Radford and Miller
Pilot staff writers Rich Radford and Ed Miller cover Old Dominion University's men's basketball team ... and blog about it here..
Category: ODU Basketball
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■ 01 July 2009 | 2:44 PM
Schedule soon
Burned up the international phone lines Tuesday tracking down Anton Larsen, the Monarchs' latest commitment. Finally got him about 6 p.m. our time, which is 1 a.m. in Copenhagen. Not to worry, Larsen said, he was up anyway. Larsen was clearly excited about coming to ODU, saying it's been his dream to play ball in the U.S. He arrives in late August.
Look for ODU's schedule to be released next week. Among the highlights is a loaded South Padre Island Invitational tournament at Thanksgiving. Richmond, Mississippi State and Missouri are also in the field. The Spiders have four starters back and also get forward Dan Geriot back from a knee injury. Mississippi State, SEC tournament champs last year, looks absolutely stacked, with this guy back, and this guy coming in, although not without some baggage.
Missouri advanced to the NCAA tournament Elite Eight last year. And, of course, the Monachs return virtually everyone from a 25-10 team that won the Collegeinsider.com tournament.
-- Ed Miller
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■ 06 May 2009 | 8:30 PM
Big Blue BBQ time
It's time for the Big Blue BBQ.
Thursday afternoon behind the Ted Constant Convocation Center from 5 to 8 p.m.
Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the door. To orde tickets, call 683-4444.
Proceeds benefit the ODU men's basketball team.
The coaching staff and players will be there and the Island Boys Band will be playing.
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■ 06 May 2009 | 12:55 PM
Big Blue BBQ
The annual bash is tomorrow (Thursday May 7) from 5 to 8 p.m. behind the Ted Constant Center.
Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door, with proceeds going to the team. To order, call 683-4444
There will be live music, Norfolk Sheriff Bob McCabe's barbeque and raffle prizes. It's also a chance to meet and mingle with players and coaches.
With excitement about next year's team running high, expect a big turnout.
-- Ed Miller
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■ 01 May 2009 | 10:15 AM
A Jaquon Parker update
Radford blogging:
Josh Worrell, Jaquon Parker's high school basketball coach at King's Fork, reports that the state's Group AAA player of the year is now interested at prepping in the fall at schools either in Florida or Connecticut.
Worrell touched base shortly after the story on Parker pulling his verbal commitment ran in Wednesday's Virginian-Pilot. He said that Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Va., was no longer the front-runner for Parker for this coming fall.
Parker is transferring because at 19 he has no more Virginia High School League eligibility, but is still a few classes short of graduating.
To catch you up to speed, Parker gave a verbal commitment a little more than two weeks ago to sign with ODU in November. He backed out of that verbal commitment Tuesday, saying he needed more time to assess his choices. The front-runners at this point seem to be Cincinnati, Connecticut, Georgetown, Virginia and ODU, in no particular order.
As a 6-foot-4, 210-pound dual-threat guard with a prototypical body build, he's a coveted player.
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■ 28 April 2009 | 11:25 AM
McAdoo to ODU? At least it rhymes
Radford blogging:
There’s a wonderful scene in the movie Seabiscuit where radio announcer Tick Tock McGlaughlin, played by the incomparable William H. Macy, tells his captive audience, “Stop the presses! Stop the presses! This isn’t a scoop, this is three scoops, with hot fudge, with a cherry on top, and throw in some nuts!”
We start with that scene stealer because, well, we have a scoop: James McAdoo recently visited with ODU coach Blaine Taylor.
McAdoo is the 6-foot-8½, 210-pound sophomore at Norfolk Christian whose parents both played at ODU.
He’s rated a 98 out of 100 on the ESPN men’s basketball recruiting website, which means there aren’t many who are considered better.
Rivals.com rates him the fourth-best player in the class of 2011.
He’s a five-star recruit. And there’s no such thing as a six-star recruit.
McAdoo’s father Ronnie ranks seventh all-time at ODU in scoring at 1,776 points and fifth all-time in rebounding with 953. Listed at 6-6, Ronnie’s probably closer to 6-5. McAdoo’s mom Janet, who also played some at ODU before transferring to Long Beach State, is taller than Ronnie, by a shade.
Let’s just say the gene pool is there for some serious height ... and some serious skill.
