MBB: Old Dominion Athletic Conference

[Seatfiller]

Randolph played Norfolk State really tight last night.  Down 35-34 at the half, got down to as many as 13 or 14 in the second, but finished just seven points behind.  Very good showing.

I saw that on the news last night down here in Hampton Roads. It was funny the commentator said "It was RANDOLPH not RANDOLPH-MACON.....you might expect that kind of game from Randolph-Macon but Randolph? Looks like Norfolk St has some WORK TO DO!"....Lol Our early season "GUANTLET" starts next week! FOUR tough games- THREE against ranked teams Plus HSC! We'll see how we are after that! FO SHO! One thing you gotta say about Josh Merkel- hes not afraid to play ANYBODY, especially EARLY! On a side note, one of my friends( a Football Alum) has a nephew playing at Atlee HS just outside Ashland told me yesterday Josh is hot on his trail and hopefully has the inside track on him should he choose to play D3.Wont name him here yet but hes a 6'6" shooter that can play inside or out! Senior this year too!

Great the rich get richer 

[CoachDT]

What's going on everyone... Fairly New to posting here because of my previous job (Assistant Coach) but look forward to joining you all this season. Been around the ODAC since 2004 so very familiar with this board and ODAC Basketball. Played from 2004-2008 at Virginia Wesleyan and was Assistant coach their for 13 years. Excited for ODAC Hoops and Virginia Wesleyan (yes that is what I will call it) Basketball!!!

[Tigerfan]

Welcome, looking forward to some real expertise being posted here with your addition. Not many other National Champions around! 

[Tigerfan]

As expected, H-SC had no problem with William Peace in Raleigh, 91-58.  Peace is not good, so its hard to draw any conclusions.  Tomorrow's game at Peace with USA South defending champion and preseason #1 North Carolina Wesleyan will be a better test. 

[y_jack_lok]

At halftime of today's RMC vs Roanoke football game, Marty Wilson interviewed RMC head coach Josh Merkle. In prefacing the interview, Marty noted that the Jackets only have five upperclassmen combined with 13 freshmen and sophomores. Coach Merkle talked about working in pre-sesson to achieve consistency on the part of the players. He also mentioned some different roles that are being asked of the seniors and juniors from what they have been accustomed to. Apparently there have been two scrimmages, one in Crenshaw vs Johns Hopkins and one up in Arlington vs Marymount. No outcomes or details were offered. The challenging early schedule was discussed a bit and Coach Merkle said he is focused on performance and progress over outcomes. I'd say this is about as measured and cautious as I've ever heard him be.

[thescottharris]

Perhaps I missed this news, but, in looking at ODAC teams while preparing my annual preseason ODAC rankings, I noticed that Jamarcus Brown is not on the Lynchburg roster.  He transferred to D2 St Leo in Florida.  Given that he was first team All-ODAC, 20 ppg, Defensive POY and generally a fantastic athlete, that will definitely affect my placement of LC LU UL.  Little did I know that the deal was already done this summer when I suggested that ODAC foes wouldn't mind seeing him hit the transfer portal. 

Man that's a huge loss for both the basketball and track teams. Lose a relatively local guy (Danville, VA) to Florida is tough. Though who can blame him from wanting to leave the Central Valley area for sunny Florida? Looks like he can get on state rd 52 and take a straight shot to the beach in less than an hour! 

Looks like he's a starter down there, started the first exhibition against D1 USF and dropped 20 points on only 10 shots.

[thescottharris]

H-Sc didn't have much difficulty with NC Wesleyan despite being without starting PG Stickney for the entire game. Won By 22 after being up 21 at halftime. NCW never made any threat to stage a comeback after halftime.

After two games, it appears there was a tremendous focus on adding shooting to the roster after the last year's team was just a dreadful shooting team. If you don't have a dynamic scoring threat you need shooters to spread things out. You filed a bunch of people who can't shoot and it's just going to make a bunch of above average to worse scorers struggle mightily.

