James Madison seems poised to make a deep run after it earned its first NCAA Tournament win since 1983 on Friday.
The 12th-seeded Dukes — making their first March Madness trip since 2013 — coasted past fifth-seeded Wisconsin (22-14) in a 72-61 victory, scoring 28 points off 19 turnovers.
The upset shouldn’t come as a surprise, though. James Madison and defending national champion UConn are the only teams with 32 wins, and several experts had an eye on the Dukes heading into the tournament.
“James Madison does have a lot of the makings of a team that can make noise in the tournament,” wrote Kevin Sweeney of Sports Illustrated. “The Dukes take care of the ball at an elite level, run an efficient offense with a number of different weapons and feature a star in Terrence Edwards Jr. capable of playing anywhere in the country.”
Edwards Jr. showed why he’s generating buzz against Wisconsin. He tallied 14 points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals.
James Madison will face No. 4 seed Duke (25-8) on Sunday. The Blue Devils are the more talented team on paper, but they have some depth issues. Duke has six players who average 15 or more minutes per game, while James Madison has eight.
More importantly, Duke star center Kyle Filipowski struggled in the tournament’s first round, only scoring three points in a 64-47 victory against Vermont. If his cold spell continues, this bodes well for James Madison, which could pull off the upset and make its first Sweet 16 in school history.
“I still think we have a lot of things we can work on,” James Madison sophomore guard Xavier Brown told the Richmond-Times Dispatch. “I’m telling you, this group has another level. I’m telling you, man, we can get pretty scary.”
