New-look Old Dominion keeps winning and getting better

BOSTON – Prior to the season, the Colonial Athletic Association was a hotbed of questions for those who like to predict how a conference will go. Right in the middle of that was the two-time defending champions, as Old Dominion had been picked to win the conference two years in a row and did just that but was picked fifth this time around due to heavy personnel losses. The Monarchs are doing what they have done for a while now: win games. The latest example was Saturday’s 69-59 win at Northeastern that had a lot of positives for this team.

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Old Dominion Monarchs 2011-12 Preview

Old Dominion Monarchs (27-7, 14-4)

Projected starting five:

Fr. G Dimitri Batten
Sr. G Kent Bazemore (out at least the first month due to injury)
Sr. G Trian Iliadis
Sr. F Chris Cooper
Jr. F Nick Wright

Important departures:

Three starters — F Frank Hassell (15.1 ppg, 9.4 rpg), F Ben Finney (9.2 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 3.0 apg), G Darius James (7.0 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 3.2 apg) — are gone from last season’s team, as is key reserve Keyon Carter (7.3 ppg, 4.1 rpg).

Returning:

41.1 percent of scoring and 44.9 percent of rebounding

Additions:

Jr. F Nayquann Mitchell, a junior college transfer
So. G Donte Hill, a Clemson transfer eligible in the second semester
Fr. G Dimitri Batten
Fr. G Breon Key
Fr. F Jason Pimentel
Fr. F Richard Ross (eligible second semester)

Schedule highlights:

As is usually the case, the Monarchs will play a very tough nonconference schedule. They are in the Hall of Fame Tip-Off, where they open with South Florida and could play Kentucky, head to Richmond, Fairfield and UCF and welcome Missouri, Northern Iowa and Long Island. While they don’t have to go to Drexel, they get no other breaks as they play George Mason, VCU and James Madison twice each.

Projected finish and outlook:

The Monarchs are right there with archrival VCU when it comes to the question of who lost the most from last season’s team. This team lost a great deal of talent, size and winning experience, as that group won a lot of games and tournaments in their careers. They are left with a collection of largely talented but unproven players, save for Bazemore, who will miss at least the first month after fracturing the fifth metatarsal bone in his left foot. As if that’s not enough, Hill and Ross, both of whom figure to give this team a boost among the newcomers, will not be eligible until the second semester, with Ross in that situation due to academics.

That means players like Iliadis, Cooper and Wright need to make big leaps to become major contributors, while newcomers like Mitchell have to help right away, especially with the tough nonconference schedule that is in front of this team. The Monarchs are also likely to play a little differently since they don’t have the length that helped them succeed with their zone defense and was a big reason they owned the boards.

In all, it’s fair to say that there is a lot of newness to this team, and while they aren’t lacking talent, the Monarchs also aren’t lacking question marks entering this season. That said, the last time they weren’t clear-cut contenders, they did well, so Blaine Taylor has done well before with a team that lost a lot from the prior season.

Next: Towson Tigers

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CAA Hopes Postseason Success Helps Continue Its Rise

The postseason success of last season for Colonial Athletic Association schools is both fresh in our minds and a distant memory at the same time. George Mason won a game in the NCAA Tournament, Old Dominion nearly knocked off national runner-up Butler in the first round, and no one will forget VCU’s magical run to the Final Four. Getting three teams in the NCAA Tournament made it a historical year for the conference; having the added postseason success, especially with a second team making it to the Final Four in six years, was more than just the icing on the proverbial cake.

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Old Dominion Simply Knows How to Win

RICHMOND, Va. – Being picked to win a conference and then actually doing it is tougher than people think. Repeating as champions in any context is exceedingly difficult as well. As such, one can imagine how tough it is to be picked to win, then win, two years in a row. On Monday night, that scenario was fulfilled as Old Dominion won the Colonial Athletic Association for the second year in a row with 70-65 win over arch-rival VCU. And there are a lot of things that led up to this result, a lot of things that led to this team being one that knows how to win.

