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This show is sponsored by Liquid iv. Hey there, it's Gary Parish from the Ion College Basketball Podcast. And I sure hope you're enjoying your summer as much as I'm enjoying mine. Few days at the beach, weekends on the golf course. Needless to say, it's important to stay hydrated. And a great way to do it is with the Orange Vanilla Dream multiplier from Liquid iv. This nostalgic vanilla flavor with notes of candied orange can help keep you hydrated better than water alone. And my favorite thing about Liquid IV is how convenient it is to throw a stick in your pool bag, throw another in your golf bag, then just tear, pour and enjoy. Liquid IV provides three times the electrolytes of the leading sports drink. There are eight essential vitamins and nutrients. It's always gluten free and sugar free options are available. Savor the last bits of summer with Liquid iv. Tear poor, live more. Go to Liquid icon and get 20% off your first order with code I. That's E Y E at checkout. That's 20% off your first order with code I. And@liquidiv.com buying a car in Carvana was.
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So easy I was able to finance it through them. I just.
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C
Whoa, wait, you mean finance?
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Yeah, finance. Got pre qualified for a Carvana auto loan, entered my terms and shot from thousands of great car options all within my budget. That's cool. But financing through Carvana was so easy. Financed, done. And I get to pick up my car from their Carvana vending machine tomorrow. Financed, right? That's what they said. You can spend time trying to pronounce financing or you can actually finance and buy your car. Today on Carvana financing, subject to credit approval, additional terms and conditions.
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Guys, by now you've heard me talk about collars and company makers of the dress collar Polo. They've already sold over a million of these amazing shirts. Well, Collars and co just came out with the new Maverick Performance blazer. This blazer is sharp and wrinkle resistant so you can travel anywhere with it. Just throw it in your bag and it will remain wrinkle free. It even comes with security zip pockets, a sunglasses loop and an optional pocket Square. So visit collarsandco.com and use code TIKI for 20% off@collarsandco.com Foreign.
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A
Hey there, it's Gary Parrish. Welcome back CBS Sports. I own college basketball podcast where we sometimes discuss camel fighting Dodo birds. Leaky Black Matt Norlander is here with me. If you're watching on YouTube, you know what to do to that like Button shouts to Brandon Davies. And if you haven't yet subscribed to the CBS Sports college basketball YouTube channel also, please do that while you're here. Let's get into it Today we are continuing our Summer Shoot around series with the first of three auction episodes with all the proceeds from the auctions going to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, which is located like five minutes away from where I'm sitting right now in downtown Memphis. Jeff Smith was the winning bidder. Appreciate him coming through for the amazing children down at St Jude and the team Jeff wants us to discuss. For the second year in a row, it is the James Madison Dukes, led by, of course second year coach Preston Spradlin. Before we look ahead, quick recap on last season James Madison. They went 20 and 12 in the first year after Mark Byington had left JMU for Vanderbilt. 20 and 12 overall, 13 and 5 in the sun Belt. That was good enough to tie for first in the regular season league standings with Arkansas State, Troy and South Alabama. But then James Madison did lose to Troy in the Sun Belt Tournament to end all hopes of a trip to the NCAA tournament. So the season it ended right there on March 9th. After 32 games, the Dukes finished 155th at bartorvic.com that was fourth in the Sun Belt. From that team. The top five scores are all gone, most notably Mark Freeman. Eddie Ricks the third, he's the leading returning scorer, but only at 6.7 points per game. So a lot of new faces in Harrisonburg, Virginia, but the Dukes are projected to be a top two team in the Sun Belt according to Torvik. I'm going to ask Norlander about that next. First though, let's get a word from our partners at Designer Shoe Warehouse.
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Your DSW store or dsw.com Guys, by.
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Now you've heard me talk about collars and company makers of the Dress Collar Polo. They've already sold over a million of these amazing shirts. Well, collars and co just came out with the new Maverick Performance Performance Blazer. This blazer is sharp and wrinkle resistant so you can travel anywhere with it. Just throw it in your bag and it will remain wrinkle free. It even comes with security zip pockets, a sunglasses loop and an optional pocket Square. So visit collarsandco.com and use code TIKI for 20% off@collarsandco.com ready to level up?
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A
It'S time for our annual episode on James Madison. Are you ready to talk about Jeff Smith?
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C
JMU Dukes well, let's let's dive into this rather quickly off the top of the show here because yes, we are doing three of these. You'll discover who the next two are when they go in the feed. Fun little note. I don't even know what one of them is. We're going to do that whole thing again on a soon to publish episode where I will discover in real time which one of these schools has won. Now we do have for the second straight year a mid major that is one the same school two years in a row. However however I want to know what you think about if there should be protocol. To be clear. Jeff Smith has said he will not go for the for the three people which we appreciate. In fact, I want to give him a shout real quick because this episode means a lot to him. His late father, his family. He sent us a note. He even he sent us even some tips on the team which we appreciate. I did talk to James Madison coach Preston Spradlin yesterday so I'll have some some intel from from atop the program there. But you know, let's get personal real quick here. Jeff lost his father earlier this year. He said the last year, you know, six years navigating through an illness was was not easy. But he left college hoops right up to the end. He listened to the Duke Houston game and astutely said that the lack of playmaking point guard for Duke cost it in a tight would cost it in tight game. He was a coach all the way until the end. We heard from so many people when he passed Ralph Sampson and his family, Kenny Brooks, many James Madison legends. The ones that were extra Special were the normal moms and dads that said they could not be where they are today without my dad as their teacher or coach. He thanked us for the shouts last year on the show. It made me, my dad and our kids laugh during a stressful year. He got the biggest kick out of GP shouting out his hometown of Chester, South Carolina. I miss him tons, but listening to your shows remind me of my conversations with my dad and my kids. So thank you for all you do. I was happy to win again for JMU this year but will not do it every year. I know you will want to highlight other teams. I appreciate you letting me win this year. It will help me remember my dad and our beloved Dukes one last time. So with that said, and before we dive into the Sunbelt and James Madison and all that stuff, do we want to institute a rule where if you are not chosen by us to be a feature team on a shoot around and you have to get in via auction, can can the same school, no matter level, can it win two years in a row via auction? Or should we or should we limit that in an effort to highlight more schools?
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A
Reasonable minds can disagree. I think I would settle here. If that rule were in place, it would have quite literally prevented us from hearing from Jeff Smith again this year.
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C
Correct?
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A
I wouldn't have wanted that. I liked hearing from him. I liked that note. It made me smile. Beyond that, I'm not a big fan of limiting the potential auction field. I'm trying to in the smallest of ways.
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C
You're looking for those nil dollars. Let's just get right to it. Let's go.
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A
Yeah, I looking for the bag. I work five minutes away from St. Jude. I live 25 minutes away from St. Jude. I have friends who have children at St. Jude as patients. Right now I have friends who work there. That is an amazing special place. And if it could cost us one penny by eliminating a potential bidder from the auction because they happen to win it last year or the year before or whenever, I would say let's not do that. Let's try to get the most money possible for the children in downtown Memphis. So I would not cause a fight over that rule being implemented, but I wouldn't Recommend Doing it.
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C
GP's bringing it up because I have suggested potentially maybe we we implement that. But I have no, I have no problem not doing it. But I'm alt. I know there are a lot of people that fired up this podcast. Okay, what's the first school? Oh, it's James Madison. Two years In a row, this team didn't even make the tournament. So I get that angle of it as well for a lot of our listening and viewing population out there. But, but if you, you know what, you know how you can resolve that, you can bid on the episode.
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A
Yeah. And I guess to that I would say obviously, you know, they, once the season starts, we will mostly be talking about Duke as opposed to the Dukes. Right? Come on, the A block's got to look a certain way.
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C
Let me do that again.
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A
Come on Duke, you talk on Dukes, you talk about Kentucky when Kentucky's great. And if Kentucky happens to not be great, you might talk about them even more. There's a certain way to go about this, but you know, as I was thinking through it, I swear to God, this is, this is my sentiment at least as it pertains to this specific thing. If the only two people on this planet who cared about that James Madison episode that we spent 50 minutes on last year happened to be Jeff and his ailing father and they got to spend that time together and laugh together and cry together and whatever, that's good enough for me, man. That's good enough for me. I'll do it every year. Let's.
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C
Okay, let's do it then.
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A
Let's dive right into the year.
