MBB: Old Dominion Athletic Conference

[ODACfan1]

That was the team that started the game, but their conditioning was a factor as well as sloppy play...The WASPS just really hit them in the mouth to start the second half and it was over pretty much at the ten minute mark.  The pressure really effected them.

[mybleedinghands]

very juicy stuff as far as the indirect technical foul is concerned.  my previous understanding of the call was that it was a technical on the player who hit the ball illegally.  but it sounds as if it goes as a bench foul???  still unclear exactly though.  i have played ball for a very long time and am very familiar with the rules.  hitting the ball illegally constitutes a delay of game??? so who should have gotten the technical???  the bench???  also from my understanding once the ball crosses the plane of the inbound line it is fair game, even if it is still in the inbounders hand.  this could be completely wrong but i used to be a player that would do exactly what josh did.  savvy play, but i have been told by refs not to cross the plane with the ball, as it becomes live once you do.  scotty, i dont have a rule book but i would be interested in whether i am correct or wrong.  i am leaning towards thinking i am wrong, and was mis-informed by a two dollar ref when i was younger.  there are some great out of bounds rules in the rule book that most people (including refs) dont know.  i have seen some big games go the wrong way when a ref interprets a rule one way, and the player in question interprets it differently. 

as far as i can tell, the technical foul goes to the player, it just doesnt count as a personal foul.

[hasanova]

Same Greensboro team that beat Guilford....looks as though the Wasps are inconsistent which makes sense with the system...hopefully it will all come together after this long layoff....still a great win nonetheless....

Well, there are some differences between tonight and last Wednesday night.  Among other things, it usually helps to play at home in front of a pumped up crowd as Greensboro did last week and Emory & Henry did tonight.  With that said, however, congratulations to E&H on a fine win.

[hasanova]

sludge & coopersharpe, will I see you in Ragan-Brown tomorrow night for the Methodist game?  The Monarchs are 5-1, but only got by LC by four.  Hard to say how they'll be.  I know last year's game in Fayetteville went to OT before the Quakers pulled it out - Strong put up 40.  Busy schedule for me at work this week, so I'm trying to not get roped into a business dinner with customers tomorrow night.  First things first, right?  lol

[jdubyadubya]

C'mon Nova - take the customers to the game and buy them a hot dog at half! Hey, I think I'm going to whine a little here -- do you think it would have made a difference in the VWC/Roanoke game if 1) the refs had not called the technical on Hassell and he remained in the game; or, 2) they had called the foul but he remained in the game instead of "fouling out." At least one thing has remained the same since Pete graduated - the referees!

[algernon]

Hampden-Sydney evens the score against Averett 78-70.

Great game for the Tigers.  Drew Prehmus had a double-double with 29 points and 11 rebounds.  Troy Kaase too (16 points, 10 rebounds), in only 25 minutes of play. 

http://www2.hsc.edu/athletics/basketball/2007_08/game_releases/averett2.html

No more Tiger games until after Christmas.

[narch]

For you USA South fans that were down on the system...Emory and Henry dominates Greensboro tonight 111-95 in Emory.  I really wish Methodist could play at Emory this year for a little payback game.  As a lot of teams have found out in the past, Emory is an extremely tough place to play.  This game had Bob Johnson toughness written all over it for the WASPS...

there is no question in my mind that playing on a home court is an advantage, but i refuse to buy into a 23+ point swing - i stand behind my statement that i don't think the wasps would win consistently in the usasac running the system...i think the usasac teams, by and large, have too many athletes who would welcome the opportunity to run up and down the floor making layups - i haven't seen gcp play this year, but maybe they are a team that is more suited to a half-court game and they aren't deep enough to really run with a team like ehc...the monarchs had little trouble with the wasps and based on what i've seen, i'd be willing to bet that athletic teams like ncwc (probably the MOST athletic team in the usasac), cnu, au and su would have little trouble with the wasps either, regardless of venue - maybe i'm wrong...maybe i just saw ehc at their worst...who knows

i am hopeful that the monarchs can keep things close with gcq on wednesday, though...this game marks the first of a string of games that will really test the monarchs: @ guilford, @ m'ville, @ piedmont (coached by a former monarch assistant), vs. m'ville @ piedmont, @ vwc, @ lagrange, vs. piedmont...tough stretch - a win on wednesday would sure be a nice way to start things off - the way i see it is the monarchs have had 6 nice warm-up games to start the season, but the real season starts with the 7 game stretch above that leads into the conference season

[hasanova]

http://www.d3hoops.com/top25/

The Quakers and Marlins dropped to 7th and 9th, respectively, after their losses in the last week, but still two ODAC teams in the Top 10.  Congratulations also to the Maroons for garnering 5 points in this week's poll.

[hasanova]

C'mon Nova - take the customers to the game and buy them a hot dog at half! Hey, I think I'm going to whine a little here -- do you think it would have made a difference in the VWC/Roanoke game if 1) the refs had not called the technical on Hassell and he remained in the game; or, 2) they had called the foul but he remained in the game instead of "fouling out." At least one thing has remained the same since Pete graduated - the referees!

Sounds good to me, but these folks might not all share my love for DIII sports.  lol  I will find a way to go to the game!

