Chat Live with Blaine Taylor
Monday, Nov. 14 at 3:30 p.m.Chat live with Monarch head basketball coach Blaine Taylor, Monday at 3:30 p.m. Send in your questions to Blaine about the upcoming season, the CAA and basketball in general. Blaine Taylor, the CAA 2005 Coach of the Year is in his fifth season at the helm of the Monarch program. Last year, ODU captured the CAA title and advanced to the NCAA tournament.ODU returns all but one player from last year's squad. The Monarchs open the season on Friday, Nov. 18 against the University of Georgia in the Paradise Jam Tournament in St.Thomas, VI. |
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| Moderator: Good afternoon Monarch basketball fans! Head coach Blaine Taylor will join us in a few minutes. Feel free to submit questions. |
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mark goble (memphis, tn): Hello Coach Taylor. How is Arnud Dahi's shoulder? |
| | Coach Taylor: Dahi's shoulder is just fine. Scott Johnson, our trainer, and Dr. Schaffer, our team doc, conferred immediately at the conclusion of the NCAA Tournament. Dr. Schaffer postponed vacation to do surgery immediately. The recover was long and somewhat tedious, but the end result has been a very solid joint and healty Arnud. |
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| Charles: The CAA looks really strong again,I didn't realize there were somemany teams with four or fivestarters returning? |
| | Coach Taylor: It's very eye-opening to analyze the CAA's coming competition. Virtually every all-league player, leading scorer, leading rebounder, ect... returns. If you combine that fact with a unprecedented number of schools being in post-season play (including Northeastern) everyone should really be in for a treat following this league race. |
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| Tom (Newport News): Where are Larry K and Kenny Gattison doing now? |
| | Coach Taylor: Larry, upon the birth of his third child in three years, took a year away from coaching. After that he coached in the CBA at the franchise in Boise, Idaho. About a year and a half ago, Larry was selected to be the new head at the University of Montanna. Many of us who had a history with Montanna felt very good about that. Larry in their first year had a very fine season playing a couple of upsets in their conference tournament and advancing to the NCAA Tournament. |
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| | Coach Taylor: Kenny, of course, had background in the NBA and an opporutnity arose for Kenny to back with the Hornets. A franchise that he had both played for and worked in the front office. Tim Floyd hired him upon relocating the Hornets to New Orleans. Kenny is currently o.k. in the aftermath of Katrina. The Hornets are operating out of Oklahoma City this winter. Interesting side note...both Larry and Kenny have three sons, who I'm sure will not lack for size. |
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| Larry (Chesapeake): How important is your team depth?Best of luck this year. |
| | Coach Taylor: If you build a program for post-season play, you typically need to survive stretches of games in close frequency. An example would be the Paradise Jam...another would be the three-games in five days to start conference in January...another is the CAA Tournament. If people have ever experienced the NCAA Tournament, the second game of the regionals, your bench and depth become a factor for sure. |
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| Tom (Norfolk): Blaine we are so proud of thejob you have done at ODU. Yourco-captains, Alex and Drew ouroutstanding leaders. |
| | Coach Taylor: We are very thankful for the patience and the positive feelings that people have had in regards to ODU basketball. A really important part of any setting is the people involved. We have been very blessed to have recruited the types of people, students, leaders, and players that Alex and Drew are. |
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| Jerry (Newport News): Any chance you might be playinggames out west in the future? |
| | Coach Taylor: Yes. It seems that as we work the schedule and look to other regions, we have not been able to find just the right fit, but I do believe its important that we show the rest of the country what we are attempting to build. |
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| Harry (Norfolk): What do the CAA teams need to doto start getting more than oneteam in the NCAA's. Good luckin St. Thomas. |
| | Coach Taylor: Win...Seriously, as more schools have winning records, produce significant outcomes against certain opponents, and when given an opportunity in post-season play breakthrough, then the perception will grow to where more teams are invited. Many feel we are on the cusp of these possibilities. One additional thought...rarely does the best team win a conference tournament come March. That team always has the best chance for an at-large berth. |
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| Virginia Beach: If we had any weakness last year it would have to be consistent 3 point shooting. ODU finished 8th in the CAA for 3 PT percentage and 7th in 3 PT fields goals made. Do you feel we are improved in this area and how have you addressed this area in personnel and strategy, if at all? |
| | Coach Taylor: We are a team that plays to our strengths. And those strenghts statisically are that we try to guard people. We try to take care of the ball. We have good balance and we'd like to think that we are as competitive on game night as anybody around. By virtue of a really good win-loss record last year, it wasn't really necessary to launch a three-point attack as our primary focus. But, a part of our balance is perimeter play, post play, fast-break basketball, and efficient half-court basketball, which in all phases incorporates the three-point shot. I have every confidence that we can be an efficient three-point shooting team. But let me remind you, a lot of people that live by the three...die by the three. |
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| Brock (Hampton): For the students and alumni, the VCU games are probably the most intense, as a coach do you pick up on that intensity and does it somehow change your gameplan or how you address the team? |
| | Coach Taylor: The VCU series has a real nice history and is very closely followed by our fans. What has been heartwarming to me is that our fans have tuned in to the rest of the CAA and we have numerious games that people get excited about. The other thing is that I think people want to watch us rather than worrying about who we are playing. When I first got here, I was hopeful there would come a point where having a ticket was important and making sure your calendar was clear when we played was a close second. I want all of our games to be big games, but I agree with you that the VCU game has special qualities. I really try to prepare our team to play at a high level at all times and that's hard to do if you value games differently too often. I think our players sense more from outside than from me that the VCU game has a special following. |
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John (Norfolk): Hello Coach, Good luck this year, should be very special and I appreciate what you have done for the team and University! I hope you are here for a long time! Do you anticipate any redshirts this year? Thanks, Coach! |
| | Coach Taylor: I'm always looking out for the long term future of individual players and the program. As a result each fall, you evaluate potential redshirts. As it stands right now, we are going to play our whole roster this coming season. What that means is that playing time is going to be hard earned and the end result will be that some nights, very good players that contribute to us in many ways, may see very limited action. As your program becomes stronger, what you hope happens is you have lots of good players who earn a chance to contribute and yet have plenty of depth waiting in the wings if needed. |
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| Curt (Portsmouth): What type of player is MarshareeNeely? |
| | Coach Taylor: I think people will really enjoy watching Marsharee. He has a real lively, physical presence...very fast from end to end, kinda like Isaiah. He has the potential to be a very good defender and already is a good rebounder. We really liked everybody's personal feelings about him as a person, as a teammate, and a young person to coach. He is quite athletic, plays up around the basket with ease, and has very good decision-making skills, which will allow him to play a variety of positions on the perimeter. |
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| | Coach Taylor: Thank you everyone for stopping by. We answered as many questions as possible and occasionally moved past questions that were similiar to others. See ya down the trail. |
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| Moderator: Time is up...Thank you for stopping by odusports.com for today's chat with Coach Taylor. Reminder that the Monarchs open up the 2005-06 season at the Paradise Jam this weekend. |
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