Brian Earl is gonna be good somewhere. Not sure he ever gets to the big leagues though
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Both Earl bros
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Odom’s squad has really improved on offense the last 6 weeks or so. November/December they were 142nd in offensive efficiency and 22nd in defensive efficiency, overall 64th.
In their last 10 games (which may have a little overlap w/ Nov/Dec) they are 29th in offense and 64th in defense, overall 31st.
So, looks like they are trending in the right direction with a lot more balance.
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To be fair, he lost his best two players — Williams and Khalifa — to the portal in the days after his season ended. They quit on him, too.
Everything is fair game in a world without guardrails.
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Note to self, don’t take a nice leisurely walk on a sidewalk near where Lodger might be driving. 
“No guardrails, fair game”
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I was thinking more Dead Man’s Curve, but that works, too.
When’s the last time haney jogged?
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Every situation is different. Byington is in year 1 at Vandy taking over for a failed coach. Odom is in year 2 taking over for a successful coach. Odom also in year 2 has returned 3 starters (in their COVID years) and added 2 other COVID year transfers, so they are very old and experienced. League isn’t exactly a gauntlet other than Dayton who has stumbled a bit in conference play (and Mason is solid). Expectations at VCU are an NCAA bid every year, so going 0-2 would be a pretty big wart on Odom’s resume IMO. Also with 5 COVID year guys they lose pretty much everyone of note for next season so next year’s team should be interesting to say the least.
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Ron is a nonstarter to me. The fanbase needs hope that Ron can’t provide. I would take Odom 1000 times out of 1000 over Ron. (I know you agree, just putting that on the record.)
I’m not saying tournament success is the only criteria, but Odom is currently second place in the A10 and only won his conference once, his last year at UMBC. He would have only made the tournament once in the last 4 years at programs that are supposed to make the tournament almost every year. If he can’t succeed with this senior-laden VCU team I think it is a totally reasonable question to ask if he’s actually that good of a coach!
I genuinely believe his resume is not hirable if he doesn’t win his conference regular season or tournament this year.
I just feel like Odom is here more because of program/regional ties than resume at this point which worries me.
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I will take @HoozGotNext 's words to heart here and not keep going round and round, and just say “I disagree and that’s okay” and I’ll swallow the “that is, as long as you turkeys don’t mind being wrong” part.
But as a public service, I will post Eamon’s bubble watch** for each of the 3 guys that I consider roughly in the same tier:
VCU (17-5, 8-2; NET: 42, SOR: 59): Boy, if only you had told Ryan Odom in November that a neutral court loss to Seton Hall would end up in quadrant 4, he would either a) laugh at you or b) pretend to laugh to prevent a total breakdown. Seton Hall is supposed to be pretty decent! If not good, OK, fine — at least not quad 4. VCU’s bubble situation is not just down to the Pirates’ collapse, but also zero quad 1 wins (and an 0-1 record in that quadrant) with a 3-3 record against quad 2. We hate to do the whole quads win-loss breakdown thing, but upon reflection the team sheet doesn’t bode well for the Rams, at least until they win at Dayton Friday night.
Utah State (19-3, 10-2; NET: 38, SOR: 29): The Aggies got hammered by New Mexico at home Saturday. Not ideal. Good news: It was just their third defeat of the season. This team beat San Diego State and Saint Mary’s in true road games Dec. 28 and Dec. 22, respectively, so there is some marquee-win-heft here, but mostly this faith is about the program’s consistent excellence and an dearth of defeats overall.
Vanderbilt (16-6, 4-5; NET: 43, SOR: 38): The next six days are huge. Mark Byington’s Vanderbilt had the first truly bad performance of the first-year coach’s tenure Saturday at Oklahoma, a 97-67 loss that actually looked like it would be a competitive contest until OU ran out a 61-27 second half. Tuesday’s trip to Florida was better, but the Gators, who finished with 1.28 points per trip (and shot 64 percent from 2 and 48 percent from 3!), were basically always in control. Bringing Texas (Saturday) and then Auburn (next Tuesday) to Memorial Gym is a calendar with a much more favorable cost-benefit calculus — a win over Auburn is hardly required or expected, obviously, but it’s as good a marquee opportunity as any team ever gets, let alone one trying to cement an immediate program turnaround in an exciting coach’s first season on campus. The gym will be buzzing.
NET updated overnight to:
37 - VCU
41 - Utah St.
44 - Vandy
SOR updated to:
29 - Utah St
41 - Vandy
57 - VCU
** Subscribe to Eamon. Don’t be a mooch. Pay for your stuff, folks. This isn’t your parents’ house. Stuff costs money.
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Tangent here: Tony Skinn has taken KD Johnson, brought him down a level or two, AND made him LESS of a chucker. That’s pretty amazing, tbh.
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@haney check this out:
This website has some very handy visualizations NET, WAB, etc. I especially like the team pages that tell you WAB by game and how much WAB opportunity a team has left in their schedule.
For example, Vandy has a huge opportunity to boost their resume. 5.97 WAB for the taking, which also says that it is a hard schedule.
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That’s awesome, RIP to my hopes and dreams of doing some work before lunch…
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I still think Ryan Odom is 12. There I said it
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Someone tell Trilly we don’t want this bozo. K? Thanks.
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The Iowa State coach gives me Buzz Williams vibes
VCU’s at large chances are very difficult. They have 0 Q1 wins and a Q4 loss. Their results based metrics are not great either. The worst thing is the only possible Q1 chance they have left on their schedule is Friday @ Dayton. They basically have to win that game or they will have to be nearly perfect. Then they have to avoid any bad losses the rest of the way and probably make it to at least the A10 final. Just no margin for error.
Utah State is in pretty good shape as is Vandy. But not so good they can afford a complete meltdown. I think both will likely end up with at-large bids, especially Utah State, the danger for Vandy is that the schedule is such a gauntlet they could go on a losing streak pretty easily.
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I was just digging into the Vanderbilt rotations some - would be interested to hear what their fans think. Seems to me that Byington might be a little too equal opportunity with his rotations. Has 9 guys between 16 and 25 mpg and has a few clear guys (Edwards, McGlockton, Tanner) who seem to be keys to the team being at its best.
Edwards averages 17ppg and only plays 24mpg.
Kinda weird.
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Maybe he’s a guy who’s using PT to build guys up for the future (“the future” including later in the current season), but will tighten up in the postseason?
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For VCU to be comfortable as an at-large, I think they need to win at Dayton, lose only one non-bad one (@richmond is a land mine), and make it the A-10 finals. If they have another loss sprinkled in there, my guess is they’d be on the bubble and really sweating.
Or they could just win the conf tourney. Funny that there was a lot of multi-bid A10 talk early in the season.
@Cuts_from_The_Corner in a vacuum, I like spreading the PT, but partially that’s because I thought Tony had the tendency to get too tight in recent years.
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That seems reasonable. Right now I dont even have them in my next four out.
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