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

Coach, you are correct that we have managed to beat the UNT game discussion to a bloody pulp.

But your 3,2,1 assessments ALWAYS merit their own standalone thread, separate and apart from the game discussion thread(s).

I too enjoy the 3, 2, 1 posts a lot. It's a good reset too when the thread gets out of control.

Count me in as a big fan of the 3, 2, 1 threads. Great discussion usually abounds.

I think another one of the reasons why Brandon didn't play that much vs North Texas is the fact that he was just outsized at the center position. UNT played Bryce Jr. (7'-1") for a good chunk of minutes, and while Brandon is an excellent defender, giving up 6 inches of height to a competent big-man makes it really difficult to defend and get into offensive position. Porter was a better match for him

As always, thanks to Coach.

My additions:

1). While Caver has emerged as THE PG, he still has some "growing up" to do (hell, he is just a soph). He played big down the stretch vs N Texas (a team notorius for playing 35 mins) and Rice, but was much less a factor vs Charlotte. We will really know how much he has matured on the MTSU/UAB road trip. He has certainly become a better offensive player by becoming more efficient, especially the timely 3s, as Talley and on occassion BJ have shoulderd more of the offense. Which leads us to....

2). Talley is now the offensive leader/go to scorer. Since his return to action he's avg 15.5 pts/g, shooting 51% vs 7.4 shooting 29.5% pre-"hiatus". Where ODU still has room to improve is to get more consistency/efficiency from BJ and Haynes.

3). Tre Porter is a great shot blocker, but needs to play stronger defense using his lower body, vs always reaching with his arms. The fouls hurt and when ODU is forced to go small, we get killed woth dribble-penetration.

BTW, I left Brandon out...is value is apparrent and well documented. He can't return to full time soon enough.

1) Caver scored 25 points overall vs. Charlotte and scored 5 in the last 5 minutes. From my recollection, we missed 2 shots in the last five minutes that were not free throws; a BJ jumper and Talley jumper. What exactly did Caver not do vs. Charlotte?

Agreed on Talley. Not sure what the cause of early season woes were, but they are long gone.

(01-31-2017 12:38 PM)Gilesfan Wrote:  1) Caver scored 25 points overall vs. Charlotte and scored 5 in the last 5 minutes. From my recollection, we missed 2 shots in the last five minutes that were not free throws; a BJ jumper and Talley jumper. What exactly did Caver not do vs. Charlotte?

Agreed on Talley. Not sure what the cause of early season woes were, but they are long gone.

Caver was POG vd Charlotte, basically keeping us marginally ahead most of the second half. He hit a layup+FT to put us up 66-64 @ 4:54 then an assist to Porter for 68-66 @ 4:16 and finally 2 FTs for 70-68 @ 3:41...so far, great game.

The last 3:41, ODU was limited to a missed FG by Talley (Taylor ORB and 1-2 FT), a forced drive by Haynes (fouled, missed front end FT) another forced shot by BJ (hoped for foul). All these shots were forced off the dribble as Caver seemed to back off and the Monarchs really looked to be trying to get fouled rather than execute offense.

Caver is my favorite player on the team (PG almost always is), but I found myself dissapointed that he didn't finish the game the way he player the first 36 mins...that was a winnable end game that ODU didn't finish. I was pleased that Caver followed with better end games in Texas and will continue to watch his progress...what I'm waiting to see is that innate PG quality of leading the team to close-out victories against quality opposition or in hostile situations.

(01-31-2017 11:52 AM)bigblue78 Wrote:  As always, thanks to Coach.

My additions:

1). While Caver has emerged as THE PG, he still has some "growing up" to do (hell, he is just a soph). He played big down the stretch vs N Texas (a team notorius for playing 35 mins) and Rice, but was much less a factor vs Charlotte. We will really know how much he has matured on the MTSU/UAB road trip. He has certainly become a better offensive player by becoming more efficient, especially the timely 3s, as Talley and on occassion BJ have shoulderd more of the offense. Which leads us to....

2). Talley is now the offensive leader/go to scorer. Since his return to action he's avg 15.5 pts/g, shooting 51% vs 7.4 shooting 29.5% pre-"hiatus". Where ODU still has room to improve is to get more consistency/efficiency from BJ and Haynes.

3). Tre Porter is a great shot blocker, but needs to play stronger defense using his lower body, vs always reaching with his arms. The fouls hurt and when ODU is forced to go small, we get killed woth dribble-penetration.

BTW, I left Brandon out...is value is apparrent and well documented. He can't return to full time soon enough.

You may be confusing the Charlotte and Louisiana Tech games. Caver got his lunch stolen by Bracey in the Louisiana Tech game.

ODU in general and Caver in particular was confounded by La Tech's D...Caver's worse game on the season.

The timeline I used for critiquing Caver in the final 5 mins vs Charlotte was directly from the game log. My reccolection is that ODU's offense simply looked disjointed those final minutes...likely not entirely Caver's fault, for example JJ opted not to call TO and settle the ship and Haynes made a kamikaze drive early in the shot clock instead of continuing the offense.

My post-game impression was that Caver didn't exert himself the final 3 mins and ODU lost a winnable game.

78 has been doing a bang up job of analyzing Monarch games for years! I appreciate it too. You see things I never see, that's for sure!

Here are the offensive performances since Talley came back vs. Howard:

Howard- 1.14 points per possession (ppp), 51% True shooting percentage, 15% turnovers
W&M- 0.86 ppp, 37%, 10%
Rice- 1.02, 54%, 16%
NT- 0.90, 37%, 10%
Marshall- 0.95. 51%, 15%
Western- 1.19, 62%, 16%
USM- 0.97, 44%, 13%
LT- 0.95, 52%, 20%
Charlotte- 1.07, 54%, 18%
Rice- 1.20, 58%, 12%
NT - 1.16, 57%, 16%

The offense has really picked up in the last few games. Nice to see. Defense needs to get back to where they were at the beginning of the season; a healthy Stith may help this.