“The doctor says James will stop at 6-10 or 6-11,” Ronnie said. “Something about the length of his fingers. That and the fact Janet has a brother who’s 6-11.”
As ODU fans read this, that’s not what has them buzzing. They’ll take 6-8½ and run with it.
They know McAdoo’s a long cat (did I mention he’s a small forward?). What they want to know is this: Is there really a chance that McAdoo could end up at ODU? Or was this a trip over to campus to line up a place for James to play some pickup games and some open gyms over the summer?
Here’s what dad had to say.
“We had a really good talk that lasted about 90 minutes and ODU is definitely a top program,” Ronnie said. “The school has established itself as top-notch. They play in the postseason.”
Still, the scuttlebutt about James McAdoo is that he’ll be wearing some shade of blue and that it’ll be either North Carolina blue or Duke Blue Devils blue.
Is it cruel to tease the ODU faithful? Or is there a chance that ODU blue might be the color of choice?
“We’ve made five other unofficial visits,” Ronnie said. “Florida, North Carolina, Georgetown, Wake Forest and Duke.”
That’s a lot of blue, with some black and gold mixed in. And everybody familiar with ODU knows how they feel about any school that wears black and gold.
Ronnie McAdoo knows what he’s got sleeping beneath his roof: a bona-fide player. No secret there. But ODU?
“We made it very clear to him that we didn’t want him to consider ODU just because mom and dad played there,” Ronnie McAdoo said. “But in talking to James afterward, I realized that’s not the case.
“He’ll consider ODU for all the right reasons if he gets serious about ODU.”
Here’s the facts: The McAdoos live 2.7 miles from the Constant Center, where ODU plays. James McAdoo was a first-team All-Tidewater player as a sophomore, and this year’s first team is arguably the best five ever assembled.
That’s right, ever.
ODU already landed a gem from that fab five when state Group AAA player of the year and Tidewater player of the year Jaquon Parker, who led King’s Fork to a state title, said he’d be a Monarch. The other three are dynamite in sneakers as well: Atlantics Shores’ Steven Pledger is headed for Oklahoma; Norfolk Collegiate’s Donte Hill is going to Clemson; Atlantic Shores junior Andre Dawkins has already committed to Duke.
That’s as good a five as it gets, and McAdoo has the highest up-side of any. He averaged 25.2 points and 11 rebounds for Norfolk Christian and will spend the summer starring for the Boo Williams AAU travel team.
Here’s the speculation: McAdoo might be a one-and-done when he gets to college. With the NBA throwing money at young players these days, it’s been the road that many in McAdoo’s shoes have taken. Would ODU take him knowing that it might mean one great season and that’s it? How could the Monarchs pass on that?
Think Kevin Durant.
Or Greg Oden.
Or Carmelo Anthony.
Or Derrick Rose.
But mostly, think about this: McAdoo visited. It won’t end up on any national recruiting rundowns, because those internet sites have their pet schools.
Rivals.com presently lists Connecticut, Duke, Indiana, North Carolina, Florida, UCLA and Wake Forest as schools of interest for McAdoo?
UCLA?
Are they serious?
Rivals.com will be challenged to list ODU on McAdoo’s schools of interest list because ODU doesn’t have a sponsored page on the Rivals.com network. Chances are this latest development will go unnotice nationally.
But McAdoo visited.
And that’s indisputable.
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■ 20 April 2009 | 3:00 PM
A roster for 2013-14
Radford blogging:
Here are two names to chew on: Wykevin Bazemore and Chad Hicks.
Right about now you are thinking, “Where’s this blog going?”
This blog is going into the future.
Presently, Kent Bazemore plays for ODU and Josh Hicks is an incoming freshman this fall who just signed his national letter of intent with the Monarchs. Both Bazemore and Hicks have younger brothers who can play too.
Wykevin Bazemore is a 6-foot-3 sophomore guard at Bertie High just outside of Elizabeth City, N.C. Chad Hicks is a 6-3 freshman at Mount Tabor High in Winston-Salem, N.C.
Why stop there? Trian Iliadis has a little brother, Nikolas, who’s probably going to end up being about 6-6 and the word is he can shoot it.
So will there be a sibling recruit in the future? You never know.
* With commitments from guards Jaquon Parker and Dimitri Batten to sign in the November, a lot of ODU’s time the next six months will be spent ... baby-sitting.
It’s a fact that other schools still have a shot at changing the minds of these two commitments. The big question is whether the players will honor what they’ve announced.
