South Tidewater News

Minium: ODU-JMU Basketball Rivalry Is About To Get a Whole Lot More Intense

Old Dominion and James Madison once carried on a torrid men's basketball rivalry.

During a six-year period, between 1992 and 1997, the teams met in four CAA championship games and the rivalry included a good dose of mutual dislike between the two respective fan bases.

All four games drew large and rabid crowds to the old Richmond Coliseum, located about midway between Norfolk and Harrisonburg.
 
ODU won three of those four games -- 1992 (Ricardo Leonard was the MVP), 1995 (the MVP was Petey Sessoms) and 1997 (Odell Hodge).
 
JMU won in 1994 on a miraculous last-second three-point jump shot from Kent Culuko that sent the Dukes and their coach, Norfolk native Lefty Driesell, to the NCAA Tournament.

After ODU left the CAA for Conference USA a decade ago, the rivalry understandably cooled down.
 
But now that both are in their first season in the Sun Belt Conference, officials from both schools expect the rivalry to heat back up.

ODU hosts JMU at Chartway Arena Thursday at 7 p.m.  The game isn't expected to sell out, but will draw one of ODU's largest crowds of the season. 
 

Original source can be found here