MBB: Old Dominion Athletic Conference

[matty]

The Marlins have the dreaded southern swing weekend coming up. The gym at E&H will probably be sweltering. The Quakers will probably have their place packed to the rafters. I would kill to be there but I'll have to rely on Nova for an objective report after Sunday's game.

d-mac says he's not sold on VWC this year but their two losses were by a point each and they are beating their opposition by an average of 15+ points. BUT, there are some who will say that their schedule has been soft to date. We'll see starting tomorrow afternoon at E&H and then at Guilford Sunday(the real test). As I said in an earlier post, this weekend has always been a grueling swing for the Marlins. I, of course, wish them well.

JWW...Hey, matty here. how is life? i really miss travelling with the team. although the two years i travelled with vwc the one trip i don't miss is this weekends road trip from hell. I remember my and pete's senior they scheduled the men's and women's games together, so they made us travel with the women's team for that 7 1/2 hour trek out to e&h. That year we lost both games on that trip en route to losing like 3 in a row. macedo was pissed. luckily we ended pulling it together and winning the odac but i'll always remember that trip.
anyway, i will be at the guilford game on sunday, it will be my first view of the mighty marlins this season. From what i understand Hassell has started playing well so that Hassell/Strong matchup should be interesting to watch, at least until Strong scores on him three times in a row and macedo puts someone else on him. And hopefully balenga will get his three point trigger going. anyway hope to see you at the sydney or macon game

[jdubyadubya]

Matty - nice to hear from you. it's been forever! Carol and I are going to try and get to the EMU and Bridgewater games but that's about it. We have a new grand daughter born on December 21 so she demands a lot of our time Pete's working hard at the SportsPlex and not loving life because his hours are really screwy. Those long road trip weekends were awful. Yes, I remember Pete's senior year at E&H and Guilford. Absolutely nothing went right that whole weekend! PS. Doino's engaged to Lauren. I'll watch for your post after the Guilford game to get your impressions. 

[Tigerfan]

Although the Tiger loss at Guilford is disconcerting, I am not pushing any panic buttons.  It was on the road and it happened on January 9 in the second conference game.  Shooting, energy level and effort generally improve at home.   If the same thing happens at H-SC, particularly the superior rebounding effort of the Quakers, then I will be despondent.  I will be reduced to hoping a Tiger player turns into superman, a la Mike Edwards, in Salem.    However, I'm not sure any Tiger player is entitled to that magic or karma, or whatever it was for Mike, after the heaping helping he got last February.  I just hope the Tigers took something home from Greensboro that they can use in Salem in February.

[hasanova]

Although the Tiger loss at Guilford is disconcerting, I am not pushing any panic buttons.  It was on the road and it happened on January 9 in the second conference game.  Shooting, energy level and effort generally improve at home.   If the same thing happens at H-SC, particularly the superior rebounding effort of the Quakers, then I will be despondent.  I will be reduced to hoping a Tiger player turns into superman, a la Mike Edwards, in Salem.    However, I'm not sure any Tiger player is entitled to that magic or karma, or whatever it was for Mike, after the heaping helping he got last February.  I just hope the Tigers took something home from Greensboro that they can use in Salem in February.

Hey tigerfan, there were certainly some bright spots for the Tigers on Wednesday night and, as you said, I wouldn't get too discouraged.  I was impressed with HSC's three-point shooting, passing and balanced scoring.  Obviously, any DIII team with Strong would have an instant advantage, but Henson's first half shooting was the X-factor.  Henson owned the first 20 minutes and Strong just took over the game after halftime.  The Tigers will be back on track.  Guilford will probably beat a lot of teams at home this season, but I, for one, am not looking forward to the return match-up at Fleet!

