JMU 2009-2010 Complete Men's Basketball Schedule

The full JMU Men's Basketball schedule for the 2009-2010 season was announced yesterday. Check it out. Exact dates for the CAA schedule are still subject to change as the TV schedule is worked out, so be warned that until that's set in stone (probably around October) you might not want to make definite plans. The Bracket Buster opponent will be chosen in late January. Conference games are starred and all teams are listed with last year's end-of-season KenPom rankings in parentheses.

UPDATE: Now includes exhibition game, game times, and TV schedule


Exhibition Game: Oct. 31 - Philadelphia (DII) - 3pm

Nov. 12 (Thu) - 7pm - @ Ohio State (37) - Coaches vs. Cancer Classic
Big Ten Network

Coaches vs. Cancer Classic @ Florida International
Nov. 20 (Fri) - 4pm - Murray State (137)
Nov. 22 (Sun) - 6pm - Florida International (262)
Nov. 23 (Mon) - 4pm - North Carolina Central (343)

Nov. 28 (Sat) - 7pm - UMBC (256)

Dec. 2 (Wed) - 7pm - Norfolk State (297)

Dec. 5 (Sat) - 2pm - Georgia State* (219)
CSN-MA; CSN-P; CSN-NE; CSS
----Dec. 11 - End of Fall Semester----
Dec. 12 (Sat) - 7pm - @ Eastern Michigan (306)

Dec. 17 (Thu) - 7pm - @ Gardner-Webb (252)

Dec. 19 (Sat) - 7pm - Radford (188)

Dec. 23 (Wed) - 7pm - Fordham (317)

Dec. 29 (Tue) - 10pm - @ Stanford (49)

Jan. 2 (Sat) - 4pm - @ Northeastern* (101)

Jan. 4 (Mon) - 7pm - Delaware* (201)

Jan. 6 (Wed) - 7pm - @ Old Dominion* (90)

Jan. 9 (Sat) - 2pm - Towson* (248)
CSN-MA; CSN-P; CSN-NE 
----Jan. 11 - Beginning of Spring Semester----
Jan. 13 (Wed) - 7pm - @ William & Mary* (227)
CSN-MA

Jan. 16 (Sat) - 2pm - George Mason* (88)
CSN-MA; CSN-P; CSN-NE; CSS

Jan. 20 (Wed) - 7pm - @ Drexel* (133)
TCN; CSN-NE

Jan. 23 (Sat) - 7pm - @ North Carolina Wilmington* (298)
MASN

Jan. 27 (Wed) - 7pm - William & Mary* (227)

Jan. 30 (Sat) - 12pm - @ George Mason* (88)
CSN-MA; CSN-NE; CSS; TCN-P

Feb. 3 (Wed) - 7pm - Hofstra* (175)

Feb. 6 (Sat) - 4pm - @ Towson* (248) 

Feb. 10 (Wed) - 7pm - Old Dominion* (90)


Feb. 13 (Sat) - 6pm - Virginia Commonwealth* (53)
CSN-MA; CSN-NE; TCN-P 

Feb. 16 (Wed) - 7pm -  Georgia State* (219)

Feb. 20 (Sat) - TBA - @ Bracket Buster

Feb. 22 (Mon) - 7pm - Longwood (313)

Feb. 24 (Wed) - 7:30pm - @ Virginia Commonwealth* (53)

Feb. 27 (Sat) - 7pm - Drexel* (133)
----March 6 - Beginning of Spring Break----
March 5-8 (Fri-Mon) - CAA Tournament - Richmond, Va.

As you can see it's a decent schedule. It might not be as tough as some were hoping, but like I said in my previous article about the out-of-conference schedule, some of these are series games that we can't exactly just say, "No, we're not gonna play you." The average ranking from last year for our OOC opponents is 230. Our CAA schedule averages out to 178. Considering we finished the year ranked 140 in the nation, I think we should finish the year pretty high.

With 31 regular season games, I don't see us losing more than 10 of them. Ohio State and Stanford are the only teams that are even close to guaranteed loses for us (though, I could see us coming close to an upset if we play well against Stanford). Murray State might give us some trouble, and we might have a tough opponent for Bracket Busters, so that's maybe 4 losses. As for our conference schedule, I think we'll do really well this year, especially at home. I think this is the year we will really start to see the Electric Zoo come back to life (though I don't see consistent sell-outs happening until next year). I count our possible losses as @Northeastern, @ODU, @Drexel, @George Mason, and @VCU. VCU will be down this year though, from losing their star point guard and a couple other big players to transfers, so we might not even lose at their. I'll allow for another random loss in our schedule somewhere. So I could see us, pretty realistically, have a loss record in the single digits.

Another thing to keep in mind is home games during winter break. We only have 4 home games during this period, and the best teams we play are Radford and Delaware, which should be fairly easy wins. We'll have students in session for all the major home games this season. In addition, Denzel Bowles, our next big man who is a transfer from Texas A&M, becomes eligible after Fall exams are over, so his first eligible game will be at Eastern Michigan. Denzel makes Dazz Thornton looks like an average height basketball player. He is a tree and I believe will be an immediate difference maker. Speaking of Dazz, he is in the best shape I've ever seen him in. Check out the pictures from the Pep Rally to see Dazz, Denzel, Julius Wells, and Ryan Knight. This is definitely a season to be optimistic about.

JMUSports.com | Full Schedule

JMUSports.com | Schedule Announcement