So much can change in one year. 

Heading into the 2020-21 season, James Madison was coming off a last-place finish in the Colonial Athletic Association, introducing a new head coach, and opening a new home arena. 

Fast forward to 2021-22 and the Dukes are defending CAA regular-season champions; Mark Byington has made his imprint on the program, and the Atlantic Union Bank Center gets to welcome full audiences in its second season.

Coming off a remarkable turnaround in its first season under Byington, James Madison embarks on the new campaign with plenty of reason for optimism. But the changes don’t stop with the start of another year.  

“We brought in seven new players from last year. It does feel different,” Byington said. “We’re not one of these with a bunch of super seniors and guys who have been around the program three, four, five years and know the deal. We’re still fairly new in all areas, and my most experienced guys only have one year in the program.” 

2020-21 was a season-long feeling-out process for pretty much every program in college basketball, but James Madison was in a particularly interesting spot with a new coaching staff. 

The Dukes adjusted and adapted nicely, as evident in their surprise run to the conference championship. This season presents new challenges for them to navigate. 

“Last year, we only had [a] major, huge distraction but we only had one,” Byington said, adding with a laugh. “And that was COVID.”

Citing the difficulties of a once-in-a-century pandemic with an “only” might be ironic, but Byington brings up an intriguing point. Last season was unprecedented, and containment protocols meant athletes were pretty much limited to their athletic facilities and dorms. 

Then-first year guard Terell Strickland described the surrealism of going from a big game straight to the dorm. 

This season marks a return to a more traditional basketball season, which will test the Dukes in a different way. 

“They have a lot more go

Laced ‘em up this week 😤#GoDukes pic.twitter.com/jP8LS5yVbm

— JMU Men's Basketball (@JMUMBasketball) October 17, 2021

ing on, a lot more distractions in their days,” Byington said. “Last year, even as horrific as the pandemic was, there was only one thing we had to look at we were going through. They’ve got full schedules, and their days are much harder now. Their time is being occupied a lot more.” 

Balancing a more hectic daily schedule with the integration of new faces into the lineup is among the Dukes’ measuring sticks for 2021-22. 

“Everybody’s trying to find their role,” guard Vado Morse said of the 2021 offseason. “But we’ve all got one goal: Bounce back to where we were last year, win the conference, but go even further.” 

Missing out on the NCAA Tournament after losing in the CAA Tournament left James Madison with a clear benchmark to meet after last year’s breakthrough. 

The upset loss to Elon in the quarterfinals laid out for the 2021-22 Dukes one of the more difficult responsibilities they’d face: Playing without Matt Lewis. 

Last season’s CAA Player of the Year led the Dukes in scoring at more than 19 points per game, but did a little of everything. Lewis hit the glass aggressively at almost five per game, and set the table for teammates to score with almost four assists per game. 

“Matt’s points and assists and all of that were very important for us,” Byington said. “What we have to replace is having a go-to guy who can create their own play at the end of the shot clock and end of a game. After that, we have to replace Matt’s every-day positive leadership. 

“He was great for me in my first year, having that be the best player, because he has a great positive energy about him,” Byington added. “We’ve got to fill that more than his points. We’ve got enough guys on the roster that can score. We have talent, we have all that. But that big intangible is our unknown right now.” 

As far as talent coming back, James Madison isn’t lacking despite some roster turnover. Strickland was a defensive stopper and brought energy on the perimeter, while fellow freshman Justin Amadi hit the boards hard and scored at one of the most efficient clips of any player in the nation. 

JMU also returns a high-volume scorer in Morse, who averaged 14.4 points per game. 

“Everyone here laces their shoes just like [Lewis] did,” said Morse, who figures to be James Madison’s standard-bearer in 2021-22. 

After proving they could adapt a year ago, this year’s Dukes aim to show that’s at least one thing that hasn’t changed in a new year.