The unofficial online home for fans of the Old Dominion University Monarchs. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

(01-24-2015 08:43 PM)Obiwan Wrote:  3 opponents or 3 games was the difference between a Top 20 team and barely making an appearance in the CBI while sitting at 15-4 ? I find that hard to believe . Blind resume test ?

Obi why do you insist on being so literal. Surely you can see the writing on the wall. This team will probably lose at least another 4 games and may wind up with a final regular season loss at home to WKU. Blind as a rats ass this team aint gettin into the NCAA and will be lucky to make the CBI

(01-24-2015 09:00 PM)ODU AGGIE Wrote:  Cripes, guys and gal. Many of you seem to think we were playing a game of solitaire. The result of this game wasn't because of something we did wrong. UAB shot 75% from the field in the first half and 70% overall. This in spite playing a really good defensive ODU team that over 18 games had held the opposition to what -- somewhere around 38-39% field goal shooting. Not only that, they hit 70% of their shots from beyond the arc, and hit 92% of their free throws. We didn't do anything terribly wrong. We just ran into a UAB team that was out of their minds hot. If we were not a good team, we would have been beat by 25-30 points.

It just amazes me the number of folks who look only at ODU as if the other team had nothing to do with the outcome. UAB is leading the conference and is a very good team -- and then on top of that, they went absolutely ballistic shooting the ball tonight.

We are a good team. We will win 22 or so games. We will go to a post season tournament. That is all.

Aggie I agree with you and that is the problem. UAB is a good team, better than us and they are loaded with Freshmen. WKU is better than us, so is MT and probably UTEP.So where does that leave us? 5th, maybe even 6th? That is the problem.

Well because the facts are the facts.. We have what 10 or so regular season games left with a majority at home... So literally ... How many have we lost at home? And if you are that confident in the remaining games.. Let's go to Vegas ...literally

(01-24-2015 09:08 PM)Obiwan Wrote:  Well because the facts are the facts.. We have what 10 or so regular season games left with a majority at home... So literally ... How many have we lost at home? And if you are that confident in the remaining games.. Let's go to Vegas ...literally

La Tech, Charlotte and WK are all toss ups for us to win at home.Not saying we will lose all of them but I think it's safe to say we might lose one, maybe 2. Throw in another road loss and we're looking at possibly 3, maybe four losses. If we were on a winning streak I'd be less pessimistic. I expect we'll beat the Fl teams and that'll be nice, but that aint saying much. If we end up 22-8 or 23-7 that'll be nice, but it won't get us into the Ncaa tourney.

I don't think I've ever seen a team shoot like that. Our offense, as flawed as it is right now, was actually good enough to beat most teams on this night. It was a LOW possession game, they scored 81 points on 37 field goal attempts. They had no fear driving the ball towards the painted area.

NCAA tourney will take a sweep of victories in the gym we just played in.. I like how JJ mentioned the team needs to,learn from this loss. Become the hunter instead of the hunted. Remember we had the bullseye on our back - hell MTSU rushed the court the other night. The boys got deflated after WKU much like us the fans. Don't get me wrong - I am equally upset almost depressed at this streak.. Sucks not being able to boast at the water cooler about our Monarchs.. But let's not throw in the towel.. We didn't lose to Elon ..we lost to a few good teams that hit the bullseye on our back.

I still like our chances down the stretch if the team picks up its mojo .. It can happen and I trust they want it more than you and I.. They need us to cheer them on at home .

I just looked at the schedule. I think we rest up a few guys, get Nik, Deion, Joe and Javonte some playing time and run the table from here on out. The only game left on the road with any adversity is at UTEP and they are struggling.

Our shooters have some tired legs right now, we have a second wind in us.

15-4, with 7 of the last 11 at home, I still like our chances to win 25. We need to regroup, gonna find out a lot about this team in the next 2 weeks.

(01-24-2015 07:59 PM)Monarch Blue Wrote:  

(01-24-2015 07:52 PM)Old Dominion Wrote:  

(01-24-2015 07:47 PM)Monarch Blue Wrote:  

(01-24-2015 07:41 PM)Old Dominion Wrote:  JJ is what he is. A career .57% winner (or there abouts).We'll be a 57% team or there abouts.

