MBB: Old Dominion Athletic Conference

[algernon]

If the Marlins win tonight, they will almost certainly host a sectional next Friday and Saturday night.  My bet is that York, Lincoln, and William Paterson will win their games tonight and come to the beach next weekend.

The ODAC has hosted quite a few sectionals over the past 12 years:

1995 - At HSC, with the Tigers defeating CNU but falling to the eventual national champion, Wisconsin - Platteville, in the Elite Eight.

1999 - At HSC, with the Tigers defeating Wooster and John Carroll to get the ticket to Salem.

2003 - At RMC, with both the Yellow Jackets and Tigers in the sectional, the Tigers defeating Illinois Wesleyan and Wisconsin - Oshkosh to return to Salem.

2006 - At VWC???  The Marlins defeating Lincoln and York to become the 3rd ODAC team in the Final Four in only 8 years?

The Marlins certainly have the ability to get there, if they can keep all the pieces of their 23-game win streak together over the next 3 games.  Fingers are crossed.

[Jacketlawyer]

Let's go, Fish!!

[FISHTANKFAN]

 GOOD LUCK tonight to the Marlins...Play your game and you will win, and Congrats to Randolph Macon for a great year. 

[cnufan]

Please tell me that VWC will get the sectional!! Id hate for the NCAA to say, well, based on geography, we will give it to Paterson or York, and only make one team travel. Im not a huge ODAC fan but I will still cheer on VA teams and I hope the Marlins (assuming they win) are rewarded with hosting a sectional, and Lincoln University.

[Mass Marlin]

Is tonight's VWC game available anywhere online?  I've been spoiled by the great broadcast/production during the ODAC tournament.  Thanks

[cnufan]

Follow the scoreboard on d3hoops' scoreboard page as they crew updates the scores every so often.

[algernon]

Marlins win it, 71-61.  All of the other teams are within the 500-mile radius, so geography shouldn't interfere with the "highest seed" (so to speak) getting the sectional.  I can't see any reason the Marlins won't host Lincoln, Wm Paterson, and Widener at the beach.

I assume that the Marlins and Lincoln will play on Friday at 6pm, followed by W. Paterson and Widener at 8pm, with the Elite Eight game on Saturday at 7pm.

[justafan02]

VWC won by a score of 71-63, just a small meaningless correction.  The game was tight pretty much all night and Farmingdale had the lead a majority of the night.  VWC settled for a lot of outside shots early on instead of banging down low with Adair.  They weren't very successful and found themselves down 7 points a few times.

Balenga was big, driving to the basket etc, and Adair was....well Adair!  The game wasn't very pretty for either team, but the Marlins were fortunate to be the team to keep their composure a bit.  Farmingdale seemed to have the game in hand with about 5 minutes left and up 7, but the Marlins got some big stops and took advantage of being in the bonus much of the night.

I was impressed by Farmingdale.  They were big, strong and very athletic.  One of the few teams that were athletic enough to run w/ the Marlin guards.  However, what hurt them was not being in a set offense.  They seemed to play more of a streetball setting and eventually the defensive pressure VWC had got to them in the end.  #15 is a monster for Farmingdale and #4 was lights out shooting the ball early. 

Not a pretty win for VWC, but I'll take it.  They def. battled and "manned" up defensively.  7 or 8 blocked shots tonight.  Go fish!!!

[ncbballfan]

Was at the Fishtank tonight for the game and have a question for the ODAC officials in charge of scheduling.  Since Feb. 4th, the Marlins had only had 4 conference games followed the 3 game ODAC tournament.  Prior to tonight's game, an 11-day lay-off. 

For the first 33:59, the Marlins resembled the team I saw against Trinity the first game of the season.  Almost looked like the first game of the year for them.  At the 6:01 mark they trailed 54-47.  From that point until 58 seconds to go, they reeled off a 17-2 run to take a 64-56 lead and never looked back.

My question is this, why is the tournament so early.  Farmingdale had played at least 4 games since VW had last played.  Same with Macon last night against Wooster.  In games that mean this much,  Wooster and Farmingdale are a lot sharper and have somewhat of an advantage because of actually playing. 

Seems that with a top-notch conference, you don't want your 2 hottest teams to cool off like they had to this year.   

[Pat Coleman]

VWC won by a score of 71-63, just a small meaningless correction. 

It's a shame that VWC stopped doing livestats at 71-61. Usually when livestats stop updating for 25 minutes that's a sign that the game is over.

[jeloesel]

My question is this, why is the tournament so early.  Farmingdale had played at least 4 games since VW had last played.  Same with Macon last night against Wooster.  In games that mean this much,  Wooster and Farmingdale are a lot sharper and have somewhat of an advantage because of actually playing. 

Seems that with a top-notch conference, you don't want your 2 hottest teams to cool off like they had to this year.   

We had that discussion several weeks ago.  It is one of the reasons the ODAC has moved the men's tournament back a week to run the same weekend as the women's tournament. 

GO FISH!

[FISHTANKFAN]

 The Live stats stopped at 13 seconds, the play by play stopped at 6 seconds with the final score correct at 71-63.  I found the play by play easier to watch and at least I knew who had the ball and what was happening .  Much easier to deal with.  The layoff definitely hurt the Marlins, it was as if they were starting a new season.  Eleven days is an eternity.  I am pleased to see the ODAC schedulers will change this.  Lincoln isn't going to be a cakewalk for the Marlins but Macedo will have them ready.  On to the sweet sixteen...GO MARLINS!!!

[hasanova]

Congratulations to the Virginia Wesleyan Marlins!  Quaker fans in NC are rooting for you, too!

[stillfamily]

good win...keep the odac alive....lets go fish.....

[algernon]

It's official:  The Virginia Wesleyan Marlins (26-3) will host Lincoln (26-4), Widener (23-5), and William Paterson (22-7) at the beach this coming Friday and Saturday.  Cool!!

The other sectionals will be hosted by Lawrence (25-0), Wittenberg (27-3), and Amherst (26-2).