On the come up Analysis | 6 JMU basketball players to look out for next season

By MATTHEW TADDEI The Breeze

The look ahead to next basketball season has begun.

With the March Madness tournaments wrapped up Sunday and Monday, eyes are already set on the 2023-24 basketball season, and it’s no different for JMU.

JMU men’s basketball’s highest-winning season since 2016 ended in the semifinals of the Sun Belt Conference tournament at the hands of South Alabama, 75-66. Meanwhile, JMU women’s basketball won the Sun Belt tournament but went one-and-done in March Madness after an 80-66 loss to Ohio State. Both results leave unfinished business for both teams and set a high bar as they look ahead to next season.

With five players on the men’s team departing and two for the women before the 2023-24 season, here are players to watch to fill those voids.

Men’s basketball to replace graduates

Brycen Blaine, 6-foot-5 sophomore guard

Blaine didn’t see much playing time in his first year at JMU this past season, playing in nine games and tallying 30 total points in 66 minutes.

The guard had his best performance of 2022-23 in the season-opening 123-38 romp of Valley Forge on Nov. 7, when he contributed six points and five assists in 19 minutes.

Coming from Berkmar High School in Virginia, the then-senior led his team to a Region 7A Championship and state title game appearance in the 2021-22 season. Blaine averaged 16 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists during his senior season, achieving Second-Team All-State and First-Team AllRegion honors.

Xavier Brown, 6-foot-2 sophomore guard

Averaging 50.8% from the field and scoring 76 points this year, Brown made his mark as a Duke, holding the sixth-highest field goal percentage on the 2022-2023 team.

He picked up a season-high 17 points, seven assists and four steals in a 100-54 win over Coastal Georgia on Nov. 25.

Both Brown and Blaine bring young potential to the Dukes after four of their teammates — redshirt senior guard Vado Morse, graduate guard Takal Molson, graduate forward Mezie Offurum and graduate forward Alonzo Sule — all finished their time at JMU.

Before JMU, the Williamsburg, Virginia, native made an impact during his senior year at Jamestown High School, where he averaged 28.6 points, 6.7 assists and 6.6 rebounds.

Noah Freidel,

6-foot-4 redshirt senior guard

While racking up 798 minutes played this past season, Freidel produced 287 points and shot 34% from the field. His 3-point abilities didn’t disappear as he made 63 from deep in his first year as a Duke, three more than any of his teammates.

The rising redshirt senior will have plenty of ground to pick up likely take on an increased leadership role with a younger guard group returning.

Before starting his first season at JMU, Freidel made an impact at South Dakota University, averaging 13.6 points and 3.7 rebounds across 63 career games.

Within the first 20 games of the 202122 season, he averaged 20.1 points while also shooting 39.2% from three points with the Jackrabbits.

Potential in women’s rising sophomore and senior classes

Kobe King-Hawea, 6-foot senior guard/forward

Coming off injuries in her 2021-22 season in Texas, King-Hawea wound up in Harrisonburg this past season, where she shot 36.7% from the field and piled on 5.1 points and 3.7 rebounds per game; she didn’t play until January due to NCAA transfer rules after coming from Texas.

In the NCAA Tournament, King-Hawea corralled seven rebounds versus Ohio State while playing 21 minutes of that game. She finished the season with 5.1 points and 3.7 rebounds per game.

The rising senior from Hamilton, New Zealand, started her college basketball career in junior colleges from 2019-21 at both Gillette College and Casper College, both located in Wyoming. She was the No. 1 junior college prospect in the nation in Dan Olson’s Collegiate Girls Basketball Report and the World Exposure Report during her sophomore season at Casper.

While receiving those accolades, she landed at Texas, where she completed her sophomore season. She appeared in five games and averaged four points and 10.6 minutes per game.

Kseniia Kozlova,

6-foot-4 senior center

This season, Kozlova averaged 10.5 points per game on 57% shooting. She had a career-high 24 points in a 68-54 win against Old Dominion on Dec. 31, going 10-for-12 from the field that afternoon.

The center used her height to her advantage, grabbing a team-high 5.6 rebounds per game in 2022-23, the 18th-highest mark in the Sun Belt.

The rising senior from Moscow, Russia, has had plenty of success abroad, playing for the Russian national program and taking part in the 16-U World Championships. Before JMU, she played at Middle Tennessee and sat out the 2021-22 season due to NCAA transfer rules.

As a rising senior along with JMU junior guard Kobe King-Hawea, the two of them will look to take an expanded role with the graduation of guard Caroline Germond and senior guard Kiki Jefferson’s entrance into the transfer portal.

Chloe Sterling, 5-foot-7 sophomore guard

With seven minutes left in JMU’s final home game of the season, the Dukes were losing to Marshall, 60-40. Head coach Sean O’Regan pulled his starters and put in four of his freshmen, one being freshman guard Chloe Sterling.

Despite the Dukes losing 71-58, Sterling helped cut the Herd’s lead by scoring five points with two assists in her seven minutes of play.

Collecting a total of 212 minutes this season, Sterling made appearances on the court during the Sun Belt Conference tournament and in the Dukes’ first-round March Madness loss to Ohio State. This year, she averaged one point and one rebound per game.

Before coming to JMU, Sterling attended Marietta High School, where she won the 2020-21 7A Georgia State Championship — also landing a Second-Team All-State selection that season.

The rising junior guard out of Kennesaw, Georgia, will be someone to keep in the back of your mind heading into 2023-24 as JMU women’s basketball looks to win back-to-back Sun Belt titles.

Kaiden Bridges contributed to this report.

CONTACT Matthew Taddei at taddeimj@dukes. jmu.edu. For more basketball coverage, follow the sports desk on Twitter @TheBreezeSports.