HARRISONBURG — Just wait ‘til next year.

It’s often the loser’s lament, lobbed when there’s no actual accomplishments of which to boast. That wasn’t the case for James Madison’s women’s basketball team after tying the program record with 29 victories, dominating the Colonial Athletic Association in the regular season and finishing top 10 in the nation in multiple defensive categories.

Still, as the Dukes played five final home games, advancing to the semifinals of the WNIT, those thoughts of next year wafted through the Convocation Center and hung in the air.

Sure, those WNIT games meant something in the moment. JMU was beating major conference teams. It bested former coach Kenny Brooks when Virginia Tech came to town. The Dukes chased a championship together and prolonged the careers of seniors Logan Reynolds and Aneah Young into April.

“But, you know,” JMU coach Sean O’Regan said less than a week after the season-ending loss to Northwestern, clearing papers off his desk minutes after meeting with assistant Ashley Langford. “I didn’t wait to start getting ready for next year, drawing up depth charts and looking at lineups.”

There’s always expectations for the Dukes. JMU has been in the postseason 14 straight seasons and only Tennessee, Louisiana Tech and UConn have won more games in their programs’ history. But O’Regan and his team don’t want to shy away from the thought next season could be something different.

The Dukes return 86 percent of its scoring, led by first-team All-CAA guard Kamiah Smalls, who averaged 16 points per game. Lexie Barrier also returns after averaging 11 while Jackie Benitez, the CAA’s Sixth Player of the Year, scored 12 per game off the bench. Kayla Cooper-Williams, the school’s all-time leading shot blocker also returns, along with frontcourt mate Devon Merritt.

They will all be seniors, and JMU will once again have a deep bench to work with. So, yes, Madison always expects to be good, but there’s long been recognition the Dukes may never have another roster built quite like this.

“We return four all-conference players,” O’Regan said. “That’s rare.”

Also rare is a group that doesn’t lack for talent nor accomplishments, yet simultaneously has a lot to prove. JMU went 17-1 in conference play and outscored opponents by more than 15 points per game. But with Smalls, Barrier and freshman point guard Madison Green all out with injuries, the Dukes lost to ninth-seeded Hofstra in the CAA Tournament quarterfinals.

Without the conference’s automatic berth, JMU was one of the final two teams left out of the NCAA Tournament field, thanks in large part to a loss at lowly Hampton in November. The Pirates finished 16-12 with an RPI of 203. A one-point loss at Wake Forest (RPI 147), in which Smalls missed a pair of free throws in the final seconds, also hurt.

So the Dukes played in the WNIT, an experience they wound up finding enjoyable and valuable as they played in front of home crowds and young players such as Green and sophomore forward Breyenne Bellerand began stepping into roles they’ll likely fill next season.

But the rising senior class has an opportunity to go down as one of the greatest to ever wear a James Madison uniform. One thing missing from the résumé is an NCAA Tournament appearance. Knowing anything can happen in the conference tournament, the Dukes are looking for something close to perfection in the regular season, no Hampton-type losses that allow the selection committee to exclude a mid-major program that doesn’t get as many shots at teams ranked in the top 50.

“I’m going to go into next year with a different level of intensity and toughness just because I want it to be like we didn’t win,” O’Regan said. “We have to step our game up a higher level. Because we can. We can’t have a game were we lose to Hampton. Where we lose to Wake or Wilmington. We have to get better and tougher.”

Like their coach, the season had barely ended before the JMU players realized they couldn’t wait until next year.

“Just thinking about it, that’s going to be a scary sight,” Cooper-Williams said. “Now that we have a team where everyone has figured out what their role is and young players that are learning. I think that’s going to be a scary sight next year.”