MBB: Old Dominion Athletic Conference

[donho]

W+L beats EMU 93-92

[algernon]

VWC was ahead by only 3 points with 3:30 to play but pulled away to defeat HSC, 69-61.  Too many turnovers by the Tigers (19).  Harrison George had 27 points and 8 rebounds; Ed Roberts had 16 points for the Marlins.

W&L pulls off the upset and hands EMU their 2nd loss of the season, 93-92.  The Generals are now 10-2 on the season, with their first victory over a nationally-ranked ODAC opponent.  They travel to Virginia Beach to play the Marlins on Saturday and that should be interesting.

Bridgewater surprises me and defeats Lynchburg, 64-62.

Randolph-Macon pulls away at the end and defeats Randolph, 71-64.

Guilford does what's expected and defeats Emory & Henry, 70-58.

[jknezek]

Generals squeak one out despite a massive number of turnovers. Still, I'll take the win. Next up... the big attempt at a road fish fry... W&L has two losses each by 2 points. I'll be interested to see how they hold up in Virginia Beach.

[Jacketlawyer]

Jackets survive Randolph in a very hot, and humid gym.  Davis made a ton of substitutions; Randolph very few.  In fact, it seemed to me that Randolph played maybe seven players the whole night.  It started to show towards the middle of the second half.

It might just be me, but it appeared R-M was playing not to lose, instead of to win.  I know it's tough to be up for every team every night, but the Wildcats were very scrappy, and played hard all night.  We showed a few minutes of inspired play in the second half, but it appeared to me that the only reason why we won, was that Randolph played maybe a degree or so worse than we.  I'd like to see a turnover count for the game.

But still, a win is a win! GO JACKETS!!

[hasanova]

As Algernon mentioned, the Quakers downed E&H, 70-58, tonight in Greensboro.  It was still a fairly tight game at the half with GC leading 32-29, but an 18-4 run over the first 10:12 of the second half probably doomed the Wasps.  Guilford built the lead to 59-38, but, to their credit, E&H scrapped back a couple of times to within nine.

Josh Pittman continues to lead the Quakers with 23 tonight - he has 78 points in GC's last three games, all victories.  Tobi Akinsola has also added 46 points over the same span.  Tobi plays much bigger than his height would suggest - what a leaper!  I'm confident he had at least three traditional 3-point plays tonight.

Guilford (8-5, 2-2) entertains Lynchburg Saturday at 3.  E&H falls to 0-4 in the ODAC.

[WooHoopsntrack01]

Generals squeak one out despite a massive number of turnovers. Still, I'll take the win. Next up... the big attempt at a road fish fry... W&L has two losses each by 2 points. I'll be interested to see how they hold up in Virginia Beach.

Just saw this!  Wow....what a win.  This is very huge and should catapult them into honorable mention so long as at he very least they keep it close with VWC.  An upset saturday could really, really, really be huge for the program. I can only imagine the players' confidence level right now.  Protecting home court too.  Big.

Interested to hear what others have to say.  What I saw from the minutes, it was the usual in terms of substitutions, with nobody playing over 26-28 minutes and most everyone playing over 10.  Sounds like something is working.

[FISHTANKFAN]

 The Marlins have a GIANT target on their back.  So far, they have responded with 13 wins, but as the season progresses it will be up to the Marlins to play harder, smarter, and make fewer mistakes than their opponents.  Still  a long way to go.  Should be a great game with Washington & Lee on saturday.    I am hoping that W&L "fear the fish" enough for a Marlins win, but we shall see.  The ODAC is one tough conference and no game is a "gimme". 

[hasanova]

The Marlins have a GIANT target on their back.  So far, they have responded with 13 wins, but as the season progresses it will be up to the Marlins to play harder, smarter, and make fewer mistakes than their opponents.  Still  a long way to go.  Should be a great game with Washington & Lee on saturday.    I am hoping that W&L "fear the fish" enough for a Marlins win, but we shall see.  The ODAC is one tough conference and no game is a "gimme".  

It doesn't really matter that Virginia Wesleyan is 13-0 - the Marlins always have a target on their back.  There are teams to whom you dislike losing and then there are teams to whom you really dislike losing - VWC is the latter.  

At any rate, congratulations to VWC.  At 13-0, it sounds as though things are going swimmingly for the Marlins!

