Tough to believe that W&L has run the table!!!

I really wish I had gone to see them play at Catholic in my own backyard.  Alas, an opportunity missed.

Go Generals and here's hoping HSC gets a separate bid.

Craziest day in ODAC history!!!??

Here I was -- in a deep depression over the past month due to W&L's inability to win umpteen-million home games -- and then they go out and pull a Lynchburgian upset circa a couple of years ago.

Now my doubting days are over.

Lets go Gennies -- bring home the ODAC!

W&L Generals.... 3 votes on D3Hoops top 25... I almost don't know how to react.  It seems like only yesterday I was constantly announcing my futility over a program that lacked any sense of continuity and identity.  Five years later (and one winless conference season), Coach Hutchinson has 6 seniors and a squad with grit and experience.

Hopefully the Gennies will continue to succeed into the ODAC tourney -- at which point my only regret will be that Greg & Femi (whose talent and dedication were one of the major reasons W&L has gotten to this point) won't be along for the ride.

Exciting!

Huzzah!  My presence in Bast was clearly a good luck charm for W&L, as the Gennies scrapped back to win with an exciting finish!!!  Seems like I should make the trip to D3 games more often!

The real key to the game was Curtis Peery's foul trouble.  When he was on the floor, he seemed to score at will both on the block and with mid-range jumpers from the baseline.  But when he picked up his 4th foul early in the 2nd half, the Maroons suffered a serious scoring drought.  Meanwhile, the Gennies picked away at the lead with some foul shooting (W&L was in the double-bonus with 10 mins left) and some timely scoring.  I also felt like W&L did a good job taking care of the ball when it mattered most.

Finally, Hutch's decision to let Zac White take the ball for the final minute was a solid choice -- he was clearly quicker and could get past or elevate over his man -- and that elevation was the key with his 6 ft semi-hook to seal the game.

BaselineJam -- dont know when the Gennies last beat a ranked team, but certainly not in the past 9 years, since the Roomie first hit the scene.

Finally, it was great to have a postboard celebrity meeting with one Jim Loesel, who managed to pick me out of the crowd.   Thanks Jim for waiting to sneak me through the VIP entrance -- alas I craftily found a back door entrance and missed my big opportunity for a formal D3 celebrity appearance.

How about them Generals?

The Roomie is fresh off from working the scorer's table in the Hoyas' convincing win over 'Cuse tonight -- I highly recommend you catch Sportscenter to check out DaJuan Summers' ridiculous break-away slam in the first half...he just brutally posterized one of the Orange bench players.

Thankfully, I returned home to find out that W&L eeked out a win against those pesky Hornets.  Its good to know Kirk Jones is rounding into form -- he was conspicuously silent in the first chunk of W&L's season -- why, I'm not sure (injury?  I'm not close enough to Lex anymore to get that inside intel).

With Jones on the wing, Goodman/McHugh at the point and the General's balanced frontcourt (White, Goetsch, Heller and Ryan Owens have all contributed with solid points/boards throughout the season...any given night a different guy steps up), I really like what the Generals have been able to do so far.

And lets face it -- to any longtime Gennies fan, a 10-4 start is manna from the heavens, no matter how pretty the games have been.  Here's hoping Hutch and the boys can keep tallying up those W's.

In Roomie news, I'll be making my first (but hopefully not ONLY) ODAC basketball appearance this weekend, as I'm planning to catch the W&L/RC game at Bast.  The way the Maroons are playing, W&L will have their work cut out for them.  But W&L got a huge monkey off their backs last year with their first win in Bast in 5,739 years, so there's no reason not to create a winning streak in Salem.

Lets Go Gennies.

- PS -- is there a charge to see games in Bast?

Thanks for the link Jim -- the Roomie is still following the ODAC and it's always great to get the details of the great conference "institutions" like Coach Moir.