 Yesterday 12-36, today 19-46. Four players attempted at least 8 threes today, five with at least five attempts in today's game, six players with at least four attempts yesterday. Lots of threats from three,

[thescottharris]

What's going on everyone... Fairly New to posting here because of my previous job (Assistant Coach) but look forward to joining you all this season. Been around the ODAC since 2004 so very familiar with this board and ODAC Basketball. Played from 2004-2008 at Virginia Wesleyan and was Assistant coach their for 13 years. Excited for ODAC Hoops and Virginia Wesleyan (yes that is what I will call it) Basketball!!!

D'Juan Tucker? You go back almost as far back as I do!

[y_jack_lok]

^^^ Regarding this part of your thoughtful analysis:

"4. Guilford:  Jesse DeLoof had a full year to recruit his type of player and his large recruiting class includes 4 transfers.  One of them is Oliver Jones, who averaged 11 minutes a game over 38 games the past 2 seasons at Randolph-Macon."

When the RMC roster was posted a while back and I noticed that Jones was not on it, I did a little digging to see if I could figure out what happened. I saw something that said Guilford had an Oliver Jones on its '26-'27 roster, but I couldn't confirm that it was the same person. Good to have that confirmed. He is a high energy player and will fit well with Guilford's new style of play.

In Guilford's first game, a 105-85 win over Pfeiffer, Jones started, played 20 minutes, scored 17 points, had five assists and seven steals. Looks like he has found a home.

[thescottharris]

One of my coworkers has a son being widely recruited by the ODAC - I remember her specifically mentioning that H-SC, R-MC, Roanoke, Lynchburg, and Randolph have all reached out.

I've never seen him play, but might have to go check out a game now because clearly he must be a pretty solid player to be drawing that kind of interest going into his junior season. Name is Luke Tomlin, he's the PG for Liberty Christian. His coach is Matt Klein, who played at Lynchburg for a year or two while we were both going to school there and he was an assistant at Randolph for a bit during the 2010s.

Also it appears he wears the #4, which is my favorite number, so obviously he's doing something right just based on that alone!

[CoachDT]

What's going on everyone... Fairly New to posting here because of my previous job (Assistant Coach) but look forward to joining you all this season. Been around the ODAC since 2004 so very familiar with this board and ODAC Basketball. Played from 2004-2008 at Virginia Wesleyan and was Assistant coach their for 13 years. Excited for ODAC Hoops and Virginia Wesleyan (yes that is what I will call it) Basketball!!!

D'Juan Tucker? You go back almost as far back as I do!

Yes Been around the ODAC for awhile!!!

[MCScots2013]

Macon's got some good home games coming up in the next couple of weeks.  vs CNU and vs. HSC.  Keeping on eye on those games.

[y_jack_lok]

Macon's got some good home games coming up in the next couple of weeks.  vs CNU and vs. HSC.  Keeping on eye on those games.

The game vs CNU is RMC's only non-conference game in Crenshaw this season. All other non-con games are either away or on a neutral court. I'm assuming RMC is the host school for the late December Champions Classic, but that event is being held at the Henrico Sports & Events Center, which is about seven miles south of campus.

[y_jack_lok]

I've been pondering what RMC's starting lineup might be for Wednesday's game vs CNU. The five upperclassmen -- Hammonds, Showalter, Antinori, Hodges, and Bachman are also the guys with the most court time under their belts. But there isn't a proven three point shooter in that group. So I would expect that whoever among the underclassmen has been looking the best from long range in practice will start in place of one of them. Also, a number of the sophomores got ample minutes last season, some of them coming on strong in the home stretch. So there could be another sophomore in the starting lineup -- or maybe even a freshman.

[y_jack_lok]

^^^ Regarding this part of your thoughtful analysis:

"4. Guilford:  Jesse DeLoof had a full year to recruit his type of player and his large recruiting class includes 4 transfers. One of them is Oliver Jones, who averaged 11 minutes a game over 38 games the past 2 seasons at Randolph-Macon."

When the RMC roster was posted a while back and I noticed that Jones was not on it, I did a little digging to see if I could figure out what happened. I saw something that said Guilford had an Oliver Jones on its '26-'27 roster, but I couldn't confirm that it was the same person. Good to have that confirmed. He is a high energy player and will fit well with Guilford's new style of play.

In Guilford's first game, a 105-85 win over Pfeiffer, Jones started, played 20 minutes, scored 17 points, had five assists and seven steals. Looks like he has found a home.

For this performance Jones was named PoW.