Game story

By Stephen Proffitt | The Breeze

“Nothing casual! Nothing casual!” echoed from the Indiana locker room as the last words the Hoosiers would hear before they took the court to face 16-seeded JMU in Dayton Arena.

Indiana listened carefully as it smashed JMU’s glass slipper with an 83-62 victory Friday evening, eliminating the Dukes from the NCAA tournament. The Cinderella story came to a logical end, as JMU was not able to overcome a historically impossible matchup in the Round of 64.

“It will be a learning experience, especially for my younger guys,” said head coach Matt Brady. “Hats off to Indiana. I thought they played a dynamite first half, and it really took us a first half to catch up to the speed with which they play the game.”

The Dukes wanted to face a No. 1 seed, not a hungover Hoosier team.

“We want them at their best. Like I said yesterday, to be the best, you’ve got to beat the best,” freshman guard Andre Nation said in Thursday’s press conference. Nation got his wish; the Hoosiers shot over 52 percent from the field Friday evening.

“They played like I wanted them to,” Nation said outside of the JMU locker room. “They threw punches and we didn’t throw any back.”

Indiana’s offensive mastery was headed by freshman point guard Yogi Ferrell, who began the game on a 9-0 run all by himself. Ferrell shot through the lane like a sports car dashing in and out of highway traffic. After a quick start, he finished with 16 points to lead all IU scorers.

“Just that poise as a freshman,” redshirt senior Devon Moore said of Ferrell. “That’s crazy. Hat’s off to him.”

Shot after shot after shot rustled through the fresh white NCAA nets. The Hoosiers were proving why they were a top seed. The Dukes were caught off guard by the intensity and pace of the game, as they never were able to match it. JMU went into halftime down 43-22 on 9-21 shooting, finishing 3-11 from behind the arc at the break. A team that lives by the deep ball ultimately died by it in the first half.

JMU fans had seen comebacks before. The largest halftime deficit this year’s team was able to overcome was 16 against William & Mary on the final night of the regular season, but Marcus Thornton is not Victor Oladipo or Will Sheehey.

Indiana never let up in the second half, but JMU did manage the pace more effectively at times. All things considered, the Dukes successfully pulled their own weight on the floor.

Going into the game, JMU knew size would be an issue. Indiana big man Cody Zeller is a full seven feet tall and posed problems for the JMU frontcourt. The Dukes held him in check though, and he only logged 11 points, seven shy of his season average playing in the Big Ten. Indiana still won the battle for points in the paint 36-20 over JMU.

The only major statistical difference besides the final score were free throws attempted. IU shot 16-21 from the stripe while the Dukes only went to the line twice, making two of their four shots.

The vast amount positives outweigh any negatives in this game. Freshmen Andre Nation and Charles Cooke scored 32 of JMU’s 40-second half points -- an astonishing statistic when their experience is factored into the equation. It was their moment to shine and officially receive the torch from the seniors. Ironically, those two were the only two Dukes in double figures on Friday despite the fact that neither of them averaged in double figures all season. Cooke finished with 18, while Nation led all scorers with 24. Both were career-highs from future standouts.

“We just wanted to stay aggressive,” Cooke said. “We just took the best shots available that we had. We just wanted to play basketball and stay aggressive, want to be smart, and make leadership decisions.”

Friday’s loss did in fact mark the ending JMU basketball era as six seniors, including the ‘Big Three’ of Moore, A.J. Davis, and Rayshawn Goins, ended their careers. For the three Ohio natives, an ending in Dayton is fitting, knowing they’re just hours from their hometowns.

“I never thought in my life that I’d be playing in a second round game,” Moore said. “This whole trip, it’s just been amazing.”

The finale of their careers signals the changing of the guard. Brady’s strong class last year, along with the upcoming class from this offseason, will become the face of the program for years to come.

“What we did as the six seniors was lay the groundwork for those underclassmen,” Davis said. “I feel good about passing down the torch to them.”

JMU fans that showed up again in Dayton weren’t shy about recognizing their seniors for the years of hard work and good times. Down two-dozen points or more, the band and fans sent out, “Here we go Madison” or repeated “JMU” chants that rippled through an Indiana-red Dayton Arena. JMU Nation was heard loud and clear.

“We’ve seen how hard we have to work,” Nation said. “And we got a whiff of how hard they [one seeds, big programs] work.”

Brady slowly began withdrawing his seniors from the game and finished with all underclassmen on the floor, a true sign of the future.

“It’s a bittersweet moment,” Davis said. “The last few minutes were very up and down knowing it was my last minutes as a college player.”

Moore checked out with 1:40 left in the game. He didn’t join his teammates on the bench. The Columbus born Moore sat on the floor at the end of the bench and just absorbed the last waning moments to a tremendous career.

“This whole season, words can’t describe,” he said. “It’s been amazing. I know I had it rough as far as what was going on with my mom, but I’ve got a great staff behind me that helped me through everything and great young players that helped me.”

Moore didn’t play his best game, but finished with four assists, eclipsing 500 for his final career numbers.

“I played in an NCAA tournament game,” he said. “A lot of people that play basketball want to be here and they’re not.”

After a 30-point loss to begin the season and a 1-5 overall record in the beginning, expectations were kept to a minimum.

“No one expected us to be here,” Goins said. “We made history. It doesn’t matter how you start, it’s how you finish.”

Brady is hopeful that this groundwork the ‘Big Three’ laid is solidified for a bright future.

“They’ve set bar high,” Brady said of the seniors. “This is the bar for our program and we’ve got to be able to get better everyday so this becomes a goal for our program.”

Brady applauded their effort and commended them on great careers.

“This is the class that got it done,” he said. “The senior class bought in and we want to aspire to this every year.”

Brady will build on this experience knowing it made the program exponentially better.

“We’ll take some things from this and try to use it to make our program better,” he said. “In defeat that’s what you’re trying to do, you’re trying to learn.”