MBB: Old Dominion Athletic Conference

[hasanova]

Final from the Marietta Shrine tournament:  Guilford 82 - Marietta 60

I didn't see the first half, but the Quakers trailed 37-32.   They performed more like a Top 10 team in the second and blitzed the Pioneers, 50-23.   GC improves to 10-1 and MC falls to 4-7.

Henson 23 (7 treys), Sanborn 21/11 (his 9th double-double of the season) and Bonner 15 led the Quakers.  Halter 19 and Owens 12 led the Pioneers.  After being outrebounded by 2 last night versus Ohio Wesleyan, GC eked out a 38-37 margin tonight.  Good to see all the reserves get in the game, with six of them scoring.  Stafford kept his basket per game streak alive and freshman Josh Best got his first 2 points of the season.

Don't panic when you see the d3hoops scoreboard - so far it has the score reversed.

[algernon]

This week's Top 25 came out before the Top 3 all took a dive last night.  I see undefeated RMC is up to #4 and GC stayed unchanged at #6.  Guilford's one 3-point loss at VWC is the difference so far, but the Quakers are playing reasonably well.   Virginia Wesleyan has one loss and stands at #18 while EMU garnered enough votes for what is essentially #33.  Nice!

I've got Randolph-Macon at #1 when the ranking comes out on Tuesday, unless they lose this weekend.

Washington, UW-Whitewater, UW-Stevens Point, Guilford, and St. Thomas will remain as the rest of the Top 6, in one order or another.

[hasanova]

Randolph beat a tough Colby team by 1 in OT to make it to the championship game today at 730

You may be aware of this, but Randolph didn't actually beat Colby College .... a college in Maine that plays against teams such as Amherst, Williams, Bowdoin, and Middlebury in the NESCAC.

Randolph's victory was over Colby-Sawyer, a team from New Hampshire that plays in the Commonwealth Coast Conference.

I'd noticed the distinction as well.  Thanks for putting the clarification in print.  It's sort of like saying you played Randolph when you actually played Randolph-Macon, but it's even more stark because the two "C" schools play in different leagues and the two "R" schools actually both play in the ODAC.  +1

[donho]

 algernon, I think you are a week ahead .?.  It will probably happen, along with that comes the big BULLSEYE!

[hasanova]

Great come-from-behind win for the Yellow Jackets tonight.  Williams is a formidable opponent in a great league!

[rmc1982]

algernon, I think you are a week ahead .?.  It will probably happen, along with that comes the big BULLSEYE!

My sentiments exactly DonHo!!if we come out #1 we probably won't stay long.....I love the way Coach Davis has our kids playing but NO WAY I think we're #1!....the BULLSEYE will loom large for us! I think we're a legitimate top 15 or maybe a top 10 or even a 5....but the mighty ODAC schedule is grueling and tough.......we'll see how good they REALLY are in the next month......,

[donho]

 algernon, sorry I had a brain freeze! I was thinking every two weeks. I don't know why!!

[2RMCFans]

R-MC men don't play this weekend anyway... their next game is at Bridgewater on Mon. the 4th.  So, our position may not shift much in the next poll but if we get a couple ODAC wins in the next 2 weeks, #1 could maybe happen for us.

For us, sitting there down 16 points more than once tonight, we're just glad to still be unbeaten... to heck with the standings.

WAY TO GO JACKETS!

[algernon]

Great come-from-behind win for the Yellow Jackets tonight.  Williams is a formidable opponent in a great league!

It's a great come-from-behind win for the Jackets, for sure.  However, even though Williams has a great record so far this year (now 9-1), the quality of their opponents has been pretty lousy!  They did beat Courtland State by 4 points and almost beat the Yellow Jackets, but there's not much good that can be said about the other 8 teams that they've played.

The Ephs'll eventually get into their NESCAC conference schedule and then they will have a much tougher time!  They've only been, on average, about 5-4 in the NESCAC over the past 5 years (since they won the national championship in 2004).

[algernon]

It's perhaps sad that the Yellow Jackets might have the bulls-eye on them, but it could work out that way.  They'll move ahead of St. Thomas, for sure.  It's possible they could still be #4 behind UW-Whitewater, UW-Stevens Point, and Washington ...... but I think it's also possible the voters could jump them up to #1, over the three teams that have all lost a game.  We'll see on Tuesday the 5th.

[hasanova]

It's perhaps sad that the Yellow Jackets might have the bulls-eye on them, but it could work out that way.  They'll move ahead of St. Thomas, for sure.  It's possible they could still be #4 behind UW-Whitewater, UW-Stevens Point, and Washington ...... but I think it's also possible the voters could jump them up to #1, over the three teams that have all lost a game.  We'll see on Tuesday the 5th.

No offense meant to RMC, but I don't think they're the best team in DIII.  Now, they may be the highest ranked undefeated team, but that's a totally different matter.  The Jackets will probably lose an ODAC game or two and they almost certainly wouldn't go 5-0 if they played a murderer's row of Washington U., UW-SP, UW-W, St. Thomas and Guilford or, for that matter, VWC.  In fact, if there was a round-robin of all of the Top 6 teams, 3-2 would be a good record and 4-1 would probably be the winner!

