James Madison appears poised to make a deep run after it earned its first NCAA Event win since 1983 on Friday.
The Twelfth-seeded Dukes — making their first March Insanity journey since 2013 — coasted previous fifth-seeded Wisconsin (22-14) in a 72-61 victory, scoring 28 factors off 19 turnovers.
The upset should not come as a shock, although. James Madison and defending nationwide champion UConn are the one groups with 32 wins, and a number of other specialists had an eye fixed on the Dukes heading into the match.
“James Madison does have a whole lot of the makings of a group that may make noise within the match,” wrote Kevin Sweeney of Sports activities Illustrated. “The Dukes handle the ball at an elite stage, run an environment friendly offense with numerous completely different weapons and have a star in Terrence Edwards Jr. able to enjoying anyplace within the nation.”
Edwards Jr. confirmed why he is producing buzz in opposition to Wisconsin. He tallied 14 factors, 5 rebounds, two assists and two steals.
James Madison will face No. 4 seed Duke (25-8) on Sunday. The Blue Devils are the extra gifted group on paper, however they’ve some depth points. Duke has six gamers who common 15 or extra minutes per recreation, whereas James Madison has eight.
Extra importantly, Duke star middle Kyle Filipowski struggled within the match’s first spherical, solely scoring three factors in a 64-47 victory in opposition to Vermont. If his chilly spell continues, this bodes nicely for James Madison, which may pull off the upset and make its first Sweet 16 in class historical past.
“I nonetheless suppose we have now a whole lot of issues we will work on,” James Madison sophomore guard Xavier Brown told the Richmond-Occasions Dispatch. “I am telling you, this group has one other stage. I am telling you, man, we will get fairly scary.”
