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

Some fans are satisfied to accept whatever is placed in front of them! I will never be satisfied until we can get a Final Four Team (and we know that is possible)and therefore I will never be satisfied! The first step in the right direction is to part ways with Jeff Jones!

(09-11-2017 11:08 AM)Cyniclone Wrote:  

(09-11-2017 10:35 AM)monarx Wrote:  Im glad to see CUSA teams recruiting good 3 & 4* players. We just need to be one of them. The top half of this conference has the potential to be quite good.

On another note, Maybe CUSA should split into two divisions for hoops. The "We care about basketball" division and the "We don't care about basketball" division. The top two winners of the two divisions meet up for a final four tournament with the winner getting the auto bid. If we did that, the #2 team in the "we care" division should have a pretty good shot at an at large bid every year. Maybe even the #3 team.

There's got to be a way to separate the wheat from the chaff, because it's hard to tell people that winning CUSA isn't exactly easy when all they see is that 23rd ranking in the conference RPI.

My idea, which has evolved and unevolved over the years, is to do a single round-robin (13 games), then split into seven-team pods for the final six games — top half in one pod, bottom half in the other.

In the second part, you reverse the home/road alignment of the teams you played in the round-robin. Let's say the first pod is ODU, WKU, Middle Tennessee, UAB, Louisiana Tech, Marshall and Charlotte. If ODU played WKU, UAB and Marshall on the road in the round-robin, they'd host in pod play, while traveling to Middle, La. Tech and Charlotte.

First-pod members are guaranteed top-seven seeds in the conference tournament; the second pod fights for anywhere from one to five spots in the tournament (depending on whether you want eight, 10 or 12 teams).

It rewards the better teams more than it does now by giving them more games against better competition and less opportunity to get tangled in RPI messes in the bottom of the conference, thus improving their chances for an NCAA or NIT at-large bid.

The big issue, one I've yet to resolve, is unbalanced home/away schedules (if ODU happened to host all six of their pod-mates in round-robin play, then they wouldn't have any home games in the pod). You could schedule within the pod by giving everyone three home and three road games (they'd reserve the dates, then fill in the schedule accordingly), but then you run the risk of having School A visiting School B twice in the same season. The scheduling priority would be to give the road team in the first matchup the home game in the pod, but there's almost certainly going to be matchups where a 2-0 split is inevitable.

The other idea I've espoused is having the top five or six teams play a round-robin at a neutral site instead of having a regular tournament, thus giving the top teams four or five games against higher-quality competition. But then you run the risk of a) relatively meaningless last-day games and an anticlimactic conclusion, and b) having your title and NCAA auto bid decided by a tiebreaker, which always sucks.

At the very least, CUSA should consider an A-10 scheduling arrangement — figure out who the top teams are likely to be, and make sure they get home-and-homes with most of them. Though even the A-10's schedule is still regionally heavy — VCU gets Dayton twice but also Richmond, George Mason and GW. So from ODU's perspective, maybe they get one or two more good games, but perhaps not enough to effect significant change.

There's no simple answers. Simplistic, yes; simple, no.

Mason, Richmond and GW. Man, three good conference games within a two hour drive. I miss that.

Also, winning cusa isn't hard, it's just hard for us.

MTSU rolled through the conference.

Vcu would do the same to everyone not named mtsu.

We were a thoroughly mediocre team last year as per our rpi and awful sos.

We didn't beat anyone worth a damn all year.

These are reasons we can't win big recruiting battles (maybe Last years crop not withstanding). Maybe.

I'm also not impressed by taking cast offs who couldn't get it done at other schools. It is what it is.

(09-11-2017 04:16 PM)Razor Ramon Monarch Wrote:  Also, winning cusa isn't hard, it's just hard for us.

MTSU rolled through the conference.

Vcu would do the same to everyone not named mtsu.

We were a thoroughly mediocre team last year as per our rpi and awful sos.

We didn't beat anyone worth a damn all year.

These are reasons we can't win big recruiting battles (maybe Last years crop not withstanding). Maybe.

I'm also not impressed by taking cast offs who couldn't get it done at other schools. It is what it is.

WRONG. They are not going to be any good this year. They do, however, have your hero at the helm.

Edit: If Rhodes takes them to the dance this year, and they look like they would dominate CUSA, he will be an actual hero.

(09-12-2017 07:26 AM)757ODU Wrote:  

(09-11-2017 04:16 PM)Razor Ramon Monarch Wrote:  Also, winning cusa isn't hard, it's just hard for us.

MTSU rolled through the conference.

Vcu would do the same to everyone not named mtsu.

