that it was Drexel on its way to 20 wins, not 20 losses. If, however, you had been paying attention, you knew an early nine-point Dragons lead was a tease.
The Dukes scored 32 of the next 40 points on the way to a 78-56 win. James Madison (17-7, 7-4 Colonial) starts four juniors and terrific senior point guard Ron Curry from Paul VI (Pennsauken), which also happens to be the alma mater of Brady, a terrific point guard there before going on to a very nice career at Siena.
"We like where our record is," Brady said. "We don't think we're playing as well we have in some games earlier in the year. Offensively, we're not where I want us to be. Record-wise, we think we've actually lost a couple of games we felt we should have won."
This time last year, Drexel coach Bruiser Flint may have envisioned a 2015-16 starting lineup that included a senior star (Damion Lee, now putting up big numbers at Louisville as a graduate transfer), Utah transfer Ahmad Fields, who has missed all but three games with a knee injury, and Major Canady, who is missing his second straight season with an injury. The Dragons (3-19, 1-10) lost their seventh straight.
This game, Flint said, was essentially the same as JMU's 68-45 win over Drexel on Jan. 21 in Virginia.
Drexel did have that 13-4 lead, but was doing it against a team playing the best statistical defense in school history, coming into the game holding teams to 39.8 percent shooting overall and 28.4 percent from three (both will be school records if they hold up), while going 7-1 on the road. Make it 8-1 after the Dragons shot 28.3 percent.
The JMU plan against the Dragons is rather clear.
"What they do is double-team the big guys and make them throw it to the guards," Flint said.
Drexel's four guards shot a combined 11-for-50, with JMU leaving them often uncovered, daring them to shoot.
Drexel is shooting 38 percent on the season. It really is not that complicated. Can't shoot, can't win.
"It's not like we're not open," Flint said. "Honestly, you don't really need to guard us."
Brady has done a nice job recruiting the area. Besides Curry, who had 16 points against the Dragons and has 1,404 for his career, JMU also starts Yohanny Dalembert, an important part of the Lower Merion team that beat Chester in the 2013 PIAA AAAA championship game, keeping the Clippers from a threepeat and ending their 78-game winning streak against Pennsylvania teams. Dalembert had 15 points and 12 rebounds Thursday night.
"Ron's been dynamite for JMU," Brady said. "He's basically been a four-year starter. Started 11 games as a freshman on an NCAA Tournament team."
Brady called Curry the best defensive point guard in the CAA for the last two seasons.
JMU won the 2013 CAA championship when it really wasn't supposed to. Next month in Baltimore, this team, which got off the school's best 21-game start in the last 34 years, will have a chance at another in a deep, strong league, in which as many as eight teams could win the title. Drexel would not appear to be among those eight.
On Twitter: @DickJerardi