MBB: Old Dominion Athletic Conference

[HSCTiger64]

So how many times in the gym did he practice that shot only for a coach to tell him to stop throwing up stupid full court shots that would never happen in a game?  lol  .......this must of been a long time ago never seen Crenshaw that empty!

[scottiedoug]

Huntingdon became a serious challenge under Kimbrough. I am a Maryville fan who came to dread having to deal with the Hawks, especially at home.

[hasanova]

So how many times in the gym did he practice that shot only for a coach to tell him to stop throwing up stupid full court shots that would never happen in a game?  lol  .......this must of been a long time ago never seen Crenshaw that empty!

I think it was a J-term game in very early January 2005.

[algernon]

A Monday evening game during Macon's January term (1/31/05). On top of that, Guilford was not having a very good season, so there would have been little excitement about the game.  The shot won the game in OT, 91-89.   https://www.rmcathletics.com/sports/mbkb/2004-05/boxscores/20050131_7ks4.xml?view=boxscore

[hasanova]

A Monday evening game during Macon's January term (1/31/05). On top of that, Guilford was not having a very good season, so there would have been little excitement about the game.  The shot won the game in OT, 91-89.   https://www.rmcathletics.com/sports/mbkb/2004-05/boxscores/20050131_7ks4.xml?view=boxscore

Thanks for looking it up.

[tigerFanAlso2]

What are the steps Kimbrough must take to rebuild the HSC program aside from recruiting talent ? How much damage did the past several years cause and how does he address/overcome those issues ?

I've heard from several basketball guys and they are all really impressed with Coach Kimbrough and all are confident HSC will have a competitive program sooner than later.

Exciting times on The Hill and I wish Coach Kimbrough all the luck in the world.

[Greek Tragedy]

I'm trying to get a read on next year. Is it still RMC and everyone else? They seemed to dominate (record-wise) and return their two top players, but do lose 3 starters, if I'm correct. Lynchburg, Guilford, Wash & Lee and Roanoke all lose their top 2, so VWC look likely to improve and make a run at RMC or a Pool C?

[tigerFanAlso2]

I think we need to know something about incoming freshman class before addressing/predicting next year teams of interest/results.

[Greek Tragedy]

I think we need to know something about incoming freshman class before addressing/predicting next year teams of interest/results.

I disagree. More times than not, most freshmen don't have an immediate and substantial effect on their teams during their first year. I still believe you can get an idea of how things could shape up using the current roster. Yes, some schools can get that big-time transfer or coveted freshman, but I don't think it hurts for a "way too early" prediction!

[y_jack_lok]

I'm trying to get a read on next year. Is it still RMC and everyone else? They seemed to dominate (record-wise) and return their two top players, but do lose 3 starters, if I'm correct. Lynchburg, Guilford, Wash & Lee and Roanoke all lose their top 2, so VWC look likely to improve and make a run at RMC or a Pool C?

It wasn't R-MC and everyone else in the season just ended. R-MC did not have a top two players. ODAC POY Buzz Anthony is back, but the rest of the team will overall be less experienced. I think Guilford, which barely lost to national champs UW-Oshkosh in the elite eight, is the team to beat next season.

[thescottharris]

What are the steps Kimbrough must take to rebuild the HSC program aside from recruiting talent ? How much damage did the past several years cause and how does he address/overcome those issues ?

I've heard from several basketball guys and they are all really impressed with Coach Kimbrough and all are confident HSC will have a competitive program sooner than later.

Exciting times on The Hill and I wish Coach Kimbrough all the luck in the world.

Getting the students engaged is going to be a big task. The students are very heavily fairweather, if the team isn't really good, they aren't consistently showing up unless it's a higher quality opponent coming to town or there is a giveaway. And that tells me the students aren't showing up to support Hampden-Sydney, they are showing up to see a premiere program/player or to get something free. Even premiere D1 programs have this problem and students can get tickets for only a few bucks at most of these places, so I know it's not just an H-SC problem. Frankly, I don't really see this being fixable unless they start winning games unless he has such an energetic and captivating personality that it really just resonates and captivates the students and gets them caring again regardless of the on-court product.

