chiapet9
November 27th, 2006, 12:53 PM
the Daily News Record (Harrisonburg's local paper) is doing a series on JMU's basketball program - what happened, will it ever return to its once glorious state, can Coach Keener restore the fallen team?????
here's a link and the first article. enjoy. discuss. have at it.
THE RISE. THE FALL. THE REBIRTH? — Part 1 Posted 2006-11-27
The day that JMU basketball changed -- the first of a six-part series that examines the James Madison University basketball program 30 years after its move to Division I.
By Dustin Dopirak
HARRISONBURG — No one saw it coming.Certainly not Lefty Driesell.
The celebrated James Madison University basketball coach was driving with his wife, Joyce, to their vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Del. It was March 5, 1997, just two days after his Dukes had lost an overtime heartbreaker to Old Dominion in the Colonial Athletic Association championship game.
Driesell had already received oral commitments for both of JMU’s available scholarships and, with nothing pressing on his schedule, the 66-year-old Tidewater native was looking forward to some hard-earned time off.
But that was when the call came. The one that changed everything.
Driesell was somewhere near the Washington Beltway when his cellular phone rang. On the other end was Don Lemish, a former fund-raiser who had been named Madison’s athletic director five years after JMU’s bold decision to hire Driesell as the fifth basketball coach in the ambitious program’s brief history.
Lemish got to the point quickly, informing Driesell that the university would not renew his contract — set to expire on April 30 — effectively firing the man who had led the Dukes to four 20-win seasons in nine years, the man who was 17 victories away from becoming just the 10th coach in college basketball history to win 700 games.
"Well you know, I was shocked," Driesell recalled. "But it’s their prerogative. I even said, ‘Look, let me come back and talk to you all about it,’ but he said, ‘No, we got the press come in here, and we’re ready to announce it,’ and I said, ‘Well, so be it.’"
And so began JMU’s dark ages.
Lemish — who confirmed that he made the call but refused further comment for this story — and his superiors said they had good reason to dump Driesell, but one fact is indisputable: the Dukes, for a variety of reasons, haven’t been the same since that phone call nine years ago.
They have had seven losing seasons, more than double the number (three) the program had in its previous 27 years of existence. JMU now has endured six straight, with the last three ranking among the four worst in school history.
The 2005-06 Dukes tied the 1985-86 squad for the university’s worst record ever, going 5-23, a mark that included a school-record 12-game losing streak with the margin of defeat in each of those contests 15 points or more. JMU was 6-22 in 2004-05 and 7-21 in ’03-04 for a combined record of 18-66 in its last three campaigns.
How bad has it gotten? Until 2003, the 1985-86 squad was the only one that had ever finished with single-digit victories.
Nobody can say with certainty whether the program would have prospered or collapsed had Driesell been allowed to remain at least another season. His dismissal, though, marked at least the symbolic dividing line between generally successful and generally unsuccessful eras at Madison.
"I’d almost describe it as kind of the perfect storm has hit JMU basketball over the last couple of years," said Dean Keener, the Dukes’ third-year coach and the man charged with guiding the program to sunnier times.
Keener’s storm metaphor was meant to describe only the problems that have plagued the program in the last three to five years, but it’s apt enough to explain the last nine.
The winds of heightened expectation had been brewing into a storm front in Harrisonburg since James Madison’s basketball program was created in 1969 and turned gale force through the Dukes’ three NCAA Tournament victories in the early ’80s.
Driesell had to deal with those expectations throughout his nine years at Madison, and even though his record was 48 games over .500 – 159-111 – he was eventually felled by them. As one prominent Duke Club member said recently, fans thought Driesell would duplicate his success at the University of Maryland. Obviously, that led to disappointment every postseason.
When Driesell was fired, JMU in a statement cited the team’s "limited success in recent years," declining attendance, lack of community support and unacceptable academics.
What Madison fans may not have realized at the time was that Driesell was essentially the levee that protected JMU from subtle-yet-dramatic changes in the college basketball landscape. Since Driesell was fired, the Dukes have been flooded by those changes, and it seems every lifeboat they’ve tried to climb on has had a hole in it.
Keener cited "unbelievable circumstances" – including injuries – that have sent JMU spiraling to the bottom of the CAA.
"I don’t think it’s one particular decision or one particular incident that led to where we’re at at this point," Keener said.
