Coach Blaine Taylor has built Old Dominion into the Colonial Conference preseason favorite.

Taylor, who is 161-94 in eight seasons at ODU, has patiently put his program together. He's won 20 or more games in four of the past five years and is coming off a season in which his Monarchs won the Collegeinsiders.com Tournament.

"When building a program, you would like to get to the point where people look at the roster and say, 'Hey, look out for these people, they will really be contenders this season and hard to beat,'" Taylor said. "I think our program is at that point."

He comes into the season with five starters and several top reserves back.

He also has one of the conference's star players in center Gerald Lee, who averaged 15.5 and 5.7 rebounds while ...More