MBB: Old Dominion Athletic Conference

[HSCDad]

H-SC falls by about 6 (cannot remember if 6 or 8) - down by 16 midway thru 2nd half but cut it to 3 wihth about a minute to go - nothing would fall at that point - great 3 point shooting by VWC


Number 7  VWC vs Number 8 W&L for ODAC championship - strange event!!!

[sludge]

Wow, how often do a #7 and #8 seed meet in the ODAC final?
//

I can't really pick this one.  My heart leans towards W&L;  my intellect leans towards VWC, especially due to their incredible recent runs in tournaments.

[hasanova]

H-SC falls by about 6 (cannot remember if 6 or 8) - down by 16 midway thru 2nd half but cut it to 3 wihth about a minute to go - nothing would fall at that point - great 3 point shooting by VWC


Number 7  VWC vs Number 8 W&L for ODAC championship - strange event!!!

Strange indeed.  About the only scenario that could have been more unlikely would be if the Wildcats were playing the Hornets!  I hope it's a great game today!

This whole week makes me wonder about the implications of the play-in games.  Which is better, getting six days off or having a game halfway to stay ready?  I'm not using this as an excuse, but it did catch my attention that all three teams that won on Tuesday, won on Friday.

Also, in an eleven-team league, a 7-8 match-up in the finals is not as unlikely as a 7-8 title game in an eight-team league.  W&L and VWC won 6 and 7 ODAC games, respectively, so they weren't last-place teams ... in fact, they were very competitive.  

Watch for the ODAC to reverse course on the play-in games ... just a hunch.  

[baselinejam]

Tomorrow nights Marlins Tigers game is in my mind the championship game, winner of that wins the ODAC and goes dancing to the NCAA's. I just don't see the Generals or the Eagles beating either of those teams in the championship game.  

If, after yesterday, you don't think anybody can beat anybody, you've missed the memo!

He didn't see the Generals beating the Quakers or making the finals. May be time to open his eyes.

[algernon]

Pat's gurus have projected the bracket and it looks very good for Guilford:  http://www.d3hoops.com/salem/09/projected.htm

D3hoops.com is  projecting that left out of the playoffs will be
#22 Randolph-Macon (20-6, including the loss to D-I Richmond) - #4 in South Region

D3hoops.com projection is that the 18 Pool C bids will instead go to:

#24 WPI (20-5) - #1 in Northeast
#17 Rhode Island College (23-5) - #4 in Northeast
Salem State (21-6) - #6 in Northeast
Brandeis (17-8) - #8 in Northeast
#21 Amherst (21-5) - #9 in Northeast
--------------------------------------------
#8 Ithaca (24-2) - #1 in East
St. Lawrence (20-6) - #2 in East
--------------------------------------------
Farmingdale State (24-3) - #2 in Atlantic
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#34 St. Mary's, Maryland (21-5) - #1 in Middle Atlantic
--------------------------------------------
#13 Trinity, Texas (23-4) - #1 in South
#19 Guilford (21-5) - #3 in South
--------------------------------------------
#11 Capital (24-4) - #2 in Great Lakes
#31 Carnegie Mellon (19-6) - #3 in Great Lakes
--------------------------------------------
#20 Elmhurst (20-7) - #3 in Midwest
--------------------------------------------
#3 Puget Sound (24-3) - #2 in West
#7 UW-Whitewater (22-5) - #4 in West
#5 UW-Platteville (22-5) - #5 in West
#9 Buena Vista (23-3) - #6 in West

Someone's going to have to help me understand why Randolph-Macon wouldn't get an NCAA bid BEFORE at least one of the following teams:
   Salem State (21-6) - #6 in Northeast
   Brandeis (17-8) - #8 in Northeast
   #21 Amherst (21-5) - #9 in Northeast
   St. Lawrence (20-6) - #2 in East
   #31 Carnegie Mellon (19-6) - #3 in Great Lakes
   #20 Elmhurst (20-7) - #3 in Midwest

[hasanova]

Someone's going to have to help me understand why Randolph-Macon wouldn't get an NCAA bid BEFORE at least one of the following teams:
   Salem State (21-6) - #6 in Northeast
   Brandeis (17-8) - #8 in Northeast
   #21 Amherst (21-5) - #9 in Northeast
   St. Lawrence (20-6) - #2 in East
   #31 Carnegie Mellon (19-6) - #3 in Great Lakes
   #20 Elmhurst (20-7) - #3 in Midwest

I can't.  I think RMC deserves to go as well.  I guess it's got to do with regional balance, but that whole system's never made a lot of sense to me.

