MBB: Old Dominion Athletic Conference

[Tigerfan]

Indeed.

[y_jack_lok]

Big slate of non-conference games for the ODAC this evening.  One will attract national attention.

CNU at RMC:  the computers love Macon in this one.  D3Datacast, Massey and Schauer all have the Jackets as 10 point favorites with 80%+ win probability.  But don't bet the farm and give those points, the data being used has to contain a lot of Robinson, Pulley, etc.   

Lynchburg at Pfeiffer, Averett at Greensboro, Southern Virginia at EMU and North Carolina Wesleyan at Guilford. 

An ODAC sweep would be great. 

I don't know about the other two, but Massey ratings - like KenPom ratings - at this point in the season are near useless because the vast majority of the data it uses is based on last season.

The D3datacast starts by using data from eight games from the previous season then, as games are played, a game from the prior season is removed and replaced with the games from the current season. So for their rating, CNU has seven games from last season and the one game from this season. RMC's data is all from last season. They acknowledge that this is an imperfect model, but you have to start somewhere. The only alternative would be for the computer to know everything about the current season's roster of all 400+ D3 schools and evaluate matchups based on the prior year's performances of all those players.

[Tigerfan]

Seatfiller, I thought the Maroons did something in their first game that was cool.  I couldn't figure out why they would travel to PA and play Allegheny.  A look at the box score revealed the reason.  They played near the home of seldom used senior Andrew Maddalon, and he got to play against his younger brother.  The Maroons also started another senior who doesn't get a lot of PT, Jack Adair.  An early Senior Night is a nice touch.

[rmc1982]

RMC 38-26 over CNU at half.... Lots of basketball left to be played and CNU has looked unorganized on offense which I think will be clarified at half.... i would expect a fast paced back and forth second half!! 🐝🐝🐝GO JACKETS!🐝🐝🐝

[MCScots2013]

I had the first half on while cooking dinner and I have to give a shout out and say thank you to Macon Athletics and the play-by-play guy. Refreshing at this level to witness true skill at calling games. Didn't have to watch; was able to keep up with the action just listening. Keep up the good work.

[Tigerfan]

The computers sure got that wrong.  Macon looked awesome, like they have 6 guys on defense.  Size, speed, shooting - they got it.  The new CNU coach got a rough introduction to the rigors of being the head guy. 

[y_jack_lok]

CNU at RMC:  the computers love Macon in this one.  D3Datacast, Massey and Schauer all have the Jackets as 10 point favorites with 80%+ win probability.  But don't bet the farm and give those points, the data being used has to contain a lot of Robinson, Pulley, etc.

The computers can't possibly know anything with virtually no in-season data. The only '26-'27 data it has is CNU's 38-point win over Penn State-Altoona. CNU has a 22-man roster that includes six juniors and eight seniors compared to RMC's total of five juniors and seniors. If RMC wins this game by 10 points I'll be shocked.

RMC 78, CNU 47. Shocked is putting it mildly. The computers were wrong, but more accurate than I was given that I'd have rated RMC as underdogs. This is the most surprising result since November 3rd. As usual, it was defense that set the tone. Jackets had 11 steals among CNU's 17 turnovers. Freshman Andrew Clark was great down low with 10 points and five rebounds. Looks like a veteran already. Expect he will be in the starting lineup before the season is too old.

In other news, former RMC Yellow Jacket Amr Areikat is off to a good start at Johns Hopkins. Not starting, but in their first two games he's averaged 25.5 minutes and 13.5 points on 10 of 20 shooting. And former YJ Ollie Jones put up another 17 points in Guilford's 106-84 win over NC Wesleyan tonight.

So RMC and Guilford won tonight along with Lynchburg who downed Pfeiffer 95-65. Averett lost 69-68 at Greensboro and EMU lost at home 69-63 to Southern Virginia. 

[Macon]

Great start for the Jackets.   My biggest concern was who would be the #3 guard with Jones gone?  Well, I think Keogh answered that question.

