MBB: Old Dominion Athletic Conference

[rmc1982]

that's one reason i think this is gonna be one crazy tournament,with conceivably ANYBODY who gets hot at the right time winning it.....there will be upsets,probably more the rule than of the exception,conceivably all over the place.This will be one fun tournament to watch-heck-the rest of the season is gonna be fun-it's still a crap shoot right now who ends up in the top 6....

[algernon]

that's one reason i think this is gonna be one crazy tournament,with conceivably ANYBODY who gets hot at the right time winning it.....there will be upsets,probably more the rule than of the exception,conceivably all over the place.This will be one fun tournament to watch-heck-the rest of the season is gonna be fun-it's still a crap shoot right now who ends up in the top 6....

Any of the top 6 or 7 teams could win the tournament.  However, I'm betting that the ODAC champion will not be EMU, Lynchburg, or Emory & Henry.  Here's my predictions for ODAC season records:

1)  Randolph-Macon    14    4    
     Roanoke               14    4    
3)  Guilford                 13    5    
     Virginia Wesleyan    13    5    
5)  Hampden-Sydney    11    7    
     Washington & Lee    11    7    
7)  Bridgewater             7    11    
8 ) Eastern Mennonite    4    14   
9)  Lynchburg                2    16    
10) Emory & Henry         1     17

The ODAC will be lucky to get 3 teams into the NCAA tournament.  There won't be 4 bids to ODAC teams.  Even with the kind of dogfight I've envisioned .... let's say that Virginia Wesleyan defeats Guilford in the championship game and gets the automatic bid .... then you've got Guilford at 21-7, Roanoke at 21-6, and Randolph-Macon at 21-6.  Is there any possibility that all 3 of these teams would get bids, putting 4 ODAC teams in the tournament?  I'm sure it would be the first time ever that 4 teams from one conference got bids to the NCAA Division III tournament.

[hasanova]

Is it 7 pm yet?    I'm looking forward to a good game tonight when the RC Maroons visit the Quakers.  I will be very surprised if Guilford plays as poorly as they did against Roanoke last Wednesday night.  If any GC students are reading this, get to Ragan-Brown tonight and make some noise!  Go Quakers!

[Pat Coleman]

The WIAC and NJAC have gotten four teams into the tournament on multiple occasions.

[algernon]

The WIAC and NJAC have gotten four teams into the tournament on multiple occasions. 

Thanks, Pat.  I stand corrected.  How many teams go to the tournament this year?  Do you think there are enough bids for the ODAC to conceivably get 4 bids under the hypothetical scenario I've put forth?

[Pat Coleman]

There are still 59 this year. Hard to tell where they'll go right now.

[rmc1982]

We have 3 teams in the top 25 right now and one more just out of it-it's VERY conceivable there'll be 4,depending on how the rest of the season plays out,of course.We've just never had the kind of parity-GOOD parity-that we have right now.It's not like we have a bunch of mediocre teams-we will do well outside the conference,as has been shown.The games R-MC has lost ,for example,have been to John Carroll on the 1st game of the season by 2 and at W&L by 2 in OT in the 3rd game of the year-VWC has done well outside the conference,as have others.We CAN compete nationally as a conference-we just need the chance to show it......and this year we deserve the chance to show it,at least so far....

[algernon]

We have 3 teams in the top 25 right now and one more just out of it-it's VERY conceivable there'll be 4,depending on how the rest of the season plays out,of course.We've just never had the kind of parity-GOOD parity-that we have right now.It's not like we have a bunch of mediocre teams-we will do well outside the conference,as has been shown.The games R-MC has lost ,for example,have been to John Carroll on the 1st game of the season by 2 and at W&L by 2 in OT in the 3rd game of the year-VWC has done well outside the conference,as have others.We CAN compete nationally as a conference-we just need the chance to show it......and this year we deserve the chance to show it,at least so far....

John Caroll is only 8-6 and hasn't done well against top competition (15 point loss to Capital), so RMC didn't lose to a top-notch team there.  RMC did not have a very tough out-of-conference schedule .... the Yellow Jackets' best wins so far have been against Roanoke and Guilford.

And how good is Roanoke?  The Maroons lost to #5 Hope by 13 points.  Roanoke's best wins were over Virginia Wesleyan and Guilford.

