Kentucky is back at Rupp Arena on Friday with a chance to move to 2-0, and James Madison brings a familiar face to Lexington. Preston Spradlin, who is from Pikeville, Kentucky, and once worked in Kentucky Basketball’s program, returns as the Dukes’ coach after taking over in 2024.
That is why James Madison Vs Kentucky is drawing attention now. The Wildcats opened 1-0, but this is more than a routine early-season home date. It is also Kentucky’s first look at a James Madison team projected to finish second in the Sun Belt Conference, and a roster that already showed it can score in volume from deep.
Spradlin’s path back to Kentucky runs through Alice Lloyd College, Kentucky and Morehead State. He played at Alice Lloyd from 2005 to 2009, served as a graduate assistant for Kentucky from 2009 to 2011 and was the school’s director of basketball operations from 2011 to 2014. He then spent two seasons as an assistant at Morehead State before becoming that program’s head coach in 2016, a role he held until 2024, when he moved to James Madison after Mark Byington left for Vanderbilt.
Justin McBride adds another layer. He played for Spradlin last year before transferring to Kentucky, where he now faces the team that helped shape his recent rise. McBride averaged 15.3 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game at James Madison, giving this matchup a small but real connection between the two benches.
James Madison enters at 0-1 after losing to Miami (OH) 86-77 in the MAC-SBC challenge, but that result does not tell the full story. The Dukes led for much of the opener and were given a 79.5% win chance with 14:27 left before the game slipped away. Paul Jones III had 14 points, while K.J. Windham, Adrian Myers and Ace Meeks each scored 11. More telling for Kentucky is the shot profile: James Madison launched 34 three-pointers, made 14 and shot 41% from beyond the arc. That kind of volume can swing a game quickly if a defense loses track of the line.
Kentucky has already shown what a hot perimeter night can look like. Milan Momcilovic made six threes in Tuesday’s win over Manhattan and tied a school record for most made threes in a debut with six. If the Wildcats can keep James Madison from turning the game into a three-point shootout, they should have a clean path to 2-0 before attention shifts to Kansas on November 10 in Chicago.