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C
Dive into the Dukes. Top two team in the Sun Belt in terms of facilities, nil backing, fan support, campus appeal, you name it, all of it. James Madison, the school we're talking about here, is considered to be one of the strongest positioned mid majors to, to really, you know, be a mover and a shaker at that level in the coming years. It's coached by 38 year old Preston Spradlin. Year one last season he enters year two after coaching Morehead State. It worked well. GP kind of ran it down off the top there. But to go 20 and 12 in year one and have mostly entirely new team, you know, that's also a 14 school conference that he's in. JMU is in the Sunbelt because of football and its aspirations there. That conference in general has had a significant makeover in the past three. If you want a quick refresher, I'm not going to run down every school but James Madison is in the same league as Marshall and Appalachian State and Arkansas State, which was good last season, lost its coach, South Alabama, Old Dominion and more. The league length. The league ranked 21 out of 31 last year at Ken Palm Spradlin. This is a quote from him. I talked to him yesterday, as I mentioned before, asked him you know what worked? Why were you able to, you know, step in there and at least, you know, make a good impact right away? Didn't make the tournament, but they were a good team. He said, quote we found our stride, but it took longer for me to figure out that team than any team I'd ever had. 11 new players in a new league and at a new place. I'm trying to be intentional about figuring out the makeup of this team, figuring out its chemistry. I want to make sure that I can do with this group better, a better job early than I was able to do last season. They're a little bit up and down to start, which is to be expected. At one point last season JMU did win 10 out of 11 games in the midst of conference play. In fact, I think it's only lost in that stretch was a non conference game it had scheduled in the thick of of the league slate there. So it's very impressive for Spradlin before we get into the roster and the schedule, all that stuff. GP I'll say that if Spradlin continues on the trajectory that I think he's on, he's 38. I think he is a head coach. And JMU fans, this is just going to be part of the deal here and frankly you should be rooting for this because it means he did some good things. I think he is someone that will be coaching at the Power 5 level in men's college basketball within the next half decade. It could be a year from now, it could be five years from now. I just think he's too good, really, really level headed. I've got some intriguing thoughts from him on how he navigated the portal. We'll wait for that in a few minutes here. But JMU fans know after losing Mark Byington, who did well for himself in year one at Vanderbilt, replacing a coach of that level, you get another one in. Okay. Can he be as good right now through one year? Unquestionably looks like he passed the test. Now there's a whole new roster coming in. We'll see what happens in year two. But I'd be, I'd be pretty happy if I was a JMU fan and maybe not so happy if I was a fan of a lot of other schools in the Sunbelt.
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A
That's why I never seriously care when people, whether it's coaches, fans or media members, anybody, anybody who speaks on this when they say things like nil transfer waivers is killing mid major basketball. Because now you just go find players and develop them and if they turn out to be any good, you're just going to lose them to the power conference. That's the way coaches, the coaching profession has worked forever. Mark Byington being a wonderful example of that. And if we don't think it's the worst thing in the world when a mid major coach gets a power conference opportunity, just never going to convince me that it's the worst thing in the world when a mid major player gets a power conference opportunity just the same. So I never quote, feel bad for these types of situations because coaches have used these types of programs as launching pads to bigger things for decades and now players are doing it pretty regularly. I understand it complicates things. I'm just saying if it's okay for the coaches to do it, I'm going to forever think it's also okay for the players to do it. I won't cry any tears. Doesn't mean it ain't happening and it, it isn't problematic. As president told you, 11 new players in year one, I count 13 new players year two, they bring back two scholarship players, bring in 10 transfers, high school prospects and then a walk on. I don't think I've ever heard of this before. Have you heard of this? Chance Lundy's the walk on. Previously he was a practice player for the women's program and an All American with the JMU club team.
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C
Okay. How does the voting even get determined for.
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A
I don't even know. That's what I was wondering.
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C
Who is voting on this?
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A
Like there's somebody out there who doesn't know how to put Ichiro Suzuki on the first ballot of the hall of Fame, right? How would you know what to do with. And that's Ichiro. How would you know what to do with Chance Lundy, the club basketball player.
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C
Recently just going back and giving him. Didn't Auburn just say like, you know what, actually we don't have two national championships, we have six. We're just, just giving ourselves own, our own natties. In retrospect there I don't know who frankly I'd be concerned if part of your willing duties or what you opt into is to vote on all Americans at the club basketball level.
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A
Oh, I, yeah, I get, I get, I get overwhelmed by the USBWA regional teams when they start asking me to pick a team from Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi.
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C
I'm like, I know that feeling. I know that feeling. By the way, I'm looking at Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. Okay. Over there.
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A
By the way, hey, aren't you in charge of the USBWA now.
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C
I am the president. That's correct.
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A
Okay, can you fix. Why are we voting on these regional teams? Can you admit they're stupid?
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C
Well, if you were really up to date, there's been some tweaks in the past year too, but it's. But fair enough. I'll look to continue to streamline the process for you. Okay. You want to hop on a call every once in a while. Gary Parrish was the last time you were on a USBWA call.