Indeed it isn’t, as past and present officials have pointed out. But Driesell’s dismissal was the climactic moment in the story of James Madison basketball. Whether the decision was justified or not, it deprived JMU of a coach who was bigger than the university, a coach whose reputation opened doors that lesser lights couldn’t hope to enter, a coach who drew the national spotlight to Harrisonburg – at least at the beginning.
In many ways, though, Madison’s decision was understandable.
Toward the end of Driesell’s reign, attendance at the Convocation Center was dropping sharply as the Dukes began to stumble, even in the regular season. Off the court, administrators were worried about the players’ graduation rates. Most significantly, the expectations of JMU fans – expectations fueled by Lou Campanelli’s stunning success in the 1980s – were almost never met in the postseason, frustrating a university still giddy over its ego-boosting NCAA Tournament victories just a few years earlier. Driesell had produced just one Colonial tournament championship, and therefore only one trip to the NCAA playoffs. His team finished 10-20 in the 1995-96 season and the Dukes’ near-miss in the 1997 CAA tournament wasn’t enough to convince Madison officials that they should retain their brash coach.
So, they booted him. And hired Sherman Dillard, a striking alumnus who later was named the best-dressed coach in college basketball. But Dillard was essentially unproven, and – unable to lure the same caliber of talent to JMU as Driesell did – his teams eventually bombed year after year, shattering Madison’s reputation as a strong basketball program.
This series – the product of 29 interviews — will attempt to explain the Dukes’ rise and fall in five more parts:
The wildly successful early years and how they set the bar for future coaches to perhaps unrealistic heights.
Driesell’s tenure, which established JMU as a serious player in college basketball – or so it seemed.
The changes in college basketball, especially in recruiting, that have made it much more difficult for JMU to match its previous successes.
The reasons for the Dukes’ struggles under Dillard, who resigned under pressure after four straight losing seasons.
Madison’s failed attempt to hire a "name" coach to replace Dillard and the circumstances that have so far kept Keener from returning the Dukes to respectability.
As Keener said, there is no one reason for JMU’s sharp downturn. Some of the causes might have been avoided, and many were actually byproducts of success.
To find them all, you have to start at the beginning.
http://www.dnronline.com/sports_details.php?AID=7060&CHID=3
here's a link and the first article. enjoy. discuss. have at it.
THE RISE. THE FALL. THE REBIRTH? — Part 1 Posted 2006-11-27
The day that JMU basketball changed -- the first of a six-part series that examines the James Madison University basketball program 30 years after its move to Division I.
By Dustin Dopirak
HARRISONBURG — No one saw it coming.Certainly not Lefty Driesell.
The celebrated James Madison University basketball coach was driving with his wife, Joyce, to their vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Del. It was March 5, 1997, just two days after his Dukes had lost an overtime heartbreaker to Old Dominion in the Colonial Athletic Association championship game.
Driesell had already received oral commitments for both of JMU’s available scholarships and, with nothing pressing on his schedule, the 66-year-old Tidewater native was looking forward to some hard-earned time off.
But that was when the call came. The one that changed everything.
Driesell was somewhere near the Washington Beltway when his cellular phone rang. On the other end was Don Lemish, a former fund-raiser who had been named Madison’s athletic director five years after JMU’s bold decision to hire Driesell as the fifth basketball coach in the ambitious program’s brief history.
Lemish got to the point quickly, informing Driesell that the university would not renew his contract — set to expire on April 30 — effectively firing the man who had led the Dukes to four 20-win seasons in nine years, the man who was 17 victories away from becoming just the 10th coach in college basketball history to win 700 games.
"Well you know, I was shocked," Driesell recalled. "But it’s their prerogative. I even said, ‘Look, let me come back and talk to you all about it,’ but he said, ‘No, we got the press come in here, and we’re ready to announce it,’ and I said, ‘Well, so be it.’"
And so began JMU’s dark ages.
Lemish — who confirmed that he made the call but refused further comment for this story — and his superiors said they had good reason to dump Driesell, but one fact is indisputable: the Dukes, for a variety of reasons, haven’t been the same since that phone call nine years ago.
They have had seven losing seasons, more than double the number (three) the program had in its previous 27 years of existence. JMU now has endured six straight, with the last three ranking among the four worst in school history.
