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

(05-23-2018 03:29 PM)84Monarch Wrote:  

(05-23-2018 01:19 PM)Cyniclone Wrote:  

(05-23-2018 01:09 PM)monarx Wrote:  

(05-23-2018 12:57 PM)Cyniclone Wrote:  From a pure optics perspective I hope ODU never does a guarantee game with U.Va. They did home-and-homes with VCU and GW and 2-for-1s with George Mason and JMU. I don't think ODU warrants a H/H series right now but I'd rather see them never play the Cavs again than tell the world "hey, we're a level below Mason and JMU."

If I were feeling cocky, Id say ODU is a level above GMU and JMU in hoops. Though that would justify VCU feeling cocky and saying the same thing about us. Truth is, we're all pretty much at the same level, looking up at UVA.

I don't think it's cocky to say that ODU basketball is a level ahead of JMU, factoring in recent results, history and facilities. George Mason is a closer call, because they had the Final Four run and got into the A-10, but they serve as an object lesson of how to **** up a wet dream. They're in a better conference but they've contributed nothing to it, at least in men's basketball.

VCU is still ahead of ODU, though that's a gap that can quickly evaporate if ODU improves and VCU doesn't from last year. I suspect they'll be OK, but there's no sure things.

At some point the statute of limitations runs out on GMU's final four run. That was 12 years ago and they never maintained that level of play. The clock is ticking on VCU's. Those final four runs are ancient history in basketball years. Great accomplishments for each school, that can never be taken away. But I don't see how they help in recruiting due to how long ago they were. In GMU's case freshmen this year would have been in 1st grade maybe when they made the final four. For VCU those kids would have been in 6th grade. Not sure what gravitas those runs have in 2018.

It's what the two schools did with those runs that matters:

VCU kept their coach longer than most anyone would have thought possible, built a $25 million practice facility, made a strong hire when Shaka left and again when Wade left, leveraged their success on the court with repeated trips to the NCAAs and off the court by increasing their visibility in the community, and parlayed that into a spot in the A-10 where, until last season, they were always in the title game.

George Mason lost their coach to one of the first suitors because they wouldn't pony up the money to keep him, made a bad hire with cost-saving at the forefront of their thought process, did little to generate interest in Northern Virginia, were the third of three in the CAA except for their 2011-12 season that everyone forgets because of VCU's run, then back-doored their way into the A-10 where they've proceeded to do **** all.