Minium: ODU Men's Basketball Is First in the Sun Belt, And While That's Worth Celebrating, It's Early In The Conference Season

 

Minium: At 4-1, ODU Basketball is first in the Sun Belt, but it's too early to draw hard and fast conclusions about Monarchs

 

By Harry Minium

NORFOLK, Va. – It’s only mid-January and drawing hard and fast conclusions about a college basketball team so early is almost always foolhardy.

The Sun Belt basketball tournament is nearly seven weeks away, and a lot can happen between now and the start of March Madness.

Nonetheless, if you’re an Old Dominion men’s basketball fan, you have reason to celebrate just a little and be cautiously optimistic about the rest of the season.

Less than a month ago, the Monarchs were 3-8 and going nowhere fast. There was an embarrassing early-season 102-44 loss at Arizona and heading into the Sun Belt opener at ULM on Dec. 21, the Monarchs had lost five of their last six games.

Only a handful of players returned from last season and while some of the newcomers at times looked promising, melding a team of 19 guys who had never played together into a team sometimes takes an entire season.

First-year Head Coach Mike Jones called the nearly 3-8 non-conference record “a gut punch.”

“If you don’t have some resiliency, if you don’t have some togetherness, it would have been really easy for our guys to say, ‘Oh, it’s just going to be like it was last year, so I’m going to worry about scoring my points and where am I going next year.’”

But that did not happen. Instead, the Monarchs flew to Monroe, Louisiana just before Christmas and played with passion and poise.

The Monarchs blew a late lead at ULM, but then won the game in overtime, 80-75.

“That’s when our guys truly began to believe,” said Odell Hodge, special assistant to Jones. “Winning a conference game on the road, it gave them all a boost of confidence.”

The Monarchs have now won five of their last six games and host App State Thursday night with a 4-1 Sun Belt record and share the conference lead with South Alabama.

Think about that – ODU has a share of the conference lead (and holds the tiebreaker over the Jaguars). It’s been a long time since you could say that about an ODU men’s basketball team five games into the league season.

The last victory, a 71-63 overtime triumph over South Alabama, came against what had been considered the Sun Belt’s best team. And the Monarchs outscored the Jaguars, 7-0, in OT on their home floor.

This does not mean that ODU will win the Sun Belt title nor that the Monarchs will necessarily compete for the title. It does mean, however, that after a faltering start, this team shows a ton of potential.

The early slump was a major disappointment to ODU’s fan base. There was so much optimism because Jones is a beloved ODU alumnus.

Expectations were simply too lofty for a team coming off a 7-25 season.

“There was so much excitement before we played a game,” Jones said. “And when it didn’t go well right away, well, you’re dealing with young people, you’re dealing with a fan base that really wants it too.

“I’m proud of our guys because they hung in there. We told them just keep working, keep working, don’t quit. Something good is going to happen.

“We very easily could have lost at Monroe. If we lose that game, who knows what our mentality would be like because we played well enough to win.”

But they did win, and so far, Jones’ new recruits have largely led the way.

Sean Durugordon, who had 27 points and 18 rebounds at South Alabama, is a 6-foot-6 senior guard and a transfer from Siena. He averages 14.5 points and 7.4 rebounds and is a hard-nosed competitor.

Robert Davis Jr., a transfer from UMass, leads ODU with 15 points a game and leads the team with a 37 percent three-point shooting percentage. When he gets hot, he’s extremely difficult to stop, as he was at South Alabama, where he scored 25 points. 

Guard Devin Ceaser, who has missed six games with an injury, is the only other player averaging double figures (11.5 points).

The best player on the team, in my opinion, is point guard Jaden Johnson.

Johnson is a true freshman from Walker Mill, Maryland, whom coaches had hoped to ease into the lineup. When senior Imo Essien was lost for the season during preseason practice, Johnson was thrust into the starter’s role.

He was never better than he was at South Alabama. He ran the offense nearly flawlessly and scored seven points, had eight assists and no turnovers and played all 45 minutes.

He averages 8.8 points and nearly five assists per game, but stats don’t begin to measure his worth to this team.

Seven-foot center Caelum Swanton-Rodger, a Canadian who transferred from Maryland, struggled at times early on, and that’s no surprise given that he played sparingly in his two seasons with the Terps.

Caelum may not play Thursday – he had his nose broken and then took an errant elbow to his jaw last week – but has averaged 5.4 points, 4.7 rebounds and two blocked shots per game. He’s visibility improved since November.

Dani Pounds, the 6-7 sophomore forward from Atlanta, had not played particularly well prior to the South Alabama game, but had seven points and 10 rebounds in Mobile, Alabama when he played in Swanton-Rodgers’ place.

“Dani really stepped up for us,” Jones said.

R.J. Blakney (5.4 points, 4.3 rebounds) and Stephaun Walker (6.5 points, 7.4 rebounds) have also played major roles for ODU.

“This isn’t tennis, it’s not golf,” Jones said. “It’s a team sport and it’s not all about you, it’s about us.

“And we have a bunch of guys who are embracing that.”

The App State game on Thursday begins a four-game home stand for ODU.

Saturday, ODU hosts Georgia Southern at 3:30 p.m. in the annual alumni game. Then comes a rivalry game against James Madison on Wednesday, Jan. 22, and a Saturday night home game against Coastal Carolina on Jan. 25.

We’ll know a lot more about the Monarchs after late on Jan. 25.

Jones said his team feels an obligation to play well for ODU’s fans, who clearly are the best in the Sun Belt. Last season, when ODU was last in the Sun Belt, the Monarchs still led the league in attendance.

Chartway Arena is also the best basketball arena in the Sun Belt. It's more than two decades old but has been superably maintained.

“When you walk into this building, I would have believed it if you had told me it was new,” said George Washington coach Chris Caputo. “It’s such a great facility.”

The Monarchs lead the Sun Belt so far this season at 4,750 fans per game, and I hope that number grows exponentially.

“There’s a responsibility we have to give these fans what we’re trying to build,” Jones said. “We tell our players to think of everyone showing up for us. How can you not want to give it your all? How can you not want to win?”

There will be adversity, slumps and perhaps losing streaks over the next seven weeks. Such is the nature of college basketball.

The good news is that the Monarchs have almost always played hard, even in defeat. Teams that play hard generally win close games.

“We’re just five games into our 18-game conference season,” Jones said. “We can’t celebrate. We haven’t done anything yet. We still have to play everyone in our division twice.

“There’s so much ahead of us.

“But I think we should acknowledge what we have done. And that we know what we’re capable of."

Minium is ODU’s senior executive writer. Contact him at hminium@odu.edu or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram