The Cats opened the men’s basketball season with a 72-61 win over Binghamton tonight. Boo Buie led the scoring with 27 points, Barnheiser had 18 and Lanborg had 13. 9 players saw time on the court.
Cats were favored by 18 and struggled with the game was pretty close throughout and the Cats trailing by a point or so even with about only 5 or 6 minutes to go before pulling away
Another heavy favorite, #4 Michigan state, lost in OT to James Madison
Harry
James Madison’s athletic department is having a very good year, isn’t it?
Is their basketball team prohibited from post-season play like the football team is? If their football team finishes the season undefeated, look for a lot of pressure to allow them in a bowl game or at least change the rule for future teams moving up to D1 FBS.
Basketball is eligible as are other sports because JMU has been in D-I for a number of years. Football reclassified from FcS (still D-I) thus the transition. reclassification.
For a somewhat similar basketball story, Bellarmine, a small Catholic school in Louisville, now in its fourth and final transition year from D-II, won the ASUN tournament two years ago but was barred from both the NCAA and NIT. Waivers submitted then and every year since have all been denied.
NCAA no longer couching it in terms of resources but saying out load that transition years are imposed to discourage
Go Cats
Mark
JMU is applying to the NCAA for an exception or change to the bowl rule again. Will probably be turned down again. It’ll be interesting to see who, if anyone, supports their application. Will the heavyweight schools or media stars get behind JMU? The NCAA is not immune to that kind of pressure, because they’ve had plenty of bad press lately.
No, the football team is prohibited because of the move from FCS (formerly known as Division I-AA) to FBS (fka Division I-A). They have always been (or at least for a long time) Division I in basketball.
-Michael
Basketball isn’t bifurcated like football is.
WSJ columnist Jason Gay has a column on JMU.