MBB: Old Dominion Athletic Conference

[hasanova]

Guilford at E&H has been rescheduled for Monday, February 17 at 7 pm.

[algernon]

Regional rankings are out - ODAC has three teams in the South as of games through Feb. 9:  1. RMC, 3. VWC and 5. Guilford.  Probably subject to change after this week's results.

If the season ended today, RMC and VWC would get Pool C bids.  Guilford might.  However, there are still another 5-7 games left for each of these teams.

Key games for each team to win include Bridgewater @ Guilford this Saturday, Hampden-Sydney at RMC and Guilford at Lynchburg on Wednesday the 19th, and Virginia Wesleyan @ Guilford on Saturday the 22nd.

Each of these teams probably needs to lose no more than 1 of their last 3-4 regular season games to remain in contention for a Pool C, and that is even more certain for Guilford than for RMC or VWC.

[EMUOldTimer]

Article on EMU's Center.  http://www.emuroyals.com/information/royalsnews/2014falk

[Seatfiller]

Article on EMU's Center.  http://www.emuroyals.com/information/royalsnews/2014falk

Good article definitely one of the better big men in the conference.  He's the only big man I've seen this year that could guard Andre Simon without needing constant help.

[HSCDad]

Snowed-in so time to reflect.  What could HSC's season look like with a couple of bounces of the ball differently through out the entire season.  Look at this: for the nine losses
1. Wesley - 56 seconds left behind 74-72
2. Carnigie Mellon: HSC ahead 47-40 with over 8 minutes to go and then behind 47-52 with 5 minutes to go - a 12-0 run by C-M - only big loss of year!!
3. Bridgewater - behind 60-57 with 33 seconds to go
4. Williams - behind 70-68 with 32 seconds to go
5. VWC - HS-C led 73-71 with 1:43 to go
6. Guilford - behind 74-72 with 17 seconds to go
7. Randolph - behind 74-73 with 3.8 seconds to go
8. Lynchburg - H-SC led 84-83 with 32 seconds to go
9. VWC - behind 64-63 with 3 seconds to go

ODAC in Salem is new GOAL!!

[HSCTiger74]

Snowed-in so time to reflect.  What could HSC's season look like with a couple of bounces of the ball differently through out the entire season.  Look at this: for the nine losses
1. Wesley - 56 seconds left behind 74-72
2. Carnigie Mellon: HSC ahead 47-40 with over 8 minutes to go and then behind 47-52 with 5 minutes to go - a 12-0 run by C-M - only big loss of year!!
3. Bridgewater - behind 60-57 with 33 seconds to go
4. Williams - behind 70-68 with 32 seconds to go
5. VWC - HS-C led 73-71 with 1:43 to go
6. Guilford - behind 74-72 with 17 seconds to go
7. Randolph - behind 74-73 with 3.8 seconds to go
8. Lynchburg - H-SC led 84-83 with 32 seconds to go
9. VWC - behind 64-63 with 3 seconds to go

ODAC in Salem is new GOAL!!

If ifs and buts were candies and nuts ...   

[2RMCFans]

^^ we could say the very same thing about the Jackets' 5 losses; so close yet so far.

Good luck to all around the ODAC today--the weather has released its death grip on us so that alone is cause for celebration.

GO JACKETS!!!! 

[algernon]

Snowed-in so time to reflect.  What could HSC's season look like with a couple of bounces of the ball differently through out the entire season.  Look at this: for the nine losses
1. Wesley - 56 seconds left behind 74-72
2. Carnigie Mellon: HSC ahead 47-40 with over 8 minutes to go and then behind 47-52 with 5 minutes to go - a 12-0 run by C-M - only big loss of year!!
3. Bridgewater - behind 60-57 with 33 seconds to go
4. Williams - behind 70-68 with 32 seconds to go
5. VWC - HS-C led 73-71 with 1:43 to go
6. Guilford - behind 74-72 with 17 seconds to go
7. Randolph - behind 74-73 with 3.8 seconds to go
8. Lynchburg - H-SC led 84-83 with 32 seconds to go
9. VWC - behind 64-63 with 3 seconds to go

ODAC in Salem is new GOAL!!