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A
I'm on some of these voting panels for like some of these awards and they're always like, we'd love to have your vote. We'd love for you to participate. And I'm like, listen, I'm happy to turn in ballots for you. I obviously follow the sport. I have to rank teams every morning. I talk about it three times a week. But if you require me to be on a conference call with six other people talking about Cooper flag for 45 minutes on a random Wednesday, I'm not doing. I just leave me out of it then. I am not going to be on your conference calls. I will turn in my ballot, but I can't be on your conference call.
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C
I'll find a way to get you on at least one and it'll be fun. It won't be a 45 minute conversation about AJ, the bansa or whomever. Don't worry about that. That's. That's a. That's a no. That's a wild. Going back to your. Your player. What's the, what's this fella's name again?
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A
Chance Lundy. He is an All American, former all American for JMU's club team and a practice player for the women's program. He is now a part of the. Of the Duke. So that's the roster and. Let me just settle in here for a second.
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C
Okay. Well, by the way, I have the projected starting five. When we want to get to that. Just so now.
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A
Yeah, I definitely want to get that.
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C
You just went. So that's the roster. There's actually a lot more, but. Go ahead, Cook.
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A
Yeah, but, yeah, no, we'll get into the details of the roster, but just sort of broadly speaking, only two returning players. Almost an entirely new roster. This is kind of life everywhere outside of the power four. Now, like you know, I mentioned, I'm in downtown Memphis. I was on campus at Memphis last week. They have 15 new players, 15 new players. I was joking with Mike Davis about it. I said, you ever seen anything like this? He's like, I used to Coach in the swac, of course I've seen something like this, but this is, this is the way it's happening. And there is a theory among some that this way of doing things in college basketball where the mid majors are largely losing their best players to high majors year to year, no penalty for sitting out big bucks on the table. It is quote killed Cinderella that will never see a school like James Madison ever again, you know, bounce into a Sweet 16, into Elite 8, go to a final Four. Do you subscribe to that? I know that last year's tournament underlined, if that was your theory, you, it was supported by last year's tournament, but I can almost chalk it up to a small sample size. I'm not dismissive of the realities of roster building in the year 2025, but are you convinced Cinderella as we once kn is actually dead?
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C
No, not at all. Cinderella is not dead. Cinderella, I'll go as far to say will never be dead in the ensemble tournament so long as we are inviting at least one school from every conference into the dance, which is frankly the, the, the arrangement that has been agreed to and is expected to be the reality here in the years to come with the NCAA tournament. So last year. Yes, yes, last year was aberrational. We're not that far removed from San Diego State making the title game and St. Peter making the final four in the same. In the same damn year. So it pertains to Jamie in this regard. We just saw by, we just saw Byington do this with the Dukes. They handled Wisconsin in the first round. I saw that game in person. It was in Brooklyn a couple years ago before getting knocked out in the second round. But that was a really good 30 win. JMU team. I still think we can and will have that, but I, you know, we're going to need to get five, six years into this, in this new era before we can really start comparing to what it was like, you know, for much of the previous 2025 years. Will the hit rate be the same? You told me it was a little bit less that I would believe. If we're not going to see teams from one bit leagues win games at the same ratio as they did from, let's call it 85 to 2022. Okay, maybe, maybe I believe that, but I don't think that the next, I don't think the 2026 NCAA tournament will, will be void of, of upsets the way the last year was. I think that was, that was something of an aberration.
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A
I agree, I, I agree with like every word. I think it'll happen less often for the reasons people say it will never happen again. I think it'll happen less often because of those reasons. But never again. Cinderella's dead. I don't buy that. Just a few years ago we had St. Peter's in the Elite Eight. That St. Peter's roster would look about like a St. Peter's roster today or any other. Like there ain't much difference. Like nil. Revenue sharing ain't really changed what that St. Peter's roster would have looked like and they were still able to win three games in the NCAA tournament. I, I'm not going to expect it every year. Don't even know that I ever predict it. But it'll happen. That's the nature of the tournament. It'll happen.
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C
Agreed. Roster wise here for JMU can be relatively quick on this. Eddie Ricks. Justin Taylor the only players back. Ricks was a quality contributor. 6.7 points, 4.7 boards, more than 25 minutes a night. He's a key returnee. Spradlin told me. Because there's just so much changeover. You want at least one guy that you know, you know him, you know how they play. He'll start at the three. Expected to be good. Taylor was more limited. Ten minutes a night. Scored fewer than two points per game. He'll still be a role player there. They lost five players to graduate.
