By Harry Minium
Considering all the obstacles the Old Dominion University men's basketball team has faced this season, it's remarkable that the Monarchs head into Saturday's home game with Charlotte half a game out of first place in Conference USA's East Division.
The Monarchs lost their best player, and team captain, when Jason Wade tore his Achilles tendon just before the season began. Then late last month, the entire team went into quarantine for nearly two weeks because of positive COVID-19 tests within the program.
ODU was down to nine players, was without two starters and had not played in three weeks when the Monarchs tied a school record by erasing a 21-point deficit to defeat Marshall Friday. Then, on Wednesday evening, the Monarchs gutted out a 78-76 overtime victory at Charlotte.
ODU (10-5, 6-3 C-USA) has won eight of its last 11 games.
The Monarchs aren't just winning, they're playing with poise. Kalu Ezikpe dunked the Monarchs to an 82-81 lead with 1:03 left against Marshall, then the Monarchs played stellar defense in the final minute.
Although ODU threw away chances to win against Charlotte in regulation, guard A.J. Oliver II sent the game into overtime with a layup and Malik Curry made the game-clinching layup with 1.7 seconds left in the Queen City.
"The experience we're getting in these difficult situations has been invaluable," coach Jeff Jones said.
ODU has only held four full-speed practices in the last three weeks and Oliver and Curry have only practiced once. Yet ODU finds itself half a game behind Western Kentucky (13-4, 6-2) in the East Division.
WKU was the East Division preseason favorite and at this point, remains so. The Hilltoppers have the league's best player in 6-foot-11 center Charles Bassey and the league's best victory, a 73-71 upset at Alabama (16-5), now ranked 11th..
The schedule also favors the Hilltoppers, who host six of their final eight regular-season games, including two rescheduled games against ODU the first weekend in March.
ODU also has a couple of difficult contests next weekend at UAB (16-2, 9-1), which holds a commanding lead in the West Division.
Yet, with three weeks to go, ODU is still in the hunt. And that's a good place to be.
Curry, the senior junior college transfer from Wilmington, Delaware, is the sparkplug that makes ODU's engine hum. He leads the Monarchs in scoring (16.8 points), assists (4.1) and steals (1.9) and is fourth in rebounding (3.9).
But Ezikpe, a 6-foot-8 junior forward from Lawrenceville, Georgia, has emerged as a key in ODU's late-season success.
Generally, when he stays out of foul trouble, plays hard and scores in double figures, the Monarchs win. He had 16 points against Marshall and had a career-high 22 points to go with four blocked shots, four rebounds and three steals at Charlotte.
Meanwhile, in an 87-67 loss to Marshall Saturday night, Ezikpe got into foul trouble early in the first half and scored just five points in 17 minutes.
"When Kalu plays well, that opens up things for the rest of us, especially when teams have to send someone else to handle Kalu," Curry said.
Ezikpe is muscular and talented and at times, can dominate a game. Jones would like to see more of that, and fewer fouls.
He and Ezikpe had heart-to-heart discussion about unnecessary fouls on Tuesday before the Monarchs bussed to Charlotte. After an early foul, Ezikpe played the rest of the game without drawing a whistle.
"The fact that he didn't get into foul trouble allowed me to put him in and take him out when I needed to. My hand wasn't being forced," Jones said.
When ODU lost Wade, the Monarchs lost their best offensive player. Ezikpe is still adjusting to playing a higher profile in ODU's offense.
"He hasn't played on the collegiate level on a team that needs his production throughout the course of a game like we do," Jones said. "The game in Charlotte was a positive experience for him."
It certainly was offensively, as he made 10 of 11 shots. Overall, the Monarchs made 61.7 percent of their shots, and when they shoot that well, they're difficult to beat.
Jones said of Ezikpe, "It's all about mental preparedness. When he's locked in mentally, when he's not reacting, when he's more on the attack, that results in fewer fouls and better plays.
"In a sense, he's a microcosm of our team. What he can't do is allow himself to be motivated by outside stimuli. It's not always going to be there. This year we don't have the crowds. There are going to be situations where there's no excitement. You have to create that energy.
"Michael Jordan was famous for making stuff up. He was looking for any reason to get upset, get mad at the other team, who he was going against."
Jones relied largely on his starters against Charlotte, who played most of the game, but Austin Trice, the senior transfer from Kansas State, has become increasingly more valuable off the bench. He has scored in double figures in four of the last five games, including 20 in the comeback victory over Marshall.
Like Ezikpe, he's beginning to jell at just the right moment. The Conference USA tournament, which starts on March 10, is less than a month away.
"We're in a good position," Jones said. "And we want to do everything we can to stay there."
Contact Minium: hminium@odu.edu
Minium: ODU Men's Basketball Team is Half a Game Out of First as it Heads Into the Stretch Run
