MBB: Old Dominion Athletic Conference

[Jeremybozz]

 Article on Eastern Mennonite's game with Lancaster Bible at the earliest possible second. Tip off is at the stroke of midnight on the morning of November 15.
Hopefully, it will go to 4 OT's and be over at 4 AM.
DNR is now subscriber only.
www.dnronline.com/sports_details.php?AID=41561&CHID=3&sub=

[PA Royals Fan]

Link to EMU story about local high school stars now playing at EMU

http://www.whsv.com/sports/headlines/64465652.html

[Titan Q]

So I need to turn in a D3hoops.com Preseason Top 25 ballot Monday.  Is Guilford a huge favorite in the 2010 ODAC race?  Who are the top other contenders?  Who are the potential ODAC Top 25 teams?   

Thanks for your help! 

[hasanova]

So I need to turn in a D3hoops.com Preseason Top 25 ballot Monday.  Is Guilford a huge favorite in the 2010 ODAC race?  Who are the top other contenders?  Who are the potential ODAC Top 25 teams?    

Thanks for your help!  

Hey, Titan Q.  Good luck with your Top 25 ballot.  In the spirit of full disclosure, I'll make sure you know I'm a Guilford grad and a Quaker Club member.  With that said, however, I think the consensus would have to be Guilford as the preseason ODAC favorite.  I'm basing that several items:

- the 2009 regular-season ODAC title
- the 2008-09 record of 26-6
- the 3rd place national finish
- three main players are all returning seniors (Sanborn, Henson and Bonner)
- a good recruiting class

Virginia Wesleyan and Randolph-Macon are contenders, as always, although the Yellow Jackets have a new head coach.  I've heard W&L had a good recruiting class and Eastern Mennonite has made great strides the past few years in both recruiting and level of play.   I predict EMU will finish in the Top 5.  Hampden-Sydney and Roanoke are always a threat.  In my mind, Randolph and Lynchburg are not yet contenders.  Bridgewater and Emory & Henry are teams that can, and do, spring big upsets, but they're probably in the middle to bottom of the pack.  It's not a balanced scheduled again, but I think it'll take 14-2 to win or tie for the ODAC title this season.  

Guilford's probably a Top 5 preseason pick - not #1, but I think the Quakers deserve to be in the 2-4 range.

VWC and RMC may deserve Top 25 preseason consideration, but you have a better feel for the other national teams and their strengths.  If I voted for either of these two, it would probably only be in the 21st to 25th spot to start the season.

I'd appreciate hearing from other ODAC fans as well!

[Jeremybozz]

So I need to turn in a D3hoops.com Preseason Top 25 ballot Monday.  Is Guilford a huge favorite in the 2010 ODAC race?  Who are the top other contenders?  Who are the potential ODAC Top 25 teams?    

Thanks for your help!  

I am a lifetime Bridgewater fan/alum but Eastern Mennonite returns all 5 starters from a 15-11 team plus they have added Luke Holloran who played football at VMI last year as well as Eli Crawford,a (JUCO transfer)Junior Forward, who was a star at RE Lee High in Staunton helping lead them to 2 Va. State titles and losing in the title game as a Senior.(With an over 60 game win streak until that Final game.)
Eastern Mennonite will be a top 2 or 3 ODAC team this year and will be even better in 2010-2011.

[sludge]

Guilford is a favorite in the ODAC, but not necessarily a favorite to win the ODAC tournament!  The ODAC tournament is a tough nasty dog.

[HSC85]

Sludge,

I agree.  There have been several years when the regular season champion did not win the tournament.  Guilford looks extremely strong this season though.

[hasanova]

Guilford's gone 74-16 the past three years, but two of those losses have come in the first round of the ODAC tournament.  Ironically, those were GC's two great finishes in the NCAA tournament - Final 8 in 2007 and 3rd place in 2009.  The year in between, 2008, the Quakers won the ODAC regular-season title and their only ODAC tournament title, but were upset at home in the first round of the NCAA.  Go figure!  

[algernon]

Virginia Wesleyan and Randolph-Macon are contenders, as always, although the Yellow Jackets have a new head coach.  I've heard W&L had a good recruiting class and Eastern Mennonite has made great strides the past few years in both recruiting and level of play.   I predict EMU will finish in the Top 5.  Hampden-Sydney and Roanoke are always a threat.  In my mind, Randolph and Lynchburg are not yet contenders.  Bridgewater and Emory & Henry are teams that can, and do, spring big upsets, but they're probably in the middle to bottom of the pack.  It's not a balanced scheduled again, but I think it'll take 14-2 to win or tie for the ODAC title this season.   

Guilford's probably a Top 5 preseason pick - not #1, but I think the Quakers deserve to be in the 2-4 range.

VWC and RMC may deserve Top 25 preseason consideration, but you have a better feel for the other national teams and their strengths.  If I voted for either of these two, it would probably only be in the 21st to 25th spot to start the season.

I'd appreciate hearing from other ODAC fans as well!

Hasanova ..... I agree with what you say about Guilford ... They're the obvious Preseason #1 in the ODAC and should be among the Top 5 in the country.  Sanborn, Henson, and Bonner are a very, very strong returning group from last year's #3 team.

