This Week in Wrenball: The Dreckoning

I'm afraid, friends, that the time has come to ask an important question about our Wrens.

Wrong school. Right emotion.

As I type this, W&M is playing its final home game of the season. They'll likely lose to Delaware to fall to 5-24 on the season. If it wasn't for Northeastern have a nightmare of a season due to COVID and injury issues, the Tribe would be DFL in the CAA. As it is, they're relegated to the conference tournament play-in game, where they'll likely be bounced in the first round.

The squad is unquestionably young. 77% of W&M's points have been scored by freshmen or sophomores. The young kids have also grabbed 80% of the team's rebounds and handed out 89% of its assists. Those numbers hold at least the hint of promise for the future. 

The present, though, not great.

Dane Fischer had a stellar debut year, blending Nathan Knight and Luke Loewe with some excellent transfers and salvaging the wreck of the program left in the wake of Samantha Huge's administrative malpractice. That 2019-20 team went 21-11 and finished second in the CAA before losing a terribly disappointing game to Elon in the first round of the conference tournament. Last year was a write-off - no coach should be evaluated on his team's performance during the insanity of the COVID season.

Soph Ben Wight has been a bright spot

But now, it's fair to ask whether Dane can coach at this level. He seems by all accounts to be a terrific guy, a role model who operates with integrity. But there's no escaping the fact that this team is poor, and it hasn't improved over the course of the season. The Tribe has lost six in a row, all but one by double digits. They've been outscored on the season by an average of 9.9 points per game, have 125 more turnovers than assists, and allow opponents to shoot 46.4% from the field. 

The 2021-22 Tribe will have the school's worst season since 2011-12, which was Marcus Thornton's freshman year. If they lose all four of their remaining games, they'll set a program record for most defeats in a season, and at W&M, that's a damning record to hold.

Tony Shaver had the Wrens in the CAA Tournament final within two years after that dismal 2011-12 campaign. There's no Marcus Thornton on this roster, so I'm not counting on Dane Fischer repeating that feat. He might not even get the chance if next year isn't a substantial improvement on this one.

Samantha Huge's salting the fields of W&M hoops may take a generation to undo.