The 2005-06 Dukes tied the 1985-86 squad for the university’s worst record ever, going 5-23, a mark that included a school-record 12-game losing streak with the margin of defeat in each of those contests 15 points or more. JMU was 6-22 in 2004-05 and 7-21 in ’03-04 for a combined record of 18-66 in its last three campaigns.
How bad has it gotten? Until 2003, the 1985-86 squad was the only one that had ever finished with single-digit victories.
Nobody can say with certainty whether the program would have prospered or collapsed had Driesell been allowed to remain at least another season. His dismissal, though, marked at least the symbolic dividing line between generally successful and generally unsuccessful eras at Madison.
"I’d almost describe it as kind of the perfect storm has hit JMU basketball over the last couple of years," said Dean Keener, the Dukes’ third-year coach and the man charged with guiding the program to sunnier times.
Keener’s storm metaphor was meant to describe only the problems that have plagued the program in the last three to five years, but it’s apt enough to explain the last nine.
The winds of heightened expectation had been brewing into a storm front in Harrisonburg since James Madison’s basketball program was created in 1969 and turned gale force through the Dukes’ three NCAA Tournament victories in the early ’80s.
Driesell had to deal with those expectations throughout his nine years at Madison, and even though his record was 48 games over .500 – 159-111 – he was eventually felled by them. As one prominent Duke Club member said recently, fans thought Driesell would duplicate his success at the University of Maryland. Obviously, that led to disappointment every postseason.
When Driesell was fired, JMU in a statement cited the team’s "limited success in recent years," declining attendance, lack of community support and unacceptable academics.
What Madison fans may not have realized at the time was that Driesell was essentially the levee that protected JMU from subtle-yet-dramatic changes in the college basketball landscape. Since Driesell was fired, the Dukes have been flooded by those changes, and it seems every lifeboat they’ve tried to climb on has had a hole in it.
Keener cited "unbelievable circumstances" – including injuries – that have sent JMU spiraling to the bottom of the CAA.
"I don’t think it’s one particular decision or one particular incident that led to where we’re at at this point," Keener said.
Indeed it isn’t, as past and present officials have pointed out. But Driesell’s dismissal was the climactic moment in the story of James Madison basketball. Whether the decision was justified or not, it deprived JMU of a coach who was bigger than the university, a coach whose reputation opened doors that lesser lights couldn’t hope to enter, a coach who drew the national spotlight to Harrisonburg – at least at the beginning.
In many ways, though, Madison’s decision was understandable.
Toward the end of Driesell’s reign, attendance at the Convocation Center was dropping sharply as the Dukes began to stumble, even in the regular season. Off the court, administrators were worried about the players’ graduation rates. Most significantly, the expectations of JMU fans – expectations fueled by Lou Campanelli’s stunning success in the 1980s – were almost never met in the postseason, frustrating a university still giddy over its ego-boosting NCAA Tournament victories just a few years earlier. Driesell had produced just one Colonial tournament championship, and therefore only one trip to the NCAA playoffs. His team finished 10-20 in the 1995-96 season and the Dukes’ near-miss in the 1997 CAA tournament wasn’t enough to convince Madison officials that they should retain their brash coach.
So, they booted him. And hired Sherman Dillard, a striking alumnus who later was named the best-dressed coach in college basketball. But Dillard was essentially unproven, and – unable to lure the same caliber of talent to JMU as Driesell did – his teams eventually bombed year after year, shattering Madison’s reputation as a strong basketball program.
This series – the product of 29 interviews — will attempt to explain the Dukes’ rise and fall in five more parts:
The wildly successful early years and how they set the bar for future coaches to perhaps unrealistic heights.
Driesell’s tenure, which established JMU as a serious player in college basketball – or so it seemed.
The changes in college basketball, especially in recruiting, that have made it much more difficult for JMU to match its previous successes.
The reasons for the Dukes’ struggles under Dillard, who resigned under pressure after four straight losing seasons.
Madison’s failed attempt to hire a "name" coach to replace Dillard and the circumstances that have so far kept Keener from returning the Dukes to respectability.
As Keener said, there is no one reason for JMU’s sharp downturn. Some of the causes might have been avoided, and many were actually byproducts of success.
To find them all, you have to start at the beginning.
http://www.dnronline.com/sports_details.php?AID=7060&CHID=3