What will ODU's status be in its final year in the CAA in 2012-13? Two words: lame duck. Under current rules, the Monarchs won't be eligible for the conference tournament. A proposal to change that bylaw will be taken up at the CAA meetings next month, but it appears to face an uphill battle.

Marshall coach Tom Herrion knows Old Dominion basketball. He spent four years as a Virginia assistant. One of his aides, Mark Cline, worked for five years at Old Dominion under former coach Jeff Capel. "I'm very familiar with the history of the program," Herrion said Thursday.

CHESAPEAKE Great Bridge's Taj Owens has signed to play basketball at Radford. Owens, a 5-foot-10 senior guard, helped lead the Wildcats to their first Southeastern District regular-season title since 2000. They also won a school-record 21 games.

By Hank Kurz Jr. RICHMOND Colonial Athletic Association Commissioner Tom Yeager has lost two long-time member universities in the last week, and is now shopping for replacements. He's not happy about it.

VIRGINIA BEACH A General District Court judge Thursday found former Old Dominion University basketball star Kent Bazemore guilty of failing to comply with a court-ordered alcohol-safety class and gave him another chance to complete the course without going to jail.

Join us at 12:30 p.m. Friday for a live chat with Virginian-Pilot sports writers Rich Radford and Ed Miller on what Old Dominion's switch from the CAA to Conference-USA means for the university. Enter your email address below to get an alert before the chat begins.
RELATED ODU to join Conference-USA in 2013
Rich Radford The CAA is doomed  | Rich's ODU football blog

The structural integrity of the Colonial Athletic Association just crumbled. With VCU announcing Tuesday that it is leaving to join the Atlantic-10 in July, the league as we've known it fell apart. This was a bold decree by VCU that it lacks faith in the CAA's potential.

PORTSMOUTH Former Norcom High star Dorian Finney-Smith has received interest from more than 20 colleges since he announced last week that he planned to transfer from Virginia Tech, his mother said. The 6-foot-9 forward has narrowed his list to Florida, Marquette, Georgetown, Iowa State, Villanova, Texas and Alabama.

By Hank Kurz Jr. RICHMOND Virginia Commonwealth University became the biggest story of the 2011 NCAA basketball tournament when it made an improbable run to the Final Four. Now the Rams are cashing in.

Virginia men’s basketball coach Tony Bennett is in for a homecoming at the 14th ACC-Big Ten Challenge.

The pairings announced Monday have the Cavaliers headed to Madison, Wis., for a Nov. 28 date with Wisconsin, where Bennett spent four seasons as an assistant coach from 1999-2003. His father, Dick, was the Badgers’ head coach for six years.