Sunday, January 06, 2008

Wrenpage

What you see there is a photograph of downtown(ish) Norfolk, VA (pop: 238,832), home to one of the G:TB editorial staff. It's also home to the Ted Constant Convocation Center, the near-campus home of the Old Dominion hoops squad. Coincidentally, the Ted, as it's affectionately known (Norfolkers are known more for their bridge/tunnel thingy than their originality, it seems) also hosted last night's CAA tilt between the aforementioned Monarchs and the William & Mary Fighting Wrens.

In what looked very much like a rematch of the 1966 Kentucky/Texas Western NCAA final, at least in terms of the teams' respective pigmentation, the Wrens went into the Ted and pulled off a wholly unexpected 70-61 victory. CAA: LAMM's Michael Litos predicted a "trampling", and felt sorry for us in advance. And despite the fact that Wheelhouse Jerry thinks we're Futile Superfans, we really couldn't find any objective (or even subjective) reason to disagree with that prognostication.

W&M's win was their first in the 6-year history of ODU's splendid building and, if nothing else, demonstrated that extreme effort can, every once in a while, carry the day in the face of a relatively overwhelming talent differential. We'll bask in the glow of this one for a while, because even the most delusional of the Futile Superfans has to look at the W&M rotation and wonder how they'll squeak out more than 4 wins in conference play. After David Schneider, Danny Sumner, and Laimis Kisielius, things tail off precipitously.

Wonder if Whitney's regretting not making the mile-and-a-half trip from his house to the Ted now?

2 comments:

Whitney said...

I considered it, and I think I made the wise decision. By the time the gathering to watch the Skins lose broke up, I'd drowned my sorrows pretty heartily and risked being "that guy" at the game. I did watch most of the game on the tube (in thorough amazement).

JMU lost to Hofstra. This conference is imploding. When's the last time the CAA's only Big Dance entry was a 15-seed?

MGL said...

I must say I never saw this coming, which is precisely why I should've seen it coming.

Self-flogging, and not the good kind, is in order. Congrats.

Tribe win at the Ted? What's next, Clemens roided up?