Rather it was true/realistic or not, I think a lot of guys felt like they were never given a fair shot while others were a bit alienated because of the such large rotations that Dee ran. Why play the better guys less minutes to give more minutes to guys that need to be riding the bench or should have had a much smaller role? Why are some guys who come in and produce getting sporadic and inconsistent minutes while others who don't get more regular minutes? Why are the starting lineups and rotations different seemingly every single game?

Retention. Had a lot of guys quit/transfer. There are/were a lot of former players on campus that were highly regarded recruits that just quit but elected to stay at H-SC, so we know it wasn't a school-related problem. Sure, every program gets guys that quit and stay, but they had guys quitting seemingly every year that played regularly. Some of the transfers were something they couldn't have done anything about ($$$, lack of campus diversity, or just not being cut out for H-SC academically). But if you put together a roster of all the guys that transferred or quit, there could be a pretty decent squad.

New scheduling philosophy. H-SC never did schedule much in the way of difficult non-conference games, especially at home. Oh sure they had some, but the schedules definitely seemed to be constructed with the intent of getting Ws. Even the better teams had some teams on the schedule and you just go "Why are we even playing this team?" Need to have a more challenging non-conference schedule to prepare for ODAC play, when the team is reasonably competitive, schedule a bunch of gimme games isn't going to help the team improve. Of course, I understood it this year, the team was so bad that if they didn't schedule some joke non-con games the record was going to be even worse.

Develop better mental toughness. Routinely finished well below .500 in road games, also had a woefully terrible record in games decided by 1-3 points. I know winning on the road can be hard, but they finished .500 or better just twice under Dee with just one winning road record.

Also I think just general player development really tailed off the last few years. Perhaps that was the players fault and not the coaches, especially since the talent level of these players as freshmen was certainly a downgrade from the better Vick years. The better players most certainly did improve, but as the talent level dropped off so did the development appear to stagnate. I was never there at practice every day of the week and wasn't around the players when they were working out on their own throughout the year, so perhaps they just weren't putting in the work the others did that improved. It's not like Dee can't develop them, I mean he was the same coach that helped develop guys like Ru White, Harrison George, Khobi Williamson, Mike Murray, Leon Hargrove, etc.

[hasanova]

I'm trying to get a read on next year. Is it still RMC and everyone else? They seemed to dominate (record-wise) and return their two top players, but do lose 3 starters, if I'm correct. Lynchburg, Guilford, Wash & Lee and Roanoke all lose their top 2, so VWC look likely to improve and make a run at RMC or a Pool C?

It wasn't R-MC and everyone else in the season just ended. R-MC did not have a top two players. ODAC POY Buzz Anthony is back, but the rest of the team will overall be less experienced. I think Guilford, which barely lost to national champs UW-Oshkosh in the elite eight, is the team to beat next season.

If you say Guilford lost their top two, then that implies Kyler Gregory was number three.  Gregory was a force all year and definitely got better in late season games.  Ward, Gore and others were a key part of the Quakers' postseason run.  Guilford will be one of the favorites next year and not one of the "everyone else".  Let me remind you, Guilford beat RMC both games played in 2018-2019.  One game was close, but the ODAC tournament win made a statement.

[tigerFanAlso2]

has E&H named a new head coach ?

[Greek Tragedy]

I appreciate the input. The only reason I said, "RMC and everyone else" was solely on the conference records, as I stated earlier. I said, "top two guys" because I was using the top two scorers that those teams were losing. I do know that RMC return their top two scorers, but also lose four of their next five guys. As I said, I appreciate the input and that's what I wanted. I'm not very familiar (obviously) with the ODAC but was impressed with both Guilford and RMC. I'm not sure Guilford would've received a Pool C had they lost in the conference tournament, but I'm leaning towards yes. Thanks again.

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

has E&H named a new head coach ?

I expect they'll announce next week sometime.