With a new arena and experienced team, James Madison and Mark Byington are soaring to unprecedented heights

Thousands of miles from home, without a basketball in sight and more than two months before his team would shock the nation in its season opener, Mark Byington knew his team could be special — during a pasta-making class in Florence, Italy.

Six-foot-eight forward Julien Wooden let the ingredients rain down. Fellow big man T.J. Bickerstaff, meanwhile, was all business.

“Man, mine was perfect. I’m not gonna lie. Like, if I didn’t hoop, I probably would be a chef,” Bickerstaff said. 

Noah Freidel vouched for Michael Green III, calling the point guard, “a natural.”

We’ll never know how good Terrence Edwards Jr.’s was, and he’s OK with that: “It was alright. I kind of underestimated myself before, I kind of gave in early a little bit. It was good to me, but I didn’t want nobody else to try.”

The James Madison Dukes were in Italy to play basketball, sure, but the basketball was not the highlight, to put it lightly. They beat A.S.D. Pallacanestro Calenzano 133-40 and Virtus Roma 112-62 and canceled the third game due to poor court conditions. The best and most important moments came away from the game.

“One night, we were leaving Florence, and the coaches were doing their own thing, and the players were hanging out,” Byington said. “And then I saw the players come back to the bus and every one of them was together.

“And I was like, ‘All right, they like each other and care about each other. They’ve already formed a bond.'”

It’s mid-March 2020, more than three years before that pasta-making class, and Byington has a familiar destination in an unfamiliar world: over 500 miles to drive from Statesboro, Georgia to Harrisonburg, Virginia, with plenty of questions on his mind to pass the time.

Days earlier, his Georgia Southern team had been loading the team bus, preparing to drive to the airport and fly to New Orleans for the Sun Belt Tournament semifinals. The Eagles were a talented squad finally hitting its stride, coming off a 19-point shellacking of in-state rival Georgia State.

Byington had spent the night watching tape, but it was the television in the background that caught his attention: Rudy Gobert had tested positive for COVID-19.

The next morning, Byington got the dreaded but not unexpected text.

“I had to tell the team, ‘Hey, come back in this meeting room,'” Byington said. “I said, ‘Tournament’s canceled.’ And that was one of the hardest conversations I’ve ever had.”

The Eagles had won 20 games for a third straight year, something that hadn’t happened in over three decades, and other programs were taking notice of the guy in charge. James Madison was interested. Interest turned into a phone interview. A phone interview turned into an in-person interview request. JMU offered to fly him up. He opted to drive. He wasn’t going to risk COVID-19 disrupting another opportunity.

A Virginia native, Byington knew JMU, located some 100 miles up Interstate 81 from his hometown of Salem. He had played against the Dukes as a guard at UNC Wilmington. His brother had gone there. But questions lingered.

“I knew that JMU hadn’t had success in a while,” Byington said. “Didn’t know the ‘why’ and whatever else. I knew it was a great place to go to school. … And I knew that people had pride in the place and everything else. But I didn’t know, kind of, the commitment to basketball.”

Byington arrived in Harrisonburg and was greeted by a campus atmosphere similar to others across the nation. A complete ghost town. No students. A stark reminder days into COVID-19 that running a basketball program anywhere, much less as a first-year head coach, was going to be a challenge.

School president Jonathan Alger and longtime director of athletics Jeff Bourne didn’t just have words to support their commitment to basketball, though. They had the brand new Atlantic Union Bank Center, which housed an arena that could hold 8,500 — 2,000 more than the Dukes’ previous home — and the practice court, weight room, sports medicine room, hydrotherapy room, film room, team meeting rooms, coaches’ offices, locker rooms and academic and tutoring spaces, all exclusively for the basketball teams.

With uncertainty all around him, Byington was certain he had the support he needed.

“It went from I’m just going up kind of interviewing, kind of feeling it out to I drove away from the interview, and I was like, ‘I’m gonna be crushed if I don’t get this job.'”

Byington got the job. He needed a team and needed to build it during a pandemic. He discovered the wonders of Zoom — like so many others, a tool he had never heard of previously — to reel in transfers and recruit freshmen. Byington’s first roster in Harrisonburg had nine new faces compared to the previous year’s. But it was a familiar face he really wanted to keep, and for that, Byington made another important drive.

Matt Lewis had averaged 19 points and 5.5 rebounds and was considering transferring or entering the NBA Draft. Byington met Lewis and his family in a Target parking lot about an hour away, popped open the hood of his SUV for warmth and established a connection.

