NORFOLK, Va. – If you'd beamed into Appalachian State's Holmes Convocation Center from another planet Saturday night and gazed at the Old Dominion men's basketball team at halftime, surely you would have thought the Monarchs were going absolutely get waxed.
Four of ODU's top six scorers were injured. Forward Ben Stanley was out with a torn ACL suffered two nights earlier. Point guard Imo Essien suffered a concussion the same night and did not play.
Chaunce Jenkins, ODU's starting point guard and best player, sprained an ankle in the first half and missed most of the game. Tre Brown, another point guard, was lost to eligibility issues before the season began.
And then there was junior forward Mekhi Long, his knee taped up and in a brace after he injured it a week earlier.
Yet somehow, he managed to play 38 minutes and against all odds, the Monarchs didn't get waxed. They rallied to defeat Appalachian State, 74-63.
It was the sixth victory in ODU's last eight games, including a 3-1 record on the road. Remarkable for a team that has resembled a MASH Unit much of the season.
Long was the hero this night for ODU, scoring 17 points and hauling down 12 rebounds.
He's been at his best in the stretch run as he has had six double doubles in ODU's last eight games. He missed ODU's game at Texas State, when the Monarchs won 70-68, and went to the bench early during a road loss against JMU with a sore knee.
Otherwise, he averaged 14.5 points and 13 rebounds during those six games.
The still gimpy Monarchs prepare for their final two regular-season games of the season this week, and it's hard fathom a more difficult challenge.
On Wednesday at 7 p.m., ODU (17-11 overall, 9-7 Sun Belt) hosts Sun Belt leader Southern Miss (24-5, 13-3), which has the league's most impressive resume. The Golden Eagles have won 10 of their last 11 games and claimed an early-season triumph at Vanderbilt of the SEC.
Second place Marshall (23-6, 12-4) comes to Chartway Arena Friday at 7 p.m. The Herd has won 11 of its last 13 games. It will be Senior Night for the Monarchs.
Louisiana (21-7, 11-5) and James Madison (20-9, 11-5) are tied for third while ODU is tied with Troy (9-7, 17-12) for fifth.
ODU has clinched a first-round bye in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament, held Feb. 28 through March 6 in Pensacola, Florida. The Monarchs could conceivably finish among the top four, and thus clinch a double bye into the quarterfinals, but will have to win their final two games and hope that Louisiana loses both of its remaining games.
A long shot but not impossible given what this team accomplished in recent weeks.
Head coach Jeff Jones had nine scholarship players available against App State, including Charles Smith IV, who played sparingly this season, yet came off the bench and scored 11 points in 22 minutes.
He was so shorthanded that walk-on P.J. Gill played.
Yet it was Long's performance this night that epitomizes an ODU team that has remained competitive in spite of so many players being sick or injured.
Jones kept asking Long if he wanted to rest and he kept saying no. Long later confided to trainer Jason Mitchell that had he gone to the bench he might not have been able to return because his knee would have stiffened up.
"Mekhi is one of the hardest workers I've coached," Jones said. "He plays at both ends of the court and he's not afraid to mix it up in practice or in games.
"He has such a big heart and plays so hard.
"The other guys look up to him and respect him for what he does."
Jones refers to Long's work ethic to his players so often that the Monarchs have jokingly nicknamed him "Jeff Jones' son."
Long smiled when asked about his new nickname and responded, "I only have one father and his name is Jermaine Long."
It was Long's parents, including mother, Nisha Taylor, who helped direct their son to ODU. Long played at two different high schools and then enrolled at Rhode Island after turning down offers from VCU, St. John's and St. Joseph's.
Long has been a model citizen at ODU, but acknowledges he was a bit of a free spirit in high school and at URI, where he played in 30 games as a freshman in 2019-2020.
"I was always coachable," he said. But on the court "I just wanted to do what I wanted to do.
"I would push the ball up and court and just do what I wanted to do. I didn't want to run plays."
He said he realized after his freshman year that he needed a coach with a sturdy hand. And Jones has a sturdy hand – he's a disciplinarian who is known to raise his voice from time to time.
"That's what I needed," Long said. "I needed a coach who was going to be direct and honest with me.
"I'd heard about his reputation and he isn't as hard on us as I heard he was."
Jones said "we didn't have to do a whole lot of recruiting" to get Long.
He and his family reached out to ODU "and it was a very quick recruiting process," Jones added.
"We were familiar with him, and we really wanted him. He's 6-foot-7, he's athletic and active and he works hard. What we have found out since is that he's a great young man.
"He's as hard a worker as we have. He never says a whole lot. He never complains. He just goes out there and has fun and is a great teammate."
Jones took Long with him to New Orleans for Sun Belt basketball media day and touted him as the league's Defensive Player of the Year. He's clearly been ODU's defensive leader.
He is first on the team in average minutes played (32.2), rebounding (8.5) and total steals (41). He's also second in three-point field goal percentage (39.1 percent) and third in scoring (10.6).
He said he's glad he came to ODU.
"I have grown a lot here, as a person and a player," he said
"Coach Jones taught me that whatever you do off the court translates onto the court and vice versa. I've become more mature, more of a leader."
"What we did last week shows we're a tough team," he added. "But we've been doing it the whole year. We haven't been at full strength all season. That says a lot about our character. We're all fighters."
Contact Minium at hminium@odu.edu or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram
Minium: Mekhi Long Has Been a Mainstay in ODU Basketball's Last-Season Run