[rmc1982]

I was gonna post last night but I had a couple of libations watching the game and thought better of it...lol... I have no delusions that we are as good as we looked last night nor that CNU was that bad- they simply ran into a buzzsaw that probably resulted from Josh Merkel posting the score from last year's NCAA tournament game combined with some prognosticators questioning how good we are pasted on the locker room mirror or wall from Day one of practice. We very well may get our a**es handed to us this Saturday in Fredricksburg but we were hitting on all cylinders last night in Crenshaw. I really think we may come out of this stretch 3-1 and thats a GOOD THING and we will be battle-tested going into the tough ODAC conference play. I think we showed the country and especially Ryan Scott that we are ,in fact, NOT OVERRATED! Thanks Ryan for the extra incentive- our kids just showed what a tough place our house is to play in. CNU is a good team and if we play them later in the year they could very well beat us, especially in the Freeman Center. It was just a tail kicking where we could do no wrong and they had a cover on the basket in the 2nd half.Our defense had a lot to do with it, however.6'8" Freshman Andrew Clark mad a big splash in his debut and Theo Antinori and the other upperclassmen showed how good they can be also. It was a great win but Saturday is looming and Mary Wash was no doubt watching and learning tendencies that they can exploit in their house. Nice win but its just one! GO JACKETS!!

[rmc1982]

On an unrelated note Y_Jack_Lok- I asked Josh and Amir had graduated and is in grad school at J-H and with kids getting 5 years of eligibility hes using his 5th year there!

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

On an unrelated note Y_Jack_Lok- I asked Josh and Amir had graduated and is in grad school at J-H and with kids getting 5 years of eligibility hes using his 5th year there!

D3 players don't yet have five years of eligibility.  He didn't play freshman year, so he must have gotten a medical waiver.

[rmc1982]

Whatever Ryan -he had graduated but had a year of eligibility left so hes using it at JH in grad school.

[y_jack_lok]

It was a great win but Saturday is looming and Mary Wash was no doubt watching and learning tendencies that they can exploit in their house. Nice win but its just one! GO JACKETS!!

UMW will also have revenge on its mind since they lost in Crenshaw last February 85-74 in a game where Kye Robinson was 0-10 from the field, thanks in part to tough defense by Keishawn Pulley. But Robinson has a knack for getting fouled so he hit 7 of 11 free throws. Also, if I remember correctly, he had a bit of early foul trouble in that game and wound up playing "only" 28 minutes, when he averaged 36 per game over the course of the season. Also, the 74 points the Eagles scored in that game is the most any team scored against the Jackets. Run and gun Guilford put up 73 twice and two other teams hit 70 and 71 respectively.

Sadly, I won't be able to watch the game due to a dinner invitation. Might be able to sneak an occasional peek at the score on my phone and might get home for the final minutes. Best of luck to the Jackets.

[HoopsDad34]

I was gonna post last night but I had a couple of libations watching the game and thought better of it...lol... I have no delusions that we are as good as we looked last night nor that CNU was that bad- they simply ran into a buzzsaw that probably resulted from Josh Merkel posting the score from last year's NCAA tournament game combined with some prognosticators questioning how good we are pasted on the locker room mirror or wall from Day one of practice. We very well may get our a**es handed to us this Saturday in Fredricksburg but we were hitting on all cylinders last night in Crenshaw. I really think we may come out of this stretch 3-1 and thats a GOOD THING and we will be battle-tested going into the tough ODAC conference play. I think we showed the country and especially Ryan Scott that we are ,in fact, NOT OVERRATED! Thanks Ryan for the extra incentive- our kids just showed what a tough place our house is to play in. CNU is a good team and if we play them later in the year they could very well beat us, especially in the Freeman Center. It was just a tail kicking where we could do no wrong and they had a cover on the basket in the 2nd half.Our defense had a lot to do with it, however.6'8" Freshman Andrew Clark mad a big splash in his debut and Theo Antinori and the other upperclassmen showed how good they can be also. It was a great win but Saturday is looming and Mary Wash was no doubt watching and learning tendencies that they can exploit in their house. Nice win but its just one! GO JACKETS!!

Can confirm UMW was watching...

[Ryan Scott (Hoops Fan)]

For the record, I said they were overrated the last two years.  I made no judgements about this year's team until they hit the floor.  They sure looked good!  Not going to get much bulletin board material out of me this season.