Dukes Headed To U.S. Virgin Islands

HARRISONBURG — The writing was on the wall for James Madison to take an overseas trip.

Basketball coach Louis Rowe had discussions in his first weeks on the job in April 2016 about taking the Dukes on the road this summer. He knew the 2017-18 roster would be young and inexperienced after losing seven seniors, so an international trip made sense to help build team chemistry before the season.

So it was not completely surprising when JMU announced it will be going to the United States Virgin Islands next month to play four games from Aug. 18-23.

There were talks about holding off on the trip for a year, but with nine new players on the roster for the upcoming season, Rowe said it was better to take the trip now.

“We’ve been thinking about it and bouncing around it for quite a while now, basically since I got the job,” Rowe said. “You might not know who we’re going to have, but you knew you had seven seniors. I didn’t know specifically which guys we were going to have, but I knew we would have new guys and young guys.”

The NCAA allows a program to take a “foreign tour” once every four years during a vacation period at the school. These trips grant teams 10 practices before leaving and up to 10 games at the location.

The NCAA certified the U.S. Virgin Islands as an international destination in April, opening the door for JMU to participate in the inaugural Paradise Jam Summer Tour along with Northern Colorado and Vanderbilt. The Dukes cannot face the two other American teams per NCAA rules, so they will face two Canadian schools — Carleton University and Brock University — and the U.S. Virgin Islands National Team instead.

JMU will play Carleton on Aug. 18 and then play Brock on both Aug. 20 and 21. The trip ends with a matchup on Aug. 23 with the U.S. Virgin Islands National Team, the 59th-ranked team in the world according to the latest FIBA rankings.

In typical Rowe fashion, he said the games are less important to him than the 10 days of extra practice he’ll get with his team between Aug. 7 and Aug. 17 in Harrisonburg before the team leaves for the Virgin Islands.

“I always think about purpose,” Rowe said. “The purpose of the tour [is] for us to get 10 days of practice, that’s the most important thing. We have some time to build chemistry and get ahead of the curve a little bit with our chemistry and team building.

“To be a good team, it takes reps, so this is another opportunity for us to get some valuable reps.”

In addition to the on-court bonding that needs to occur, Rowe said the trip also provides a unique chance for the players and coaches to familiarize themselves with one another off the court.

The current group of 13 players hasn’t played with each other yet — graduate transfer Cam Smith did not participate in the workouts in June because he had not officially transferred yet — and the coaching staff will feature three new faces from last season. Rowe said just having his team in an isolated setting for three weeks should help the camaraderie grow strong to weather the bumps that will be coming this season.

“They’re good guys and I really like our coaching staff, but we need to be around each other,” Rowe said. “It’s not just the basketball. We’re going to be eating with them and there’s going to be some opportunities maybe to do some outings with them and do some tours. All that stuff is valuable in terms in just breaking down those walls.”

The trip should also help JMU start the season quicker than it did last season, when it lost 11 of its first 12 games. Part of the reason JMU struggled in November and December was Rowe trying to meld his playing style with the strengths of the players.

It is an adjustment period Rowe can avoid during the season with these four games to mix and match lineups in game situations. He said another reason he wanted to take this trip was to help start the process of self-discovery so that the Dukes can hit the ground running in their season opener.

“Anybody who takes a foreign trip, one of the advantages is ... it gives them a better chance to get an idea of what their team is going to be; what their strengths and weaknesses are and start working through those a little earlier,” Rowe said. “You never really know what you have. You recruit hard and then you work hard to improve those guys and work hard to have those individual improvements help the team improve.

“I want to have a good season, and I think this will help us be more prepared to have a good season.”