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A
Let me stop you there for a second. And I, I, I apologize. I don't want to ask you a question. And you might. He played at Syracuse.
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C
Yeah.
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A
And then got to James Madison and he averaged 1.8 points, 1.7 rebounds in 10.2 minutes per game last season after starting at Syracuse and averaging more than 20 minutes per game in the ACC. Is there an explanation for that?
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C
You know what? Not that I know of. I didn't drift into that with Spradlin much. But yes it is, it is unusual. The Taba and it wasn't like we're talking about Justin Taylor here. Just so we're clear. He's from Charlottesville so he's kind of going back to the general, general area there. But he wasn't like he was a one year like there's another player on this roster who was a one year player at a high major then transferred down. Taylor played there for two years with cues, got some decent burn and then just wasn't much of a factor. He will get, he'll get play like he'll, he'll get run but at this point, just in talking To Spradlin yesterday. He's not projected right now. I mean he could probably win a starting role but he's not projected to be there. So I don't know the answer there. But I also don't think it's the worst thing to have at this level. Former high major players who, whether it was a Misty Val, whatever the reason is you, you went, you live that life for a season or two now. Now by nature of just transferring down it is a bit of a, of a humble thing. Do you still have that talent you can tap into and can you pull from that? They've got a, they've got a good blend of all this GP with that. So we'll see what happens with Taylor. Starting point guard is going to be this guy Brad Douglas. He's 511. He played at Georgia Southern. He also played at Little Rock before that. He actually he played even before that two different Jucos. So he's one of the older players at the mid major level in college hoops. Spradlin told me he's coming in as a proven guy but we are going to ask him to take on a bigger role. So he'll lead the charge There at the two is Cliff Davis who arrives via UTRGV. That's Texas Rio Grande Valley. He made more than 100 threes the past two seasons. Expected to be a high end shooter in the league. Ricks will be at the three, Justin McBride will be at the four. He's a former top forward 140 recruit in the country. And Jeff, actually Jeff Smith sent us some questions here. One of his questions was what JMU player needs to be a breakout in order for them to get Back to the NCAA tournament. I think McBride is the answer. He committed to Oklahoma State for a year and then was Nevada's third leading score last season. Spradlin thinks he could be the team's best player. He described him at the mid major level specifically as like a mismatch 4 man whose game again at the mid major level is like he just a Julius Randall type of game is what he has is what Spradlin told me. So he'll start at the four and then at the five they're going to start an NIA transfer. So they got this combo, they've got guys who played at nia Jucos and you got former high major players on the roster. It's actually for mid major. He's actually got kind of an intriguing mix here. Gabe Newhoff is expected to start at the five, but then a five man From Duquesne. Eli Wilbourne might be the first guy off the bench, if not Ike Cornish. Here's another one. Former player at Maryland, former top 100 recruit. He's on the roster, so they've got a good blend here. And I actually asked him, I said, hey, man, we haven't talked about how you built this team. What was this past spring like? What is it like for you to. To recruit to James Madison? How do you strike the balance? You want to get guys that are good enough to play for you, but not go after guys that are just going to get plucked because of the nature of. Of the Portal, with how crazy it was, with everything. This is mostly a direct quote. I've paraphrased some here, but this is what he said. It sounds cliche, sounds mushy, but we really do recruit to our culture. We cannot recruit to our system. If you look at our teams over the years, you look at 20, 22. Janai Broom is our best player. I'll interject here. Yes. Reminder, folks. Preston Spradlin, the coach at jmu, was the guy who found and recruited Janai Broome to Morehead State before he came. One of the two best players in college basketball by the end of his career. Back to Spradlin's quotes. Broom was our best player. He had the 10th highest usage rate in the country. That's how we played. Then he leaves. He goes to Auburn, is replaced by a 510 guard who was the OVC player of the year. That was Mark Freeman. The system changes, but our culture does not. Going through the portal. We're doing culture checks on these players constantly. Why are they leaving xyz? What are you looking for? Oftentimes, what they're looking for isn't what we believe in, so it doesn't match. We comb through, try and find the right guys for us. They have to be skilled. They have to have a certain position