This Week in Wrenball: Nathan and the Pips

By our normal standards, it's been a mediocre season in terms of our coverage of our Wrens. This is the first TWiW post since the first week of January. I'd chalk that up to the usual suspect - my laziness - but I've got a better hook.

In fact, I submit to you that our Wrenball efforts track closely with this year's team's performance. By the recent standards established by Tony Shaver, and despite some glimpses of promise, this has been a mediocre season in Williamsburg.

This very nice man was a lousy hoops coach.

Over the previous five seasons, the Tribe have gone 96-62, posting winning records in each campaign. The last (and only) time in school history W&M hoops teams ran off a streak that long was 1946-1952. W&M has also had five consecutive seasons above .500 in CAA play. Before this streak began, the Tribe had never even had back to back winning seasons in league play. In fact, in the 27 years prior to the 2013-14 season, W&M had had a total of three finishes on the right side of .500 in the CAA.

Damn. I'd almost forgotten how epically bad we've been. And how much Tony Shaver has spoiled us, relatively speaking, of late.

The 2018-19 Tribe stands at 10-16 (6-8 in CAA play) after an 84-74 road win against league doormats Elon. We expected they'd struggle to replace all-time assist leader David Cohn, and we were right. Sophomore Luke Loewe and freshman Thornton Scott have had their moments, but the two combined are averaging fewer assists per game than the nearly seven per contest Cohn distributed last year. And we thought that it'd be hard for W&M to duplicate last season's nation's-best shooting performance without Cohn (.426 on 3PFGs) and Connor Burchfield (.520!). We were correct on that front, as well. W&M's only shooting 34.5% from deep and 67.5% from the line. An offense that's designed to create space and open looks struggles a bit when those looks don't go in.

But an offense that's so designed also creates space for a talented post player, and in Nathan Knight, W&M has that to a degree never before seen in green and gold. After a somewhat slow start by his standards, Knight has recorded double-digit points in 19 consecutive games, and tallied nine double-doubles in his last 12 games. In W&M's previous two games, against Hofstra and Elon, Knight has scored 39 and 35 points and grabbed 14 and 13 rebounds, respectively. He's averaging 20.5 points and 8.8 rebounds per game (21.6 and 9.9 in CAA games) on .588 shooting, leads the CAA in blocks with 55, and rounds it out by leading W&M in assists with 94. People have noticed, too. Last week, Knight was named one of the ten finalists for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year Award, joining a list that includes Nick Ward of Michigan State, Ethan Happ of Wisconsin, and Bruno Fernando of Maryland, among others.

If some of those threes start falling, Knight's numbers may go up even more - he's getting all those buckets despite being the center of the opposition's attention every game.

Junior wing Justin Pierce has continued to be a solid supporting actor to Knight's leading man, averaging 14.7 points and 8.7 boards to go with a team-leading 3.65 assists/game. Pierce has scuffled a bit in league play, leading observers (this one, anyway) to wonder if he's completely healthy.  Freshmen Chase Audige and L.J. Owens have played significant minutes, combining for nearly 18 points a game. Both look poised to have strong careers. Junior guard Matt Milon tallies 12.4 points on .390 shooting from deep, but both of those numbers are down from last season's marks (13.0/.426). A full return to form for Milon goes a long way down the stretch.

W&M has four more league games, and should be favored to win three of them. It doesn't actually matter all that much, as the Tribe likely can't catch Delaware for 4th place in the league and the accompanying first-round tournament bye. So for the first time since 2013, W&M's gonna play on the first day of the CAA Tournament.

Friends, I don't think this is our year.