Monarchs keep improvising during one strange season
NORFOLK — In a typical season, each of the major sports has its own rhythm.
Football players and coaches mostly live week to week, with six days to prepare for each opponent.
Baseball is a daily grind, with an opportunity, as its protagonists often say, to “turn the page” and move on.
College basketball is usually more sporadic, with games spaced
out to allow time for quick preparation.
This, of course, is no typical season, and Old Dominion coach Jeff Jones is among those perpetually improvising.
Florida Atlantic visits the Monarchs (5-3, 1-1 Conference USA) for a pair of games tonight and Saturday. In addition to being
ODU’s conference home debut, the series is part of a league-wide scheduling plan that essentially combines the preparation challenges of all three sports.
To limit travel, health risks and expenses during the COVID19 pandemic, C-USA teams are mostly playing weekly, two-game series in a single location on back-to-back days. The schedule changes how coaches manage everything from workload and
practice scheduling to opponent preparation and players’ psyches.
The Monarchs opened the C-USA season last weekend with a split at Florida International. They lost the opener 82-67 and rebounded with a 71-66 victory a day later.
The series illustrated the challenge coaches like Jones will have each week in the game’s new landscape.
“Turning the page from a basketball standpoint is important, but you better learn the daggone lesson,” Jones said. “‘There’s a lesson in the loss’ is something that’s said, and you can’t miss the lesson. If you miss the lesson and turn the page, you’re probably going to make the same mistakes. And so you’ve got to learn the lesson, and at the same time turn the page and get ready for the next opportunity.”
Jones has adjusted his team’s practice schedule to optimize preparedness for the hurry-up-and-wait format.
After each Friday-Saturday series, ODU plans to take Sundays off. Mondays are spent mostly in self-analyzing film sessions, and the Monarchs go hard in practice on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, preparing for the week’s opponent. Thursdays, which precede game days, are lighter, what Jones called “not long, but strong.”
Still, the whole operation remains a work in progress.
“We went into it and we had a plan, and we’ve adjusted a few things after (having) done it for one weekend,” Jones said. “And I’m sure we’ll continue to tweak things. But we do try to adjust our preparation.”
Through eight games, t h e Monarchs h ave shown offensive improvement. They’re averaging 71 points per game — up from 65.6 last season — and five players, led by senior guard Malik Curry’s 17.1 points per game, are scoring at least 8.9 per contest.
FAU (5-4, 0-0) is led by senior forward Jailyn Ingram, who is averaging 15.4 points per game. The Owls’ scheduled league-opening series against Middle Tennessee State was postponed after positive COVID tests in MTSU’s program.
Jo n e s said the Monarchs, who haven’t been as strong defensively as in years past, are working on creating more offensive opportunities via rebounding, ball security and forced turnovers.
Meanwhile, t hey ’ l l continue to navigate a season unlike any of them have ever played.
Just a week into the new format, it’s too soon for Jones to say whether he likes it.
“Ask me in a month,” he said. “It is what it is. I don’t think anybody’s going to say it’s ideal. But my initial experience after last week at FIU: It’s not terrible. Everybody’s dealing with the same thing. It’s an interesting challenge. The players have to stay focused, and they’ve got to be in good condition. But the coaches have to be able to, in short time, make some adjustments.”