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CAA Tournament Quick Hitters – Quarterfinals

RICHMOND, Va. – Some quick hitters from Saturday’s quarterfinal games at the CAA Tournament:

• A common theme thus far has revolved around the teams with byes into the quarterfinals starting slowly because they aren’t in the same rhythm as the teams who had to win on Friday to get to this point. It happened in every game on Saturday, and even the coaches felt it made a difference at first. Clearly, though, each team found their footing after a while as all four top seeds advanced to the semifinals.
• A little related to that, all eight games thus far have either been tied or had a two-point margin at halftime. … Continue Reading

Colonial Athletic Association 2010-11 Preview

Although the Colonial Athletic Association didn’t produce multiple NCAA Tournament bids as was hoped before the season, the postseason was a very successful one for the conference. Six teams played in the postseason, with Old Dominion knocking off Notre Dame in the NCAA Tournament and VCU winning the College Basketball Invitational. With much of the talent returning from last season, including many from projected top teams, there is reason to believe this year could be even better.

Nine All-CAA players return, including the reigning Player of the Year. 40 of 60 regular starters return, along with 12 of the top 20 scorers and rebounders. Around the conference, there are some solid newcomers as well, and a couple of players who missed last season due to injury also return.

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2010 Colonial Athletic Association Post-Mortem

The Colonial Athletic Association’s 25^th anniversary season saw something that rarely happens these days: the team picked to win actually won. Old Dominion, the preseason favorite, was the top seed in the conference tournament and took home the title and lone NCAA Tournament bid. They proceeded to beat Notre Dame in the first round before bowing out to Baylor in the second round.

What the season didn’t see is a second team in the NCAA Tournament. Although a couple of teams had good non-conference wins and relatively good profiles, no one joined Old Dominion in the NCAA Tournament. Northeastern and William & Mary made the NIT, while VCU and Hofstra made the CBI (VCU won it) and George Mason made the Collegeinsider.com Tournament. The general feeling was that the Monarchs had a good chance at an at-large bid if someone knocked them off in the CAA Tournament.

The CAA set a record with the six postseason teams, one more than the five from last season.

The conference had a clear top seven teams and a good drop-off to the five teams behind them in the standings. All seven teams won at least 10 CAA games, the first time that has ever happened. Hofstra, who finished seventh, got there largely from a great month of February. There wasn’t a dominant team among the top seven, and while the bottom five were clearly a notch below them, every one of those teams scored a win over a team in the top seven. All five teams were there for a reason: Towson lacked any semblance of frontcourt play, Georgia State was consistently inconsistent, UNC Wilmington could never get their offense going, and injuries hit James Madison and Delaware hard.

This year was one where juniors fared well, which lends some hope for next year. Nine of the 15 all-conference players were juniors, with seven of them placing on the first or second team. One will not be back, as VCU big man Larry Sanders declared for the NBA Draft and signed with an agent, but having eight all-conference juniors return for one more year bodes well.

One subject of discussion around the conference tournament centered on the future of it. Right now, the CAA Tournament is set through 2012 in Richmond, but the condition of the Richmond Coliseum is the elephant in the proverbial room. Sources say the city is likely to put some money into it, but commissioner Tom Yeager had a long list of issues with the facility and it’s unlikely enough money will be put into it to resolve an appreciable number of them. The current economic conditions have something to do with it, but there’s also a question of the bang for the buck the city would get as the Coliseum is used for more than just the CAA Tournament. For a lot of reasons, it’s hard to imagine the tournament being held outside of Richmond, and that was the general sentiment expressed, but that possibility may be explored more in the months ahead as the conference looks for where it will be held following 2012.

Final Standings

Conference Tournament

The first round saw just one upset, with No. 11 James Madison sending Drexel home early. A night later, the Dukes threatened to do the same thing to William & Mary before a big second half by Danny Sumner and a clutch shot late by David Schneider put the favorites in the semifinals. Hofstra narrowly escaped in the first round against Georgia State, then took Northeastern to the brink in the quarterfinals in a double overtime loss. The semifinals were terrific games, with Old Dominion knocking off arch-rival VCU and William & Mary handing Northestern a heart-breaking loss to set up the title game matchup. William & Mary made it a game after a slow start, but the favorites had too much and took home the title and the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. It marked eighth time in the last nine years that the top seed has won the tournament.

Postseason Awards

Player of the Year: Charles Jenkins, Hofstra

Rookie of the Year: Chris Fouch, Drexel

Defensive Player of the Year: Larry Sanders, VCU

Coach of the Year: Tony Shaver, William & Mary

All-Conference Team

Chaisson Allen, Jr. G, Northeastern

Matt Janning, Sr. G, Northeastern

Charles Jenkins, Jr. G, Hofstra

Gerald Lee, Sr. F, Old Dominion

Larry Sanders, Jr. F-C, VCU

Season Highlights

• CAA teams were 80-76 in non-conference play, highlighted by seven wins over teams from the six power conferences, nine more against Atlantic 10 teams and a 4-1 mark against Conference USA opponents.

