MBB: Old Dominion Athletic Conference

[hasanova]

Haha, I didnt mean to leave your red hot Quakers out of the conversation hasanova. Sorry bout that!! I'd agree with your post though, a loss would be devastating to any teams hopes at this point!! Should be an interesting few weeks!!

I know, I'm just "messin' " with you, bossman.  Actually, I give 5 teams a chance to win the ODAC tournament - VWC, RMC, GC, EMU and HSC.  Sorry, Randolph and W&L ... I just see your teams faltering at the wrong part of the season.  BC, Roanoke, E&H and LC just haven't shown me enough consistent, quality play in the regular season to be considered contenders.  Anyone else have a take on this?

[algernon]

I wonder what's gonna happen in the regional rankings today-Will the EMU's move in?....will R-MC jump ahead of VWC even though they lost twice to the fish?Gonna be interesting to see....

Should be very interesting to see!! What do ya think the odds are of having 3 ODAC teams make the tourney again this year are, assuming Va Wes, RMC, and EMU all finish strong and have a decent showing in the Tourney in Salem???

I think it's above average with Guilford winning the ODAC tournament and VWC and RMC getting Pool bids if they make it to the semifinals.  

All kidding aside, if any team gets a 5th loss before the tournament semifinals, I think they have to win the conference tournament to get in.

There were 4 ODAC teams in the NCAAs last year, with Guilford winning the ODAC Championship and the Automatic Qualifier bid.  Pool C bids went to 3 other teams (and I've included their record at the time of selection): Eastern Mennonite (22-4), which lost their quarterfinal to Bridgewater, Virginia Wesleyan (22-5), which lost their semifinal by 16 points to Guilford, and Randolph-Macon (22-6) which lost the ODAC championship game by 16 points to Guilford.

I think there's definitely a chance of getting 4 teams into the NCAAs again this year.

Here's one scenario:  VWC, RMC, and EMU win out in their last two regular-season games and go into the tournament as the #1, #2, and #3 seeds with records of 22-3, 22-4, and 21-4, respectively.  Guilford goes in as the #4 seed.  HSC goes in as the #5 seed after winning at home against Guilford but losing at Macon (with Randolph collapsing in their final two games and dropping to #6).  #5 HSC defeats #4 Guilford in the quarterfinal.  Then, in the semifinals, #5 HSC defeats #1 VWC, and the Marlins finish their season at 23-4, while #3 EMU defeats #2 RMC, and the Yellow Jackets finish their season at 22-5.  In the ODAC championship game, #5 HSC defeats #3 EMU and the Tigers gain the AQ, while EMU finishes the season with a semifinal revenge victory over RMC and a 23-5 overall record.  VWC (23-4), RMC (22-5), and EMU (23-5) get the ODAC's 2nd, 3rd, and 4th NCAA bids.  

[algernon]

RMC/HSC game is sold out:

http://athletics.rmc.edu/sports/mbkb/2010-11/releases/mbball-hsc-ticket

Yeh, apparently Crenshaw only seats 979 people, so they've made less than 100 tickets available to the Hampden-Sydney players' family and close friends.  No tickets available to students or faculty/staff at HSC.

[stillfamily]

I wonder what's gonna happen in the regional rankings today-Will the EMU's move in?....will R-MC jump ahead of VWC even though they lost twice to the fish?Gonna be interesting to see....

Should be very interesting to see!! What do ya think the odds are of having 3 ODAC teams make the tourney again this year are, assuming Va Wes, RMC, and EMU all finish strong and have a decent showing in the Tourney in Salem???

I think it's above average with Guilford winning the ODAC tournament and VWC and RMC getting Pool bids if they make it to the semifinals.  

All kidding aside, if any team gets a 5th loss before the tournament semifinals, I think they have to win the conference tournament to get in.

There were 4 ODAC teams in the NCAAs last year, after Virginia Wesleyan won the ODAC Championship and the Automatic Qualifier bid.  I think there's still a chance of getting 4 teams into the NCAAs again this year.

Here's one scenario:  VWC, RMC, and EMU win out in their last two regular-season games and go into the tournament as the #1, #2, and #3 seeds with records of 22-3, 22-3, and 21-4, respectively.  Guilford goes in as the #4 seed.  HSC goes in as the #5 seed after winning at home against Guilford but losing at Macon (with Randolph collapsing in their final two games and dropping to #6).  #5 HSC defeats #4 Guilford in the quarterfinal.  Then, in the semifinals, #5 HSC defeats #1 VWC, and the Marlins finish their season at 23-4, while #3 EMU defeats #2 RMC, and the Yellow Jackets finish their season at 23-4.  In the ODAC championship game, #5 HSC defeats #3 EMU and the Tigers gain the AQ, while EMU finishes the season with a semifinal revenge victory over RMC and a 23-5 overall record, good enough for the ODAC's 3rd Pool C bid.  

GC won ODAC Tournament last year, not VWC

[algernon]

Thanks for your correction stillfamily.  I shouldn't rely on my memory alone.  Having gone back to look at the records available online, I see that the ODAC received Pool C bids for teams that had as many as 5 and 6 losses.  I've gone back and changed my original post.

