Let that be one of several prologues to the following news, which most of you have probably heard by now: effective immediately, embattled third-year guard Andre Nation has been dismissed from the JMU men's basketball program, effective immediately.
And please note that I said "one of several" prologues. Because, while Nation's sad dismissal should be contrasted against the euphoric revelry many of us have found in the last 14 days of sports, it's not the best place to start telling this story.
It's October 2012, and I've just walked out of a meeting with JMU's then-Sports Information Director Kevin Warner, held in his office on University Boulevard in Harrisonburg. As a sports communication minor, I have to complete a practicum with someone from the athletic department. Because of my background in writing, and my potentially awkward position as Sports Editor with the Breeze, Kevin decides to take an unusual route with my practicum -- instead of staffing live events as a gopher like most of the other students, I'll be writing the pre-game synopses for each individual men's basketball contest. The season wasn't set to start for another couple of weeks, but Kevin recommended I go home and spend a few days familiarizing myself with preseason notes, trends, and player stats. Done.
The first thing I did was go home and firm up my knowledge of the older guys. Devon Moore in particular was a guy I was looking at who -- if he could manage to stay healthy for the duration of the season, which was no guarantee based on his personal history -- could end up rewriting several section of the JMU record books. Then there were guys like A.J. Davis and Rayshawn Goins, who were obviously going to be major contributors. Semenov was already up there for career 3-pointers made. Even guys like Alioune Diouf had interesting tidbits I could potentially whip out and brandish after the odd big game.
But all that was standard fare. What I was really looking forward to was aggregating stats on Matt Brady's young trio of freshman, a mid-major Chimera headed by a brash, six-foot-five-inch guard named Andre Nation, who had been uprooted from his native Plant City, Florida and dropped into the Shenandoah Valley.
It didn't take long for Nation to start contributing in major, meaningful ways. By early December, he had already notched a CAA Rookie of the Week award. He was averaging 11 points per game, good for second on the team (behind only Goins the grinder). He had posted a stupid stat line in a blowout win over East Tennessee State -- 11 points, 5 rebounds, 5 steals, 3 blocks, and 2 assists -- which is what spurred his ROTW recognition by the Colonial Athletic Association in the first place.
Oh, and he was averaging 2.6 steals per game, which led all players in the CAA, and ranked him in the top 30 players nationally. He was must-watch basketball.
By the time Matt Brady was gearing his team up for conference play in January, I had my routine. Kevin would give me a deadline for when to pen him a press release blurb by, and I would get started. But before I would even open a Microsoft Word document, I would check how close Devon Moore was to the all-time assist mark, how many double-doubles Ray had posted, and where Andre ranked nationally in steals. And though his steals fell off as JMU eased off the Radfords of the world and dove into an up-for-grabs-like-never-before CAA season, Andre continued to exasperate Colonial coaches with his defensive prowess in limited floor time, signaling that the future of JMU basketball was as bright as it's been since the 1980s.
When the season edged into March, Andre didn't wilt; he stepped up. He played a combined 65 minutes in the final two CAA tournaments games, scoring 10 points and racking up 4 rebounds, an assist, 2 blocks, and 3 steals vs Northeastern in the championship game. He was arguably more brilliant in the semis against Delaware, where he chipped in 4 boards and 5 blocks alongside another double-digit game.
And speaking of Delaware... let's not forget this. (Or part II.)
Even though JMU was inevitably blown out by Indiana in the second round of the NCAA tournament, Nation individually played brilliantly, dropping a season-high 24 points on the celebrated Hoosier defense. He finished the season as an all-CAA Rookie. And if the story ended there, I probably wouldn't be writing this post.
Following the departure of Goins, Moore, Davis, and the rest of the oldest team in the history of JMU athletics, Nation went from being an elite guy to bring off the bench to the guy. Watching his brilliance in the NCAA tournament was salivating, but it also bred the burden of expectation that he could carry the Dukes to a place where, at the very least, a CAA title defense was vaguely possible.
Then, of course, there was the suspension. Nation was dumped for 15 games -- half of a full season! -- for an unspecified "violation of athletic department policy." AD Jeff Bourne and Brady would never fully reveal the specifics of the punishment, but because of the nature and timing of the announcement, it was widely speculated (and eventually sourced) that Andre had failed multiple drug tests for marijuana.
Of course, if Andre was any other kid, we probably wouldn't be talking about this. Marijuana is so ubiquitous in college towns, it's barely even labelled a drug by anyone within six miles of a quadrangle. So even though I probably saw more kids lighting up a bowl than turning in homework over my five years in Harrisonburg, Andre's probable use of it became national news.
You can argue over drug reform and whether or not weed should be legalized. You can even argue over whether we, as a society, should be broadcasting the recreational activities of 19-year olds in private apartments and passing it off as sports news. But what you can't argue much is that Andre broke a clear rule, and it hurt his team.