[sludge]

C'mon Nova - take the customers to the game and buy them a hot dog at half! Hey, I think I'm going to whine a little here -- do you think it would have made a difference in the VWC/Roanoke game if 1) the refs had not called the technical on Hassell and he remained in the game; or, 2) they had called the foul but he remained in the game instead of "fouling out." At least one thing has remained the same since Pete graduated - the referees!

Sounds good to me, but these folks might not all share my love for DIII sports.  lol  I will find a way to go to the game!

See you the, hasanova.  It's set up to be a good game.  Last year, Guilford also needed a great game by Belkoski to pull it out in overtime.

This year, who knows?  We're still working on the chemistry, and Methodist will try to spill all the beakers.  I think they're pretty big, pretty fast, pretty skilled and used to winning.

Guilford can be hard to stop when the assists are really clicking, though.

[hasanova]

C'mon Nova - take the customers to the game and buy them a hot dog at half! Hey, I think I'm going to whine a little here -- do you think it would have made a difference in the VWC/Roanoke game if 1) the refs had not called the technical on Hassell and he remained in the game; or, 2) they had called the foul but he remained in the game instead of "fouling out." At least one thing has remained the same since Pete graduated - the referees!

Sounds good to me, but these folks might not all share my love for DIII sports.  lol  I will find a way to go to the game!

See you the, hasanova.  It's set up to be a good game.  Last year, Guilford also needed a great game by Belkoski to pull it out in overtime.

This year, who knows?  We're still working on the chemistry, and Methodist will try to spill all the beakers.  I think they're pretty big, pretty fast, pretty skilled and used to winning.

Guilford can be hard to stop when the assists are really clicking, though.

Hey, sludge.  I remember - I was in Fayetteville for last winter's game as well.  At 5-1, the Monarchs must have some things going for them.  Belkoski did have a great game last year, especially in the first half - I hope he can start nailing some shots tomorrow as well.   The students should turn out en masse for this game - the Quakers deserve their support every outing!

[CNU85]

so I'm trying to not get roped into a business dinner with customers tomorrow night. 

Depends on what the customers look like! Could be fun!

I would say I'm digressing....but in order to digress, one must first "progress". I need to go home! 

See ya at the Stagg Bowl Hasa!

[coopersharpe]

yes sir mr. nova, i will be there in wednesday.  i expect guilford to have as good of a crowd as they have the last two games.  from what i hear methodist is streaky and athletic.  should be a good game, but i would love to see an out of conference blow out.  hope to see you there.

[Brian Hamilton]

Narch,

You may want to recant your statement about homecourt not being worth 23 points.  Look at what happened in the two games HSC and Averett played.  Averett won the first by 16 and lost the second by 8.  That is a point difference of 24.  The biggest difference was field goal and 3-pt percentage.  In game 1 (Averett's win), Averett shot 50.8% and 61.3% respectively at home.  In game 2, (Averett's loss), they shot 39.4% and 33.3% respectively.  I think most people would agree it is much easier to shot the basketball on your own court because you are familiar with the background, the rims, and other features that may cause the visiting team problems.  Just like Averett, HSC shot a higher percentage at home.

The only reason I mention this is because I do believe that E&H is a difficult place to play.  You have to get on a bus for at least 5 hours, play a game in a hot gym in which you are constantly running up and down the court, and playing a team that lives and dies by the three.  This gives E&H a chance in everyone of their home games.  Especially if the opposing team commits a high number of turnovers or shots a lot of 3-pt. shots.

While I agree with you premise that homecourt is not worth 23 points in general, E&H is far from general or normal.  Their unconventional style allows them to make huge runs.  They can sometimes get easy shots, force the opposing team into bad decisions and shots and, if they make a high percentage of 3s, can score a lot quickly. 

[narch]

Narch,
You may want to recant your statement about homecourt not being worth 23 points. 

nah...layups are easy to shoot regardless of the gym, and ehc would have had to shoot 50% from 3 (as opposed to 34%) to win the game...by 1 - i'm not saying it COULDN'T happen, but i don't think the ehc team i saw play mu would win more than 2 or 3 of 10...again, i could be wrong and we won't know because the teams are playing just once this year, but i'm not a believer in the system and i don't think that ehc would go .500 in the usasac

In game 1 (Averett's win), Averett shot 50.8% and 61.3% respectively at home.  In game 2, (Averett's loss), they shot 39.4% and 33.3% respectively.  I think most people would agree it is much easier to shot the basketball on your own court because you are familiar with the background, the rims, and other features that may cause the visiting team problems.  Just like Averett, HSC shot a higher percentage at home.

i'm not sure you can automatically attribute averett's shooting percentages in the first game strictly to playing at home...some nights a team just can't miss - does being at home help...probably...but i'd be willing to bet there aren't many other nights this season that au shoots 61.3% from 3, even at home

i would also tell you that while the perception might be that ehc is a tough place to play, i'm not sure the statistics support that perception - last year, ehc was 7-5 at home (.583) and 6-4 on the road (.600) - this year they are 2-0 at home and 1-2 on the road...certainly a significant difference this year, but i'm not sure that 5 games is a large enough sample size...let's revisit this at the end of the season - the odac website doesn't have archived stats past 2006-07, and the results don't show up on the d3hoops.com board, either, so i can't give you any more historical perspective

i will also tell you that ehc shot a slightly higher 3 point percentage on the road vs. mu (34%) than they have at home this season (33.7%)