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The 2013 JMU basketball team has a special place in most fans’ hearts. That year’s team won the CAA Tournament and punched its ticket to the big dance after a 19 year absence for JMU. It was a high water mark for a program that hasn’t sniffed the tourney since. Well, thanks to Mark Selig and the Washington Post, we now know that the team stank. Literally.<\/p>\n
The former JMU basketball beat writer for the DNR, shared a great story from Joe Kuykendall<\/a> in an article yesterday. Joe<\/a> was one of the managers for the Dukes team that year. Among his many duties, he was responsible for washing and preparing all of the uniforms.<\/p>\n As you might recall, the Dukes opened the tournament with a victory over William & Mary. JMU wore its white jerseys that game, which were promptly gathered into a duffel bag, and then tossed onto the floor of Kukyendall’s hotel room a few blocks from the arena. The plan was for the team to wear purple its next game, which it did, and then the gold unis if necessary after that (ed. note: Three games in one tournament! Can you imagine?)\u00a0<\/em>Everything went according to plan until about 30 minutes before the tipoff of the championship game against Northeastern. Officials told JMU that its gold uniforms didn’t contrast with Northeastern’s, so they’d have to switch. That sent Joe and the other managers scrambling back to the hotel to get the duffel bag full of sweaty, stinky purple uniforms. They made it back to the arena with under 10 minutes to spare. The players suited up in the smelly jerseys and shorts, then went out and won the dang tourney.<\/p>\n So maybe that’s what we’ve been missing. Funky and rank uniforms. We’d try anything at this point.<\/p>\n