Went to the game, sat under the basket on Duke's bench side.  My observations considering it was one game, early in the season, and not too sure how good James Madison is.  Viewpoint for an unschooled fan in the stands:  1)  Colter is a player.  Wants the ball in crunch time.  Unlike T.J. last year, will step up to take the shot.  I was worried before (even after Greentree), but no longer.  T.J. will not be missed as much as I thought he would be.  2)  Sean Johnson is a warrior.  We sat above him during his foot problems, and know he expressed he wanted to play.  To suggest otherwise is contemptable, he was hurting.  3)  Abele has really worked on his game.  Maybe due to good coaching, willpower, whatever, he is not the stiff he was last year.  4)  Winters should be something by his senior year.  Just a good all around player who wants to mix it up.  Reminded me a lot of BJ Montero, only better early on in his career.  5) Ferry is a good coach.  They were boxing out for rebounds (unlike last year), and you could see the play set ups (except maybe Jones issed the call on one play).  6)  The assistant coaches are a vast improvement,  They were making calls and were involved in the ongoing play.  I never felt Ron E.  (who I like a lot), got this kind of support from his assistants. 7)  Attendance sucked as usual- this just flat out pisses me off.  These kids really played hard tonight.  8)  Very young team in overtime stood up fo a far more experienced team, and came away as winners.  Mostly Ferry recruitsin at the end, hope he keeps up bringing in the talent.  Over all summary is that although this team is very young, they play hard and are well coached.  They are much better than I expected, conditioned on how good James Madison actually was. First game, I know, but I have much more hope than I had going into the season.

Crunch time with 3 fr a soph and a jr.

Things that WENT ON last night that were positive that did not occur in the past -

1.  Loved the lights dark and introduction at the beginning for the Dukes Players.  A number of teams have done that for years.  It is Well received.
2.  Glad Rise Up is gone - it never worked - get something and STICK with it as last night
3.  During half-time they actually announced you can buy food there
4.  I could hear the kid who screams into the microphone and does things at half-time, time outs, etc.  He doesn't need to scream, but what was good was the sound system worked well.
5.  The cheerleaders were all there though it is break time
6.  I sure hope the dance team is still in existence!

Not sure how good the team is - the team they played had a lot of seniors, but aren't a power house - but we are young and it was a very good win!
Q is a player.  We still need to find a post player.

FAM