HARRISONBURG — As James Madison gets ready for the start of practice Thursday, the Dukes have added another veteran basketball mind to the staff.
Fourth-year coach Louis Rowe announced Wednesday JMU hired former Hampden-Sydney head coach Dee Vick as quality control coordinator. Vick, often regarded as one of the top offensive coaches at the Division III level, won 156 games in 11 seasons at Hampden-Sydney.
“I’m very excited to make Coach Vick a welcome addition to our staff,” Rowe said. “Any time you get the opportunity to add somebody with his experience in building a program through the ups and downs, it’s a great thing. In addition to his wisdom, Coach Vick is a good man, who will add a great deal to our program and its culture.”
Before returning to Hampden-Sydney, his alma mater, Vick worked in the Colonial Athletic Association as an assistant under former William & Mary coach Tony Shaver from 2003-08. He’s also had stints on staff at College of Charleston, South Carolina and East Carolina.
FloSports Schedule OutWednesday the CAA released its schedule of games available on the conference streaming package via FloSports. Last spring, the CAA and FloSports agreed to a first-of-its-kind deal that granted the upstart streaming service rights to broadcast conference contests, including more than 100 men’s basketball games.
JMU’s season opener against Charlotte, Nov. 6 at the Convocation Center is one of 22 Dukes games set for FloSports. Other non-conference games of interest on FloSports include North Carolina at UNC Wilmington and Harvard at Northeastern both on Nov. 8, Old Dominion at Northeastern on Nov. 16 and UMBC at Towson on Dec. 10.
Of local interest, Bridgewater’s Nov. 5 contest at Delaware is also on FloSports.
FloSports subscriptions are available for $12.50 per month or $95.88 for a year at FloSports.tv/CAA.
International Recruiting
Two of the newest additions to the JMU coaching staff have been on the road recruiting as the Dukes have added some international flair to their list of potential targets.
Ryan Kardok, who recently joined the staff as the third assistant, traveled to Middleburg Academy in Loudoun County and watched coach Joe Philogene’s team workout. According to Philogene, the Dukes have shown interest in a pair of in-state products in class of 2021 guards Jaden House and Isaiah Folkes, as well as two foreign players enrolled at the boarding school — Terique Brown, a class of 2021 guard from Toronto, and Kai Kueper, a 6-9 class of 2020 power forward from Germany.
Kueper in particular could be a name to keep on eye on as JMU looks for a 2020 post player to fill one of two available scholarships.
Philogene said Kueper, a skilled big man who played with the Werne Lippebaskets club in Europe before transferring to the United States, hasn’t received a scholarship offer yet, but has seen increased interest from several Division I programs recently.
Josh Oppenheimer, who joined the Dukes staff this summer, made a trip to Orangeville Prep in Ontario where JMU extended scholarship offers to a pair of Canadian players, 6-8 power forward Alexander Nwagha and 5-11 point guard Darius DeAveiro.
Nwagha, who is in the class of 2020, has an offer from South Alabama, while JMU was first to offer DeAveiro, who is currently in the class of 2021, but considering reclassifying to 2020 and said he has also seen some interest from Stanford, Holy Cross, UMass, North Dakota, SMU and others.
DeAveiro is the son of McGill University coach David DeAveiro, one of the most successful college coaches in Canada who has also worked on the Canadian national team staff. Should Darius DeAviero stay in Canada for college, he said he would attend McGill, but he’s looking at NCAA Division I programs because “that’s the dream for most every Canadian kid.”
David DeAveiro has coached against CAA teams in exhibitions and said he thinks both Orangeville players would be excellent fits at that level and he was impressed after talking to Oppenheimer.
“He’s an easy guy to like,” the elder DeAveiro said. “I’m thinking they may change a few things in terms of Ouse they play with his experience and help. I would definitely like it for Darius because I think JMU would be a great place to go to school.”
