To fans, nothing makes a season longer than losses. Evidently, the same thinking doesn?t apply to coaches.
With only three games remaining in the James Madison basketball team?s disappointing regular season, coach Sherman Dillard said this year has gone by as quickly as any in his experience ? dating all the way to his playing days at JMU in the 1970s.
"Maybe it?s just old age," the 46-year-old Dillard said with a laugh. "But, really, my wife and I were talking about it the other day.? Perhaps it?s like a game, when you have a big deficit to overcome, it goes by so fast. When you have a big lead, it seems like it takes forever for that time to go by."
The Dukes have been fighting from behind the entire Colonial Athletic Association season, beginning with three consecutive losses to start league play.
Entering today?s 7:30 p.m. game at Towson, the progress has been minimal ? the Dukes are tied with Towson for eighth in the 10-team league at 5-10.
Dillard has refrained from criticizing his team much, and he said Tuesday that he has been pleased with the Dukes? effort "80 to 90 percent" of the time.
"But that doesn?t make it any less frustrating for me as a coach, or for this team," said Dillard, who won his 100th game in his eighth year as a head coach last Wednesday. "Because ultimately, there are only two columns there, W and L. They don?t put an E there, for good effort?
"I?m absolutely disappointed by where we are at this stage in the season. Did we go into this season thinking this is where we?d be in mid-February? Absolutely not. Did we think that we?d have three games left, fighting basically for respect? No."
JMU?s 12-12 record ? and 5-10 CAA record -- doesn?t show much improvement from last year?s 12-17, 6-10 finish.
However, this season?s team ? which has been without injured preseason All-Colonial pick Tim Lyle most of the year -- has avoided many of the blowout defeats that marked the 2000-01 campaign. The Dukes can point to four CAA games in which they led or were tied in the final five minutes, yet failed to win.
"For that reason, it?s been very frustrating to me," Dillard said. "Yet, I?m not down on my basketball team, because they come to work every day, willing to learn, trying to get better. And they have gotten better."
Not good enough, though, to escape the "have-not?s" of the CAA.
"I think the race has boiled down to the have?s and the have-not?s," said Dillard, whose team was picked sixth in the preseason poll. "There?s the teams who have separated themselves from the pack and a bunch of others, including us, fighting to keep our heads above water."
Most prognosticators figured Towson, a preseason pick to finish last, would have drowned by now. Instead, the Tigers (9-15) have won three of their last four games and have joined the scramble to gain a sixth seed or better in the CAA tournament, thus avoiding the first round of games.
"It would be a huge momentum boost for any of our programs, but particularly for us, because we were picked to finish last in the league," Towson coach Michael Hunt said. "But we?ve found a way to be competitive."
Junior point guard Brian Allen, after struggling with turnovers early in the year, has developed into one of the league?s most prolific distributors with eight assists a game over his last six outings.
Inside, 7-foot, 300-pound freshman center Derrick Goode ? who has lost 100 pounds in the last year -- is now in good enough shape to play significant minutes.
It makes for a challenging road test for the Dukes in their final away game of the season.
"It?s a real important game," JMU junior center Ian Caskill said. "It could help us out in the standings. But even if we can?t get into sixth place, we?d still like to get as many wins as possible. It would be good psychologically going into the tournament if we could get a win away from home."