In other news, Roomie now works at Georgetown University, where he helps manage the intramural sports program on campus.  As one perk of the job, I get to work scorer's table positions for a handful of Hoyas home games at the Verizon Center -- including some big games (Syracuse, Louisville, etc.).  While I refuse to make the switch to Hoyas fandom (Lets Go Mountaineers!!!!), I do enjoy watching some high quality hoops.

Speaking of high-quality hoops, I'm liking what I'm seeing from Lexington so far.  There's been some rough spots (22% shooting at Nininger -- OUCH), but I'm really liking the depth that's developing, especially in the front court.  On any given night, between White, Owens, Heller & Goetsch, someone different is stepping up to be the man.  The Gennies will need that kind of balance to replace the likes of Bienemann and Femi.

My ODAC knowledge has dipped over the years so I'm not sure what to expect from the typical ODAC powers over the season, but I think now that the Gennies have tasted their best season in 20 years, they won't be in any hurry to slide back to mediocrity.

Go Generals!

HELLO -- I'm Still Here!

The Roomie may not be living in ODAC country anymore, though he's still close.  And he's excited about the Generals...and who wouldn't be, after their best season in umpteen million years.

For a Roomie update, he works at Georgetown now, and will be working the scorer's table for some Hoyas games at Verizon this year.

But to focus on the topic at hand, lets not forget the experienced troika of Jones, Goodman, and McHugh that the Gennies are offering this year.  Greg is gone, yes.  And Femi -- another proud West Virginian -- has also made his way into the world.  But the Gennies have now tasted some success, and I'm confident that they will taste more this year.

Lets Go Generals!

Good post Algernon.  I'm interested to see how the ODAC recovers from losing some top-shelf talent across the board in this year's grad class.

W&L likely will have to rely more on its guard-play next year, with Goodman and McHugh as the experienced starters.  That being said, the Generals should still be relatively deep in the front-court but will lack a dominant scorer that Bienemann was.  With Zac White, Ryan Owers, and the Bens (Goetsch and Heller), W&L could throw out a variety of options.

I look for Kirk Jones to have a big season from the wing for W&L in '08-'09.

Quote from: MaconMan5000 on March 03, 2008, 06:50:12 PM
Also being ranked #26 in the last d3hoops poll should count for something as well, but it seems to me that the selection committee is biased toward the strength of some conferences.

That may be because, despite the strength of the ODAC, the UAA, NESCAC, and WIAC are all better conferences than the ODAC.  I would put the ODAC 4th in overall conference strength in Division 3.  In fact, D3hoops actually mentioned the emergence of the ODAC as a new D3 "power" conference:

http://www.d3hoops.com/nation/08/jan31.htm

And if you'll notice in today's main stories, UW-Platteville, a WIAC team, also got snubbed on the bubble.  So the Jackets are not alone as a potential tourney team from a good conference that was not ultimately selected.

All that being said, RMC did have a great season, as they typically do.

And before anything can be forgotten, I want to congratulate my Gennies of W&L, for completing their best season since '89-'90 (when the Roomie was just 8 years old).  Go Generals!!!

W&L vs ROANOKE

Seems like a waste for these teams to play eachother in the first-round, since both would've had potential to upset one of this year's ODAC higher powers.  That being said, it should be a great match-up.

Traditionally (the past 20 years), the Maroons have owned the Gennies, but W&L got a huge monkey off their back with their first win in the Bast Center in umpteen-million years.  An overtime win at that.

Can the Gennies dump the Maroons again in a (cough) neutral Salem Civic Center?

I REALLY REALLY like the Gennies draw, to be honest.  As I said previously, I feel W&L matches up with Guilford better than the likes of VaWes or RMC.  I just hope W&L can put first things first and win their first ODAC tourney game in a long time.

For the first time in 2 years, I attended a W&L game yesterday when they hosted Lynchburg.  It wasn't much of a game really -- W&L was firmly in control throughout the contest, and since the W&L students are on break, the atmosphere was tame.  Nonetheless, it was good to see the Gennies play.