• Old Dominion became the third CAA team in the last five years to win at least one NCAA Tournament game. It was the first time since 2007 that happened, and coincidentally, all three teams were a No. 11 seed.

• William & Mary had the best non-conference run of any CAA school. The Tribe had a difficult schedule, but pulled off wins at Wake Forest and Maryland and also beat Richmond at home.

• Northeastern had a tough non-conference slate, and early on they lost a lot of close games. But late in December, they started an 11-game winning streak that carried them well into CAA play.

• Charles Jenkins could always score, he rebounded well for his size and people knew he was unselfish. But this year, he found a consistent jump shot, especially from long range as he was fourth in the conference at 40.9 percent, and that helped him become the conference’s Player of the Year.

• In a bad year for James Madison, Denzel Bowles was the big bright spot as he led the conference in scoring and rebounding.

What we expected, and it happened: Old Dominion was the conference’s best team. They were the preseason favorites, and for much of the conference season was on top in the standings. The Monarchs rode the leadership of Gerald Lee and a well-balanced lineup to the NCAA Tournament and a first round win.

What we expected, and it didn’t happen: James Madison finished near the bottom. A torn ACL ended Devon Moore’s season before it began, and that didn’t help since he was a big reason the Dukes surprised many last year. The Dukes never really got untracked, and head coach Matt Brady felt the team didn’t improve over the course of the season the way he hoped they would.

What we didn’t expect, and it happened: William & Mary was a contender and in the discussion for an NCAA Tournament at-large bid. Certainly, one had to figure the Tribe would be closer to the team of two seasons ago than that of last season, but surely no one had them picking up the aforementioned non-conference wins and then getting to the conference championship game for the second time in three years.

Team(s) on the rise: George Mason and VCU. The Patriots showed their youth at times this season and might have overachieved a little, although they certainly weren’t lacking talent. The Rams had some growing pains at first adjusting to new head coach Shaka Smart and life without Eric Maynor, but they took advantage of the CBI to grow as a team and improve from the regular season. Larry Sanders is gone a year early, but the Rams have a year under Smart and will return a lot next season.

Team(s) on the decline: Georgia State. It’s hard to put anyone in this category with so many teams having a lot of players back, and if we’re talking about projections for next season, it would be easy to put Northeastern here because the Huskies lose so much. But the Huskies are in a good position looking a little past next year even if they take a step back. Georgia State, on the other hand, doesn’t appear to be getting better. They looked to be a team on the rise before 2008-09 and didn’t hit their stride until late in the season, and never seemed to get untracked this season. What next season holds is anyone’s guess, but most figured this team would be off and running by now after all the promise Rod Barnes’ first season had.

2010-11 CAA Outlook

2010-11 could be a banner year for the conference just based on returning talent. Of the 15 all-conference players, 10 will return next season, including the Player of the Year, and all but one from the All-Defensive team will return. But go to the statistical leaders and it gets better, because the top four scorers and six of the top ten all return, along with 11 of the top 13 rebounders and eight of the top ten assist men. For good measure, the top five marksmen from long range will return as well.

It doesn’t stop there, as many teams will return a high percentage of starters and key players, while the two bottom teams in the conference will each return a starter who missed this season due to injury. Old Dominion will have a strong chance to repeat as champions with only two departing seniors, although Gerald Lee will not be a small loss. George Mason and VCU will bring back most of their teams and should be contenders, and Hofstra will also return much of its team but has not had a smooth off-season in the coaching department. Northeastern and William & Mary will take hits in the personnel department, but neither should fall far and both are in good positions long-term.

It all adds up to reason for optimism in the conference next season. Coaches expressed plenty of that at Media Day last October, and chances are there will be even more of it five months from now.

Old Dominion’s Depth, Rebounding Are Keys

RICHMOND, Va. – Old Dominion’s 86-56 romp over Towson to start Saturday’s quarterfinal action at the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament was an example of thorough domination.  But in this game, one thing stood out glaringly, enough so that one had to wonder how Towson even made the two regular season meetings respectable.  You didn’t need to look at the stat sheet to know, but a quick look confirms it: the Monarchs did it inside.

Old Dominion held a 60-27 edge on the boards, grabbing 24 offensive rebounds.  They turned the offensive rebounds into just 16 second-chance points, but they also held a 44-20 edge in points in the paint.  It’s not surprising considering the size advantage the Monarchs have, but they also had a major edge in effort.  Quite simply, the Tigers were terrible when it came to boxing out, as a lot of offensive rebounds were easy ones.

