This Week in Wrenball

After a pair of solid home wins against JMU and Hofstra for William and Mary, we've reached Prove It Week here on TWiW, as the Wrens (14-3, 6-1 CAA) put their 5-game conference winning streak on the line against a pair of CAA heavyweights.

W&M heads to Richmond on Wednesday to face a resurgent VCU (13-4, 4-3) squad. The Rams have won three straight, all by 13-point margins, after opening the CAA schedule with three losses in four games. The Tribe rallied from a 15-point second-half deficit to beat Shaka Smart's club in both schools' conference opener, serving notice that W&M's early-season success might be more than smoke and mirrors.

Defending conference champion VCU finds itself a full two games behind the four-way logjam atop the league, but might be playing better than anyone else right now. Larry Sanders and his Gheorghe-esque wingspan leads the Rams with 15.3 points and 8.1 boards a game. Sanders, who may well be VCU's second NBA first-rounder in as many years, looked dominant against Hofstra last week, tallying 31 points. After JMU's Denzel Bowles went 26/13 on the Tribe on Thursday, Sanders must be salivating. Uber-scrapper Joey Rodriguez and Bradford Burgess both get 10+ ppg for the Rams, with Rodriguez leading the entire conference in both assists and steals.

As an aside, how good is the race for the CAA's top spot right now? W&M, Northeastern, Old Dominion, and George Mason are all 6-1 in league play. Conference USA has four teams at 3-0 or 4-0 and the NEC has a trio of 5-1 teams and two more at 4-2. But we're not interested in all that. Our unbiased, completely scientific poll indicates that the Colonial is the nation's most competitive conference.

No rest for the Tribe after a matchup with the highly-motivated Rams, as one of the conference's co-leaders comes to Williamsburg on Saturday. Old Dominion (14-5, 6-1) started slowly, losing to Missouri, Mississippi State, Richmond, and Dayton before turning things around with an impressive win at Georgetown. The enigmatic Gerald Lee paces the Monarchs with 14+ ppg, but ODU wins with physical, relentless defense. The matchup between the Tribe's conference-best offense (in terms of efficiency, field goal percentage, and three-point percentage) and ODU's league-leading defense (allowing only 55.8 ppg) will tell the story.

David Schneider continues to pace the Wrens in nearly every aspect of the game. He's the only player in the conference to post top-10 marks in scoring (17.5 ppg), rebounding (6.2 rpg) and steals (1.5 spg). He's starting to garner POY buzz, a noise so unfamiliar in Williamsburg that AD Terry Driscoll was forced to call the Linguistics department for assistance. Sophomore Quinn McDowell gets 15.4 ppg on 51.8% shooting (40.8% from deep). The key this week may well be senior Danny Sumner, the Wrens' third-leading scorer (10.2 ppg) with an alarming predilection for disappearing. If the kid who posted a 0-1, 0 point, 5-rebound, 29-minute effort against Hofstra shows up against VCU and ODU, it could be a tough week. If the Sumner that averaged 16.5 points, 5 boards, and 2 blocks against ACC competition comes to play, I like the Tribe's chances.

Still crossing fingers, almost ready to believe. Realistically, a split would be a very acceptable result this week for the Wrens.