This Week in Wrenball: Scorcher

Three games into the conference schedule, and that number sure looks like it'll be determinative this season.

In wins over James Madison and Drexel, the Wrens shot a combined 15 for 27 (55.6%) from behind the arc to roll to huge halftime advantages and coast to easy wins. And in a loss to CAA-leading Delaware, W&M went 9 for 26 from deep, losing a tight roadie by five points. Though it's early, the Tribe leads the CAA in shooting percentage and trails only the College of Charleston in three-point accuracy.

It's a simple game for W&M this year: you shoot the ball, a lot from outside, and when they go in, you win. When they don't, you don't. You won't be turning opponents over a great deal, and you won't be playing much shutdown defense. (And I don't expect you to maintain a +6 rebounding margin, though it'd be fantastic if you did.) So let's hope the jumpshots travel.

Yesterday's 78-56 win over JMU was W&M's first twenty-point drubbing of the Dukes since February 2005. It was basically over after the Tribe shot 71.8% from the field in the first half on the way to a 42-24 lead. Marcus Thornton paced the victors with 20, with Tim Rusthoven adding 17 points and 7 boards. Though he only scored four points, Terry Tarpey played another complete game for W&M, grabbing nine rebounds and dropping five dimes.

For all the accolades Thornton, Rusthoven, and freshman Omar Prewitt deservedly receive, it's the sophomore Tarpey who's rapidly becoming one of the keys to the Tribe's success. Though only 6'5", Tarpey paces W&M with 6.8 rebounds a game (good for 10th in the CAA), swipes 1.6 steals per contest (4th in the league), and rounds out a full stat sheet with 5.9 points and 2.0 assists. He's upped his game in CAA play, recording a double-double in the loss at Delaware, and averaging 9.7 boards in league games. He's the kind of hard-nosed, rugged player that's vital to a team of skilled but not always physical athletes. To steal from ourselves, he may be the redass we've been seeking.

This week takes the Tribe on the road for a pair of critical early-season contests. W&M travels to Long Island to take on Hofstra on Wednesday. The Pride are 2-1 in league play after a disappointing 4-10 out of conference start. One of the few bright spots for Hofstra during last year's dismal campaign was a 70-59 home win over the Wrens, who returned the favor in Williamsburg. If W&M is who we think they might be, they need to show us with a win over an improving but not terribly good Hofstra squad.

On Saturday, the Teej and I will travel with the Tribe to Philadelphia as the Green and Gold plays Drexel. Though the Tribe handled the Dragons fairly easily in the conference opener, Drexel boasts a win over Alabama this season, and led #1 Arizona by 19 before falling in early-season action. Bruiser Flint's team was extremely banged up in the two teams' first matchup, and if they're healthy, pose a very difficult road test for W&M.

Team G:TB's road trip to Philly will also include a stop at LaSalle to see the Explorers host VCU. It's a veritable hoopstravanganza for the good guys. If you're in the area, stop by and say hello. We'll be the tall, pale, balding dude and the short, bespectacled handsome fella - and we'll both be wearing tri-cornered hats and no pants.

This Week in Wrenball: Roadie

Our heroes head back out on the road today after a too-brief respite in the cozy confines of the TribeDome. The Wrens took out some long-simmering frustration on Towson on Saturday, avenging a double-overtime loss to the Tigers on the strength of an 11-2 game-ending run. The game marked the end of a four road games out of five stretch that weighed heavily on both the Tribe's record and its psyche.

Tonight, Tony Shaver and the boys travel to Newark (that's New-ARK, to those in the know), Delaware to take on the Fighting Blue Hens (9-11, 4-3 CAA). Delaware was highly touted in the preseason on the strength of their inside-out wonder twins, Jamelle Hagins and Devon Saddler. The bruising Hagins is second in the CAA in rebounding with 10.9 a game, though his 12.1 points per contest is a bit disappointing. Lead guard Saddler is the conference's leading scorer, dropping 19.2 a game. He and sophomore gunner Kyle Anderson are the Hens' only real outside threats - both make better than 31% of their long-range attempts.

As for the good guys, the season's turned into a tale of two teams in many ways. It's clear that this Tribe team is capable of playing at a high level for long stretches. It's equally obvious that W&M can completely forget how to play basketball for alarmingly long periods. Such blackouts cost the Tribe wins over Richmond, Purdue, Mason, and Towson, at the very least, contributing to a downward spiral that led to an 8-game losing streak.

