This Week in Wrenball

CAA: Life as a Mid-Majordomo Michael Litos has made this point several times in the past few weeks, but it's worth repeating. The CAA's season-opening sprint is a conference aficianado's dream. Starting on Saturday, each of the league's teams will play 4 games in 7 days. Add in a single-game December appetizer and a game a week from Thursday, and the CAA will be 1/3 of the way through its schedule in 11 days.

So buckle up, Tribe fans, we'll know a lot more about this record-setting squad in short order. W&M heads back to Williamsburg after a gritty, telling, 48-47 win at Hofstra to face UNC Wilmington this evening. Then two more roadies, first at Delaware, then in Philly against Bruiser Flint's Drexel Dragons, before a bit of a respite.

The superlatives are legion at this point, but we'll recap briefly. The Tribe currently sits at #2(!) in the collegerpi.com RPI simulation. Their 10-game winning streak matches the 1928-29 squad's school record, and the 10-2 start is tied with the '48-'49 W&M cagers for the school's best all-time start. Before this season, CAA teams gone into ACC arenas and won twice. Since the beginning of the ACC. W&M did it twice this season. Andy Katz wrote about Tony Shaver's boys, as did the New York Times.

Frankly, we're a little bit tired of expressing our disbelief, and this team has probably earned a little more than our backhanded compliments. Now, instead, against any preseason odds, a hint of expectation has snuck in. As Katz explained, "William & Mary has as good a résumé as any school in a non-power six conference. As long as the Tribe, which now have to be considered a CAA favorite, finish in the top two in the league, they should get an at-large bid." Whoa. I mean, Whoooooooa. As in, 'easy, big fella'. Let's get through the next week and see where we are.

And in that spirit, a G:TB-style (read: half-assed) preview of the Wrens' next three.

Benny Moss' UNC Wilmington Seahawks come into town on the heels of a beating like the one Dad used to give you when you came home late and drunk with scratches on the car. VCU woodshedded UNCW, 91-57, on Saturday to drop the 'Hawks to 4-8, 0-2 in the CAA. The Tribe shouldn't get completely comfy, though, as Brett Tomko and the boys have beaten Penn State this year while playing Wake Forest, Richmond, and Miami reasonably close. Tomko leads UNCW with 15.4 ppg, while Moss gives 9 players 17 or more minutes a game.

Delaware's Fighting Blue Hens stopped Drexel, 62-58, to improve to 5-8, 1-1 on the season. The Hens lost point guard Brian Johnson before the season started, and haven't played particularly well, needing overtime to beat a bad Penn team, losing by 34 to Siena, by 21 to ODU and by 8 to Delaware State. Montay Ross' team did take Virginia Tech to overtime before falling, but they've not shown a lot yet this season - they don't shoot the ball well, especially from deep, and they turn the ball over 3 more times per game than their opponents thus far. Jawan Carter leads the Hens with 16.5 ppg.

The Tribe's season-opening blitz ends in the City of GoFuckYourself against the Drexel Dragons. Bruiser's boys are 6-8, 1-1 in the CAA, having not really beaten anyone worth anything with the exception of Northeastern (with apologies to the parents and friends of players from Penn, Vermont - shout out to Mike Lonergan - Toledo, St. Francis, and a few others). Jamie Harris is the only Dragon averaging double digits, getting 14.6 per game.

We're not in the prediction business around here. At least not with any success. Suffice it to say that all three of these are winnable games. And, as conference tilts, all three of these are loseable games, especially given W&M's newfound and uncharted position as front-runner. As always, we'll be crossing fingers, keeping our fingers over our eyes, and hoping for the best.