and a certain size we're looking for. We don't bend on that culture piece, no matter what. It's extremely important to us because we feel if we get the right guys, we can build a truly great team. It's a fluid team. The player we get at the fourth spot might not be the player we get at number five in the Portal. Not five being the center, but the fifth player they ultimately get in the Portal. He even said, we had kids. We did a masterful job on recruiting this year, as good as we've ever done, only to get out bid at the last second. A bigger school missed out a guy and they say, oh, is he still available? How much do we need to bid? They get him in 24 hours. After we spent more than three weeks trying to recruit the kid in the portal, they had to go until mid May until they got their last guy. But they got their guys, they got their roster. It does objectively seem to set up as a top three team league. Top three team in the league. Again, given Spradlin's track record, kind of hard to sell on that. But that's just, you know, I still got a little bit more before we get out of this episode, but that's a little bit of a peek into what it's like to try and recruit at a James Madison where you are considered, this will be reflected. We get to the schedule stuff, but you're considered to be one of the 15 most dangerous mid majors in the country. And so as this portal is happening and you're trying to pick off, okay, what guys can we get to bring in here? We have good resources for our level. We, money wise, JMU is sitting pretty in its league. Very, very good. It's the envy of most of the Sun Belt. It's the envy of a lot of other mid majors. But with that, you know, coaches talk, people, okay, who's recruiting this guy? Okay, if this guy's good enough to be given a serious look by James Madison and we're a high major and we need one or two more guys to fill out our roster and we think that might be that guy, might be if he's good enough for JMU as their number one or number two transfer. Okay, maybe that's our number three or number four, number five. And so they're constantly fighting uphill with this. It's really, really frustrating. Obviously, nature of the beast. Sometimes it benefits you because you get those down transfers, they can pop. We'll see if that happens this year with the Dukes.
- [28:08]
A
The Preston Fowler kid is interesting because he's a four star prospect, class of 2025. And these are the types of players that would typically in years past get power conference offers and probably sign with a power conference school. You might not be the number one prospect in Auburn's class, but you could be the fifth prospect in Auburn's class. Well now Auburn is not taking five high school players. Nobody is at the high major level, certainly not this early in the recruiting calendar for 2026. So it has opened up some doors for a James Madison. I did the story last month about Sammy Jackson, top 100 player going to VCU. It has opened up the door for programs outside of the power fours to get a better caliber of high school player than it used to could get. Because the high majors aren't that interested in, you know, a high school player ranked 104th in his class or you know, in that range. And so if you're James Madison, you can fish in those waters in ways that you couldn't previously do not reasonably. And then yes, if Preston Fowler goes on to be what you hope he is, which is one of the best players in your program, then one of the best players in the Sun Belt. Eventually he'll get SEC offers, ACC offers, Big Ten, Big 12, Big east offers and you might lose him. But like that's the, that's, that's the way the system works now. But a, in all this chaos that has engulfed the sport, one of the things that has opened up for mid major programs is the ability to recruit a higher level of high school player if you want to.
- [29:54]
C
Yeah, no doubt. And it comes, it can come back down the slide the other way.
- [29:57]
A
That's right.
- [29:58]
C
Syracuse, Oklahoma State, Maryland, you know these programs, if you are a good major mid major program, it's just the math is going to work out where if you know what you're doing, you have a good reputation, you have the resources, you are going to get players who took their shot, they wanted to get that high major offer coming out of high school and for whatever reason it just didn't work out. Year one, year two, year three, whatever. You can get them on the back end, on the backslide and you can really, it's not as easy I'm gonna, as I'm about to say it here, but in many ways you can get the best of both worlds at that level. Again you gotta be one of the privileged 25 or so mid majors that are in this position. Good reputation, really good coach, really good resources. But you can get top 75, top 100, top 50 high school talent and you can get older guys that have been around the block a minute and okay, now they might not have gotten at 18, but at 20 or 21 now they understand and that's how it can benefit in a big way. But it's also why scheduling will not be easy. I'll run this down real quick here. Jmu again as we mentioned before, 20 wins last season, 7 and 6 in non con play, 13 and 6 against