I. Renko is an RTC correspondent. He filed this report from Dayton after Wednesday’s play-in game between Long Island and James Madison. Follow him on Twitter @IRenkoHoops.

Three Key Takeaways:

LIU Was Never Able to Get Its Offense Going Tonight (credit: G. Shamus/Getty)

1. JMU Won the Tempo Battle — Long Island likes to play at a breakneck pace, ranking in the top 30 in the country in tempo and routinely scoring in the 80s or 90s. At yesterday’s pregame press conference, James Madison coach Matt Brady emphasized the importance of slowing the game, and the Dukes largely succeeded. LIU scored just 55 points, its lowest total of the season, and the game ended with about 60 possessions per team, also quite low by LIU’s standards. And though the Blackbirds managed to get out on the break here and there, JMU was almost as effective in transition, particularly during a critical 9-0 second half run when they erased LIU’s only lead of the game with four straight transition buckets.
2. No Rayshawn, No Matter — JMU’s leading scorer, forward Rayshawn Goins, was suspended for the first half tonight, the fallout of a Sunday evening arrest that put a damper on the Dukes’ otherwise exciting Selection Sunday. The odd half-game suspension and the effect on the team was a major pre-game storyline, but proved to be largely irrelevant. JMU more than compensated for Goins’ absence in the first half with its stellar shooting, and in the second half, Goins’ contributions were marginal. Though he pulled down eight rebounds, he struggled to score and looked out of sync on offense for much of the half. He finished with just four points.
3. LIU Couldn’t Find the Right Defensive Formula — Though Long Island scores a lot of points, they also give up a lot of points. They don’t stop shots, they don’t force turnovers, and they don’t rebound well. And tonight, they just couldn’t find the right defensive formula. They alternated between man and zone defenses in the first half, but no matter what they tried, the Dukes were able to crack it with their great shooting, hitting several jump shots and knocking down 40 percent of their threes en route to a 32-31 halftime lead. In the second half, the Blackbirds relied primarily on a zone, and while the Dukes’ outside shooting cooled a bit, they held their lead by dominating the glass, rebounding 55.5 percent of their own misses. At the end of the day, it’s tough to win an NCAA Tournament game with a defense ranked outside the top 300.

Star of the Game:  After averaging 15.9 points per game last year, JMU senior guard A.J. Davis struggled to find consistency for much of this season. He scored in double figures in just nine of his first 25 games, but since then, he’s hit double digits nine straight times. His offensive resurgence continued tonight, as he led the Dukes with 20 points on 7-of-15 shooting, including 4-of-10 from three-point range. Davis also stuffed the stat sheet with five rebounds, three assists, two steals, and a block.

Quotable: “We’ve been through a lot of adversity in my five years. At this level, you can’t let it impact your team. You certainly can’t use it as an excuse. […] Rayshawn apologized to the team. He’s a terrific kid from a very disadvantaged background. He made one mistake, and we’re trying to move on.” — Matt Brady, on his team and Goins overcoming his suspension

Sights & Sounds: In a bizarre moment midway through the first half, an actual black bird, which just happens to be LIU’s nickname and mascot, descended to the court.  Whether it was just an eerie coincidence or some LIU fan had let the bird loose,  it failed to curse the Dukes, as they went on to the 13-point win and will continue their surprising postseason run.

Wildcard: The biggest flaw in LIU’s otherwise potent offense is its propensity to turn the ball over. And sure enough, it hurt them badly through the first half, as they coughed it up eight times and were outscored 15-2 on points off turnovers. They settled down from there, committing just two more turnovers the rest of the way, but their early wildness put them in a bad hole.

What’s Next? James Madison will try to chop down mighty Indiana on Friday at 4:10 PM in the same building here in Dayton, Ohio.

IRenko (64 Posts)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 20th, 2013 at 7:23 pm by IRenko and is filed under 2013 ncaa tournament, Rushed Reactions. Tagged: aj davis, james madison, long island, matt brady, Rayshawn Goins. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.