NORFOLK, VA (WTKR)- With college basketball season two weeks away, the Sun Belt is giving us a glimpse of what it expects during the 2026-2027 campaign and it doesn't expect much from the Old Dominion men.
The Monarchs were picked to finish No. 11 in the conference's preseason poll released Monday. The ODU women, meanwhile, were selected No. 6 in the preseason rankings.
Mike Jones isn't bothered by predictions.
"Last year they picked us way higher and we didn't do what we were supposed to do to live up to that," Jones recalled. "With everybody having a new team, you're almost putting it in a lottery wheel and trying to pick out a number so I'm not worried about that. I can tell you right now we're not the 11th team in this league."
Old Dominion women's head coach Delisha Milton-Jones agrees, though added that her team would indeed use the poll as motivation when things tip off.
"We'll use it as bulletin board material," she noted. "I think we're better than that and I think a lot of teams went through a lot of changes, so why do they see us as sixth?"
On the men's side, the Monarchs are 27-41 in Jones's first two seasons at the head of his alma mater. The women are 117-73 in Milton-Jones's six years, but have yet to get past the Sun Belt semifinals. Both head coaches say they're well aware of the need for their programs to take the next leap.
"Every facet of my career, we've won," Mike Jones noted. "This place, I haven't been able to do that yet and we're running out of time so I don't call it pressure, I just say there's an expectation I have of myself and an expectation I have of this program."
"I want to take the same things that are within my DNA- winning- which is in the DNA here at ODU for women's basketball," Milton-Jones said. "I want to implement it into the body of work that I'm trying to put on display every single year."
The ODU men tip off their season at home November 2 against Western Michigan, while the women open their schedule that same day at Central Michigan. Both games are part of the Sun Belt/MAC Challenge.
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