league opponents. The most notable games in non conference are opening at Akron. There is a Sun Belt Mac challenge in the first week of the season. It's actually really good. I Asked Bradlin about that game specifically because Akron has also been very, very good. Like this is a logical matchup to decide they knew what they were doing and Spradlin didn't even run from this. But he's like, you know, we've got two returning players. Akron is, is they all, they also lost some pieces, but they've got, they've got more there and we're gonna go play at them. It's like, it's a really big ask for our team right away. But he's like, this is why I took the job. It puts us in the upper echelon of the mid major powers that around the country we're going to be expected to be good every year. I'm not going to run from it. I'm okay with that. But that's a really, really tough first game there. I'm interested to see if my guys are like, are they ready for it. Like, don't underestimate, don't underestimate Akron. Kelvin Sampson, famously, at last, he's fine. Don't sleep on Houston. I'm going. Don't underestimate Akron. Same exact vibe there, but it was, it was interesting to hear Spradlin layout, how eager he is for the game. But at the same point if you had told him maybe they were playing a different Mac team, he wouldn't have necessarily objected to that. They're going to host Towson. Could be the best team in the caa. They'll be at George Mason. Love to see that. Could be two of the 10 best teams not in a multi bid league this season. We'll see, we'll see what Mason can do in the A10 if that can be a multi bit league. They're going to play at Arkansas. So I don't think this game has been announced as of us taping this podcast. I don't think Arkansas's revealed that. And Spradlin told me it's just Cal doing a favor. He's, he's in the John Caliperi coaching tree. He said net rankings. Everyone's figured out the formula. They can play low majors and beat them by 30 or just play high majors. We don't fit in that. He said our style of play makes it even harder because we're going to play some of the most efficient and defensive minded basketball of any mid major, even the really good team. Sometimes it's hard for them to run up the score on us. He's like, they'll beat us but they're not going to beat us by 27 points, it's just not how we play. We won't. And so he's like, I know that'll hurt their efficiency overall. So that's the only high major he went around and asked. But good coach, good program, they're not going to play it, which is unfortunate. Two game empty is happening against FIU in Omaha. I believe that's in Florida. And so we don't need to run down the, the conference schedule like normal. Let's, let's, let's do it for the Dukes like we've done for the other schools. I will say 31 game schedule, 20 wins last year. After talking to Spradlin, I think he's got some understandable optimism. Yeah, 21 and 10. Give me the Dukes at 21 and 10 this season. And just to tie in a question, you take it away, jp. Jeff also asked what would I consider or what would we consider a success for JMU this season? To me, success is top three in the league. You make minimally the conference semis. Although if you wanted to say the title game, I'd take that too. And 20 plus wins match last year's win title total. I don't think you need to necessarily make the NCAA tournament. Like not making the NCAA tournament doesn't make the season a failure. But that's how I would interpret your question there, Jeff. But yeah, 21 wins for me, for the Dukes. What about you GP it's just hard.
- [33:57]
A
To make the instant play tournament from this league. I mean you, first off you've got to be good and then you've got to get lucky. It's that combination. You got to get, you got to be good and then you got to get to your postseason tournament and you got to get lucky because you can be excellent all throughout the year. But if you don't have a fortunate bounce of the ball here or there in your conference tournament, you're going to get bounced and then you're not playing in the so called big dance. So I, I just wouldn't almost never set the bar, pass, fail, bar, make the NCAA tournament for a Sunbelt team because it's just like again, only one of you is going to get there and it's not guaranteed to even be the best.
- [34:33]
C
So.
- [34:36]
A
How about you finish 160 at Kim Palm last year? Can you finish 150 in the computers and top 150 in the computers and win 22 games before the conference tournament? Can you get 22 and nine heading into the Sunbelt tournament? Top three finish in the league, which is what is expected. According to Torvik, Arkansas State's 132 James Madison 139 Troy 146. Those are the only three top 150 schools in the Sun Belt. James Madison is in the top 140. Can you outperform that even I'll take it a little bit further. You've started at 139. Can you finish in the top 135? Win 22 games before your conference tournament? Finish top two or three in the league? If you've done that, you've had a good year. If you've done that, you've put yourself in a position to win your conference tournament and get an auto bid. Now let's go play that event and see what happens.
