JMU Releases Non-Conference Basketball Schedules

JMU released long awaited non-conference schedules for the Dukes men’s and women’s squads, which are both slated to open the day before Thanksgiving in a doubleheader at the new Atlantic Union Bank Center. The JMU men will play host to Division III Lancaster Bible College and the women will open against Mount St. Mary’s.

The schedules released Monday afternoon provide some wiggle room for JMU to add additional dates or shift contests should the COVID-19 pandemic require.

“It took a lot, it wasn’t simple to get to this point,” JMU women’s basketball coach Sean O’Regan said.

But Monday’s release finally offers the public some idea what the season could look like for JMU after the NCAA pushed the start date back two weeks, sending the scheduling process for Division I teams into chaos.

JMU also announced it will allow 1,000 fans into home games and will begin taking ticket requests for non-conference contests from Duke Club members beginning Nov. 9.

The Dukes’ men’s schedule instantly gets more intriguing after opening night. JMU will play host to Norfolk State on Nov. 27, the first of multiple games against in-state opponents. The Spartans are picked to finish first in the MEAC North.

The Dukes will play Radford Nov. 29 at the AUBC before playing host to Radford on Dec. 7. JMU will play George Mason at VCU on Dec. 12 before wrapping up non-conference play with pre-Christmas road trips to East Carolina (Dec. 19) and Florida (Dec. 20).

JMU and George Mason were originally scheduled to play in Harrisonburg in November, but the Patriots were later invited to participate in a multi-team event that week and asked to move the contest. With home games against Mason and Virginia both lost in the scheduling shuffle, both the Patriots and Cavaliers are now slated to play at JMU next season.

The games with Norfolk State and Radford are part of a multi-team event hosted by the Dukes. The Spartans and Highlanders will also play each other that weekend in Harrisonburg. Per NCAA ruling, participating in an MTE allows JMU to schedule the maximum 27 regular season games.

“It might even get to where we start the season, but still have flexibility to add one more game,” JMU men’s coach Mark Byington said. “Maybe we pick up a cancelation with somebody, but right now because we are in the MTE we are able to have nine non-conference games. Right now we have seven contracts that are done and one more game we are trying to add at a certain date.”

For the JMU women, it’s once again an impressive non-conference slate designed to provide the Dukes a shot at an at-large NCAA Tournament bid. O’Regan’s team is set to host Marquette on Nov. 28, a marquee home game in the opening season of the Dukes’ $140 million arena.

The Golden Eagles return multiple standouts, including all-conference senior guard Selena Lott, from a team that finished 24-8 overall and second place in the Big East last season. JMU will also play at Virginia on Dec. 3, a game that was originally supposed to be in Harrisonburg. The Dukes and Cavaliers agreed to push JMU’s home game to the 2021-22 season.

The JMU women also have home games against George Mason (Dec. 6) and George Washington (Dec. 9) before traveling to West Virginia on Dec. 13.

“Those games are good for us, but we are still trying to figure out a game for the Dec. 20 area,” O’Regan said. “It’s so hard to gauge this thing right now, at some point you just have to go with it. What we’ve got is a pretty good group of mid-majors, plus Marquette out of the Big East, Virginia, West Virginia. If we can get another team of that caliber, I think we can get our resume where we want it, if we can win.”