I'm surprised that Randolph-Macon got a bid last year, with a total of 6 losses.  I'm sure that the committee took into consideration that 4 of those 6 losses were to Guilford, EMU, and VWC.  Their receipt of a bid should give hope to any ODAC team in a similar situation this year (6 losses, with as many as 4 to other teams like RMC, EMU, and VWC). 

The Yellow Jackets certainly went far enough in the NCAA tournament to justify their receipt of a bid!!  I would guess that the ODAC's performance last year in the tournament (3 teams in the Elite Eight) will have some affect on the committee's decision-making when they're looking at teams on the bubble.

[stillfamily]

I would hope that the committee will take all that in consideration! With EMU, RMC and VWC returning all of their key components from last year, with EMU going Elite 8 and RMC Final Four! I hope they take all of these things in account! I would argue the ODAC is the best and most competitive league in the nation.

[hsctigers2002]

RMC/HSC game is sold out:

http://athletics.rmc.edu/sports/mbkb/2010-11/releases/mbball-hsc-ticket

Yeh, apparently Crenshaw only seats 979 people, so they've made less than 100 tickets available to the Hampden-Sydney players' family and close friends.  No tickets available to students or faculty/staff at HSC.

Only 979? Macon's D3hoops page has Crenshaw listed with a capacity of of 1680 http://www.d3hoops.com/teams/Randolph-Macon/Men/2010-11/index  I know we let in more than 100 Macon fans, nice to see the favor returned.

[Pat Coleman]

The 1680 was a number from when the fire marshal cracked down on standing room back in the mid-'00s. If the refurb lowered capacity, we haven't caught up. But I've been in the refurb'ed gym and I can't imagine it's that small.

If it's under 1,000, they would have a hard time hosting NCAA Tournament games.

[hsctigers2002]

The 1680 was a number from when the fire marshal cracked down on standing room back in the mid-'00s. If the refurb lowered capacity, we haven't caught up. But I've been in the refurb'ed gym and I can't imagine it's that small.

If it's under 1,000, they would have a hard time hosting NCAA Tournament games.

I've been to their gym several times. They have seating on both sides and one side has the same type and size seating we have - I believe the other side is smaller but still a decent size. One side alone can hold 979 people in Fleet I think. I'll get an official count on the chair back seating when I am down there today for the Guilford game though.

[DeWayneCarter]

I think that all 4 of the top seeds in the ODAC tournament last year were locks to get in as long as they made it to the semi finals, seeing as 3 were ranked in the top 10 and one was ranked in the top 15 (if I am not mistaken).

I think that this year, EMU, VWC, and RMC will get in again if they make it to the conference semi-finals, but I think that EMU would have to make it to the ODAC championship to be a lock. They will probably still get in if they make it to the ODAC semi's and lose, but you want to put yourself in the best position, and I think that the BEST position for EMU would be to make it to the championship game. If an upset were to happen, and EMU ended up facing HSC/GC in the championship game, they would probably have to win it to get in.

All in all, with one week to go in the ODAC season before the tournament, I think the end of the season will be just as exciting as it was last year.

[Pat Coleman]

I don't know where you got your ticket numbers from, algernon, but I've been told they are inaccurate, for what it's worth.

With chairbacks the capacity has been reduced to 1,400 and we will update the site appropriately.

[algernon]

I don't know where you got your ticket numbers from, algernon, but I've been told they are inaccurate, for what it's worth.

With chairbacks the capacity has been reduced to 1,400 and we will update the site appropriately.

I did not get an official number on the number of seats in Crenshaw, but was told by someone in our Athletic Department that we had received fewer than 100 tickets for dispursement to family and friends of the HSC players.  I was pretty taken back (!) that no more tickets were made available to Hampden-Sydney, but was told (apparently, wrongly) that Crenshaw probably didn't have as many as 1200 seats total.  So I checked the RMC statistics for this season and found that the largest attendance listed in Crenshaw, to date, has been a mere 979 people.  (That's the number for both the Emory & Henry and EMU games.)  My assumption was that 979 was probably all that they could hold, but I guess that is wrong.

[Pat Coleman]

Well, for what it's worth, I'm told that Macon gave Sydney the same number of tickets that Sydney gave Macon.

[hsctigers2002]

Well, for what it's worth, I'm told that Macon gave Sydney the same number of tickets that Sydney gave Macon.

Regardless of how many tickets were given to each school, at H-SC we at least made tickets available to be purchased at the gates as well. I obviously have no idea how many were sold, I just got the email where it said they could be bought at the gates. The official attendance was 2,500 because it was standing room only while our seating capacity is 2,000, according to D3hoops.

[hasanova]

I'm surprised that once every few years, Macon and Sydney don't play in a larger arena in Richmond.  If you did, maybe you could give Hope/Calvin a run.    Of course, if you did, one (or both) of you would have to agree to give up your "home" game on campus.