MBB: Old Dominion Athletic Conference

[algernon]

The Tigers should be spectacular this year. With the Tigers and Marlins leading the way, plus very solid teams in Ashland, Greensboro, and Harrisonburg, the ODAC is going to again be a killer conference!

[hasanova]

I have no other facts, but evidently Tyler Harris of Dreher HS (Columbia, SC area) will be a freshman on Guilford's MBB team this fall.

I figure it will be you guys and the Tigers this year.......but don't count us out......The 'ol ball coach may have a few tricks up his sleeve for an upset or two this year for us.......perhaps even the Mighty Marlins......

I think the Quakers have reloaded with a vengeance this season.  Expect to see us at or near the top of the ODAC again.   

To your point, I always view RMC as one of our tougher games - and previous scores back me up!

Marlins and Tigers and Jackets ... oh my! ... and Wildcats and Generals and Maroons and Hornets and Wasps and Royals and Eagles ... wow, what a conference!

[jdubyadubya]

Yeah, no kidding about ODAC being a power conference. There are a whole bunch of really good teams this year and I'm expecting a lot of games to be decided by one or two points and a lot of OT. The season can't start soon enough for me. Update on old #44....working his way up in the ranks at Wells Fargo and doing a little coaching this year for his alma mater John Handley High School working with the big men.

[hasanova]

Yeah, no kidding about ODAC being a power conference. There are a whole bunch of really good teams this year and I'm expecting a lot of games to be decided by one or two points and a lot of OT. The season can't start soon enough for me. Update on old #44....working his way up in the ranks at Wells Fargo and doing a little coaching this year for his alma mater John Handley High School working with the big men.

Great to hear junior is doing well! 

[DeWayneCarter]

The Sporting News Magazine has Virginia Wesleyan ranked #1 to start the season off. The target will be square on their backs now..... this season will be a great one in the ODAC

[Pat Coleman]

I don't think The Sporting News has a very large target to give out.

[toad22]

I don't know if the Marlins are really the best team in the country this year, but I do know that most observers of Williams basketball feel that they were the best team Williams played last year.

[hasanova]

The Sporting News Magazine has Virginia Wesleyan ranked #1 to start the season off. The target will be square on their backs now..... this season will be a great one in the ODAC

The target is always squarely on VWC's back.  Everyone in the ODAC wants to beat the Marlins.

[jdubyadubya]

Nova et.al. - Boy, isn't that the truth! Everyone always wants a piece of the Fish. Good news: Macedo has strengthened his coaching corp with the addition of Ben Moore, Warwick's famed coach of 24 years, and TonTon's mentor. Should be a great year for the Marlins. 

[hasanova]

Nova et.al. - Boy, isn't that the truth! Everyone always wants a piece of the Fish. Good news: Macedo has strengthened his coaching corp with the addition of Ben Moore, Warwick's famed coach of 24 years, and TonTon's mentor. Should be a great year for the Marlins. 

I think over the past six years or so, VWC versus Guilford has been one of the more anticipated match-ups in the ODAC ... and I see no reason to doubt that this year as well.  Of course, from each school's perspective and depending on the season, so have games versus most ODAC schools, ecpecially HSC and RMC and, more recently, EMU, W&L and Randolph.  "On any given night" as the saying goes, but I think most ODAC observers would say Roanoke, Lynchburg, Bridgewater and E&H are still trying to build (or rebuild) their programs.

[narch]

I don't think The Sporting News has a very large target to give out.

pat, with all due respect (and at the risk of making you mad), TSN reaches a much larger overall audience than the entire d3sports network - while i agree that their opinion of d3 basketball doesn't carry the kind of weight that d3hoops does within this community, the general public recognizes TSN

a quick look at alexa rankings shows that TSN is the #653 ranked US website, while alexa ranks d3football.com (the highest ranked of the d3sports network) at #49,241...that's a BIG disparity

i understand that your opinion might be a bit biased (as it should be), but i'm not sure it's based on anything other than personal bias  - respectfully, i disagree with your assesment of TSN and its target...any time a team is ranked #1 in the country by a publication which has been in circulation as long as TSN has, it is a good thing for the program, and puts a target on the back...

[Pat Coleman]

I don't think The Sporting News has a very large target to give out.

pat, with all due respect (and at the risk of making you mad), TSN reaches a much larger overall audience than the entire d3sports network - while i agree that their opinion of d3 basketball doesn't carry the kind of weight that d3hoops does within this community, the general public recognizes TSN

a quick look at alexa rankings shows that TSN is the #653 ranked US website, while alexa ranks d3football.com (the highest ranked of the d3sports network) at #49,241...that's a BIG disparity

i understand that your opinion might be a bit biased (as it should be), but i'm not sure it's based on anything other than personal bias  - respectfully, i disagree with your assesment of TSN and its target...any time a team is ranked #1 in the country by a publication which has been in circulation as long as TSN has, it is a good thing for the program, and puts a target on the back...

Narch,

That's true, it does have a wide, wide reach among total people, but whose poll do Division III basketball fans pay attention to? Not theirs -- heck, it disappears after a couple weeks. It wouldn't even make a sound if the few schools listed in it didn't promote it.

And honestly, is the TSN ranking on the TSN front page? There's such a minuscule amount of TSN traffic that would ever see that. The Alexa rankings (flawed to begin with because you have to have the Alexa toolbar installed to register traffic) are not particularly relevant.

[jdubyadubya]

Go to www.vwc.edu and follow links to article on VWC's preseason #1 ranking. Should be an exciting season.

[hsctigers2002]

Go to www.vwc.edu and follow links to article on VWC's preseason #1 ranking. Should be an exciting season.

Does anyone actually have a link to the full poll and their preseason all-american teams? I went to the TSN website and couldn't find a thing.

[Snowqn555]

 I have been reading this board for nearly 10 years now and although I rarely post, I must say that the Marlins have always seemed to have a target on their back, regardless of their ranking by anyone. National recognition is not new to the Marlins. They have a quality program, are well coached and if someone other than D3hoops sees fit to rank them at #1, it is still an honor and a credit to the school, basketball staff and players. Because of their expertise and knowledge of basketball, any team ranked by D3hoops in the top ten or even the top twenty five, will automatically be targeted. How high D3hoops puts the Marlins will not make much of a difference to them. The size of the target is immaterial, how they respond to the target is what counts. They are in one of the toughest conferences in the country and every game in the ODAC is important. The ODAC is no cakewalk.