[hsctigers2002]

I'm with "Tiny Bubbles" - the coach or supporters can sell the 3 minute sub as new wave. The overwhelming conventional wisdom tells me that the coach doesn't have confidence in the player he yanks.  If the player is out of shape or  consistently making bad decisions then he doesn't deserve to start; or, the coach enjoys head games. While I'm commenting about RMC program. I'll take a shot at my Generals too. We have 10 players averaging double digit minutes. Most of us would think we're blowing people out, to spread playing time around like that. We're only 6 pts better per game. I wish we'd settle on our top 8 and develop some consistency. Our top 2 guys are on the bench for 13/14 minutes a game after that only 2 other guys play slightly more than a half. Hard to get rhythm or momentum working for you there.

Still wish you'd settle in on only eight players? This strategy seemed to beat EMU, who, if I recall correctly, was picked to win the ODAC. Me thinks you shouldn't complain when your team is coached by a damn good coach who knows what he is doing and is guiding his team to what looks like could be their best season in quite a long time...

[DollFin]

I'm new to posting--have lurked for quite a while.  Big Marlin fan, work at VWC.  Don't really understand why the Marlins "always have a target on their back" and we're the team "to whom you really dislike losing."  Besides the fact that we won a national championship, we have our ups and downs like everyone.  Macedo is a terrific human being.  He likes to work with local players who are quick, scrappy, and talented; to add discipline; and to focus their talent and energy into a good team. 

This isn't an invitation to post trash talk, but I don't get it.  Calm and thoughtful explanations welcome (wit also appreciated--my post isn't meant to shut that down!).

All that said, we will have our hands full today with W & L.  We're looking stronger as the season goes on, and guys are stepping in like Chris Moore did against HSC on Wednesday.  But our foul shooting is weak and we can get sloppy when the pace picks up.  Anyhow, go Fish!

The Marlins have a GIANT target on their back.  So far, they have responded with 13 wins, but as the season progresses it will be up to the Marlins to play harder, smarter, and make fewer mistakes than their opponents.  Still  a long way to go.  Should be a great game with Washington & Lee on saturday.    I am hoping that W&L "fear the fish" enough for a Marlins win, but we shall see.  The ODAC is one tough conference and no game is a "gimme".  

It doesn't really matter that Virginia Wesleyan is 13-0 - the Marlins always have a target on their back.  There are teams to whom you dislike losing and then there are teams to whom you really dislike losing - VWC is the latter.  

At any rate, congratulations to VWC.  At 13-0, it sounds as though things are going swimmingly for the Marlins!

[hasanova]

Perhaps it's partly because many teams start with players for whom discipline is already a given.  There are surely offenders on all teams, of course, but opposing fans do not like it when players posture to the crowd after made baskets (Ton Ton comes to mind).  Not shaking hands after the national championship game with Amherst also hurt the entire league.

We're both seeing the same things, it's our interpretations that are different.  Hermeneutics, I think.

[Pat Coleman]

hasanova: As an ODAC outsider who watched that national championship game, I can say that that incident had no impact on how I view the league. That might be a little overblown. If Macedo had sent his GA to do the halftime interview on NCAA.com video, though, I might feel differently.

[hasanova]

hasanova: As an ODAC outsider who watched that national championship game, I can say that that incident had no impact on how I view the league. That might be a little overblown. If Macedo had sent his GA to do the halftime interview on NCAA.com video, though, I might feel differently.

Fair enough.  I wasn't at that game, Pat, and I certainly respect your opinion.   I have, however, attended a lot of ODAC games in general and games with VWC in particular and I think I can say, albeit from a slightly skewed point of view, that VWC can evoke the ire of the other team's fans as well or better that any other team in the league.   There are certainly other ODAC rivalries that foster a lot of emotions (RMC/HSC, BC/EMU and so forth), but VWC is in that mix.

[HSCDad]

H-SC 45 - RC 39  Jesse having a good game at 13 - George at 11 - H-SC turnovers still up at 12 - 70% from 3 point range

[dascrazy]

W&L-25, VWC-28 at halftime. Generals already off to a great start to the year, a win @ Va Wes should put them somewhere near the Top 20. Lets see if they can pull it out. Lets go Generals!