Associated Press

Old Dominion coach Blaine Taylor holds the trophy after the Monarchs defeated William & Mary in the championship game of the CAA tournament.

Virginia Tech and Richmond seem like locks to make the NCAA tournament, but only one men's basketball team in the state actually is a lock to make it.

Old Dominion (26-8) is headed to the NCAAs for the third time in six seasons after beating William and Mary on Monday in the championship game of the Colonial Athletic Association tournament.

Coach Blaine Taylor also steered ODU to the CAA tournament crown and an automatic NCAA bid in 2005. After making the NIT semifinals in 2006, the Monarchs reaped an at-large NCAA bid in 2007.

"If you were to go back and look and calculate the last six years who's won more games in the state of Virginia than anybody, we have," Taylor said Tuesday.

He's right. ODU has won 145 games since the start of the 2004-05 season -- nine more than Virginia Commonwealth, 22 more than George Mason and 30 more than Virginia Tech in that span.

The Monarchs also won the CAA regular-season title this year, no easy feat in a good league that also includes W&M, Northeastern, VCU and George Mason. ODU was the preseason favorite.

"When you're picked to win your league, that's a whole 'nother cross to bear," Taylor said. "Our kids really stood up to that."

The Monarchs are ranked third nationally in rebounding margin (outrebounding foes by 8.8 per game) and sixth in scoring defense (57.1 ppg).

"We're big, we're deep, we're athletic," Taylor said.

ODU, which is No. 29 in the RPI, made a national splash in December when it won at Georgetown. The Monarchs also beat Charlotte, while losing to Missouri, Mississippi State, Richmond, Dayton and Northern Iowa.

"We've played certainly the strongest [nonleague] schedule in the state if you compare our schedule with Virginia and Virginia Tech's," Taylor said with a laugh.

He is right again. ODU has the nation's 14th-toughest nonconference strength of schedule, according to the RPI.

Taylor is 4-1 against the Hokies since getting the ODU job in 2001, with the teams' last meeting coming two years ago.

"People like them should play us because if they can beat us, it'll help their profile and help them in their hopes of getting postseason bids," Taylor said.

"If you aspire to be a good basketball program in this state, you should try to be one of the top few teams in the state, and right now nobody in the state sees Virginia and Virginia Tech as the best teams in the state because they don't measure up to the CAA schools."

Catching up with ...

n Freshman Jamelle Hagins (William Fleming) averaged 5.4 points, 5.3 rebounds and 22 minutes for CAA member Delaware (7-24). He started 25 games.

n Freshman Troy Daniels (William Fleming) is averaging 1.6 points and 4.9 minutes for VCU (22-9), which could get an NIT bid.

n George Mason's Luke Hancock (Hidden Valley) made the CAA all-rookie team. He averaged 7.7 points and 22.6 minutes for the Patriots (17-14).

n Noah States (Lord Botetourt) averaged 2.7 points and 10.9 minutes for Furman.

n Brandon Evans (Roanoke Catholic), who began his college career at Longwood, averaged 2.4 points and 10.3 minutes in his first season with Division II Carson-Newman.

n Freshman Ater Majok is averaging 2.4 points and 15 minutes for Connecticut since becoming eligible in December. He has started 22 games. Two seasons ago, Majok played for the Heat Basketball Academy, a club team in Martinsville.

n Donzell Williams (Glenvar) is averaging 6.1 points and 26.4 minutes as a starter for Catawba (20-10), which earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Division II tournament Sunday.

n Former Salem and Virginia standout Richard Morgan steered Bluefield (16-15, 11-5) to the Appalachian Athletic Conference regular-season title in his first season as the school's head coach. Bluefield did not make the NAIA tournament, though.

n Freshman Daniella Motley (Christiansburg) averaged 2 points and 7.9 minutes for Wofford.

PHCC off to nationals

Ex-Hokie Kat Barbour scored 29 points Saturday as eighth-ranked Patrick Henry Community College earned a bid to the National Junior College Athletic Association Division II women's tournament by beating Harcum for the District I tournament crown.

The Martinsville school will take a 21-0 record into the 12-team national tournament, which will be held March 17-20 in East Peoria, Ill.

Delaney honored

Virginia Tech guard Malcolm Delaney has been named a fourth-team All-American by The Sporting News.

Also, the United States Basketball Writers Association named Delaney, Radford's Art Parakhouski and UVa's Sylven Landesberg to its 10-man All-District III team, which is for schools in Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina and South Carolina.