It's another March Madness surprise as James Madison takes down No. 5 seed Wisconsin
NEW YORK — Don’t believe the hype. Or the lack thereof.
Yeah, James Madison feasted on the weakest regular-season schedule of any NCAA men’s tournament team this side of McNeese State. True, the Dukes needed to win the Sun Belt conference championship just to book a spot in this year’s field.
But JMU does one thing, and does that one thing very well: win basketball games.
"I feel like we've had confidence, just in the work we put in," said guard Michael Green III. "Like, we know we're a good team and we know that we can beat any team in any league, so we prepare for anything."
The No. 12 Dukes (32-3) led No. 5 Wisconsin by double digits at halftime and then held the Badgers at bay for a 72-61 victory that validates the team’s lofty record and obliterates the theory that they were not ready for the bright lights of tournament play.
FOLLOW THE MADNESS: NCAA basketball bracket, scores, schedules, teams and more.
"I'm proud of them but not surprised," James Madison coach Mark Byington said. "You know, these guys compete. They come to win. They play to win. And We kind of heard things about our schedule not being tough and who we are, and we knew we belong. We know we're good. We know we can compete."
JMU never trailed against an opponent that has missed the tournament just twice since 1998 and finished this season tied for fifth in the Big Ten, one of the top leagues in Division I.
"I'd just say we are not scared of competition," forward T.J. Bickerstaff said. "We proved that over and over again. We are not scared of like different experiences because we have been through it all."
The upset sends the program into the second round of the NCAA men’s tournament for the first time since 1983. The Badgers are the highest seed JMU has beaten in five tournament wins, coming in ahead of No. 7 Georgetown in 1981, No. 8 Ohio State in 1982, No. 7 West Virginia in 1983 and No. 16 Long Island in the 2013 play-in game.
And based on the performance of both teams here on Friday night, JMU looks more than capable of scoring the biggest win in program history in the second round against No. 4 Duke, which didn’t look the part of a championship contender in a sluggish 64-47 win against No. 13 Vermont.
The Dukes led 33-20 at halftime after holding the Badgers to just 6 of 23 shooting from the field while scoring 20 points off 13 forced turnovers. While Wisconsin would clean things up from there, turning the ball over just six times the rest of the way, JMU had answers for the Badgers' brief spurts of competency on offense and never led by fewer than six points in the second half.
Guard Terrence Edwards Jr. led JMU with 14 points to go with five rebounds and two assists. He was joined in double figures by Green III (11 points), Bickerstaff (12 points) and forward Julien Wooden (12). Seven players scored at least five points and eight played at least 13 minutes.
Fright night's win comes after a regular season that saw JMU face just two teams in Quad 1 of the NET rankings — the Dukes beat one, Michigan State, in the season opener — and go 22-0 against Quad 4 competition. JMU lost to Southern Mississippi and to Appalachian State twice, but missed the Mountaineers in the Sun Belt tournament.
The unimposing non-conference schedule and a Sun Belt slate short on quality teams did little for the team’s standing with the tournament selection committee, which undervalued the Dukes on the No. 12 line despite the fact JMU is tied with top-ranked Connecticut for the most wins in the country.
But running through the regular season with just three losses goosed the Dukes’ confidence. That was on full display against Wisconsin, which couldn’t keep up with JMU's energy and failed to advance out of the first round of tournament play for just the second time since 2007.
"I know we were looked at as underdogs, but we never felt that way," Byington said. "We felt that we had a chance to compete. We knew it was going to be a tough game, and that's something that these guys like. I mean, they are not scared of challenges. They embrace them."
