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Or who wasn’t listening two hours before but is probably listening now.
The non-surprise was the Dukes’ 72-61 first-round victory over Wisconsin. They never trailed in the program’s first main-draw tournament win since 1983. But because of their seeding (No. 5 to the Badgers, No. 12 to JMU) the game wasn’t supposed to play out the way it did. . The Dukes weren’t supposed to force 19 turnovers. They weren’t supposed to lead by double digits at all times. In the end, they weren’t supposed to celebrate, no matter how much they thought they would.
At the beginning of the night, in the shoebox that was his locker room, coach Mark Byington wrote two short sentences on a whiteboard:
“And so we did,” senior guard Noah Freidel said. “For 40 minutes straight.”
Where did the belief come from? To start, 32 wins (and counting), including one that didn’t surprise fourth-ranked Michigan State to open the season. Maybe the vibe on campus too. It’s been a great year for JMU athletics, especially with its football and men’s basketball programs. In their second year as a Football Bowl Subdivision team, the Dukes went 11-2, beating Virginia by one point and Connecticut by 38. College GameDay visited Harrisonburg, Virginia, of all places, even when the NCAA banned to then-undefeated JMU major bowl contention. Then men’s basketball picked up the torch.
This week, those Dukes learned they were undersized against Wisconsin and 7-foot center Steven Crowl. Junior Terrence Edwards Jr., their leading scorer, saw somewhere on social media that he couldn’t keep Wisconsin guard AJ Storr. Edwards, however, believes in his blood. His family flew to Brooklyn from Georgia and booked their hotels for the weekend.
JMU plays Duke, yes, Dukes vs. Duke, at 5:15 pm Sunday. Only one Sweet 16 spot will be at stake.
“Our coaches kept telling us, ‘Don’t let off the gas,’” said Edwards, who finished with a team-high 14 points in 33 minutes. “I think we were doing that a lot in conference games. We got a little bored. So coming into this tournament, we knew we were going to play against teams where you can’t do that kind of thing.
“And so, yeah, that’s what everyone saw tonight, just us doing a full 40 minutes together. And yes, see you on Sunday.”
Scouting Wisconsin, Byington and his staff noticed how Rutgers and Tennessee chased the Badgers with the ball. That didn’t lead to many turnovers. But this showed Byington that JMU could perhaps gain an advantage by pressuring Wisconsin’s guards. In turn, the Dukes flew around the screens, toward the passing lanes, converting feet to inches and then inches to millimeters. If there was a loose ball, the purple jerseys outnumbered the white ones, almost always.
Just before the second half began, Brown grabbed the hem of his shorts and looked out at the boisterous JMU crowd. He smiled a little, mouthing “Come on guys” to himself. And then they left. They went and they went and they went.
“I’m nervous all the time,” said Byington, who seems like the absolute opposite. When Wisconsin made a short run in the second half, he continued to walk slowly down the sideline, a folded sheet of paper in his hand. With less than eight minutes left, Wisconsin guard Max Klesmit broke through the defense, finding a rare pocket of space, for an uncontested layup. The ball stayed in the hoop for a moment, holding the entire building in place. Had it rolled left, the Badgers would have trailed by only four. But he turned right and then Freidel hit a three in transition at the other end.
The building loosened and exploded. Byington didn’t even seem to blink.
“So yeah, I was nervous before the shots, before the game and all the time,” continued the 47-year-old, who took over at JMU in 2020. “I think it’s natural. But I think our guys, if they were a little nervous, they turned it into being ready and excited to play. There was nothing we did that made the guys doubt. And that’s what we keep emphasizing: ‘Look, if someone is going to catch us, it’s not because we go in and we’re scared or hesitant.’”
The game was over, the bus was moving, the noise was picked up in the JMU locker room. A manager FaceTimed with friends in Harrisonburg. Brown, sitting in the corner, told reporters that the Badgers seemed too relaxed on Selection Sunday when they found out they would face the Dukes. Before leaving, Freidel wanted to know when the next game would be, but he was surprised to learn that there were still teams playing on the West Coast.
“Brother, is it really 12:30?” —Brown asked Freidel. “It seems like it’s 9:30.”
They had to be forgiven. It’s hard to keep time on top of the world.