"We're disappointed in Andre's actions," Brady said in a press conference in September 2013. "We hope that he learns a life lesson, that he is part of something greater than himself and is accountable to his team and to the entire JMU community."
Who knows whether or not he did. Maybe, if Andre's not already the leader of the team as an incumbent sophomore, someone pulls him aside and tells him to get his shit together and fall in line. Maybe if JMU didn't graduate or otherwise lose seven players at the end of the 2013 season, Nation stays in check, with someone to look to for advice and mentorship.
Instead, the spiral had begun.
Nation would be suspended two more times -- once for academic issues just before the 2014 CAA tournament, and once for getting too drunk at a house party in August and reportedly fighting teammate Tom Vodanovich. He was arrested, but maintains to this day that the two were only horseplaying.
Nation returned in late November for a road game at Ohio State, but it didn't matter. The air had become too toxic around him, and his game was suffering. He wasn't completely healthy or conditioned, either. Nation played his final twelve games from November 30, 2014 - January 10, 2015, just seven days ago. He had four blocks over that span and averaged less than 10 points per game.
On Wednesday, Matt Brady announced that Andre would no longer be with the team, garnering mixed reaction from the JMU fan base and Nation himself.
Per Nick Sunderland's article in today's Daily News Record, Nation was surprised by the lack of ominous circumstances around his dismissal. "I thought after the Tom situation, it was over. And he brought me back," Nation told Sunderland. "I just feel like if they was going to get rid of me, they should have did that after that [fight], you know what I mean?"
Sunderland also reports that, according to Andre, he walked out of his final meeting with Brady almost immediately after being told he was kicked off the team.
A lot of people are going to sit here and bury Andre Nation. They aren't without a leg to stand on. By all accounts from people in and around the Men's Basketball program, Andre was not always the easiest guy to be around. He was loud and selfish, and his arrogance, hedonism, and situational unwillingness to be coached eventually cost him his scholarship and position on the team.
Ultimately, Andre was unable to complete the process so many other students struggle with in college: growing up. We all have our flaws. But Andre's had to play out on a basketball court, and without older guys who have been there before, stranded in a valley hundreds of miles from his home, and labeled the de facto leader of a Division 1 basketball team as a teenager, it just didn't play out.
On a different note, it's the final nail in the coffin of what was a mouth-watering recruiting class. With Nation's dismissal and Charles Cooke and Taylor Bessick's transfers to Dayton and Iona, respectively, Ron Curry is the only piece that remains. I've beat the drum pretty hard for Matt Brady throughout his tenure at JMU, but it's not hard to imagine that the mismanagement of his star recruiting class -- Nation's three suspensions, a weirdly timed ejection from the team, and two crippling transfer -- could ultimately spell his undoing, despite three 20-win seasons and the first NCAA apperance since '94.
As for Nation, he's now in the same boat as so many other 20-somethings. If you want to finish your degree, you better be able to scrape together an ungodly amount of money. According to statistics provided by JMU, it costs the average out-of-state student $38,750 to attend Madison for one year. That figure includes tuition, food, room & board, and other day-to-day necessities.
JMU Men's Basketball will move on without him. One day after the suspension, the Dukes beat Drexel soundly in Philadelphia.
According to one source close to the team, JMU looked "decent" in Philly. Then again, he also added that it wasn't surprising the Dragons lost to a D2 school. So maybe they just sucked a lot more than JMU did. We'll all get a better idea tonight, when JMU hosts Elon. Both schools have identical 10-8 records. The game tips at 8pm.
But I keep coming back to Andre. As a guy who played sports throughout his childhood, I'm stuck on this concept of veteran leadership. Sophomores were never meant to lead college teams. They're not mature enough, and they're not seasoned enough. While I didn't know him particularly well -- despite all those press releases, I doubt he'd be able to pick me out of a crowd -- it seems clear to anyone around the program that Andre had some juvenile issues. By the sound of things he's said publicly since his dismissal, he recognizes those flaws and accepts them for what they are.
But the graduation of key seniors after Andre's freshman year is a critical moment that no one seems to be talking about. It's the difference between growing up as an only child and being deftly guided by an older brother or sister. For young student-athletes, proper mentorship is key.
Andre didn't get that. He had the program thrust at his feet at 19. And for that, this is a story of pity first, personal failure second. And, hopefully, redemption third.
The first thing I did was go home and firm up my knowledge of the older guys. Devon Moore in particular was a guy I was looking at who -- if he could manage to stay healthy for the duration of the season, which was no guarantee based on his personal history -- could end up rewriting several section of the JMU record books. Then there were guys like A.J. Davis and Rayshawn Goins, who were obviously going to be major contributors. Semenov was already up there for career 3-pointers made. Even guys like Alioune Diouf had interesting tidbits I could potentially whip out and brandish after the odd big game.