Come on, ease up on JJ. Just three weeks ago everyone was saying he was the best coach in the universe. Then we go up against a couple of teams on road who have their best games of the season, and he's a goat. I'm not buying that for a minute. We were able to sneak into the top 25 for a week for the first time ever, but, face it, we're not a top 25 team.

We need to regroup, keep competing. If we lose to a team that is better on a given night, suck it up and move on. UAB was great tonight. ODU, not so much. Time to get up, dust ourselves off, and try it again for the first time.

these Kids can dust themselves off all they want. They will beat most of the bottom feeder teams and lose to most of the upper tier teams. It isn't dissing on anybody. It's my take on what I see. UAB would be better 9 nights out of 10. This year we're mdiocre. Time will tell if JJ can recruit well enough to lift us beyond that.

Agree, time will tell. So let's give JJ time. So far he's achieved a lot as have all his players. To have expected that we could go through this league like a hot knife through butter was unrealistic. We were spoiled by a very fortunate preseason success against a weak field. We need to keep supporting our Monarchs by showing up at the Constant Center next game.

Our pre season wasn't weak. It was rated much tougher than our conference schedule. The difference is we are playing conference games now, and teams are doing a better job of game planning. Now we need to counter that.

(01-24-2015 08:15 PM)Obiwan Wrote:  

(01-24-2015 08:09 PM)EverRespect Wrote:  

(01-24-2015 07:37 PM)Obiwan Wrote:  

(01-24-2015 07:33 PM)Monarch Homselr Wrote:  I'm not an X and O person but how does a zone lep you when they are shooting close to 70% from three?

It is amazing how this fan base ca be so volatile. I think some of us need some Prozac.

Exactly...UAB would have beat most Top25 teams tonight ..they were on fire..

So now they JJ needs to be fired posts... If you watch much basketball you eventually realize it's an up and down year..

Haven't seen any JJ needs to be fired posts.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

True but plenty of eating crow and I love JJ threads.. Can't turn on a coach after back to back losses .. It wouldn't take much more before JJ will be walking the plank.. " I give him 1 1/2 years to pick up recruiting" or "one trick pony " is not far from it.

How long do you give him to pick up recruiting?

This should not be a total surprise

LSU was early on when Freeman was an unknown quantity. He surprised a lot of people.
Same with VCU, and like ODU, the lambs are a finesse team, not an over-powering one.

There were hints as far back as the Ga State game, and certainly W&M, that we could be in for some trouble.

As someone alluded to earlier in this thread; the opposing coaches are learning to solve Freeman. That is huge.

Additionally, opposing coaches are realizing that we are, for the most part undersized, and thus are learning to bang and lean. This wears us down physically, and even more, it wears us down mentally. We rush shots, take ill advised shots, and seem generally rattled.
Even FTs are affected.
On defense we are tentative, giving too much space, or over compensating and committing fouls.

This due to physical and mental fatigue, plain and simple.

Finally, the past two games Richard Ross has not played above the rim at all. Something is really wrong.
We don't have the bigs to play inside, but "air" Ross can and has compensated for that.
If Ross doesn't return to form, the rest of the season could be disappointing at best.

Home games will certainly be a welcome respite.

After reading pages of post It is clear most everyone is upset and somewhat surprised at the out come of our road trip,me included. However,we all seem to have forgotten how tough it is to win on the road.If you don"t believe me ask UTEP. CUSA is proving to be a tough place to win on the road.We are in for a real dog fight this year and CUSA is going to be a lot of fun. Lets see what happens and hopefully enjoy the ride. See you in Birmingham this March.

As bad as the loss felt, the sky is not falling yet. Monarchs hail, let's take this home slate for the Old Dominion.

We are not a good road neam. Fortunately we have been losing on the road and not at home. The teams in first like UAB and WKKU have not had many road games yet. I sitill think we can win the regular season. I knew it was a chance we could lose both of these road games. History was against us at UAB and MTSU is a very strong team at home. Rela guys we will be ok.

Wow, UAB shot 70% from the field, 71% from the arc and 92% from the line.

