James Madison damer

James Madison's women's basketball program is among the oldest in the nation, being founded in 1920. The program's first coach, Althea Loose Johnston, coached the team to a 106-33-5 record during her 22 year career. Through the end of the 2022–23 season, the Dukes have compiled a record of 1200-585 (.672), the fourth most wins among all Division I programs and only one of four with over 1,200 wins.

In the 1986 and 1991 NCAA women's tournaments, they upset the #1 seed (Virginia in the former and Penn State in the latter) while ranked #8 (the lowest seed at the time), being the first team to ever do that on the women's side (the size of the tournament for the former was 40 while the latter had 48 teams). They are one of only three schools to upset a #1 seed while ranked as the lowest seed (the other being Southwest Missouri State in 1992 and Harvard in 1998). They have made the NCAA Tournament in 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1996, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2023. They have made the WNIT in 2001, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2017, 2018, and 2019, finishing as runner-up in 2012.