MBB: Old Dominion Athletic Conference

[Tigerfan]

"But for the love of God, why do the official scorers and the refs allow David Doino to sit on top of the scorer's table the whole game?  The table even has an 18" crack where he sits.  Please buy (or lease) another chair!"

That part about Averett leasing another chair is a quality wisecrack, Hasanova.

[y_jack_lok]

RMC wins at Bridgewater 67-61 on a terrible shooting night for the Jackets and a very good one for the Eagles. Offensive rebounding by the Jackets gave them extra chances. It didn't always result in points but gave them more time with the ball and kept it away from the hot shooting Eagles. Unlike the game in Ashland, when Bridgewater had two or three key players unavailable to illness, they showed that they are a good team in spite of their conference record.

Conference quarterfinals are now set:

RMC vs Guilford
VWU vs Averett
Roanoke vs W&L
H-SC vs Lynchburg (which gets the 5 seed due to its head-to-head win over W&L)

[Tigerfan]

Those are some interesting quarterfinal matchups with lots of danger for the higher seeded home teams.  The Tigers have had no answer for Lynchburg's Jamarcus Brown.  The Hornets beat the Tigers recently and knocked H-SC out of the ODAC tournament in Kirby last year so they have no fear and play extremely physical.  Roanoke hasn't matched up well at all with W&L this year in 2 losses, but get a chance for some revenge by ending the Generals season on Tuesday.  Guilford has nothing to lose.  If they can cause some turnovers or hit some 3s, they could be a problem for any team with their uptempo style.  Dave Doino's Averett team has outperformed expectations this season and get a chance to beat his alma mater. 

[y_jack_lok]

^^^ Averett got a home win over VWU in that game that was suspended and completed more than a week (maybe two) later. RMC struggled at Guliford and if they can't make shots around the basket (which they had an uncharacteristically hard time doing tonight) they could easily lose against the Quakers' new style of play, which can build leads quickly if they are hitting their shots. That makes it tough to come back unless they suddenly go cold.

[Tigerfan]

I'll give myself a B on my preseason rankings back on 11/3:

1.  RMC
2.  Roanoke
3.  VWU
4.  H-SC
5.  Lynchburg
6.  W&L
7.  Guilford
8.  Shenandoah
9.  Bridgewater
10. Randolph
11. EMU
12. Averett

Averett was the big outlier; I thought they were going to be bad based on the school's terrible financial condition, and I assumed the football team's disarray was indicative of the whole athletic department. Kudos to them for a good season with wins over the #1 and #2 seeds. EMU was better than the ODAC preseason poll as well as mine. 

[Tigerfan]

Roanoke's chances to make the NCAA tournament shot way up this weekend.  Now they are a near lock according to the D3 Datacast projections. 

[hasanova]

"But for the love of God, why do the official scorers and the refs allow David Doino to sit on top of the scorer's table the whole game?  The table even has an 18" crack where he sits.  Please buy (or lease) another chair!"

That part about Averett leasing another chair is a quality wisecrack, Hasanova.

Ha.  Thanks for noticing, Tigerfan.  I pride myself on thinly veiled sarcasm.

[Seatfiller]

Roanoke's chances to make the NCAA tournament shot way up this weekend.  Now they are a near lock according to the D3 Datacast projections. 

Any reason why? I'm guessing some teams that should've won lost? I'm scared of W and L they've manhandled us both games, season may be coming to a end on Tuesday.

[Tigerfan]

From watching the D3 Datacast video this week, there appear to be a lot of conferences in which the #1 tournament seed is the only team with the NPI to get into the tournament. I guess there were some losses last weekend of teams that were on the cusp of having the NPI to get in the NCAA tournament.. If I was a Roanoke or VWU fan, I would want to win the AQ or hope for few upsets/bid thieves.

Like Seatfiller with Roanoke's game, I am not liking H-SC's quarter final game.  Lynchburg has also been manhandling the Tigers.  They've struggled to do anything with Jamarcus Brown, and Jayson Easton has been shooting the ball from outside very well all season.  And they bring physical, 3rd team all ODAC guard Michael Gray off the bench.  Guards Piercen Young and Jake Hart have plenty of experience.  No Shane Fernald, no Santana Lynch and Tugg Bizzelle coming off an ankle injury - this is a tough game. 

[rmc1982]

Tigerfan- I'm not exactly enamored to be facing Guilford, even though its in Crenshaw! This ia a CLASSIC "Trap Game"- They ALWAYS seem to play us tough, they can score ALOT of points in spurts, and we're heavily favored.This can be a recipe for disaster! If we jump on them early and get them down then MAYBE they fade away but if we let them hang around and it gets late in the ballgame thats when we tend to lose! Hope I'm wrong but HaSA'S Quakers are DANGEROUS!!

[Tigerfan]

H-SC got the hard fought win over Lynchburg, 82-70.  The Tigers jumped out to a 15 point halftime lead, but I was miserable as the Hornets quickly erased that lead with a 23-7 run and took the lead at 50-49.  Jamarcus Brown was brilliant in that run and appeared unstoppable.  However.  That was the last lead LU would have as the Tigers regrouped and the Hornets could not sustain their high energy.  Throughout the game Travis Stickney was able to blow past the LU guards and finished with 19 points and 8 assists.  Peter Moye and freshman guard Tyree White, were also able to attack with a lot of success with 16 and 10 points respectively.  White has become consistent and valuable in the second half of the ODAC season.  It was a total team effort on defense; the double teams on Brown were particularly effective in the first half.  Alex Cannon played one of his finest games and did a great job slowing Brown's roll in the second half.  Will Britt came off the bench for valuable defensive minutes as well as providing 8 points on perfect shooting, 2-2 from the field and 4-4 at the line.  Powerful freshman Jaelen Solomon came off the bench in the first half and made some huge plays as he also had perfect shooting for 7 points and 3 tough rebounds.  Loss of other Tiger frontcourt players has given Solomon a big opportunity and he is showing his huge potential.  His size, around the basket moves and springiness give the Tigers something they haven't had. 

Brown, Michael Gray, Jayson Easton and Jesse Mitchell played strong games.  The Hornet backcourt had a tough day.  The Tiger guards will face a much harder defense on Friday. 

[y_jack_lok]

RMC dealt with the Guilford pressure defense much more effectively last night than they did back in January, winning 94-73. The 21 point difference is the largest Quakers loss all season. Still, the Quaker defense caused the Jackets to struggle from three-point range (7 of 28), as they react really well to ball movement and make it harder to get those shots off with your feet set. But RMC made up for it by hitting 80.6% of their two point attempts, many on fast breaks or long over-the-top passes when inbounding. Altogether a good effort by the Jackets against a difficult style of defense to face.

Kudos also to the RMC defense which held the Quakers to fewer than 75 points for only the fourth time all season.