Colonial Duel - Will Both End Up Standing??

Very, very, VERY under the radar, the most important game played in college basketball today took place in Richmond, Virginia in the always tourney-dangerous Colonial League.  Old Dominion captured an enormous win at Virginia Commonwealth to pull to within a game of VCU and George Mason for the conference lead.  More importantly, by earning the season split they are now easily ahead of the Rams in the at-large pecking order.

All three team now sit squarely on 20 wins, and all three are worthy of at-large invitations.  However, conference perceptions being what they are, MOST sites project only two CAA teams earning a bid.  That makes today's road win for Old Dominion the most important and influential win on a packed Saturday slate of games.

Old Dominion moved to 11-4 in conference, and 20-6 overall.  The Monarchs own wins over Xavier, Clemson, Richmond, and Dayton, as well as splits with conference mates VCU and George Mason.  Two of their other six losses were at Georgetown and Missouri.  They have only two bad losses; Delaware and Drexel (and Drexel also beat Louisville at Louisville this season).

VCU has fared well against a challenging slate as well, knocking off UCLA, but losing to Tennessee, UCLA, UAB and Richmond, as well as a bad loss to South Florida.  They are a game ahead of ODU in conference play at 12-3 (20-7 overall), but have yet to play George Mason.  Those two square off Tuesday in yet another enormous game, as the loser slides into a second place tie with ODU - and neither can boast the out of conference scalps the Monarch carry into Selection Sunday.

I didn't have a chance to watch the ODU/VCU game today - so here's a couple good links for a game recap.

http://www.odusports.com/sports/m-baskbl/recaps/021211aaa.html
http://bleacherreport.com/old-dominion-basketball

enjoy!