Another take on HSC's 10 losses:
1. Wesley - HSC winning the game with 6 minutes to go.
2. Carnigie Mellon: HSC winning with 6:30 to go.
3. Bridgewater - HSC was behind the last 30 minutes of the game.
4. Williams - HSC winning with 35 seconds to go.
5. VWC - HSC winning with 1:30 to go.
6. Guilford - HSC winning with 3:00 to go.
7. Randolph - HSC tied with 1 minute to go.
8. Randolph-Macon - HSC was behind the last 34 minutes of the game.
9. Lynchburg - HSC winning with 7 seconds to go
10. VWC - HSC winning with 4:45 to go.

[HSCDad]

H-SC up by 10 over W&L at half  I missed (10 losses)  including the RMC game where H-SC was not close at the end - 3 points down with 3 minutes to go but lost by 7 or so.

Algernon's analysis is interesting also as H-SC was winning 8 of the 10 games  in the closing minutes only to lose each.  Too anxious - too careful -     H-SC won one game early in the season when Lewis made 2  3 pointers in last 5 seconds to win by one - did not realize at the time, must have been the start of close ones for H-SC

[Seatfiller]

Big win for Roanoke over VWC 84-77, I can't remember the last time we've beaten VWC but it's been at least 5 years!

In other news around the ODAC:

Bridgewater beats Guilford 71-62

W and L loses to HSC 57-69

[HSCDad]

What a mixed up day  -  ODAC at Salem will be dog fight.

[hasanova]

Kudos to BC, they outplayed Guilford today in Greensboro.  Very disappointed with GC's shooting and turnovers today.  We tied it twice, but were never in the lead.  I personally think missing a midweek game hurt us - we looked rusty.

[algernon]

What a mixed up day  -  ODAC at Salem will be dog fight.

Yes, the Tigers could even be seeded anywhere from 5th to 9th, depending on what they do in the next week (as compared to EMU, Randolph, Bridgewater, and Roanoke).  If the season ended this moment, we'd have the following play-in games on Tuesday the 25th:
- #12 Emory and Henry at #5 EMU
- #11 W&L at #6 Randolph
- #10 Shenandoah at #7 Bridgewater
- #9 Roanoke at #8 Hampden-Sydney

The Tigers need to get the win at Macon on Wednesday (where they won by 19 last year) and then finish with a win at Roanoke (avoiding the Marlins' fate there)! 

With 2 more wins to finish the season and a 9-7 record, the Tigers would then be seeded 5th to 7th, and would be ready to get a win in the play-in game before hopefully going on to win in Salem against teams that they've played close this season but lost to, like Guilford (72-74 in Guilford), VWC (73-79, 63-66), and RMC (60-69 and ?-? this coming Wednesday).  Go Tigers!

[algernon]

Given the Guilford and VWC losses today, I'd say that the loser of next Saturday's VWC - Guilford game will almost certainly have lost the possibility of a Pool C bid.  The winner just might retain the chance of a Pool C (especially if the winner is VWC), but it will be a real bubble situation for even the winner, determined by how many high-ranked teams lose their conference tournaments and get thrown into Pool C contention. 

The big problem for both teams, in addition to 7 losses on their record (following a tournament loss) is the lack of impressive non-conference wins.  VWC and Guilford played pretty weak non-conference games .... VWC has the home win over Emory, but that's it.  In-conference, VWC has a solid win over Guilford and Guilford has a win over RMC (but later got slaughtered by the Yellow Jackets).  Both teams must know that their chance of a Pool C bid has become rather questionable and that winning the tournament is the only sure-fire way to get into the NCAAs. 

[hscathletics]

While the ODAC may not have several Top 25 ranked teams like in recent years, the ODAC is arguably as strong as it has ever been. I don't know if you have noticed, but we are looking at 10 teams with a legitimate chance to finish at a .500 or better record this year. 10 out of 12 teams. Without looking at previous year's standings, my educated guess is that the ODAC has never had 80% or more of its members finish with a .500 or better record in the same season.