Lewis returned. One season after going 9-21, the new-look Dukes went 13-7 and won the Colonial Athletic Association regular-season title in Byington’s debut, a season that included a nearly three-week COVID break. That cold night in a Target parking lot had paid off.

“Matt was driven with what he wanted long-term in basketball, but he also loved JMU, and he wanted this to be successful.” Byington said. “He’s one of the best leaders. I’ve been around.

“During those struggles in that early year, and getting everybody together, he was as important as anything, because every day, he was upbeat. Every day he was positive. And I haven’t been around a player like that. And he lifted me up some days. … He never had a bad day.”

Byington’s second season brought more frustrations out of his control. JMU was one year away from moving to the Sun Belt, and the CAA was none too happy, banning the Dukes from competing for a conference championship. It was a controversial decision and a devastating one for those inside the program. After a 9-2 nonconference slate that featured the program’s first-ever win over Virginia, JMU finished 15-14.

“When you got to conference play, guys are like, ‘What’s our purpose? What’s our hope?'” Byington said. “When you’re at our level, that tournament’s special, that’s what we go for.”

Last year, the program’s first in the Sun Belt, JMU went 22-11, its most wins since 1981-82. Still, Byington knew there was another step he could unlock. He needed to hit the transfer portal, and he knew exactly what he wanted.

Edwards knew this team could be special before Byington did. When portal targets visited, there was a different feel.

“When these guys first came in, we instantly started playing pickup,” Edwards said. “That’s why they committed, because we were all just chilling, having a good time and just talking and stuff like that. So, when they came back, when they actually signed, it felt like we’ve known these guys for a year or two.”

Bickerstaff was the biggest addition, literally and figuratively. Byington had swung and missed when Bickerstaff came out of high school — he chose then-CAA rival Drexel instead — and again when Bickerstaff transferred from Drexel and chose Boston College. He wasn’t going to miss the third time.

“When he became available this year, we were like, ‘What do you want?'” Byington said. “And what he wanted matched exactly with what we had.”

What JMU had was an opening in the frontcourt and a need for a skilled, versatile big. Bickerstaff has fit the bill perfectly, averaging 13.8 points and 9.1 rebounds while shooting 63% from the field. His previous career-high was 52%.

“Having my skill set, our offense kind of helps show that,” Bickerstaff said. “My IQ and athleticism have really grown. And me just already having the skill set, being able to pass the ball and dribble and things like that, I think [the system] just helped me excel.”

What doesn’t show up in the stat sheet is Bickerstaff’s toughness. For that, we can turn to the team’s film room, where there’s a “Beast Mode” tally, and the 6-9, 220-pound Bickerstaff is the runaway leader.

The team also has a “Dimer” tally to keep track of outstanding passes, and Green leads there. Like Bickerstaff, he’s a graduate student, a third-time transfer and a guy Byington zeroed in on. Unlike Bickerstaff, he’s the shortest player in the rotation at 6-foot. But the Bronx, New York, native brings plenty of toughness and, just as important, a steadying hand.

“It’s hard to rattle a fifth-year point guard, it’s hard to rattle a New York City point guard,” Byington says. “We saw two sides of him. We saw when he was at Bryant that he can really score. And then we saw at Robert Morris, when he was there before, that he can really run a team and pass. … We told him, ‘We want you to both.'”

JMU was 222nd in Division I in turnover rate last year. It’s 32nd this year.

“Some guys can’t process information fast,” Byington said. “He can. And so he can play fast and see the court and make plays. And he kind of sets the tone of being unselfish and making the right play. And that leads to the other guys doing the same thing.”

Green’s most popular assist target is Bickerstaff. His second-most popular? Freidel, yet another player in his fifth season of college basketball — the Dukes have five in total — and yet another transfer. A Wright State commit back in 2018, he decommitted from the Raiders and chose South Dakota State to stay closer to his Tea, South Dakota, roots. After three years as a Jackrabbit, the kid who originally didn’t want to leave home was ready to go 1,000 miles away.

“I think moving away was a growth opportunity that I don’t know if I was ready for after high school,” Freidel said. “But after three years of college, I think I was more ready for when I wanted to try it out.”

After shooting over 39% on 3-pointers at South Dakota State, Freidel hit just 32% in his first year with JMU. But he had Byington in his corner all offseason, telling him the second year is always easier than the first. Freidel is up to 36% this season from 3 (and a career-high 55% from 2) while averaging a career-high 5.4 rebounds.

