Tens of travel agents across the Eastern Seaboard sit on pins and needles this week, hoping against hope that the William and Mary Tribe reverses 300+ years of postseason basketball futility and runs the table at the 2006 Aeropostale Colonial Athletic Association Men's Basketball Tournament. Alumni like me and the assembled idiots that haunt this blog have pledged to travel to any godforsaken NCAA Tournament first-round venue should our beloved (bemusing?) Green and Gold hark upon the gale of the postseason promised land. Boise, Spokane, Gary, wherever - we're there...but only if a story more improbable than the Miracle on Ice is spun this weekend.
The 11th seeded Tribe take on 6th seed VCU in the CAA Tourney opener - the same VCU Rams that bludgeoned our heroes, 77-59, just yesterday and swept the season series. W&M finished another season in sadly typical fashion, carving out an 8-19 record, 3-15 in the surprisingly tough CAA. Only a sweep of doormat James Madison saved the season from utter ignominy - 2005-06 was merely moderately ignominious.
Friday offers the basketball-viewing public the salmon of Capistrano-like recurrence of the W&M playoff debacle. W&M is 6-23 all-time in CAA tournament play, but 4 of those wins came between 1983-88 (the Tribe's never won more than 1 game in the conference tourney). Since '88, the Green and Gold has authored a sparkling 2-17 tournament resume, which includes a win last year. Don't expect much to change on Friday in Richmond, despite the hopes of Tribe Nation - all 6 of us.
You'd be forgiven if you overlooked the CAA this year, but the nation's toughest mid-major conference has 4 teams currently in the top 49 in the much-hyped RPI rankings. George Mason (RPI #15), UNC-Wilmington (22), Hofstra (28), and Old Dominion (49) are all legitimately capable of reaching the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament. Numerous pundits have disclaimed at length about Mason's likelihood of receiving an NCAA at-large bid should they fail to win the CAA Tournament, but I'm here to tell you that the Hofstra Pride have already punched their ticket too, going 4-1 against teams in the RPI Top 50 and in the midst of the NCAA's 2nd longest home winning streak (20 games, behind only Gonzaga's 36). As stunning as this is to type, if someone other than Hofstra or Mason wins the tournament this weekend, I think the CAA will get 3 teams in the Big Dance - something that's never happened. And it'll be legitimate.
Now back to your regularly scheduled Food Network broadcast.
Sunday, February 26, 2006
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
38 comments:
I'd like to thank CAA Commissioner Tom Yeager for writing in.
Rumor has it Vince Young scored a 6 on the Wonderlic test. A 6. Woooooooooow he's smart (the average score for a player at the combine is 19).
I hope that's just a rumor, for Vince Young's sake. Even Heath "I Gots the Smarts of a Middle" Shuler scored a 16. Even for a running quarterback, today's NFL chews up and spits out dumb QB's. There aren't too many Terry Bradshaw's in this era.
http://www.unc.edu/~mirabile/Wonderlic.htm
Check out the big brain on Jeff George. It explains a lot.
McNair and McNabb seem to be examples disspelling what I said above, to a degree. Maybe they just test poorly, but isn't every fall Sunday a very big, pressure-filled test?
This is all bad news for my backing of Vince as an excellent pro QB...
Oh, and back to the topic of Rob's post, there is no way in H-E-double-hocky-sticks the CAA gets three in. The rest of America not pulling for the Colonial (those poor souls) would be ranting from now until the championship game. RPI only goes so far. These are still humans on the committee, and they will not let themselves do it. But let's start with baby steps. Two would be huge. I think Mason would need to lose in the finals to UNCW or Hofstra, and both finalists would qualify.
ODU will lose early. Hear me now and believe me later. They've been wildly inconsistent this season. I worry that Mason cruises to a CAA win and the committee, so used to reserving one bid for the conference, defaults to snubbing the rest. Let the outraged begin warming up their shrieks now.
Now, we're up to 3 teams from the CAA - goog lord. Next time we elect the pope before a softball game, i want me some of that stuff Rob's hittin'...
That's gooD lord...my typist is on a coffee break.
I figured Google had invaded your brain and/or your keyboard.
The Google is a powerful force not to be reckoned with. Much like the CAA apparently.
Reche Caldwell is smarter than Vince Young...not a good start to his NFL career.
Let's not forget that last year's win in the CAA came in a play-in game against an equally terrible team.
The chances of a Tribe championship continue to fade away as the CAA goes from a minor to a mid-major. In the old days, there was a chance of lightning striking -- whether it was a lucky recruiting class, a 3 day barrage of 3 pointers, bird flu, etc.
To get through this version of the CAA, we need a legitimately good team -- something that we're not likely to posess. Ever.
Everyone that I've spoken to who has any degree of knowledge of Tony Shaver and his program have praised him extensively. This was supposed to be a turn-around for the Tribe, something people seemed to believe in - moreso than during the Woollum and Boyages eras. Is the Curse of Chuck Swenson still dooming the school?