[mybleedinghands]

my infinite amount of basketball wisdom (note the sarcasm there) says the way to beat the Quakers isn't to stop Ben Strong, but the way to beat them is to shut down and/or contain his supporting cast. No team in the country that I am aware of has a person that can handle Strong one-on-one on defense,m so you either have to play some very good and quick helpside D or double him, then if he isn't able to score while being doubled he'll find an open man and the Quakers have their fair share of players who can knock down open jumpers. even if he is being doubled, he'll probably be able to score anyways, so what good does the double do? If I were a coach, i'd concede and let Strong get his 25-30+ points and focus on everyone else. To me that appears to be what happened in Guilford's two losses. Strong went 22-35 (62.9%) in the two lossesand accounted for an astounding 39.1% of the team's total points, the rest of the team went 30-76 (39.5%) - most notably Henson was 6-21 (28.6%) . His supporting cast also accounted for 27 turnovers - with the backcourt of Kimbrough and Henson accounting for 12 of the 27.

[donho]

  And the Jackets beat the Quakers. 69-60!!!

[mybleedinghands]

  And the Jackets beat the Quakers. 69-60!!!

looks like the Jackets did what I would have done: let Ben Strong get his and try and stop everyone else. Kimbrough and Henson combined for 7 turnovers and Henson was 3-11 from the field.

Any word on Sanborn? His name doesn't appear in the box score? That could seriously hamper Guilford's chances at going deep in the NCAA Tournament or winning the ODAC Tournament if he is out that long...

[y_jack_lok]

Hard to tell if that's what the Jackets did or not. Strong was 7-9 from the field and had 17 points. Looks like the Jackets were able to limit his opportunities, even if they couldn't stop him when he got the ball. Isn't 17 points below average for Strong?

[Matt Barnhart (kid)]

BC defeats H-SC, 73-71.  I believe it was 71-59 with under two minutes to go, and the Tigers made a handful of threes to bring the final score closer.

Great win for the Eagles! After today, there's no clear favorite in the conference. Should be a fun season!

[sludge]

Guilford sure did miss Tyler Sanborn and Ray Edmund in yesterday's game against RMC.  It looks like Tyler will be out for a while;  Ray might return sooner.  These two injuries changed the game plan greatly.

Strong didn't touch the ball as much as usual.  Not sure whether that was done by Randolph-Macon or by Guilford, except for the lack of available offensive boards for Guilford, which goes as a credit to RMC.

No time to cry, though.  Tough game today against Virginia Wesleyan:  DeWayne, you're on!

[sludge]

RMC is very patient with the ball.  They'll probably win a lot of games in the 50 to 60 point range.

I'm expecting a different sort of game today from VWC...

[mybleedinghands]

LC went into the half against EMU up 45-38, then LC proceeded to get outscored by 21 points in the second half for EMU's first ODAC victory of the year...

Well at least my UK Wildcats got a big win yesterday!

[donho]

  Sludge,  RMC is scoring about 75 per game. What they do well is adjust game by game.  Think game against L-burg was just one of those LID ON THE BASKET NIGHTS. plus L-burg played a good game.

[y_jack_lok]

Scottie, so you're a Ky Wildcat fan, too. I lived in Lexington for nine years. I will admit, however, that as I've gotten more interested in D3 hoops, I've not paid as much attention to D1 or Kentucky as in the past. Around here we get heavy coverage of Missouri, Illinois, Saint Louis U, and SIU-Carbondale. If I want to know what's happening with Kentucky I need to seek out the info, which I don't do with much frequency.

[DeWayneCarter]

Guilford sure did miss Tyler Sanborn and Ray Edmund in yesterday's game against RMC.  It looks like Tyler will be out for a while;  Ray might return sooner.  These two injuries changed the game plan greatly.

Strong didn't touch the ball as much as usual.  Not sure whether that was done by Randolph-Macon or by Guilford, except for the lack of available offensive boards for Guilford, which goes as a credit to RMC.

No time to cry, though.  Tough game today against Virginia Wesleyan:  DeWayne, you're on!

Finally!!!!!!!

This should be a great game today... hopefully the VWC staff has a game plan for the inside out combo of
Strong and Henson..... Look for both teams to come out ready to battle. VWC has a chance to go 2-0 on this tough road trip, but Guilford also isn't trying to drop 2 straight ODAC contests, so look for this game to be a good one...

I pick VWC in a close one.