Tuesday, February 13, 2024

This Week in Wrenball: The Good Kind

It's been (yet another) bleak year for the Tribe. After a surprisingly respectable 2-1 start to the 2023-24 Colonial Athletic Association campaign, Dane Fischer's (which translates to 'the ice, she is thin' in some Nordic language) squad has dropped eight of nine to plunge to 13th in the 14-team league. 

And that's all I've got to say about that, because there actually is good roundball news coming from down Williamsburg way as we continue to celebrate women's college basketball week (a little known outshoot from National Girls and Women in Sport Day).

Bella Nascimento
Led by the inside/outside combo of 5'11 grad student forward Nylah Young and 5'8" junior guard Bella Nascimento, coach Erin Dickerson Davis' Wrens are off the best start in conference play in school history. W&M's 65-55 win at Hampton on Super Bowl Sunday boosted their record to 8-3 in the league, and made Davis the fastest coach in Tribe history to win 20 conference games, as she improved to 20-9 in this her second season in the 'burg.

Young leads the team with 14.4 points and 5.0 rebounds, while Nascimento chips in 13.0 points and a team-leading 2.4 assists. Reigning conference Rookie of the Week, true frosh Cassidy Geddes scores 9.9 points per game while leading the squad in steals with 1.7. 

The Tribe will be favored in their next four games and five of their final seven. They're currently tied for third in the conference, a game behind Stony Brook and North Carolina A&T. The odds suggest they'll finish in the top four and get a bye into the quarterfinals on March 15. I'm going to try to convince Marls and the Teej that we should go see the ladies instead of the men. More fun, likely, and a higher likelihood of a good outcome.

Lots of room on the bandwagon, Gheorghies. Come on along.

20 comments:

Marls said...

Let’s see if the G:TB jinx sets in.

One question I have is “why the fuck is W&M still in the CAA?” It’s a geographic mess for teams that mainly travel by bus or van. There is no rhyme or reason to the members in terms of academics, size, or athletics other than some of the leftovers from the old CAA. Its a clown car.

rob said...

shit, odu and jmu are in the same conference as texas state. i'm not sure there's any conference that makes sense across those dynamics, except perhaps the ivy league. the ncaa should adopt our recommendation: https://gheorghe77.blogspot.com/2023/05/gheorghe-realigns-modest-and-pointless.html

zman said...

Haven't we already concluded that the Patriot League is the best fit?

Marls said...

ODU and JMU are trying to play in the big time. Not saying I agree with that move, but there at least seems to be a logic to the madness.

Not sure what benefit the Tribe gets from hanging with North Carolina A&T. Agree that the Patriot makes the most sense.

OBX dave said...

Patriot does indeed make most sense, geographically and school ideologically. From what I recall from my previous life (expiration date may have passed), Patriot invite or welcome mat is long gone.

Patriot all small, private schools. Even tho W&M often acts private, its public status is at odds with league. Also, breadth of W&M athletic program a sticking point. Patriot membership wanted no part of Tribe entering at top of heap of league sports (men's hoops aside).

Some of you with access to Big Checkbooks and donors likely have more current intel. As for present CAA affiliation, as weird and distended as it's become, no other league makes sense beside Patriot, so Tribe stays put.

zman said...

I defer to you, OBXD, on all things college sports, but Army and Navy are public Patriot schools (at least for non-football sports). It does make sense that the Patriot members wouldn't want to have to deal with Tribe soccer, for example, but the women's lacrosse and field hockey teams might be a good competitive fit. Or not. I would not be surprised if that league is happy where it is.

Whitney said...

What if W&M explains they they almost zero dollars from the state any more? We're virtually private!

Whitney said...

If you didn't catch Jon Stewart last night, see ithere.

One man's opinion: it didn't take him long at all to recapture his fastball. And we need him now more than ever. Yikes, people.

rob said...

yeah, he was good. and democrats need to hear what he's saying about biden - his criticism of the left's reflexive 'he's not old!' instinct is spot on.

rob said...

speaking of blasts from the past, the new pearl jam single kinda slaps:

https://xpn.org/2024/02/13/pearl-jam-dark-matter/?fbclid=IwAR29WqTMIEe_iw9U7JqUsLaL4teKhbhqiluURJRHiM5vDjlzCIwESAk6obY

Whitney said...

I don’t know that anybody said it here, so happy Fat Tuesday!

rootsminer said...

I would have wished everyone a happy Fat Tuesday, but instead I spent 90 minutes on the phone with a credit card rep trying to resolve an issue.

It included a 15 minute 'speakerphone three way conversation with my dad, and ended up with me reading him the exact url of the error message character by character.

That fucker was longer than a weeks worth of receipts from the world's busiest cvs. Apparently emailing a link is too exotic for capital one.

OBX dave said...

Hey Z, I know just enough about college sports to be dangerous. The U.S. Military and Naval academies may be technically public but with big asterisks: rigorous interview process, Congressional nominations, physical fitness and sports participation component, etc. They fit with Patriot because for most part they're looking for and admitting future military officers and not 4- and 5-star recruits.

Whit, to your point about reduced state funding for W&M, that's accurate. Students, however, still required to fork over sizeable chunk for athletics. State legislature capped amount of student fees that went to athletics number of years ago, because schools were dodgy about disclosure and transparency, and requirement kept climbing. Still, number is more than $2,000 per student per year. With 6,500 undergrads, that's real money. As of 2021, was second-highest outlay per student of all D1 institutions in state.

rob said...

court storming by the cuse fans after beating carolina. how the mighty have fallen.

Whitney said...

Walking into a 311 show. That’s right.

rob said...

oh shit!

rob said...

robbie avila went 2-10 with six points as indiana state lost at home to 17.5-point underdog illinois state. our bad.

zman said...

I bet he was experimenting with contacts. He’ll be fine when he goes back to glasses.

Whitney said...

So, we should’ve gotten there earlier. Show ended at 10:30. What we saw was super fun.

zman said...

I celebrated Valentine's Day/Gheorghe's birthday with a 9 AM colonoscopy and my tailpipe is clean as a whistle, I'm good for another 10 years.