I think ODU is better than the 3 teams it recently lost to. No one likes the way they're playing right now and everyone's frustrated, but 5 road games and 2 at home can have an adverse effect on performance. Good job CUSA. ODU will get back on track. This is still a remarkable turnaround.

(01-24-2015 11:58 PM)Sirloin Burger Wrote:  Wow, UAB shot 70% from the field, 71% from the arc and 92% from the line.

I think ODU is better than the 3 teams it recently lost to. No one likes the way they're playing right now and everyone's frustrated, but 5 road games and 2 at home can have an adverse effect on performance. Good job CUSA. ODU will get back on track. This is still a remarkable turnaround.

+1. Outstanding post.

Just watched game. UAB shot lights out. One think I've def come to see.... Cusa is big. Much much more meat on the court than our squad and most of the teams we saw ooc.

Where is Ross? Seriously. He has completely disappeared.

Lid on the rim for layups again.

UAB played great ball. We played sloppy. Hopefully some home time gives them a recharge and Ross gets his mojo back.

(01-24-2015 10:39 PM)ODUalum78 Wrote:  This should not be a total surprise

LSU was early on when Freeman was an unknown quantity. He surprised a lot of people.
Same with VCU, and like ODU, the lambs are a finesse team, not an over-powering one.

There were hints as far back as the Ga State game, and certainly W&M, that we could be in for some trouble.

As someone alluded to earlier in this thread; the opposing coaches are learning to solve Freeman. That is huge.

Additionally, opposing coaches are realizing that we are, for the most part undersized, and thus are learning to bang and lean. This wears us down physically, and even more, it wears us down mentally. We rush shots, take ill advised shots, and seem generally rattled.
Even FTs are affected.
On defense we are tentative, giving too much space, or over compensating and committing fouls.

This due to physical and mental fatigue, plain and simple.

Finally, the past two games Richard Ross has not played above the rim at all. Something is really wrong.
We don't have the bigs to play inside, but "air" Ross can and has compensated for that.
If Ross doesn't return to form, the rest of the season could be disappointing at best.

Home games will certainly be a welcome respite.

With Trey averaging 16ppg and 3 apg, I'm not sure coaches are "solving" him. He is THE ONLY consistent person on the team!

(01-24-2015 11:58 PM)Sirloin Burger Wrote:  Wow, UAB shot 70% from the field, 71% from the arc and 92% from the line.

I think ODU is better than the 3 teams it recently lost to. No one likes the way they're playing right now and everyone's frustrated, but 5 road games and 2 at home can have an adverse effect on performance. Good job CUSA. ODU will get back on track. This is still a remarkable turnaround.

Actually a pretty solid post.

But at the same time, when a team is shooting those percentages, how do you not at least TRY something different?

Even if it doesn't work, who cares, what you were doing wasn't working either.

That was the most disappointing part of the night for me. There really wasn't a plan B. Not sure how jones gets a complete pass on that just because we started the season really well.

Hi, guys. Tough loss, I know. You just ran into a buzzsaw tonight. That was the most complete game we've played since Haase took over as coach. I think that we have one player left from Mike Davis, everyone else Haase recruited. We've had two mediocre at best years under him, and this year opened very painfully. We're playing mostly freshmen and sophs, and we had some very tough noncon games early. Haase fed them to the shredder, but the early beatings taught them a lot. You saw that today - many times that extra pass was made. Very unselfish play. Tough defense. Sincere effort. We've also found good depth and can go ten deep without suffering much dropoff.

Give your coach time to get his kids and get everyone on the same page. With luck you will also improve given some time for him to work and recruit.

In any case, I'm happy to have ODU in the conference. UAB and ODU have some history. You also had some very classy fans down here. It sucks to drive that far to watch a game like that... I know, I've done it. Even late in the game when the guys sitting behind me were bemoaning our shooting percentage and what a train wreck of a game it was, they were gracious. That's not easy, and people do notice.

Anyway, I don't mean to be a snotty visiting fan. This game scared hell out of me, and then the kids came out and played the best game we've had since Haase was hired. I look forward to seeing you in the conference tournament, and frankly, no way in hell we play that well again, so who knows what happens then. Good luck with the rest of the season.