Dropping Science

As the great rabbi Hillel the Elder was wont to say, "And if not now, when?". While he was speaking in a more Talmudic sense, his rhetorical philosophizing suits my purposes just fine this afternoon, reduced as I am to gimmickry in chronicling the William & Mary Tribe. (Also, I'm really looking forward to the Ghoogles involving highly confused rabbinical scholars and a handful of perplexed Palestinians.)

W&M's in the throes of an exasperating season, made all the more so after last year's (seemingly) one shining moment. The Tribe's current 5-game skid has them at 6-13, good for last place in the CAA with a 1-8 conference mark. As Michael Litos has noted, they can't score and they can't keep opponents from scoring, despite a disciplined approach and unquestionable desire. Ken Pomeroy tells us that the Tribe is 264th in the country in offensive efficiency and 182nd in defensive efficiency. The signs, they are bleak.

But in the next four days, hope's undying embers cast their warmth on Tribe, um, Nation. First Towson (tonight) and then Georgia State (Saturday) come to Williamsburg in a bottom-feeder invitational Tom Yeager would just as soon ignore. KenPom gives W&M better than 70% chances of victory in both games, and with only one more really good chance of sneaking out of the conference's cellar before the season ends, Tony Shaver's boys must make hay this week.

For if not, the Tribe will take its season's description from a very different set of Jewish scholars, Mike D, MCA, and Ad Rock, who proclaimed things to be "even more over than the mayor Ed Koch".