At least with baby-sitting, the Monarchs’ coaching staff knows where they will be most of the time. And maybe baby-sitting isn’t the correct term. It’s more like monitoring.
The coaching staff has somehow created a situation in which the Monarchs are now a year ahead of most others in recruiting. Their concentration can be devoted to the recruiting class for 2011. ODU has four players in its rising class of juniors (Frank Hassell, Keyon Carter, Darius James and Ben Finney), so there will be four scholarships available that year.
Yes, there is still a scholarship floating out there for the upcoming season and that should play out in the next month. Could be tomorrow, could be in mid May. The Monarchs have been known to hold onto that last scholarship in the deck and chew on it before deciding.
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■ 06 April 2009 | 1:12 PM
WTKR and Blaine
Radford blogging:
While the basketball season is over for just about everyone, ODU coach Blaine Taylor has one more requirement: A TV gig with Ted Alexander tonight from 7 to 8 p.m. as a precursor of the NCAA Championship game between North Carolina and Michigan State. It's called, "NCAA Championship Countdown," and will be followed by "The Big Bang Theory" and "How I Met Your Mother" before the game itself. CBS begins its game coverage at 9 p.m.
As for Taylor, Expect some Jud Heathcote stories. Being a Heathcote disciple, Taylor will likely bring up a few stories about Jud from Heathcote's days as the guru of all that is basketball at Michigan State.
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■ 03 April 2009 | 10:59 AM
ODU's win over Bradley to be reshown on Comcast
Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic will replay the ODU-Bradley game -- the CIT championship final -- Saturday at 4 p.m.
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■ 02 April 2009 | 8:32 PM
Thinking about next year already
Blaine Taylor is already working on next year's schedule and expects to offer Monarchs fans a home schedule with 15 games.
Beyond ODU's nine built-in conference home games, the Monarchs already have home games against Marshall, Duquesne and Charlotte after visiting those schools for games this past season.
ODU will also host two games of a four-game tournament which will conclude on Sauth Padre Island, Texas.
The Monarchs have the availability to play 13 out-of-conference games and that makes seven. Taylor said ODU will bring in a team for a "guarantee game," which more than likely means a MEAC team. That makes eight games.
Nine and 10 are trips to Richmond and Liberty (which is a BracketBuster payback). Game 11 of the OOCs is a road game in the BracketBusters.
That leaves two games.
"They will be road games and we're looking for teams of stature to play us," Taylor said.
Virginia?
"If they'll play us," Taylor said.
As always, Taylor will be looking for a home-and-home series, like the ones he carved out with UAB and Georgetown in recent years.
* Ben Finney had a band-aid on his chin when the Monarchs returned home Wednesday. Said Taylor, "I always tell the kids that girls love stitches and scars."
* Taylor said that in one of the late timeouts against Bradley in ODU's 66-62 championship game victory, he looked at his team and just said, "20 and 20. They got the message." Taylor likes to make his team tough and conditioned by making them run 20 suicides in 20 minutes in preseason drills.
ADVISORY: Users are solely responsible for opinions they post here and for following agreed-upon rules of civility. Comments do not reflect the views of The Virginian-Pilot or its Web sites. Comments are automatically checked for inappropriate language, but readers might find some comments offensive or inaccurate. If you believe a comment violates our rules, click the "Report Violation" link below the comment to alert an editor. Update on new comment functions.
■ 30 March 2009 | 9:08 PM
Where to watch the game
This just in: Monarch Sports Grille will get the ODU-Bradley game on DirecTV.
Also, for those of you watching on DirecTv at home. Received an email from Debbie White at ODU this morning regarding a channel change:
"Fox College Sports has reported that the broadcast of the College Insiders Tournament championship tonight will be carried on directTV channel 617, not 613 as previously reported. The ODU Monarchs will meet Bradley in the finals at 8 p.m. (EST) in Peoria, IL."
The game will also be streamed live on the internet at www.foxsports.com
ADVISORY: Users are solely responsible for opinions they post here and for following agreed-upon rules of civility. Comments do not reflect the views of The Virginian-Pilot or its Web sites. Comments are automatically checked for inappropriate language, but readers might find some comments offensive or inaccurate. If you believe a comment violates our rules, click the "Report Violation" link below the comment to alert an editor. Update on new comment functions.
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