MBB: Old Dominion Athletic Conference

[narch]

Look, VWC has a very fine team and they are certainly the odds on favorite to win the ODAC.  No one is disputing that point.  Personally, I was quite disappointed with Guilford's poor performance on Sunday.  Perhaps the Marlins are that good, but don't be fooled into thinking the Quakers are that bad.  They aren't.  It was, as they say, one of those days.  We'll be back .... 

as an outsider who has seen both teams play, i'll say this...if vwc is playing "their game", i don't think guilford can beat them...they just don't have the athletes - i think it's going to take an off night by vwc for any odac team to beat them

[hasanova]

Just off the top of my head I can think of 3 D3 Quakers: Earlham, Wilmington, and Guilford.

David, FYI, here's J. Smargon's (the author of the nickname website) response when I asked him if Earlham shouldn't be listed under Quakers: "I have Earlham College listed as the Hustlin' Quakers."  Evidently, Mr. Smargon is a doctoral student at the University of New Hampshire. 

[hasanova]

Look, VWC has a very fine team and they are certainly the odds on favorite to win the ODAC.  No one is disputing that point.  Personally, I was quite disappointed with Guilford's poor performance on Sunday.  Perhaps the Marlins are that good, but don't be fooled into thinking the Quakers are that bad.  They aren't.  It was, as they say, one of those days.  We'll be back .... 

as an outsider who has seen both teams play, i'll say this...if vwc is playing "their game", i don't think guilford can beat them...they just don't have the athletes - i think it's going to take an off night by vwc for any odac team to beat them

Fair enough, narch.  I respect your opinion.   Guilford may lose again to VWC on January 28, but I bet the game will have a different look than the one on the 7th.

The new d3hoops.com Top 25 poll is out.  VWC is up to 7th and Guilford has 54 points (26th).  If Guilford had played a better game against the Marlins, I think the Quakers would have broken through the bubble, but this is still up from the 34 points (28th) last week.  Averett dropped out of the Top 25, but got 42 points for 27th.  In the 4 weeks Guilford has gotten votes, they've progressed from 3 to 14 to 34 to 54.

[jdubyadubya]

Jacketlawyer gets my karma for today. He summed it up perfectly -- watching R-M basketball is fun and even the best teams have their ups and downs. Yes, DIII basketball is FUN and we enjoyed it for four years while Peter played for the Marlins. It gets in your blood and the separation is hard. I bet Steely can identify with what I'm saying. Now we enjoy it from afar but it's still fun being a part of Pat's board who allows us to carry on the way we do! And, it's fun to try and make sense out of everyones' formulae for winning, POY, FOY, etc. Win or lose, everyone has their favorite team and stands behind it. Let's keep the fun in DIII basketball.

[jdubyadubya]

uh oh! Somebody tell Stillfamily to move the pick em's ASAP before someone finds out

[hasanova]

uh oh! Somebody tell Stillfamily to move the pick em's ASAP before someone finds out

Just in case stillfamily doesn't check in every day, I copied and pasted them to the pick'em site so they'll count. 

[billy_pilgrim]

David, FYI, here's J. Smargon's (the author of the nickname website) response when I asked him if Earlham shouldn't be listed under Quakers: "I have Earlham College listed as the Hustlin' Quakers."  Evidently, Mr. Smargon is a doctoral student at the University of New Hampshire. 

Not that this means a whole lot, but Earlham may still be listed as the Hustlin' Quakers, but no athletic department figure has called the Quakers that in years (or at least my years as an Earlham athlete and student 2002-2005). However, on some road trips Earlham would be listed as the Hustlin' Quakers in programs, so I wonder what outdated list of collegiate nicknames Mr. Smargon is using. But, again, for clarification, Earlham's athletic Web site only refers to the team as the Quakers and that is also what uniforms, et al. have also said for this Earlham alum's recent memory.

[jdubyadubya]

Nova - Stillfamily owes you BIG time!

[Jacketlawyer]

Jacketlawyer gets my karma for today. He summed it up perfectly -- watching R-M basketball is fun and even the best teams have their ups and downs. 

Thanks for the good word and the karma, JWW.  I think the Marlins have done a lot for the ODAC since they joined 16 years ago.  And as of late, they've clearly done a lot for ODAC basketball, in addition to being fun to watch.  The R-MC/VWC ODAC title game last year was one of the best college games I've seen on any level.

Now having said that, I've got to pull against you guys in conference play this year.   This is for the same reason why I used to pull against UNC and The Dean years ago in the ACC.  They were so good and dominant, you had to.

But I'll root for them to defend their NCAA title this year as I'd pull for any other ODAC team.  Make no mistake about it. 8)

[seminoletiger]

Anyone have any idea of the ticket situation for the RMC-HSC game this Saturday?  Over the past few years, tickets have been rather limited.  I'm guessing because both teams are a little down that walk-ups could get tickets right before the game, but would appreciate any input from someone in the know.  Thanks.

[hasanova]

David, FYI, here's J. Smargon's (the author of the nickname website) response when I asked him if Earlham shouldn't be listed under Quakers: "I have Earlham College listed as the Hustlin' Quakers."  Evidently, Mr. Smargon is a doctoral student at the University of New Hampshire. 

Not that this means a whole lot, but Earlham may still be listed as the Hustlin' Quakers, but no athletic department figure has called the Quakers that in years (or at least my years as an Earlham athlete and student 2002-2005). However, on some road trips Earlham would be listed as the Hustlin' Quakers in programs, so I wonder what outdated list of collegiate nicknames Mr. Smargon is using. But, again, for clarification, Earlham's athletic Web site only refers to the team as the Quakers and that is also what uniforms, et al. have also said for this Earlham alum's recent memory.

Thanks for the edification, billy_pilgrim.  I'm not sure if you read the whole sequence, but I posted a website of college nicknames and threw out some unique or unusual names for readers to guess.  Some folks, including me, questioned why Earlham wasn't listed with Penn, Guilford and Wilmington under Quakers, so that's why I asked Mr. Smargon what Earlham's name was in his list.  Thanks again from a Guilford Quaker alumnus. 

PS We should get our AD's to set up a Christmas basketball tournament with Guilford, Wilmington, Earlham and another DIII founded by the Society of Friends.  Better yet, maybe they should just come to a consensus over the phone about who should win and save all their schools the travel expenses.  lol  Peace 

[justafan02]

However, on some road trips Earlham would be listed as the Hustlin' Quakers in programs, so I wonder what outdated list of collegiate nicknames Mr. Smargon is using. But, again, for clarification, Earlham's athletic Web site only refers to the team as the Quakers and that is also what uniforms, et al. have also said for this Earlham alum's recent memory.

Does this mean that VWC is not a "Marlin" but a "Blue Marlin" as they are referred to.  I mean because we could be the White Marlin version for all anyone knows.

[Mr. Ypsi]

The first Posters' Poll of 2007 is up (multi-region topics).  It's a bit of work if taken seriously (and we do!), but a lot of fun.  While our geographical distribution is 'fairly' good, we have no voters from the home of the defending national champs!

If you follow d3 at a NATIONAL level (or would like to nominate someone who does), please join in.  We are NOT in competition with the d3hoops.com poll (we all agree it is the 'gold standard'), but discrepancies between the polls can raise very interesting conversations on why we feel that way.  If interested (and I'm especially calling out hasanova, steely, jdub, who seem to go beyond JUST ODAC - apologies to those I overlooked!) check out the board.  Picks each week are through Sunday's games, with ballots due by 8pm EST on Monday (though I often extend the polling booth hours in hopes of more ballots).

[jdubyadubya]

Senor Ypsi - thanks for the invite but I think I'll stay with the ODAC. I really don't know anything about the over all realm of DIII, just my little corner in VA and NC. 

[hasanova]

Senor Ypsi - thanks for the invite but I think I'll stay with the ODAC. I really don't know anything about the over all realm of DIII, just my little corner in VA and NC. 

Mr. Ypsi - I also appreciate the invitation, but I, like jww, only feel as though I have a reasonable handle on a limited area, say Maryland to Georgia and east Tennessee.  I'm still learning about national DIII hoops and feel I would do a disservice to the poll with uninformed votes.  For now, I think I need to spend some more time watching and listening to the national scene.