We were a thoroughly mediocre team last year as per our rpi and awful sos.

We didn't beat anyone worth a damn all year.

These are reasons we can't win big recruiting battles (maybe Last years crop not withstanding). Maybe.

I'm also not impressed by taking cast offs who couldn't get it done at other schools. It is what it is.

WRONG. They are not going to be any good this year. They do, however, have your hero at the helm.

Edit: If Rhodes takes them to the dance this year, and they look like they would dominate CUSA, he will be an actual hero.

I believe that Razor's comments regarding VCU (and also MTSU & ODU) were mostly referencing last season as opposed to the upcoming one, although some of his comments would still apply regarding ODU for this season until better results prove otherwise (i.e. RPI, SOS, winning the conference, etc.).

(09-12-2017 12:00 PM)ODU BBALL Wrote:  

(09-12-2017 07:26 AM)757ODU Wrote:  

(09-11-2017 04:16 PM)Razor Ramon Monarch Wrote:  Also, winning cusa isn't hard, it's just hard for us.

MTSU rolled through the conference.

Vcu would do the same to everyone not named mtsu.

We were a thoroughly mediocre team last year as per our rpi and awful sos.

We didn't beat anyone worth a damn all year.

These are reasons we can't win big recruiting battles (maybe Last years crop not withstanding). Maybe.

I'm also not impressed by taking cast offs who couldn't get it done at other schools. It is what it is.

WRONG. They are not going to be any good this year. They do, however, have your hero at the helm.

Edit: If Rhodes takes them to the dance this year, and they look like they would dominate CUSA, he will be an actual hero.

I believe that Razor's comments regarding VCU (and also MTSU & ODU) were mostly referencing last season as opposed to the upcoming one, although some of his comments would still apply regarding ODU for this season until better results prove otherwise (i.e. RPI, SOS, winning the conference, etc.).

At least someone gets it. Even in year 1 at vcu he will beat Jones though.

I know it's early but...


Rice has 3 commits, including 2 3* guards
UAB has a 3* Center and a 3* Power Forward
MTSU has a 4* Forward and a 3* Guard
UTEP has a 3* PF
WKU, UTSA, and Marshall have commits

ODU has ...

(09-15-2017 03:38 PM)ODUBB35 Wrote:  I know it's early but...


Rice has 3 commits, including 2 3* guards
UAB has a 3* Center and a 3* Power Forward
MTSU has a 4* Forward and a 3* Guard
UTEP has a 3* PF
WKU, UTSA, and Marshall have commits

ODU has ...

The mealy-mouthed bureaucrats running ODU all need to be replaced-- top to bottom. They are all about brick and mortar and nothing else. Pathetic.

So we waited till September to complain about upcoming recruting class that isnt finalized for another 10 months?

(09-15-2017 07:47 PM)Gilesfan Wrote:  So we waited till September to complain about upcoming recruting class that isnt finalized for another 10 months?

It may not be over for another 10 months, but the early signing period is in two months. I believe that is what he is referring to since he has listed the early commitments that several schools in our conference have received.

In actual 2018 recruiting news....

Jason Wade and Xavier Williams will be on campus for an official visit this weekend, per Corey Evans.

https://twitter.com/coreyevans_10/status...7433903105

Thanks for that report Fantom.

Anyone like our chances with zeliznak?

Who is he please?

(09-16-2017 01:00 PM)mac Wrote:  Who is he please?

He's an 2018 C prospect. Here's his verbalcommit profile:

http://www.verbalcommits.com/players/maros-zeliznak

Here's his 247 profile:

http://247sports.com/player/maros-zeliznak-46048031

(09-16-2017 11:37 AM)Gilesfan Wrote:  Anyone like our chances with zeliznak?

No ! Even slow footed below the rim 6-11 players do not want to play for ODU.

Spent the first half talking to Mr. Wade and a few minutes with Jones. Really excited to see Hewitt in action.

Posted from mobile device. Hopefully it's coherent.

(09-16-2017 07:55 PM)bit_9 Wrote:  Spent the first half talking to Mr. Wade and a few minutes with Jones. Really excited to see Hewitt in action.

Posted from mobile device. Hopefully it's coherent.

He can shoot it If JJ takes the leash off him.

Jones got ...jonesed... talking about him hitting 5 3s in a row in 30 seconds yesterday.

Posted from mobile device. Hopefully it's coherent.

(09-16-2017 08:28 PM)bit_9 Wrote:  Jones got ...jonesed... talking about him hitting 5 3s in a row in 30 seconds yesterday.

Posted from mobile device. Hopefully it's coherent.

He needs no space. The best high school shooter I have ever seen, in person.