[rmc6thman]

What a GAME!  Haven't seen Crenshaw rocking like that in a while...  Kudos to Williams for sticking to their game plan for the first 30 minutes of the game, but the Jackets would not give up. 

Some of the best basketball players in DIII were on the court tonight - for them #'s 31, 44, 42 (!) 21 and 14.  For us Danny Jones, Brandon Braxton, Calvin Croskey, Eric Pugh, and Jordan Brown-- with some really clutch blocking in the last few minutes of the game-- really stood out. 

Bottom line, Danny Jones (MVP) played so well at both offense & defense.  We were so proud of the guys to see them so far down for so long (Williams led almost the entire game) and just keep chipping away to get the win by a close 5.

The Jackets are VERY WELL COACHED.  Let's give the staff a hand - you can see the influence of the old and new regimes on this team!  10-0 looks great to us... wonder if we will finally get more than a mention in our local Richmond paper?  Probably not.  Probably would get a lot more press if we had lost. 

GO JACKETS! 

P.S.  Congrats to Guilford, VWC & EMU  in the latest polling.  The ODAC is looking GREAT!

Just checking in from RMC tonight and want to piggy back on 2RMC's comment...

Danny Jones was a flat out BEAST tonight!!!  We have talked in the past about needing a go-to guy for this team, and tonight, he was definitely our guy!  Both ends of the floor, but particularly on O.  He absolutely demanded the ball tonight, and he single handedly kept them in the game in the first half. 

Just needed to get that out of the way, because he was ridiculous, and I like his game the more I see him play.  He is a warrior, and has confidence against anybody he steps on the court against. Most notably, he is coming the bench for the Jackets, and providing a much needed spark in just about every game.

Back to the game...Jackets were  so protective against the 3 in the first, that they did not play any help in the lane, and got burned A LOT in the first half...Williams may not look lie a great team physically, but they have some guys that flat out-played us for 30-35 minutes tonight!  To RMC's credit, they chipped away, little by little, and got a couple of momentum changing calls in the 2nd half, but the bottom line is, they made plays down the stretch, and made FT's when they had to, to win the game. 

My personal thoughts are that RMC showed a toughness and resolve with their backs against the walls, and their key guys made some HUGE plays down the stretch.  Jordan Brown and Kevin Voelkel may not always have pretty lines in the box score, but they are the glue of that team, and the heart and soul of that team's defense.  KV was in foul trouble all night, but made his way onto the floor when they needed stops down the stretch, and JB comes up with an enormous pinned shot on the backboard in the last 3 mins to help put it away!

Much kudos to the coaching staff and to these young men, who fought and stayed tough and stuck to their game plan, even when down 16in the second half!    Crenshaw was rocking tonight, especially for no students being on campus, and I think these guys will learn a lot from this game, and hopefully build on it,  #1 target on their back or not.  ODAC schedules are grueling, and often build championship caliber teams...only time will tell what this Jacket squad is made of, but they are playing at very high level so far!

To continued success in 2010!  GO JACKETS!! 

[hasanova]

While RMC (10-0), GC (10-1), VWC (9-1) and EMU (8-1) are all off to great starts, it's worth mentioning that the 6-2 W&L Generals won again tonight, 76-62, over Ferrum.  Congratulations!  In fact, these five teams are a combined 43-5 with three of the losses coming in the ODAC (GC to VWC, VWC to EMU and W&L to BC).

[2RMCFans]

WOW, 43-5 from 5 ODAC teams!  Thanks for that stat Hasanova; it just shows what everyone here is saying - we have a really strong conference and 2010 will be very tough for all of us.  And, way to go Generals - you've been building that program nicely the past few years and with the academic calibre of your students being at the very top (ODAC and US), obviously W & L is doing a LOT of things right.

Will the Richmond Times-Dispatch ever give the Jackets more than an inch of ink?  They can't even get the scoring right - showing that it was local favorite Adam Desgain with Danny Jones' 27 points last night.   

Come on, T-D sports writers, what's it going to take?  R-MC is arguably the most consistently 'good' basketball program (men & women) in the Richmond region for the past 50+ years!  It's tough to be the only undefeated team around Richmond and see your game reported under local teams that are losing in the "State Men" column every time.  Yesterday, Virginia State (1-8) grabbed the headline. 

Note that D3hoops gave the Jackets the prominent spot in its reporting today... maybe the good old T-D is just trying to keep that target off the Jackets' back as long as possible? 

Rant over!  GO JACKETS!  GO ODAC!

[FanJacket]

The pre-season is over for the ODAC teams.  Now everyone can see what "cream will rise" from the conference.  Hopefully the committee that selects the NCAA tourny teams will recognize the strength of the ODAC...as I will be surprised if anyone goes undefeated in this conference.  Let the games begin #1 or#2 or whatever...just win the last game you play this season...GO JACKETS.