Following an offseason that saw James Madison bring in eight new scholarship players, it seemed quite possible the Dukes had added enough talented pieces to the puzzle to see improvement.
But as JMU goes for its fifth consecutive Colonial Athletic Association victory Tuesday at Elon, it’s still been a bit of a shock to see just how well some of those pieces fit together.
“I always do some things to try to accelerate chemistry,” first-year JMU coach Mark Byington said. “But we weren’t really allowed to do that because those things have to take place face to face. I just think they have a lot of things in common. It is dumb luck. It’s difficult in the way we recruited this year. Normally you get more face-to-face time. You can go visit their school and talk to people around them and see what they are like. But we always try to ask guys what their goals are and this team was kind of built on guys who had something to prove.”
Byington can remember being a recruit and stepping into an unfamiliar situation. After leading Salem High School to a state title in 1994 he signed to play for coach Kevin Eastman at UNC Wilmington. Before he arrived on campus, Eastman left for Washington State and was replaced by Wake Forest assistant Jerry Wainwright.
Byington and Wainwright each told the story in the past week about their first meeting at UNCW. Byington walked into the coach’s office wearing a cap and was informed of a new team rule: No hats indoors. Byington quickly obliged and his parents smiled. Wainwright knew right away it was going to be a good fit.
Byington wound up playing nearly 20 minutes per game as a freshman and was an All-CAA performer before graduating.
“One of the most difficult things for any player to go through is a coaching change,” said Wainwright, who is currently living in Wilmington, N.C., after spending last season as an assistant at Tulsa. “I told Mark, and I told his family, if they wanted to get out of the national letter of intent, they could. Mark was the only freshman when I took over at Wilmington. His parents are wonderful people and I was very, very blessed and fortunate he gave me the opportunity.”
Byington and his staff had few of those kinds of personal interactions before they had to coach his JMU players on the court.
Like every other team, James Madison (10-5, 5-1 CAA) had to deal with a strange offseason. The Dukes coaching staff recruited most of the roster without meeting them in person and each newcomer signed on without visiting Harrisonburg or touring the JMU campus. Since arriving in July, players have missed a month’s worth of practices thanks to COVID-19 protocols and socializing as a team outside of practice has been extremely limited.
Yet lately JMU has looked like a group that has been playing together for years. Case in point, when the Dukes needed a bucket late against Drexel on Jan. 31, Byington called a play designed to get a layup for freshman Justin Amadi. The Dragons defended Amadi well, but transfer guard Vado Morse knew if he penetrated, freshman Terell Strickland would slide from the wing to the corner.
Morse dished to Strickland, who nailed a wide open 3-pointer. Ballgame.
“That play wasn’t drawn up for him,” Byington said. “Vado made a decision to attack the rim. Vado made the right decision and Terell was ready for his opportunity. It was a good sequence.”
Not all of the Dukes’ luck has been good. Of JMU’s five incoming transfers, two of the most high profile were former Cincinnati swingman Rashawn Fredericks and San Diego State center Joel Mensah. Each expected to come to James Madison and make an immediate impact.
But Fredericks was injured as the season began and also had some issues with his graduate school classes. He left school before ever playing a game for the Dukes. Mensah started the season opener, but couldn’t shake nagging injuries. He’s averaging just six minutes per game and hasn’t suited up the past two weeks.
“We’ve had some unfortunate things happen,” Byington said. “Truth be told, I thought Rashawn Fredericks was going to be our starting small forward. That didn’t work out and we had to adjust. Joel Mensah has been battling an injury for a while and he’s finally gotten shut down for a little bit. I thought he would be a major player. People haven’t seen what he looks like when he’s healthy.”
But the majority of JMU’s newcomers have made significant contributions and only gotten better since CAA play began. Now the Dukes will look to continue their winning streak and hope to make it two straight over Elon, which is 3-6 overall and 0-5 in Colonial play after a 21-point loss to JMU last week in Harrisonburg.
Tip off is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Tuesday with the contest streaming live on FloSports.
