Sunday, March 10, 2019

This Week in Wrenball: Three Days in March

It's a long-established truism that we don't have any idea what we're doing when it comes to predicting CAA Tournament results. So we'll eschew that tried and true formula and just give you the facts.

At 2:30 this afternoon in North Charleston, the 4th-seeded Tribe of William & Mary take on 5th seed Delaware. The two teams split in regular season play, with Delaware handing the Tribe its first league loss, 58-56, in Newark in January. W&M blew a 12-point second-half lead in that one. Tony Shaver's boys got a measure of revenge in Williamsburg in early February, drilling the Hens, 84-63, on the strength of Chase Audige's first collegiate double-double.

The two teams enter the tournament on very different paths. W&M has won five straight to become the first current CAA member to win double-digit league games in six consecutive seasons. (College me would read that sentence with jaw-dropped incredulity.) Delaware has lost four in a row and seven of nine, finishing 8-10 in the league after a surprising 6-3 start.

This is only the second time these schools have met in postseason play. Several Gheorghies were in the building for the other one, which remains one of the great gut-punches of my sports fandom.  

By most objective measures, W&M is slightly better than Delaware. The Hens are a tiny bit better on offense, and considerably worse defensively. The Tribe will have the best player on the floor in Nathan Knight, and Justin Pierce is probably better than anyone Delaware will field. 6'9" redshirt senior Eric Carter (16.0 ppg, 9.9 rpg) might disagree. W&M has better balance, but neither team is particularly deep.

W&M should win. They might not. Bounce of the ball, and all that.

It won't matter all that much, in the end, as the winner of this game gets Hofstra, the class of the league, in the conference semifinals.



So you're sayin' there's a chance?
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10 comments:

  1. zman10:35 AM, March 10, 2019

    zson doesn’t understand why you can’t pause the radio. Growing up with streaming media skews things.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Shlara11:06 AM, March 10, 2019

    I'm committed to being un-committed to this team.
    Will not be watching.
    Go Tribe

    ReplyDelete
  3. rob11:19 AM, March 10, 2019

    reverse jinx! nice.

    ReplyDelete
  4. T.J.4:33 PM, March 10, 2019

    What a shitty second half performance from the Tribe

    ReplyDelete
  5. TR7:30 PM, March 10, 2019

    Fire Shaver AND Norris!

    ReplyDelete
  6. rob8:15 PM, March 10, 2019

    i blame shlara.

    wait 'til next year, it is.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Whitney9:02 PM, March 10, 2019

    Never gonna happen

    ReplyDelete
  8. rob9:18 PM, March 10, 2019

    i used to think that about the red sox, my friend

    ReplyDelete
  9. rob9:57 PM, March 10, 2019

    watching pete buttigieg's town hall on cnn this evening. dude is really impressive. maybe not this cycle, but he'll have a big role in leading the country at some point.

    ReplyDelete
  10. zman10:49 PM, March 10, 2019

    You just trumped my Buttigieg post. I finished his book tonight. It’s pretty good. He needs 65,000 people to donate any amount of money to his campaign to be allowed to appear in the Democratic debates. I can think of sillier ways to spend $1. I gave him $25. The more smart people runnng for president the better off we are.

    ReplyDelete