But all that was standard fare. What I was really looking forward to was aggregating stats on Matt Brady's young trio of freshman, a mid-major Chimera headed by a brash, six-foot-five-inch guard named Andre Nation, who had been uprooted from his native Plant City, Florida and dropped into the Shenandoah Valley.
It didn't take long for Nation to start contributing in major, meaningful ways. By early December, he had already notched a CAA Rookie of the Week award. He was averaging 11 points per game, good for second on the team (behind only Goins the grinder). He had posted a stupid stat line in a blowout win over East Tennessee State -- 11 points, 5 rebounds, 5 steals, 3 blocks, and 2 assists -- which is what spurred his ROTW recognition by the Colonial Athletic Association in the first place.
Oh, and he was averaging 2.6 steals per game, which led all players in the CAA, and ranked him in the top 30 players nationally. He was must-watch basketball.
By the time Matt Brady was gearing his team up for conference play in January, I had my routine. Kevin would give me a deadline for when to pen him a press release blurb by, and I would get started. But before I would even open a Microsoft Word document, I would check how close Devon Moore was to the all-time assist mark, how many double-doubles Ray had posted, and where Andre ranked nationally in steals. And though his steals fell off as JMU eased off the Radfords of the world and dove into an up-for-grabs-like-never-before CAA season, Andre continued to exasperate Colonial coaches with his defensive prowess in limited floor time, signaling that the future of JMU basketball was as bright as it's been since the 1980s.
When the season edged into March, Andre didn't wilt; he stepped up. He played a combined 65 minutes in the final two CAA tournaments games, scoring 10 points and racking up 4 rebounds, an assist, 2 blocks, and 3 steals vs Northeastern in the championship game. He was arguably more brilliant in the semis against Delaware, where he chipped in 4 boards and 5 blocks alongside another double-digit game.
And speaking of Delaware... let's not forget this. (Or part II.)
Even though JMU was inevitably blown out by Indiana in the second round of the NCAA tournament, Nation individually played brilliantly, dropping a season-high 24 points on the celebrated Hoosier defense. He finished the season as an all-CAA Rookie. And if the story ended there, I probably wouldn't be writing this post.
Following the departure of Goins, Moore, Davis, and the rest of the oldest team in the history of JMU athletics, Nation went from being an elite guy to bring off the bench to the guy. Watching his brilliance in the NCAA tournament was salivating, but it also bred the burden of expectation that he could carry the Dukes to a place where, at the very least, a CAA title defense was vaguely possible.
Then, of course, there was the suspension. Nation was dumped for 15 games -- half of a full season! -- for an unspecified "violation of athletic department policy." AD Jeff Bourne and Brady would never fully reveal the specifics of the punishment, but because of the nature and timing of the announcement, it was widely speculated (and eventually sourced) that Andre had failed multiple drug tests for marijuana.
Of course, if Andre was any other kid, we probably wouldn't be talking about this. Marijuana is so ubiquitous in college towns, it's barely even labelled a drug by anyone within six miles of a quadrangle. So even though I probably saw more kids lighting up a bowl than turning in homework over my five years in Harrisonburg, Andre's probable use of it became national news.
You can argue over drug reform and whether or not weed should be legalized. You can even argue over whether we, as a society, should be broadcasting the recreational activities of 19-year olds in private apartments and passing it off as sports news. But what you can't argue much is that Andre broke a clear rule, and it hurt his team.
"We're disappointed in Andre's actions," Brady said in a press conference in September 2013. "We hope that he learns a life lesson, that he is part of something greater than himself and is accountable to his team and to the entire JMU community."
Who knows whether or not he did. Maybe, if Andre's not already the leader of the team as an incumbent sophomore, someone pulls him aside and tells him to get his shit together and fall in line. Maybe if JMU didn't graduate or otherwise lose seven players at the end of the 2013 season, Nation stays in check, with someone to look to for advice and mentorship.
Instead, the spiral had begun.
Nation would be suspended two more times -- once for academic issues just before the 2014 CAA tournament, and once for getting too drunk at a house party in August and reportedly fighting teammate Tom Vodanovich. He was arrested, but maintains to this day that the two were only horseplaying.
Nation returned in late November for a road game at Ohio State, but it didn't matter. The air had become too toxic around him, and his game was suffering. He wasn't completely healthy or conditioned, either. Nation played his final twelve games from November 30, 2014 - January 10, 2015, just seven days ago. He had four blocks over that span and averaged less than 10 points per game.
Freshman yr by far was one of the best years of my life
— Im Me (@YBG_Dre) January 14, 2015
On Wednesday, Matt Brady announced that Andre would no longer be with the team, garnering mixed reaction from the JMU fan base and Nation himself.
