2-2 yesterday, 56-44 overall, 5-0 double plays. on ecu last night, coach herrion sits out starting sr pg travis holcomb-frye for academic reasons with no advance notice, even to locals close to the team. pirates play a lethargic game as a result, offense sluggish and ineffective and defense that was allowing under 40% fg for the season allows 47% fg to a gutted gmu team. coach larranaga's son had a career high 29 points, and he just ain't that good. you gotta love college ball. on to today with one early play:
denver +5-: pioneers traditionally have not been much of a road team, but looking for improvement in this area from a denver team that this year has more depth and size than in years past. no secret that denver is a team that relies on the three. i am of the school that believes widening the lane and moving the three point line out favors the quicker, better shooting team, and here that would have to be the pioneers. also, jmu may be a little banged up at guard, with dwanye broyles missing practice this week with a knee contusion and daniel freeman missing practice and monday's fau game with the flu. again, this would seem to work in favor of denver's guard-driven offense. gmu's travel and prep also a negative heading into puerto rico. itinerary mixup caused team to missed fight wednesday morning resulting in team taking two separate flights that made for 18 hour travel day, not arriving until 11 pm. also, coach dillard has been pretty loose with the team, treating this trip like kind of a vacation. thursday morning, coach dillard said, "i've been on some trips with coaches that were too hard on the kids and that made for a not-so-fun trip." after the team checked in to the wyndham beach and casino resort in san juan, by thursday afternoon dillard was saying, "i don't know where the kids are, we've obviously got to reel them in." contrast denver coach carroll, " we spent $30,000 to come here, the guys darn sure better play some ball." i think i'll take the points.
denver +5-: pioneers traditionally have not been much of a road team, but looking for improvement in this area from a denver team that this year has more depth and size than in years past. no secret that denver is a team that relies on the three. i am of the school that believes widening the lane and moving the three point line out favors the quicker, better shooting team, and here that would have to be the pioneers. also, jmu may be a little banged up at guard, with dwanye broyles missing practice this week with a knee contusion and daniel freeman missing practice and monday's fau game with the flu. again, this would seem to work in favor of denver's guard-driven offense. gmu's travel and prep also a negative heading into puerto rico. itinerary mixup caused team to missed fight wednesday morning resulting in team taking two separate flights that made for 18 hour travel day, not arriving until 11 pm. also, coach dillard has been pretty loose with the team, treating this trip like kind of a vacation. thursday morning, coach dillard said, "i've been on some trips with coaches that were too hard on the kids and that made for a not-so-fun trip." after the team checked in to the wyndham beach and casino resort in san juan, by thursday afternoon dillard was saying, "i don't know where the kids are, we've obviously got to reel them in." contrast denver coach carroll, " we spent $30,000 to come here, the guys darn sure better play some ball." i think i'll take the points.