The rest of this season will hinge on Shaver's ability to get his team to maximize the highs and minimize the bizarre lapses. They've gotta learn to win, to put it in highly technical terms.

They'll start with Tim Rusthoven, who's played some of his best ball over the past two weeks. The junior post, who unfortunately shaved his excellently scruffy beard, has averaged 19.5 points and 9.3 boards a game over the last four, recording double-doubles in three of those. He went for 25 and 11 in the double overtime loss to Northeastern before fouling out. Rusthoven leads the CAA in field goal percentage, and is one of only three players in the league's top 10 in both points and rebounds per game (along with Towson's Jerrelle Benimon and UNCW's Keith Rendleman).

For all the digital ink we've spilled on Marcus Thornton (and we remain convinced that he'll go down as the greatest player in W&M history), Rusthoven's been the Tribe's most consistent and reliable offensive threat. He's the thunder to Thornton's lightning, the Pooh Bear to Thornton's Rabbit., the...hell, you come up with something. This is hard on a deadline.

Tonight's tip is at 7:00. No television, which is probably a good thing. Delaware's good, but they had to play a tough Drexel team just two days ago. Here's hoping the Tribe catch them tired and unfocused. It'd be a bit of poetic justice.

This Week in Wrenball: Wait 'Til Next Year

Through seven games, William and Mary leads the CAA in scoring offense, scoring margin, field goal percentage, three-point percentage defense, assists per game, assist-to-turnover ratio, and defensive rebounding. Not all of these are tempo-free stats, so take some with a grain of salt. And the CAA is having a historically bad season, which is most certainly relevant.

Setting those caveats aside, though, the Tribe's comprehensively solid statistics (they're also second in field goal percentage defense, defensive rebound percentage, and three-point shooting percentage) tell the story of a team that's much, much improved. And one that's an increasingly legitimate threat in a very mediocre league.

W&M drilled traditional nemesis Old Dominion, 71-62, on Saturday, building a 15-point second-half lead before coasting to their first win in 10 tries against the Monarchs. The victory came on the heels of back-to-back close losses - W&M fell by six at both Wake Forest and Richmond. The latter loss came in double overtime in a game the Wrens led by 5 with less than two minutes to play. With a few decent bounces, W&M would be no worse than 5-2.

The fact that we're quibbling over a 4-3 start says something about how we view this team. They should have a better record.

Sophmore guard Marcus Thornton earned CAA Player of the Week honors, despite the Tribe's 1-2 record, on the strength of his 22.5 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 3.0 apg week. Thornton's second in the CAA in scoring to Delaware's Jamelle Hagins, tallying 19.0 points per game on a cool .500 shooting percentage. He's rapidly developing into one of the league's top guards, and a clear candidate for All-CAA honors.

Brandon Britt's cut down on his turnovers and connected on more than 52% of his shots in averaging 15.1 points per game. Kyle Gaillard continues to return to full strength after a year away, but showed glimpses against Richmond when he scored 13 in the first half. Frosh Terry Tarpey's giving the Tribe good minutes, and averaging nearly 5 rebounds a game. Matt Rum can't hit the broad side of a barn thus far in 2012-13, but he leads the team with 25 assists, and sports a league-leading 2.1 assist/turnover ratio.

But by at least one measure, junior post player Tim Rusthoven has been the Tribe's best player. Beasthoven's 113.4 offensive rating leads the CAA, and his 15.3 ppg and 7.7 rpg place him in the league's top 7 in both categories. His game's not pretty - it's been described as a cross between Kevin McHale and that awkward kid you hated to play against at the rec center - but it's extremely efficient.

The interaction between Thornton, Britt, and Rusthoven is the key to the Tribe's success. The frontcourt's athleticism and ability to shoot from outside keep opponents from being able to collapse on Rusthoven, while the latter's court savvy and inside presence leads to a lot of open looks and layups from hard cuts in Tony Shaver's offense. Thus far, it's been a reasonably lethal combination, at least by W&M standards.

Yes, Virginia, the CAA is a dumpster fire.

The Tribe hosts Howard tonight before traveling to Radford for an afternoon game on Saturday. W&M gets 13 days off before taking on D-III Salisbury on December 21, and then close out the non-conference portion of the schedule with a pair of measuring stick games at Purdue and Vanderbilt. We told you in our season preview that anything better than 6-6 at that point would be noteworthy. Now, that 6-6 mark would be really disappointing.

As the calendar turns, and we look at league in disarray, the futile superfans may well have reason to keep the hope fires burning. Can't ask for much more than that.

Until 2013-14, when we might really have something.