I now get a sense of why LC has struggled so much this year.  They get no easy baskets.  They really lack a playmaking guard who can create for other players.  They couldn't post the ball with enough consistency and so most of their touches were on the perimeter.  Routinely, W&L's defense would force the Hornets into a bad shot late in the shot clock.  And even when LC would get in close-range, W&L managed to contest almost every shot or send the Hornets to the line.

Concerning the Generals, W&L had a balanced offensive attack led by Isaiah Goodman.  He seems to have the right saavy, knowing when to pass it off or take it himself into contact.  He did most of his work from the free-throw line.

Bienemann had a sub-par game by his standards, battling foul trouble from the beginning.  He also got called for I believe 4 travels and as a result seemed to be a bit tentative.  Lucky for W&L, the reserve forwards (Heller, Owens, Goetsch) all played very efficiently and got into the action.

Tonight's game against HSC is a big one for ODAC seeding.  Let's go Gennies!!!

Well, W&L has come back down to earth a little bit after the tough weekend road swing.

Of the Generals five remaining games, here are my thoughts:

E&H at home -- should be a W
Lynchburg at home -- ditto
at H-S -- always a tough place to play, but with H-S having a down year, I'm hoping for a W
Guilford at home -- toughest opponent left but I really do think the Gennies can take this one.
at BC -- this one could go either way, hoping for a W

I guess what I'm saying is that I feel all of W&L's remaining games are winnable.  Worst case scenario, W&L takes the E&H and LC games at home and drops the other 3, which would put them at 10-8 in the ODAC (likely 5th/6th seed range).

At any rate, the 8 ODAC wins have already secured this as W&L's best ODAC record in a long long time, since before the Roommie even followed things.

When I surmise W&L's chances in the tourney against the rest of the conference, I can't help but get a feeling that the Generals match up best with the Quakers.  VaWes's athleticism and running style always seems to give W&L a nightmare game.  I haven't followed the Jackets enough to know whats up with them.  The Gennies vs Quakers match-up is a frontcourt-dominated half-court style of play.  I'm looking forward to seeing what W&L does with Guilford in Lexington next week...then we'll see how I feel about this hypothesis.

Having listened to most of the game online, I agree with hasanova's assessment.  W&L could've rolled over and given this one away, especially with Greg fouling out with more than 5 minutes to play.  But the Generals kept scrapping away to keep it close until the very end.

It should be said that Ben Strong's impact goes way beyond his stat line -- it seemed like Generals players were picking up fouls simply by trying to deny him the ball.  It sounded like Greg fouled out on this sort of situation.

Now that W&L has dropped this one, the weekend road trip becomes so much more crucial.  Will the Generals come out at 10-3 in ODAC play or 8-5?  Anything still can happen with many ODAC games left!!!

It's finally starting to dawn on me how BIG Wednesday night's W&L/GC game is!  Here are some thoughts...

-- If W&L goes to Greensboro and wins, they will be on top of the ODAC with a 9-2 record.  Furthermore, a win would ensure them at least a 2-2 mark on their current 4 game road run.

-- W&L is shooting an impressive .501 percent for the season (in no small part due to the efficient scoring of Femi, who is well over 50% for his career).  Meanwhile, the Quakers' FG % defense is best in the ODAC at .361.  W&L scores efficiently, and Guilford stops opponents from scoring....something's gotta give.

-- Among the ODAC road venues, W&L seems to have had more success at Ragan-Brown in recent years than at other gyms (W&L did finally win a game in the Bast Center, the first in 19 years).  Over the past 5 years, the Gennies have won 2 out of 5 at Guilford, and one of those losses was by 1 point.

-- The Greg Bienemann/Ben Strong duel should be worth the price of admission...I've seen both play but not for 2 years now...sad I'm missing out.  It would be nice if Femi replicated the fast-break dunk he had over Ben Strong at the Warner Center when they were both freshman in '04-'05.  That was the sickest W&L basketball memory I can conjure.

Keep the streaking alive Gennies!  Let's go W&L!