It's crazy how a grown man can sit in yo face n tell you one thing then go behind your back n lie jus to make themselves look better smh
— Im Me (@YBG_Dre) January 14, 2015
Was hoping it was a joke when I saw a tweet about @YBG_Dre being off the team... So stupid on JMU's part. Really gonna miss watching him.
— Justin Collins (@FlowGator15) January 14, 2015
Andre Nation is a waste of talent
— Lew Ashby (@ItsTheMorris) January 17, 2015
@NSunderland4 @MattJones36 @YBG_Dre can't feel too bad for a guy who had so many chances. Hope he turns things around for himself
— Brad Stokley (@BradStokley) January 17, 2015
@BradStokley @NSunderland4 @MattJones36 i mean did you have to add me in this or ....you could of jus tweeted the other two people
— Im Me (@YBG_Dre) January 17, 2015
@YBG_Dre On purpose. Just saying I don't feel sorry for you, but still wish you well man. Shit happens. All the best in the future
— Brad Stokley (@BradStokley) January 17, 2015
I'm a JMU basketball fan because of @YBG_Dre. I'm grateful for all the great memories his playing has given me and my fellow dukes. #thanks
— Christopher Medrano (@cjmedranski) January 16, 2015
Per Nick Sunderland's article in today's Daily News Record, Nation was surprised by the lack of ominous circumstances around his dismissal. "I thought after the Tom situation, it was over. And he brought me back," Nation told Sunderland. "I just feel like if they was going to get rid of me, they should have did that after that [fight], you know what I mean?"
Sunderland also reports that, according to Andre, he walked out of his final meeting with Brady almost immediately after being told he was kicked off the team.
A lot of people are going to sit here and bury Andre Nation. They aren't without a leg to stand on. By all accounts from people in and around the Men's Basketball program, Andre was not always the easiest guy to be around. He was loud and selfish, and his arrogance, hedonism, and situational unwillingness to be coached eventually cost him his scholarship and position on the team.
Ultimately, Andre was unable to complete the process so many other students struggle with in college: growing up. We all have our flaws. But Andre's had to play out on a basketball court, and without older guys who have been there before, stranded in a valley hundreds of miles from his home, and labeled the de facto leader of a Division 1 basketball team as a teenager, it just didn't play out.
On a different note, it's the final nail in the coffin of what was a mouth-watering recruiting class. With Nation's dismissal and Charles Cooke and Taylor Bessick's transfers to Dayton and Iona, respectively, Ron Curry is the only piece that remains. I've beat the drum pretty hard for Matt Brady throughout his tenure at JMU, but it's not hard to imagine that the mismanagement of his star recruiting class -- Nation's three suspensions, a weirdly timed ejection from the team, and two crippling transfer -- could ultimately spell his undoing, despite three 20-win seasons and the first NCAA apperance since '94.
As for Nation, he's now in the same boat as so many other 20-somethings. If you want to finish your degree, you better be able to scrape together an ungodly amount of money. According to statistics provided by JMU, it costs the average out-of-state student $38,750 to attend Madison for one year. That figure includes tuition, food, room & board, and other day-to-day necessities.
JMU Men's Basketball will move on without him. One day after the suspension, the Dukes beat Drexel soundly in Philadelphia.
Final: #JMUDukes 54, Drexel 35 - the lowest point total by a foe in the Matt Brady era at JMU.
— Curt Dudley (@CurtDudley) January 16, 2015
According to one source close to the team, JMU looked "decent" in Philly. Then again, he also added that it wasn't surprising the Dragons lost to a D2 school. So maybe they just sucked a lot more than JMU did. We'll all get a better idea tonight, when JMU hosts Elon. Both schools have identical 10-8 records. The game tips at 8pm.
Shoutout to @tmickofjmu, who is calling the #JMU game tonight instead of @CurtDudley. Make sure to remind everyone which Beatles are dead.
— Chase Kiddy (@ckiddysports) January 17, 2015
But I keep coming back to Andre. As a guy who played sports throughout his childhood, I'm stuck on this concept of veteran leadership. Sophomores were never meant to lead college teams. They're not mature enough, and they're not seasoned enough. While I didn't know him particularly well -- despite all those press releases, I doubt he'd be able to pick me out of a crowd -- it seems clear to anyone around the program that Andre had some juvenile issues. By the sound of things he's said publicly since his dismissal, he recognizes those flaws and accepts them for what they are.
But the graduation of key seniors after Andre's freshman year is a critical moment that no one seems to be talking about. It's the difference between growing up as an only child and being deftly guided by an older brother or sister. For young student-athletes, proper mentorship is key.
Andre didn't get that. He had the program thrust at his feet at 19. And for that, this is a story of pity first, personal failure second. And, hopefully, redemption third.
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