NORFOLK, Va. — The ODU basketball team has their own little final four to worry about. The final four games of the regular season are coming up and head coach Jeff Jones will tell you it's time to get things figured out, "It's a finite amount and we gotta get going. We can't afford to be inconsistent and hopefully being home gives us a lift and we can play at a high level that we've seen but we haven't maintained."
It might take some getting used to being back at Chartway Arena. The Monarchs have only played one of their last five games at home. As it turns out that one home game was probably their best performance of the season. It was ODU's only win in that last five game stretch.
Jones thinks they have some great ideas to get things turned around. They just haven't worked yet, "We see the formula but we have not as coaches or as players been able to eliminate the mistakes and inconsistencies. That's the frustrating part about it."
ODU guard Jaylin Hunter suggests the team is still putting in the work, "Nobody has given up here and we're just going to keep working every day. I feel like we're going to strike gold at some point. It's going to happen we've just got to keep sticking with it."
The next two games are at Chartway Arena. First there is a rematch with Florida Atlantic on Thursday. FAU manhandled the Monarchs in Boca Raton.
Maybe that bad taste from that loss will make a difference. As coach Jones reminds us, "When you're a competitor losing hurts. There's nothing worse than losing. Losing is worse than winning is great, but you fight and you fight and you fight."