In fact, the original final box score the media was handed out needed a correction, and an official noted that the rebounding numbers were off.  Anyone who watched the game probably figured no one would have noticed.  (The Tigers had one more rebound in the official box than the one that first came out.)

The Monarchs have used their size advantage well most of the season.  They are the best rebounding team in the conference by a good margin as they out-rebound opponents by near eight per game.  The players say they devote a lot of time in practice to rebounding, fully aware that size alone doesn’t make a rebounder.  It’s clear they’ve taken it to heart.

On Saturday, the Monarchs got rebounding as well as scoring all over, a stark contrast to the Tigers.  The Monarchs are a very deep team, and the bench scoring stat would jump out at anyone as they had a 41-0 advantage.  And as if that wasn’t enough, the bench also had a big hand in the rebounding numbers.  Keyon Carter grabbed nine boards to go with 16 points, while Marsharee Neely had six to go with 11 points.  Marquel De Lancey was the only Monarch not to get a rebound.

“We just had players coming from all angles getting rebounds,” said head coach Blaine Taylor.

That’s certainly one way of putting it.

Those efforts went with Frank Hassell posting a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds and active guard Kent Bazemore grabbing nine.

The Monarchs are long and deep, and looked very much like a No. 1 seed on Saturday.  They played to their strength and a clear weakness of their opponent, as Towson was out-rebounded consistently this season.  It was never a competitive game in the second half.

Taylor likes having this depth, which can serve his team well should they reach the championship game on Monday night.  It’s a key part of how he’s built this program, and it may pay big dividends again soon.

CAA: Colonial Teams Get Bracket Busted

Entering the ESPN BracketBusters event this weekend, the Colonial Athletic Association had possibly the most to gain. Twelve games later, the CAA lost more ground in race for the NCAA Tournament than any other conference.

According to the RPI, the CAA is the 12^th best conference in the country. But the conference’s top teams lost to the cream of the crop from the Missouri Valley Conference, Southern Conference and Western Athletic Conference. William & Mary, which has one of the CAA’s best profiles for an at-large bid, suffered the most damaging loss in a road game against Iona, ranked No. 92 in the RPI, by 16 points. The only elite CAA team to win was VCU, which won a home game against Akron, ranked No. 100 in the RPI. The rest of the CAA pack didn’t fare much better as the conference ended BracketBusters with a 3-9 record.

Old Dominion, Northeastern and William & Mary had the most to gain in their BracketBusters match ups. But Old Dominion couldn’t solve Northern Iowa’s suffocating defense en route to a 71-62 loss. Despite the defeat, the Monarchs have a solid résumé anchored by a marquee win at Georgetown. Old Dominion doesn’t have too many other great wins to brag about, but the Moncarchs have notched good wins against Charlotte, William & Mary (twice) and Marshall. As co-leader of the CAA, Old Dominion should receive an invitation to the NCAA Tournament even if the Monarchs lose early in the CAA Tournament.

Unfortunately for the CAA, the Monarchs are the only team that can feel comfortable about their NCAA Tournament prospects. William & Mary has stumbled too many times since racking up non-conference victories against Richmond, Wake Forest and Maryland. The Tribe has two ugly losses to James Madison and UNC-Wilmington, both of which have RPIs worse than 200. The loss to Iona in the BracketBusters event, which was televised on ESPNU, might be the death knell for the Tribe’s tournament aspirations.

After starting 2-7, Northeastern had won 16 of 18 games heading into its home match up against Louisiana Tech in the BracketBusters event. The best wins were against Kent State and CAA-foes like Old Dominion and VCU. The Huskies likely needed to beat Louisiana Tech to prove that their turnaround was complete. However, a three-point loss drops Northeastern to 18-10 and likely in need of the CAA’s automatic bid to reach the NCAA Tournament.

The lone member of the CAA elite to win a BracketBusters game was VCU, which stands at No. 61 in the RPI. The Rams have a couple of quality wins against Rhode Island and Old Dominion. But those are offset by bad losses to James Madison and Western Michigan. VCU closes the regular season at Old Dominion, which is an opportunity to pick up a quality road win. That would be the team’s fifth win against the RPI top 50. Even if the Rams enter the CAA Tournament with a 21-7 record, VCU almost certainly would need to win the automatic bid to reach the Big Dance.

