Saturday, March 06, 2021

This Week in Wrenball: Let's Get This Over With

Here's a small measure of how unusual this NCAA men's basketball season has been: we haven't published the word "Wrenball" on this website in 2021. In fact, our only post about William & Mary basketball this season was a preview in November

In that preview, I wrote this, "Says here that anything better than 10 wins in the Wrens' 26 scheduled games would be impressive. Also says here that playing more than half of those 26 games might constitute good fortune." The Tribe finished this bizarre, dare I say stupid season with a 6-9 record, 4-6 in the CAA. So they played more than half of their games. Yay?

As a league, the CAA was an embarrassment in terms of its management of COVID-related scheduling. The Colonial was DFL in the NCAA in terms of percentage of scheduled games played, completing 56.9% of the 90 games on the slate at the beginning of the year. The NCAA average was 85.9%. FOGTB Jerry Beach wrote the following in his CAA Tournament preview:

"The scattershot nature of the regular season schedule created a silent but detectable tension within the league — with rescheduling decisions left up to the teams, some coaches felt their peers were less eager to play something close to a full schedule — and also made scouting and projecting the tournament harder than ever."

If the stories get told, that "silent but detectable tension" would make for a hell of a yarn. Delaware cancelled a game against W&M because they didn't have enough healthy players - not due to COVID, but to injury - and the league (and the Tribe) let it go. JMU got to 8-1 and suddenly found it challenging to schedule games. Convenient, that. Drexel wanted to take on all comers, but nobody really went out of their way to take on the Dragons. Suffice it to say that the CAA league office demonstrated a total lack of juice, and if this half-assed season is the league's swan song, it's out with something even less noisy than a whimper.

As for me, I watched a lot of Big Ten games. Saw a whole lot more Chase Audige than Luke Loewe, if we're being honest. And if we're being petty.

The Tribe's season was too incomplete to offer any kind of analysis. Dane Fischer's team showed a few glimpses, sweeping Towson when they got into a bit of a rhythm. But W&M went on COVID-related hiatus and came out of it just in time to lose a pair of games by an average of 20 points to an Elon team that lost its first seven games of the league season. Heading into today's tournament opener, the Tribe has played just those two games since January 31.

There were a meager handful of bright spots for the Wrens. Connor Kochera was named CAA Rookie of the Year yesterday on the strength of scoring 13.9 ppg and making 37% of his threes. Loewe continued his steady improvement, averaging 16.0 ppg and leading the team in assists. He was named to the All-CAA Second Team. Mekhel Harvey should've been the CAA Defensive Player of of the Year, blocking 3.3 shots per contest while only averaging 20.5 minutes. He and Loewe both made the league's All-Defense team.

But honestly, the sooner this season is over, the better. As I wrote in that season preview,  "I'm afraid that Nathan Knight's professional contract may well be the highlight of the season for Tribe fans." I see no reason to come off that prediction.

As for the tournament itself, read Beach's preview if you want intelligent analysis. I'm picking Drexel to win it all from the 6 seed, and I'm taking Elon to beat JMU in an 8 over 1 upset. Karma's a bitch, Dukes.

Next season can't get here fast enough.

24 comments:

TR said...

When I was in the undergrad business school at W&M, I had a great marketing professor whose go-to jokes comprised of making fun of Elon. Always made for big laughs in the classroom. He would say things like “C’mon guys. This is William &Mary! You’re not at Elon, majoring in grain alcohol.”

Has been very surprising to see the strides that the school has made. A smart kid in my neighborhood is a student there.

rootsminer said...

I'm awaiting an update that the Tribe lost by 20 to the Nicks in the first round of the playoffs.

Whitney said...

William and Mary vs U of Richmond about to commence on NBC Sports.

Oh... to clarify, it’s football.

Mark said...

Elon used to be the “Fighting Christians” and that always got a chuckle out of me. Still not the best North Carolina university nickname though. That belongs to Campbell Camels.

Whitney said...

My grandfather graduated from Elon in 1918.

rootsminer said...

I’ve been down with Elmo the Camel from way back. Hump ‘em hump ‘em hump ‘em!

I heard a more mature Dinosaur Jr track on my local lo power fm station. I kinda dug it. I couldn’t stand them back when my freshman roommate played electric guitar along with them all the time, badly. Maybe I’d have liked them if he’d have stopped thrashing.

If I’d had the Hammond m3 and the choice stash of dead boots back then, I’d have evened the score.

Marls said...

Tribe sends UNCW back to the beach.

rob said...

tribe wins with...defense? what in the sam hill is happening here?

rob said...

my neighbor had landscapers working at 7:45 this morning, running a gas-powered leaf-blower. asshole or no asshole?

TR said...

Major asshole. Pre-8 AM on a weekend is horseshit.

It’s almost as big a pile of horseshit as the Detroit mayor saying no to a batch of J&J vaccines.

zman said...

1. Check your local ordinances. I bet there's a noise ban on Sunday mornings.

2. Detroit had more vaccine than it needed when the mayor turned down the JNJ vaccine. There is a perception that the other vaccines are superior because they have 90-95% prevention rates vs. 85% for JNJ's. I don't know if there is a statistically significant difference in those values, but if I was the mayor of Detroit and I already had enough of the vaccine with the higher rates, I wouldn't want to get the "lesser" vaccine and have to deal with the inevitable fallout when someone decides I have given the "lesser" vaccine to a particular vaccination center for allegedly political reasons.

zman said...

And I think Detroit now has all three vaccines.

rob said...

your tribe are 7.5-point dogs in the caa quarters against northeastern. i'd back the huskies, were it legal to bet on virginia schools here in the commonwealth.

rob said...

as noted in this space, karma's a bitch.

Mark said...

As stated here before. I’ve watched less CBB this year than any point in the last 30 years but I’m starting to get pretty excited for the next month’s worth of games. Not for Florida (maddeningly inconsistent) but everything that makes March Madness great.

Unknown said...

Rob, were you referring to Elon over Madison?

zman said...

zmother-in-law doesn't understand the difference between live and recorded Peloton classes. I thought we got her squared away after a brief explanation (Cody Rigsby doesn't live inside your phone or the bike, waiting just for you to choose a class, instead it's like watching a movie on Netflix). But now she doesn't understand that you can't pick the music you want for the ride you want. Once again, I explained the concept of audio-visual recording. I cannot wait to see what happens during her first ride tomorrow.

rob said...

indeed, my friend. indeed.

rob said...

that comment is for both whit and z.

Mark said...

I cannot imagine having to explain that to my mother in law. She’s pretty cantankerous to begin with, so her not understanding AND feeling underserved by a luxury expense is a nightmare.

Mark said...

Robert Covington rocking his Tennessee State Jersey is dope.

Mark said...

The Team LeBron PGs just put on a fucking show to close the 2nd quarter. Yes, I still watch the nba all star game.

rob said...

according to twitter, harry windsor is gonna hit the elam ending winner after dame and steph make layups from 3/4 court.

TR said...

(Fellow resident of my town) Nick Mangold and I are tweeting at each other. This is my greatest Twitter moment since Jorge Posada’s wife liked a tweet of mine.