While March Madness experiences a first with all No. 1 seeds making it to the Final Four, an individual at JMU has also stepped into new territory.
Women’s basketball coach Kenny Brooks is coming off his first postseason wins as a coach, and the program’s first in eight years.
Brooks’ team advanced to the third round of the 2008 Women’s National Invitation Tournament on March 26, where JMU lost to Kentucky 84-76. But before the Wildcats bounced JMU, the Dukes beat Radford and Indiana in the tournament.
Until its opening round win against Radford, the last postseason victory James Madison had was in the third round of the 2001 WNIT.
Brooks has been working toward that achievement. 2008 marked the Dukes’ third straight postseason appearance, with JMU making the WNIT in 2006 and the NCAAs in 2007.
Madison achieved this season’s success after losing four starters to graduation. Senior forward Tamera Young, who will attend WNBA Pre-Draft Camp in Tampa, Fla. on Friday and Saturday, was the only holdover from last year’s team that qualified for the NCAAs for the first time since 1996.
Now she stands alone as the Colonial Athletic Association’s all time leading scorer, with 2,121 points in her career at Madison. Her 28 points against Kentucky brought her nine past Celeste Hill, who played at Old Dominion from 1990-94.
Hill’s record stood for almost 14 years. That is, until Young decided to add one more accomplishment to her prolific career at Madison.
She became JMU’s leading scorer Jan. 24, passing Meredith Alexis’ mark of 1,760 points. And Madison’s extended run into the postseason allowed her to rattle off games of 38, 30 and 28 to ascend the conference scoring throne.
Now Brooks is searching for players to help fill the void that will be left by Young’s absence. Madison’s coach has been blazing the recruiting trail, trying to lure players to a team that will again have to re-establish its identity. Rising senior forwards Kisha Stokes and Nina Uqdah are JMU’s only returning players with more than one year of collegiate experience.
Brooks will be entering his seventh season in 2008-09, and his teams have finished over .500 five out of six seasons. The players that took his 2006-07 team to the NCAA tournament bought into his vision while Brooks was still developing as a head coach. The uncanny ability to make believers out of his players has propelled Brooks to the success he has achieved in a short amount of time.
Young’s departure will be a monumental loss. But while Brooks cannot replace her, you can bet he’s recruiting players that will ease the pain of her absence.