While the ODAC's best teams have a great out-of-conference record (RMC, Roanoke, VWC, Guilford, HSC, W&L, and BC are 38-10 against non-ODAC teams), the ODAC has played only 1 game this season against a non-ODAC Top 25 team (Roanoke vs. Hope) and that didn't go tremendously well.  So we will have to wait until the post-season to see how well the ODAC can do against Top 25 competition this year.

Based upon what happened last year, we have good reason to believe the ODAC can do very well against Top 25 caliber teams in the post-season.  When the ODAC went the to NCAAs last year, HSC played until they lost to VWC in the second round, Guilford played until they lost to VWC in the Elite Eight, and VWC played until they lost to Amherst in the national championship game!

[rmc1982]

Might i add to that that while the John Carroll loss wasn't to a top-notch JC team,it was the first game of the year for Mike Rhoades' very young team,and the loss to W&L was in game 3 with the same young team-the day after,however,as is very common with young teams,came the 73-58 pasting of RC in THEIR gym!The win at Guilford was also in an away game[although i don't think the GC students were back in school yet]Now I know RMC starts mostly upperclassmen but 1 is a freshman and Mike Rhoades comes at you in waves with his defense and alot of his subs are freshman -it would have been very easy for them to fold last saturday at HSC when they were way down early but they came back and folded the Tigers in the 2nd half.Between now and saturday i can easily be proven wrong but I think these Jackets are FOR REAL.Plus ,we have Mike Rhoades-who since Tony Shavers left HSC is by far the best coach in the conference-you can say what you want about Dave Macedo but he's just had far superior talent the last few years-the real test for him is when he doesen't.I understand where you're coming from and statistically you're right but I disagree with your logic-there's only been 1 game against non -ODAC top25 talent by one team-that's just not enough to make a real assessment-....

[algernon]

I don't think we disagree, as I didn't suggest that there was enough to make a real assessment .... only that we don't have much data, but certainly some grounds to be hopeful for the ODAC in the postseason.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Two major strikes against the ODAC getting four teams in the tourney:

1.  While top 25 voters will take into consideration when losses occurred and why (very young team, injuries, etc.), officially (at least) the NCAA selection committee couldn't care less.  (e.g., IF Sanborn comes back as 'strong' as ever [sorry, couldn't resist the pun! ], I think Guilford is definitely deserving of a pool C if they don't win the conference tourney, but the selectors are unmoved by such factors.)

2.  While NJAC and WIAC have placed four, I don't think it has been in this millenium (I'm confident someone will correct me if I'm wrong on this).  Recently, three seems the limit (and the WIAC and CCIW, usually the 1 and 2 conferences, have only placed one in some recent years; the NJAC has been slipping recently).

If anyone gets four this year (which I doubt) it will probably be the UAA (since they are in several different regions, and Rochester, Brandeis, and WashU seem like locks unless one or more lays an egg in coming weeks).

[rmc1982]

I agree that it's probably not gonna happen[4 ODAC teams in NCAA's]in reality but if there ever is gonna be a year then this is about as good a chance as it gets.There is a definite,genuine argument for it to happen.Alot will happen in the moving and shaking down in the next week-even tonite with the RC -Guilford game and the RMC-Bridgewater game-the W&L -E&H game could even be interesting-any of these can go either way-That's the great thing about the parity in this league right now.Now the NCAA selection committee may not see things the way we do-like i tell my kids all the time LIFE IS NOT FAIR-but this year,above all years,we deserve it,at least......and Algernon,i'm not trying to step on your toes-we do agree on most things- especially that when you say my Jackets will be 14-4 and tied for 1st on the ODAC !I hope you're right on that one! and i certainly can't spew out statistics like you can,either-I'm learning when to keep my mouth shut....

[mybleedinghands]

can anyone get this webcast of the HSC LC game to work? it works for like 2 seconds then says buffering and never stops buffering...

wish they would offer an audio stream separate from the video, never had a problem witht he audio in the past. 

[mybleedinghands]

any updates on the HSC game? everytime they say the score the stupid feed decides it needs to buffer. i think at one point i was actually able to watch 10 seconds straight at one point without it buffering...

[mybleedinghands]

since when was Tyler Murray out with an injury?

and LC up 46-34 at half (I was finally able to hear the score without it buffering!), and Mason has 18?