(02-01-2017 10:43 AM)Gilesfan Wrote:  Here are the offensive performances since Talley came back vs. Howard:

Howard- 1.14 points per possession (ppp), 51% True shooting percentage, 15% turnovers
W&M- 0.86 ppp, 37%, 10%
Rice- 1.02, 54%, 16%
NT- 0.90, 37%, 10%
Marshall- 0.95. 51%, 15%
Western- 1.19, 62%, 16%
USM- 0.97, 44%, 13%
LT- 0.95, 52%, 20%
Charlotte- 1.07, 54%, 18%
Rice- 1.20, 58%, 12%
NT - 1.16, 57%, 16%

The offense has really picked up in the last few games. Nice to see. Defense needs to get back to where they were at the beginning of the season; a healthy Stith may help this.

The last performance is the most encouraging IMO. We faced zone the entire game.

(02-01-2017 11:33 AM)757ODU Wrote:  

(02-01-2017 10:43 AM)Gilesfan Wrote:  Here are the offensive performances since Talley came back vs. Howard:

Howard- 1.14 points per possession (ppp), 51% True shooting percentage, 15% turnovers
W&M- 0.86 ppp, 37%, 10%
Rice- 1.02, 54%, 16%
NT- 0.90, 37%, 10%
Marshall- 0.95. 51%, 15%
Western- 1.19, 62%, 16%
USM- 0.97, 44%, 13%
LT- 0.95, 52%, 20%
Charlotte- 1.07, 54%, 18%
Rice- 1.20, 58%, 12%
NT - 1.16, 57%, 16%

The offense has really picked up in the last few games. Nice to see. Defense needs to get back to where they were at the beginning of the season; a healthy Stith may help this.

The last performance is the most encouraging IMO. We faced zone the entire game.

We also played 3 pretty awful teams.

North Texas is one of the 20 worst teams in the country.

Let's see how we do against mtsu before we get too excited. They will be one of the top 2 or 3 best teams we play the entire year.

(02-01-2017 07:54 PM)Razor Ramon Monarch Wrote:  

(02-01-2017 11:33 AM)757ODU Wrote:  

(02-01-2017 10:43 AM)Gilesfan Wrote:  Here are the offensive performances since Talley came back vs. Howard:

Howard- 1.14 points per possession (ppp), 51% True shooting percentage, 15% turnovers
W&M- 0.86 ppp, 37%, 10%
Rice- 1.02, 54%, 16%
NT- 0.90, 37%, 10%
Marshall- 0.95. 51%, 15%
Western- 1.19, 62%, 16%
USM- 0.97, 44%, 13%
LT- 0.95, 52%, 20%
Charlotte- 1.07, 54%, 18%
Rice- 1.20, 58%, 12%
NT - 1.16, 57%, 16%

The offense has really picked up in the last few games. Nice to see. Defense needs to get back to where they were at the beginning of the season; a healthy Stith may help this.

The last performance is the most encouraging IMO. We faced zone the entire game.

We also played 3 pretty awful teams.

North Texas is one of the 20 worst teams in the country.

Let's see how we do against mtsu before we get too excited. They will be one of the top 2 or 3 best teams we play the entire year.

In fairness, the second Rice and North Texas games showed decent improvement from the first games.

(02-01-2017 08:30 PM)Cyniclone Wrote:  

(02-01-2017 07:54 PM)Razor Ramon Monarch Wrote:  

(02-01-2017 11:33 AM)757ODU Wrote:  

(02-01-2017 10:43 AM)Gilesfan Wrote:  Here are the offensive performances since Talley came back vs. Howard:

Howard- 1.14 points per possession (ppp), 51% True shooting percentage, 15% turnovers
W&M- 0.86 ppp, 37%, 10%
Rice- 1.02, 54%, 16%
NT- 0.90, 37%, 10%
Marshall- 0.95. 51%, 15%
Western- 1.19, 62%, 16%
USM- 0.97, 44%, 13%
LT- 0.95, 52%, 20%
Charlotte- 1.07, 54%, 18%
Rice- 1.20, 58%, 12%
NT - 1.16, 57%, 16%

The offense has really picked up in the last few games. Nice to see. Defense needs to get back to where they were at the beginning of the season; a healthy Stith may help this.

The last performance is the most encouraging IMO. We faced zone the entire game.

We also played 3 pretty awful teams.

North Texas is one of the 20 worst teams in the country.

Let's see how we do against mtsu before we get too excited. They will be one of the top 2 or 3 best teams we play the entire year.

In fairness, the second Rice and North Texas games showed decent improvement from the first games.

The rice game yes........the north Texas game was not a good performance at all against a 320+ rpi team.

@ UAB / @ MTSU will be a tough stretch. We've never come out of there 2-0.

(02-02-2017 05:14 AM)odu09 Wrote:  @ UAB / @ MTSU will be a tough stretch. We've never come out of there 2-0.

We won't this time either. I just want one of them.

(02-02-2017 07:20 AM)ODU_NYG Wrote:  

(02-02-2017 05:14 AM)odu09 Wrote:  @ UAB / @ MTSU will be a tough stretch. We've never come out of there 2-0.

We won't this time either. I just want one of them.

It would be nice to get back at LT for finally beating us in something. Or we can pay it forward and beat MTSU in something. Either way I'd be happy going 1-1 on that road trip. Well, happy is a relative term.