We won't know until Monday morning, but it would certainly appear that Guilford's come-from-behind win over Randolph-Macon in their lone game is looming large.

[hasanova]

Final VWC 66, W&L 62

Congratulations to the Marlins.  With four straight wins and a 17-12 overall record, VWC's going dancing!

Congratulations also to the Generals for a great late-season flourish.  Kudos!

[algernon]

The Virginia Wesleyan Marlins win the 2009 ODAC Championship, 66-62, in an extremely close one that was in play until the final few seconds of the game.

With 20 seconds left, the Generals had possession and were only down by 2 points, but were unable to score .... losing possession with 2.2 seconds left to play.

Foul shooting at the end of the game was the difference, as the Generals hit only 2 of 6 free throws during the final 2 minutes of the game.

[hasanova]

Let it be said:  not one of our 25 poll participants picked either VWC or W&L to win the ODAC title!  Statistically, that's certainly understandable and to everyone's credit, most people (20) voted before Tuesday night and only five placed a vote after play began.

[odacfan1225]

does VWC winning the whole thing help RMC since they lost to the odac champs?

[sludge]

Final VWC 66, W&L 62

Congratulations to the Marlins.  With four straight wins and a 17-12 overall record, VWC's going dancing!

Congratulations also to the Generals for a great late-season flourish.  Kudos!

That puts our performance on a par with Wall Street investment bankers.

Congrats to the bleeding Marlins, again!

And to W&L.

[hasanova]

does VWC winning the whole thing help RMC since they lost to the odac champs?

The committee looks at a lot of things, but I'd have to say probably not.

[HSCfan]

Wow. What a tournament. First time in ODAC history that the #7 and #8 seeds meet in a final. Both teams played well throughout and deserved to be there with their play over the weekend. Some brief thoughts and then I will fade into the sunset...

1) The unbalanced ODAC schedule: I don't think we ended up with true "seeds" in this tournament, which made for some great first round matchups, but also may have doomed a team or two (R-MC).

Is VWC really a No. 7 seed? Probably not, but because they finished that way, R-MC drew them in the first round - tough 2/7 game.

Are Bridgewater and EMU true No. 4 and No. 5 seeds? Maybe not, and I know that EMU, after playing a relatively easy schedule, probably was not thrilled to play its rival in the first round.

With an unbalanced schedule, you don't really get true "seeds," which is a positive because you get some great match ups early in the tournament, but in the end can hurt the teams that finish up top, most notably in this tournament R-MC and Roanoke who drew tough first round draws as high seeds.

2) Did the unbalanced regular season schedule keep R-MC and Guilford out of the tourney?

While I think one should get in, who's to say that if R-MC had four extra conference games (as would be the case if the ODAC played everyone twice; would equal 20 ODAC games) they don't go 23-3? They would not have scheduled Richmond and perhaps the teams they played up north.

Would Guilford had gone 23-3? Not having to travel to Texas-Dallas or whereever they went, but having the chance to get four more wins in conference? Of course, nothing is guaranteed, but the way those two teams were rolling during the conference season, its hard not to think that they may have been locks for an at-large with 22 or 23 wins, maybe even 24 with a balanced schedule of 20 league games.

All in all, the new schedule made for a great tournament, and I cannot complain about the excitement, but I couldn't help but wonder...I know that H-SC lost to Randolph during the regular season (as did W&L and Lynchburg), but what happens if H-SC gets two more wins by playing LC and Randolph one more time instead of just once, and maybe finish No. 5 or No. 4? I use H-SC only because I know more about their schedule, but that could have really changed the way that the tournament went (or maybe it wouldn't have mattered). Just a thought!

[hasanova]

Again, congratulations to the Marlins!

Quakers and Yellow Jackets ... I'm rooting for both of you!

HSCfan - I would love to see a balanced schedule, but I don't think you will now that the league has gone to 11 teams (and the NCAA still imposes a 25-game limit).  Why is DIII different from DI in the number of allowable games? ... but I digress!  Even though the ODAC women play a 20-game ODAC schedule, I just don't think the men's coaches only want five nonconference games.  It appears as though some coaches may like the flexibility of playing some non-traditional opponents ... and may even use it as a recruiting tool.

[DeWayneCarter]

Guilford in, will face Transylvania