I don't really believe that the CAA will get 3 teams, but i'm not blowing smoke when I say that they deserve 3 teams. ODU smoked Depaul and beat Virginia Tech this year, and they're the conference's 4th-best team. I know Depaul and Tech aren't the cream of their respective conferences, but they are both legitimate major conference programs. Drexel played Duke and UCLA tough in the preseason NIT and they're down the table in the CAA at 8-10. Hofstra beat St. John's, and UNCW beat Northwestern and lost by 3 at Wisconsin. Are they Final 4 contenders? No. Are they all as legitimate as bubble teams like Alabama, Syracuse, Arkansas, et al? I think you know my answer.
glad zoltan linked to that breaking news story.
The CAA is the #10 conference out of 31 by the RPI, behind the 6 BCS, WAC, MVC, and MWC. Ahead of the A-10, C-USA, WCC, MAAC, and MAC. Pretty good company for what was once strictly a 1 bid league.
Good thing the University of Richmond abandoned all of its geographic rivalries so that it could move into the more elite A-10.
Not to pile on Richmond, but less than a week after scoring 30 against Temple, those donkeys could only muster 39 points against St. Joe's. Are they playing a full complement of guys? Are two of the guys lacking the use of their arms?
TJ, I just checked the box scores--they started five players in both games.
Really, no kidding? I was sure they would have started just 4 guys, because you know, that happens alot. I'm glad you checked though, that was helpful.
Forget George Michael getting busted and those 3 old actors dying, this is the best thing I found out there today:
'Pizza pope' builds a Catholic heaven
A FORMER marine who was raised by nuns and made a fortune selling pizza has embarked on a £230m plan to build the first town in America to be run according to strict Catholic principles.
Abortions, pornography and contraceptives will be banned in the new Florida town of Ave Maria, which has begun to take shape on former vegetable farms 90 miles northwest of Miami.
Tom Monaghan, the founder of the Domino’s Pizza chain, has stirred protests from civil rights activists by declaring that Ave Maria’s pharmacies will not be allowed to sell condoms or birth control pills. The town’s cable television network will carry no X-rated channels.
The town will be centred around a 100ft tall oratory and the first Catholic university to be built in America for 40 years. The university’s president, Nicholas J Healy, has said future students should “help rebuild the city of God” in a country suffering from “catastrophic cultural collapse”.
As always, I'm oh so proud to be associated with the majority of the citizens of the Sunshine State.
kevin pittsnogle's son is named quincy.
carry on.
bill raftery just broke out an "onions" as wvu's mike gansey made a late free throw. i'm way more excited than i should be.
I heard that about Pittsnogle's kid. did you know that he and his wife decided to spell it Kwynsie? Awesome.
you're kidding. kwynsie pittsnogle. poor little bastard.
He/she won't be able to spell it correctly until high school. And even then it will be dicey.
Memphis TB DeAngelo Williams at the NFL Combine:
"A lot of people tell me (the NFL) changes your lifestyle," he said. "But I'm a very conservative person. I'll still continue to eat at Wendy's, Burger King and McDonald's. It's not an endorsement. It's just the way I eat."
My kind of tailback.
Maybe Kwame should introduce him to the wonderous effects of Popeye's.
Jerry,
You're assuming that Lil' Pittsnogle is actually going to be attending high school...doubtful.
For what it's worth (not much), Joe Lunardi's Bracketology has Hofstra as one of the "Last Four Out" but GMU and UNC-W in as 8 and 9 seeds, respectively.
CAA fans should root for bad losses from the "Last Four In" (Air Force, S. Illinois, Colorado, UAB), as well as the other three in the outsiders' group (BYU, UTEP, Seton Hall).
Tribe fans . . . should wait until football season. Or how's our baseball team these days? Women's lax?
Well, the leading returning hitter on the Tribe is 3B Jeff Lunardi...perhaps he too is a bracketologist.
By the way, for all you Big East fans out there, absolutely huge game tonight between Cincy (17-10, 7-7) and Seton Hall (16-10, 7-7). The loser likely misses being the 9th team in the Dance from the Big East (well, I am counting on Syracuse to beat Depaul, but who knows, maybe Eric Devendorf will finally snap and kill half his teammates in the locker room).
The Hall is at home, so I'm leaning in their direction...
Kwinsie? Is that for a boy? What's his middle name? Sue?
A boy indeed Gracie. If they really wanted to top it off they'd give the kid the middle name that belongs to one of my childhood friends...Redman. Yes, that's his actual middle name.
TJ,
I'll take Cincy tonight. Care to wager a few drinks on it? Loser pays up at the next conference we both attend?
I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Pittsnogle when he played in high school, and let's just say if the "pittsnoglet" is anything like his daddy, he won't be taking many honors classes at Martinsburg High School.
1. I'll bank on Louis Orr to have his boys ready for tonight. Mark, make sure you get to DC in May for the Midyear Conference...
2. Dennis, what's an honors class at Martinsburg High School? AP Basket Weaving?
I'll be there TJ, oh I'll be there.
And I believe the honors classes at Martinsburg High are more along the lines of Advanced Coal Shoveling and Meth Lab De-Contamination.
i'm rooting for notre dame to beat providence and depaul and sneak into msg for the big east tourney. they could scare the hell out of somebody. 3 OT losses (including uconn) and 4 other defeats by less than 3 points (@pitt, @marquette, v. nova, and @wvu) in conference play this year.
not to mention mike brey's sartorial genius.
Post a Comment