This Week in Wrenball: 10 Years Later

There was a modest amount of Tweetnoise this week related to the notion that W&M coach Tony Shaver's run at W&M might be coming to an end. Something called @CoachingChanges (which, honestly, is probably a Russian bot) suggested that new W&M AD Samantha Huge's ambition might lead her to dismiss the only coach to ever get the Tribe within one game of the NCAA Tournament during the CAA era.

Things got a bit, if not heated, then maybe confusing, as Tribe fans, conference rivals, and impartial media types weighed in unanimously to suggest such a firing would be absurd, bordering on criminal.

Why yes, I am number one.

But as I thought about CoachingChanges' perspective, I could at least understand. Shaver's been at W&M for 15 years with zero NCAA Tournament appearances. In any other context, that'd be a death knell - would've been years ago, to be honest. But W&M is sui generis in terms of its hooping history.

From 1985 to 2007, W&M went 3-22 in CAA Tournament play. In the 18 seasons before Shaver took over in 2003, the Tribe finished .500 or better twice. Twice. In his 15 seasons, W&M has done it eight times, including the last five in a row (we're guaranteed to do so this year). He's won 20 games four times, a mark W&M reached five times in the 96 years before he arrived. After three mediocre campaigns to begin his W&M career, Shaver's squads have gone 11-10 in CAA Tournament play, making four league finals.

Those numbers only tell part of the story. Pre-Shaver, W&M was a whipped fanbase, devoid of hope, of belief, of anything but morbid fascination with a serious of no-chance rosters wearing our colors.

And then, like a bolt out of the blue, that happened. W&M rode a string of three buzzer-beating victories to the 2008 CAA Tournament final against George Mason. And while we lost that game, it changed everything. As G:TB wrote at the time:

"But as we noted in this space just yesterday, the loss does nothing to diminish the joy this unlikely group of kids brought to W&M’s generally subdued alumni. For the briefest of moments we were allowed to pretend we belonged, to plan trips to the Boise or Sacramento or Tacoma subregionals, to shout ourselves hoarse watching a game that actually mattered, and to dream. Generations of us had never even allowed ourselves to dream. When we talk about this team, that’s the thing we’ll remember – not that they finally fell short, but that they let us dream, hope, and care. And at some level, that’s the magic of college basketball, that an obscure school from a mid-major conference can make otherwise mature (it’s in the eye of the beholder, people) adults let loose the bonds of logic and rationality and really, deeply believe in the most unlikely outcomes."

This year's Tribe squad closes out the regular season with home games against UNCW and the College of Charleston. W&M is currently 16-11, 9-7 in CAA play. We're all but assured of playing Towson in the 4/5 game in the first round of the conference tournament, and we don't match up well with them. If we escape that gauntlet, top-seeded Charleston probably awaits. It's going to be a tough road.

But we've still got the nation's best shooting team, an offense that's capable of going plaid and beating anyone. And we've got a coach who knows how to win games when throats get tight and kids get nervous. In a league like the CAA, anything really can happen, even for William & Mary

And so we dream, hope, and care. That's what Tony Shaver has given us. And even though we've been so close and not yet crossed over the rainbow bridge, dreams and hopes and cares are enough. We didn't have that before.