- [35:29]
C
Yeah, James Madison winning this auction episode again actually is even though we did it last year, they're a good candidate for for a show like this because I do think if you're a JMU fan and this actually is a bigger fan base than people realize like to to folks that might be dipping in on this episode while gearing up for your for your dukes on the football field. Like we see you, we hear you, we know you're out there. Like they've got a real a very real passionate and and powerful mid major fan base. So we're more than happy to talk about your team and I think you should have real optimism that you will enter. Like once we flip the calendar from February to March, your scenario going into March is going to be like yeah, like if we if we keep this up we should be playing in the NCAA Tournament out there. Guaranteed to. But I think you're just well positioned overall. I only have one more thing here for the show GP and that was Jeff Asked, what style of play does Coach P hope for in 2526? He's been a defensive minded coach in the past, but the team had to play three guards a lot last year and our defense was only average at times. Here's what Spradlin told me. Our team last year was totally different from our good teams at Morehead State. We didn't shoot it enough or well enough from the three or the four spot. We had to play smaller and because of that our defensive accountability absolutely plummeted at times. We addressed that in the portal. We will play inside out a little more. I think that's notable. Inside out a little bit more. We'll have more than one post thread on the roster. Multiple post players could play on the court at the same time. But we also hopefully will be a little bit faster as well. We're going to be more physical and going inside out allows us to help the guys that we brought in to have size and shooting and not just rely on the small guards to make so many shots. End quote. What he said there I think is important to note for the mid major level. While at the high major level we are seeing more and more trying to emulate the NBA. Don't put two non shooting bigs on the floor at the same time. Although we're still even going to see that with some teams this year. We talked about that on the Florida episode specifically. It still can be done. I like the college has different styles for different fights. Specifically at the mid major level. That's when you get so I love talking to those coaches because in their leagues, you know, if you're in a 12 team league you might have nine wildly different philosophies and it's. And it really tests your mettle as a coach from a prep standpoint, from an adjustment standpoint. But it does allow you to have like if you've got the dudes, if you got the talent, you got the size, if you've got two back to the basket players and you want to go inside out that really might work enough for you to, to lend you to have a successful 20 plus win season. It doesn't have to be a bit more of the formula that that works the more talented the players become. And so for me that's actually something that accentuates the creativity and why I like college basketball in general. But to answer the question, that's what the style of play that's allegedly on tap here for the Dukes in 25, 26. Bottom line, big picture, I do think that this team is going to match what you put on the table. I think that this team will rate in the top 130, top 125 overall in the sport. We'll see if that can correlate to them catching fire when they need to and make that auto bid come the first, second week of March.
- [38:32]
A
All right. I think that's an auction episode.
- [38:34]
C
That is an auction episode. Here's my question for you.
- [38:37]
A
Okay.
- [38:38]
C
Do you want the next episode to be. It's totally your call and we're not going to reveal either school here. I want these to be surprises when people load them up on YouTube or you'll find out the team once you play the episode. Do you want our next episode to be the team that I know or do you want the next episode to be the Team that I don't know.
- [38:54]
A
I think it should be the team that you know.
- [38:56]
C
Okay.
- [38:57]
A
And then we will conclude the series with you trying to talk blindly.
- [39:01]
C
Yes.
- [39:02]
A
About a college basketball team somebody put. Put on our table.
- [39:06]
C
That's what. Then that's what we'll do. We'll do the team. I know. And then we'll save the the true big mystery reveal for the final shoe in our episode. Both of those are scheduled to publish next week, so just hang tight there. They'll be here before you know it.
- [39:18]
A
Again, thanks to Jeff Smith for participating in the auction and coming through for the children at St. Jude. I love seeing his name again. Obviously heartbreaking that he lost his father earlier this year, but sort of what made me smile about that is like he was watching with his dad college basketball till the very end. You know, they got to consume the NCAA tournament together. And then a few weeks after that, he was gone. But again, here's a father and a son who enjoy college basketball literally until the last day that they could together. And if our stupid show played any role in that, in the smallest of ways, contributed to that in a positive way, that's another thing that makes me smile. So, Jeff, if you're listening, and I assume that you are, it'd be a real waste of money if you weren't.
- [40:13]
C
I guarantee you. He's got this one. This. Yeah, he's. This will be a multi, multi. Listen and share jmu, folks. Share with all your JMU buds and gals. Okay? Spread this one far and wide. We're more than happy to give them some love heading into the season.
- [40:23]
A
Yeah, I just. I appreciated the sentiment. Like, losing a parent is hard. For those of you who haven't gone through it, you probably will not understand how hard it is until it happens to you. It's a weird experience. But I do love that Jeff and his father got the bond over this sport all the way till the end. So, again, our condolences and obviously we appreciate you participating in the auction for the second straight year and helping us raise money for. For the amazing children just down the street at St Judah Children Children's Research Hospital. Shouts to Devin Downey. Shouts to Chester, S.C. shouts to Terry Teagle. He's a legend. Hucklar now, thank you guys once again for listening. Watching the Island College Basketball Podcast. If you're not subscribed, please go subscribe anywhere you subscribe to podcasts, Apple, Spotify, there's more of us than there are of them. That should be reflected in the comments. So do that. We'll talk to you again real soon. Till then.
- [41:26]
B
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