These transfers — and the success they’ve had — are the result of a crucial tweak in Byington’s approach to the portal.

“I think initially, you always look and see how many points per game they average,” Byington said. “But that don’t always translate.

“You gotta find guys that can mesh together, and they might only have one year to do that. … A grad transfer comes in, and you’ve got to make sure that he’s about the right things, that he invests and gives into the program, instead of saying, ‘All right, this is going to be the year of me.'”

Edwards, meanwhile, is the guy who has been with it all through Byington. Recruited by Byington at Georgia Southern, Edwards followed him to JMU and has stayed. Nicknamed “Fatt” as a youngster, his build became anything but. Now the sinewy 6-6 Edwards can seemingly score in his sleep with the length to go over smaller defenders and the handle to beat bigger ones off the bounce. His scoring average has increased every year. Byington sees much more important development.

“His growth is in everything in his life, and that helps his basketball,” Byington said. “He’s on pace to graduate from here in four years, which is difficult. He’s … he’s gotten more mature, he’s become a better leader.

“He came here as somebody who probably just called himself a hooper. And now he’s a good man. … I love that.”

Edwards knew the team could be good when transfers arrived, and Byington knew the team could be good when he saw its camaraderie in Italy, but the team made it known on Nov. 6, going into East Lansing, Michigan, and taking down then-No. 4 Michigan State, 79-76 in overtime. It was the Spartans’ first home November loss since 1986. It was the Dukes’ second ranked win ever.

It happened just as Byington had envisioned when he was piecing together the roster puzzle. Edwards had 24 points, half of which came from the free-throw line as he proved to be a matchup nightmare. Bickerstaff added 21 points and 14 rebounds. Green didn’t start, but he finished with authority, first coolly assisting Raekwon Horton‘s clutch 3-pointer and then poking the ball away to seal the win.

While the nation was still stunned by the Michigan State win, JMU pulled off an even wilder victory against Kent State with Friedel scoring five points in 3.8 seconds to force overtime. “Craziest thing I’ve ever been a part of,” Bickerstaff said before the Dukes won in double overtime.

The wins didn’t stop. They cruised to the Cancún Challenge title. They ended Louisiana‘s 19-game home winning streak. They became ranked for the first time in program history. By early January, JMU, Ole Miss and Houston were the only undefeated teams left before the Dukes finally fell to Southern Miss.

They’re doing it with the nation’s eighth-most experienced roster, per kenpom.com, a major advantage in late-game situations.

“This year before the season, we already talked about how we were gonna be late in those situations,” Edwards said. “And our first two games just prove that we can pull off any game late in a situation. We don’t have no reason to be nervous. We don’t have no reason to be scared. Like even if it don’t go our way, like, it’s fine. Like we’ll just bounce back. But ain’t no point of being nervous when you still have to win the game.”

The Dukes very much mirror their coach in this manner. Watch a JMU game and you’ll see Byington stoic, arms crossed or hand on his hips. At Michigan State, the Horton 3-pointer elicited no reaction. Then, with pandemonium all around him at the buzzer, Byington calmly, almost half-heartedly pumped a fist in celebration, his expression barely changing.

The Dukes have to win more games. Despite an 18-2 record, the they’re just 61st in the NET Rankings and currently have just one more Quad 1 opportunity — Saturday at Appalachian State. The Sun Belt hasn’t sent multiple teams to the NCAA Tournament since 2013. Coincidentally, that’s the last time JMU went dancing, too.

Byington won’t bother looking that far ahead, though. Having two NCAA Tournament chances dashed in the last four years taught him not to take anything for granted. But as he looks over the practice court from his office, he knows the picture of the 2012-13 team holding up the CAA Tournament trophy looks lonely. His state-of-the-art facility could use one more personal touch, and this team can deliver it.

“Those guys have a different level of calmness to them,” Byington said. “As opposed to the young guy who gets frantic, our guys will kind of get even more focused. I’m hoping this translates to tournament games, because that’s when it is the most pressure.”

Time will tell just how far this veteran bunch goes. March Madness can be a cruel mistress. But there’s no doubt that after taking over a program days into a pandemic, Byington has created something special — something lasting — in Harrisonburg.

“First time being here, it was like nobody cared anything about the basketball team,” Edwards said. “For the guys that’s been here, that’s been our goal: to just change the thing around, because we knew the fans here are great, the fans here always come out and stuff like that. Like the community loves the sports teams here. So it was like we have to turn this thing around for the community up here so they can have something to be proud of.”