I'm not clear what will happen with Randolph-Macon .... After a 9-9 season in 2006-07, they've produced a couple of very good seasons, but they haven't made it past the quarterfinals in the ODAC tournament for 3 years in a row.  What they'll bring to the table minus Mike Rhoades and Justin Short is anyone's guess.  They could finish anywhere from 2nd to 7th.

Virginia Wesleyan is young and finished in a 6th-place tie during the regular season last year.  Time will tell whether they can improve upon that.

Roanoke has lost Curtis Peery but still has Page Moir.  They finished 3rd last year and could conceivably play at that level again ... but I'm betting they'll be 5th to 7th.

Bridgewater finished 4th ... and they've lost little of last year's team, so I see them finishing in the upper half of the conference.

EMU should finish in the top half, as they did last year, given the reports that have been posted on this board.

Hampden-Sydney has lost one of their key players, Shane Payne, who needed to be closer to home in Florida for personal reasons.  He will be missed.  Otherwise, the Tigers bring back the core of last year's team, which played well enough to make it to the ODAC semifinals once again.  Turner King should be in the running for Preseason POY and other returnees who will definitely get plenty of playing time include Ben Jessee, Karlis Trops, Lane Medlin, Colin O'Neill and Jonathan Mudd.  The Tigers have, by all reports, an excellent recruiting class .... and I would not be surprised to see a Freshman or two among the starters very early in the season.

Washington and Lee ... and Emory and Henry ... may very well finish about where they did last year.  The Generals have lost Ben Heller, Isaiah Goodman, and Chris McHugh -- 3 of their 5 players who scored 9+ points a game.  Emory and Henry has lost a lot of players, including Hudson, Huckins, Weinz, Christian, and Lee, who were 5 of their top 7 scorers.  They may be fighting to finish above Randolph.

Randolph finished 10th last year and I expect that they'll finish as good or better this year.

Lynchburg is not only "not yet a contender" but I can't imagine that they ever will be ....

[algernon]

My own Preseason Ranking:

1) Guilford
2) Hampden-Sydney
3) Virginia Wesleyan
4) EMU
5) Bridgewater
6) Randolph-Macon
7) Roanoke
8 ) Washington & Lee
9) Randolph
10) Emory & Henry
11) Lynchburg

[hasanova]

My own Preseason Ranking:

1) Guilford
2) Hampden-Sydney
3) Virginia Wesleyan
4) EMU
5) Bridgewater
6) Randolph-Macon
7) Roanoke
8 ) Washington & Lee
9) Randolph
10) Emory & Henry
11) Lynchburg

algernon, thanks for your insight and predictions!  +1

[jdubyadubya]

Here's mine:

1. VWC
2. GC
3. EMU
4. HSC
5. W&L
6. RMC
7. BC
8. RC
9.E&H
10.Randolph College
11.LC

[Mr. Ypsi]

FWIW, Titan Q has posted his pre-season ballot over on the Top 25 Talk thread.  He has GC at #4 and RMC at #11.  (Interesting that the two picks here have them only #6 in their own conference - I wonder what he's seeing [or NOT seeing] that you guys see?)

While he is only 1 of 25 voters, if he has RandyMac that high, they probably will be somewhere in the top 25, so it's looking like the correct guess on the poll at the top of the page is TWO.  (Which is what I voted several weeks ago!)

[Titan Q]

FWIW, Titan Q has posted his pre-season ballot over on the Top 25 Talk thread.  He has GC at #4 and RMC at #11.  (Interesting that the two picks here have them only #6 in their own conference - I wonder what he's seeing [or NOT seeing] that you guys see?)

While he is only 1 of 25 voters, if he has RandyMac that high, they probably will be somewhere in the top 25, so it's looking like the correct guess on the poll at the top of the page is TWO.  (Which is what I voted several weeks ago!)

Yes, tough call...as was this entire Preseason ballot.

I guess I'm looking at a 20-6/14-2 team that returns 3 starters and 7 guys total who averaged 15 minutes or more.  RMC returns 67% of its points, 74% of rebounds, and 65% of assists.  On paper, they look good to me...unfortunately right now, everyone is just "on paper."

The difficult thing about this preseason ballot was that so few teams jumped out as "sure fire top 15" teams.  I found about 9-10 teams I was really sold on, and after that it was a crap shoot.  For example, I have no way to really distinguish RMC from any of the teams I have 11-25...

11 Randolph-Macon
12 Bridgewater State
13 Williams
14 UW-Platteville
15 Amherst
16 UW-Stevens Point
17 Brandeis
18 Oglethorpe
19 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps
20 St. Mary's (Md.)
21 Whitworth
22 Transylvania
23 Carthage
24 Ohio Northern
25 Ohio Wesleyan

If RMC finishes 6th in the ODAC, I'll look real dumb.  (I've looked real dumb before though.)

[78rmc]

Q, I think you're more on target than the ODAC #6 picks.  The Jackets return a very strong group, plus five recruits.  But more importantly, former FOY and ODAC first stringer, David Carlson, is back!