Come Selection Sunday, the second-to-last weekend of February will likely be one of the big reasons why the CAA remains a one-bid conference when the selection committee reveals the brackets at the end of the second weekend of March.

In ODU-VCU Matchup, Larry Sanders is Already Too Good for Gerald Lee

As a freshman in 2007-08, VCU center Larry Sanders earned CAA All-Rookie and All-Defensive Team honors.  (This writer didn’t vote him All-Rookie-because of his minutes played-but actually voted him Defensive Player of the Year in addition to All-Defensive Team–ODU’s Brandon Johnson was so named, a selection that seems even sillier ten-months later).  After last season, when Anthony Grant was mentioned for a number of major conference coaching jobs, this writer just assumed that if Grant took a big job, he’d bring Sanders along to the “big time.”  This season, even with Sanders’ teammate Eric Maynor still in school, Sanders was my selection for conference Player of the Year (averaging just 10.5 points and 7 rebounds-and 3 blocks–at this juncture, that honor is probably out of his reach).  I’ve also mused in print as to whether he’ll play all four years at VCU, though at this point it seems overwhelmingly that he will.
I had my first opportunity to see Sanders in person this season yesterday, in the Rams’ home win over Old Dominion 61-44.  And while Larry’s 16 points (7-9) and 6 rebounds in just 24 minutes dominated the game while he was on the floor, I got a chance to observe the good and the less-good in Sanders’ game.  First of all, the 6-10 Sanders runs and jumps better than anyone in the country, often rebounding off two feet on defense, outletting to a guard, running the floor like the wind, and completing the break at the other end off one foot (many times with a thunderous dunk).  His jump is as quick as it is high, and he has the ability to wait until an opponent leaves the floor before leaping himself, and then catching that opponent in mid-air.  Sanders also has developed a nice soft touch on his mid-range jumper (to 15 feet), which he showed along the baseline yesterday.  And in addition to his athleticism, he has a nose for the ball off the board that leads to great timing in his rebounding.  Oh, and as ODU Coach Blaine Taylor said yesterday, quoting something one of his own players said watching film of VCU, Sanders is “longer than leap-year.”
After the game, I asked Coach Grant what aspects of Sanders’ game needed the most work, the most improvement, at this stage.  Unfortunately, the post-game protocol at VCU is such that the players selected for questioning by the media were seated right next to Grant when I asked the question, and with Sanders inches away, Coach was appropriately general (ie, he didn’t really answer the question).  By my observation, Sanders’ game appears weakest on three fronts, fronts which may be related to one another, at least in part:  he has not yet developed a versatile and effective low-post game on offense, his hands aren’t quite as good as he is athletic, and he commits too many fouls costing him minutes on the floor.  First on his hands, Sanders gets his hands on many more rebounds (and passes) than he ends up bringing in, reminding me a bit of Patrick Ewing (imagine how great Ewing would have been if he had been blessed with good hands).  Second, Sanders does not yet appear comfortable with the ball in the low block;  if he should develop that part of his game he will dominate the CAA offensively.  Third, a combination of some lateness on defensive help and a strong interest in leaping for blocked shots (as opposed to early position sealing off penetration, and an interest in taking charges) has made Sanders foul prone.  Throw in as a fourth the fact that Sanders isn’t particularly comfortable yet in defending out on the perimeter (which he had to do some of yesterday when guarding Gerald Lee).

All that said, Sanders was a man among boys yesterday at the Siegel Center, and after sitting 14 first half minutes with two fouls, his dominant play during the first half of the second half ended any chance the Monarchs had of winning the game.  And while ODU’s Lee did pull down 11 rebounds in the game, when Sanders was in the game Lee was overmatched both on the boards and in the post.  (ODU’s sophomore power forward Frank Hassell showed more ability to compete with Sanders on the boards than Lee did).

So reevaluating Sanders mid-January of his sophomore year, he may be the best possible player for Coach Grant.  Perhaps not yet conference Player of the Year, he is already dominant in the CAA, will be more so next season, and appears to have a skill set just short of what would be needed to leave early for the next level.  And while he is a year behind ODU junior Lee and Northeasetern’s junior center Manny Adako, and two years behind Towson’s senior Junior Hairston and Delaware’s senior Jim Ledsome, he is already head and shoulders better than all four of those players.  So even though he won’t be Player of the Year THIS YEAR in the CAA, Sanders is right where Coach Grant would like him to be, with two and a half years still to go in his VCU career.