Four Questions with Mark Byington

Thanks for reading Four Questions from The Field of 68 Daily. For more of these, click here.

Grand old Dukes

No team had a better start to the season than James Madison. The Dukes won at Michigan State (then ranked No. 4), at Kent State (where the Golden Flashes are 20-2 over the last two season), and then dropped 107 on Howard. All over seven days.

And the thing is … James Madison hasn’t slowed down, either!

The Dukes are ranked 19th in the latest AP poll, and, at 13-0, are one of three remaining unbeaten men’s teams. They’re not only favored to win the Sun Belt, but to also run the table, which would be the just the fourth time in the last 10 years a team hit March unbeaten.

But that’s still months away. James Madison coach Mark Byington knows there are plenty of landmines in that Sun Belt slate. So he spoke about it with me in the latest Four Questions.

Q: Every team has its own routine coming out of the holiday break, whether that’s a buy game, or few practices. But given the added mental pressure that comes with being unbeaten this time of year, did you adjust anything for this season before you beat Texas State on Saturday?

Mary Byington: Mostly our guys needed just needed the break. With everything that’s happening at JMU — the football team had a great year, College Game Day was here, and then with us starting the season with a win in Michigan State — I thought we needed a break really bad. We were mentally exhausted. I don't think so much physically exhausted, just the mental part of it meant we needed all the days off we could.

Q: You guys play fast. You’ve ranked in the Top 40 in adjusted tempo three of your four seasons at JMU. Where did that coaching philosophy begin? Because I gotta tell you, I love watching it. Has that style been a boon when it comes to recruiting?

Byington: I was infatuated with Mike D’Antoni when he was with the Phoenix Suns, the way they played with Steve Nash. And I remember watching John Groce when he was at Ohio and made a run to the Sweet 16. I loved the way they played without a true center. So when I was at Georgia Southern, I couldn’t get anybody over 6-6 to come play that I thought was a good player. We kinda had to go no post and play fast. And what I found was I could just get skilled guys who can play different positions and kind of make it interchangeable.

And I thought that was a fun way to play. I thought the players wanted to play that way. The fans definitely wanted to watch it. So we built on it and adjusted and tweaked things along the way, and now, when I’m recruiting, I can tell a player ‘Look, I’m gonna let you do everything you can do in your skill set while you’re here.’ And they love that.

We do talk about pace of play when we’re recruiting, but with the transfer portal, number 1 is NIL. After that, they want to know ‘How are you going to use me? Can you help me become a professional?’ and I think we’re well-positioned there. I’ve only had one guy while I’ve been at JMU who did not go play professionally after he finished with us. With our style and freedom, I think that helps guys be pros.

Q: Given the JMU facilities upgrades of recent years, your proximity to the DMV for recruiting, and the style of play — not to mention success this season — it seems like you’re in a position for prolonged success. Mark few and Gonzaga are obviously the standard for that among non-power conference schools, but I would assume that feels like what you’re building toward. I mean, the program is set and you’re essentially a local guy.

Byington: Oh, it's definitely the dream. The funny thing is when you're talking about Mark Few and Gonzaga, I think probably every coach who's interviewed for a mid-major job in the last 20 years is, has told their hiring committee that they’re going to build the next Gonzaga. Mark should probably get a royalty off that. I might have even dropped that at some point, I don't even know.

It’s obviously hard to replicate, but we have a tons of things here that we think we can build on. The campus is incredible. The academics, the vibe when you walk around here, it's big time. It really is. We’re not a high major league, but if you look around this place, and walk around, it’s a place that looks like a high major.

The biggest challenge is we’re a one-bid league. Until that changes — Gonzaga turned the WCC into a multi-bid league — there’s more pressure on us than if we were a high major. You’ve gotta be perfect for three or four days in your conference tournament, regardless of what happened before that. Maybe the Mountain West is the blueprint for where we want our league to be right now, where you can absorb a bad loss and still get multiple teams in.

Q: You’ve got road games at Louisiana and Southern Miss this week. App State is the week after that. Those are the types of games that must keep you up at night, thinking about how the season could get tougher. If you get through those — and I know this is an area where coaches don’t dwell, do you dare think about what the end of February might be like? How would you approach a season that could be historic?

Byington: Truthfully, when I was walking off the court after Michigan State, all I was thinking about was ‘Damn, Kent State is going to be even harder,’ and so on. We truly do just try to focus on going 1-0, little by little, so I haven’t really looked that far ahead.

Now, what I do is I talk to somebody who might have words of advice, or a text message or whatever. And it cane come from anywhere. After our first week, Dusty May texted me. Rob Jones from Norfolk State — he’s had some success — helped with some advice for how to keep your team in the moment.

You just try to keep perspective. I never try to feel like we're good enough or we made it because we gotta keep pushing. UConn, they went through a losing stretch last season and then dominated the NCAA Tournament. If we have a bad stretch, we might be a 6, 7, 8, 9 seed in our conference tournament and win four games to even play in March.

But we’re doing all right. Here’s today. What can we do today? Let’s get better today, because that’s all we can control. If there’s a game in front of us, let’s go out and do everything we can to do, then move onto the next one. Then we keep getting better, and better. And maybe then I’ll be able to reflect a little bit.