Tony Shaver spoke of the Tribe's need to "Take this show on the road" in his post-game Thursday night. They will have that opportunity Saturday against a stout Towson squad. Here are some notes:

W&M has not matched up well with Towson in recent years. The Tigers swept the Tribe last season, 76-69 & 99-82.

Towson comes into the game 14-10, 6-5 in the CAA. As far as recent common opponents, the Tigers edged Drexel at home Thursday night, 104-103 and lost at Northeastern last weekend, 69-62.

Towson is a very physical bunch whose aggressive play inside appears dirty at times. Most of their inside guys look like linebackers. If it is a loosely-officiated game, the Tribe will struggle.

Towson crashes the offensive boards better than anyone in the conference. This enabled them to dominate the Tribe last year, scoring a lot of second-chance buckets. Can W&M use Towson's aggressiveness to convert some easy points in transition?

Towson's best player is Arnaud William Adala Moto, a 6'7" senior from Cameroon. He transferred from Wake Forest last year, after playing in every game his sophomore year as a Demon Deacon.

Towson's coach, Pat Skerry, was an assistant at W&M for four years (2000-2003). He was a finalist for the head coaching job in 2003, when the Tribe hired Shaver. Tony kept Skerry on staff his first season.

Time to take this show on the road!

Excellent write up, Pete! Towson also has Morsell who scored 32 last night, and John Davis who has been a frequent thorn for the Tribe. They have won 5 of 6. I know some of us are looking at COC and UNCW ahead in the standings, but with Elon winning 5 in a row and Towson 5 of 6, there is a real battle with those 2 and Northeastern for spots 3 through 6. A win Saturday really helps with momentum and tiebreakers in that race. Due to the physicial nature of their games, no one will want to play Towson in the first round of the tourney. Even a win over them would impact that team in the semis. Elon at Charleston is another huge game Saturday.

Hoping for good news on Omar today or tomorrow.

Before the season I had ranked this game as our most difficult in-conference matchup. Still feel the same and the idea of Rowley & Pierce blocking out those linebackers is not making me giddy with anticipation.

Trading 3 for 2 tomorrow will hopefully help us tomorrow as would a tightly called game though Nathan and Jack need to stay out of foul trouble.

Malinowski, Dixon and Pierce can rebound well and honestly, I'd be on our guys to have all 5 crashing the D glass and boxing out hard and attacking the rebound and not waiting for it to come to us. It's a team effort tomorrow and we can't really afford to try and leak out like we do sometimes. We are playing well and need to continue that tomorrow. Malinowski will need to step up big if Omar is out, as will Pierce (with Paul continuing to do what Paul does), and I think they will.

Tomorrow is big for sure.

We need every road win we can get. Tomorrow is probably the toughest one left, but until we prove we can play as well away from Kaplan, they are all tough. Elon hasn't lost since they beat us, and both COC and UNCW have 1 loss at home(to each other), so perhaps our road woes might improve. Clearly, the effort and teamwork has improved and needs to continue. So impressed with both Whitman and Knight last night. But rebounding and foul trouble will be key.

A shame that this is a Saturday game. The CAA gets better refs on Thursday night (most ACC teams are off) and tend to get "newbies" on Saturday.
This game may well hinge on how it is officiated. A closely called game probably helps us, but could also cause trouble if Jack and Nathan pick up early ticky-tack fouls. If the calls prevent Towson from grabbing on D and disrupting our high octane offense, then we should be able to overcome the physical game of the Tigers.
No question, Skerry will have them ready. Hope they have one of their 30% shooting nights.

We cannot play Towson's game tomorrow. If we try to turn it into a rock fight inside we'll be totally outmatched. We need to focus on ball movement to free up our outside shooters to rain down on their big men's heads.

All the recent success has done is put the Tribe in the position where the next 7 games mean more. That said, it is still only about 3 days in Charleston. Elon, Towson, COC and the Tribe are all trending upward. UNCW is still probably the team to beat. Northeastern will also likely still be a factor. I actually did not think they played that bad last night, particularly in the first half. So, it shapes up to be a wild weekend in Charleston. With the recent results it is much harder to know what seed you would want if you cannot get #1 and the auto NIT bid with it. The Tribe just needs to do well what we do and play with energy and teamwork and see what happens. Tomorrow will be a good test to see if we can continue the momentum against the preseason #2 pick in the league. We need the guys to still play together and not try to do too much one on one if Omar is out. Defensive rebounding will be crucial. As Charlie often says on the broadcast, we cannot leave Whitman and Knight to be the only one at the glass.

On the refs, if the better ones ref Saturday, we are in trouble as a league. The refs have really struggled this season from my perspective. Still, I know it is a tough job for them.

Towson is easily our worst conference match up, by far. I have a word that I use to describe their style of play, and sometimes some of their players in the past. It is not an awful word but it is not very complementary, and I am very protective of our players physical well being. I now mutter it under my breath at games because my wife elbows me in my ribs otherwise, a somewhat appropriate response to the physical play that I am commenting on.

How the refs call the game will matter. It's on our players to force the refs hand a bit too. By this I mean, if we are going to get over the back calls then we need to be boxing hard, so the over the back is painfully obvious. If we are going to get the holding calls and calls away from the ball, we need to cut hard. We can't be passive and play on our heels. The refs aren't going to bail us out if we are getting physically dominated. Be strong with the ball, draw the contact, force the refs to blow the whistle.

Mugged?

(02-03-2017 12:19 PM)Pete24 Wrote:  

(02-03-2017 11:02 AM)WMTRIBE75 Wrote:  Towson is easily our worst conference match up, by far. I have a word that I use to describe their style of play, and sometimes some of their players in the past. It is not an awful word but it is not very complementary, and I am very protective of our players physical well being. I now mutter it under my breath at games because my wife elbows me in my ribs otherwise, a somewhat appropriate response to the physical play that I am commenting on.

Is the word 'Thuggish'?

We need to ask Tribal if I can confirm.

Saturday's game will be their Annual Autism Awareness Game that Skerry promotes nationally, as his son has autism...Good cause....Will be a little odd seeing Towson in light blue uniforms and blue shoes, as part of that. Under Armour providing the uniforms, then the jerseys are being sold afterwards to go to Pathfinders for Autism.

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Prissy?

(02-03-2017 01:13 PM)WMTRIBE75 Wrote:  

(02-03-2017 12:19 PM)Pete24 Wrote:  

(02-03-2017 11:02 AM)WMTRIBE75 Wrote:  Towson is easily our worst conference match up, by far. I have a word that I use to describe their style of play, and sometimes some of their players in the past. It is not an awful word but it is not very complementary, and I am very protective of our players physical well being. I now mutter it under my breath at games because my wife elbows me in my ribs otherwise, a somewhat appropriate response to the physical play that I am commenting on.

Is the word 'Thuggish'?

We need to ask Tribal if I can confirm.

Lets just start using "brutish" in place of said word. Its a good word and doesnt bring up any PC negative connotations.

Towson is a tough match up for us physically but if we run our offense and play good D then that can counter balance their strength! I am hopefully that the team will stay focused and execute! their game last night against Drexel had 84 FT taken between the two teams....

With or without Omar, I don't think they will outscore us right now. If we just run our offense and hit the boards like we did last game it will be tough to lose. NE wasn't much around the basket so I'm not expecting an easy affair inside so we need Jack and Nat to show up big and keep Adala Moto in check

I still hold faith that folks with a W&M education have a big enough vocabulary to use words agreeable to all. I'm far from PC but still try to use language appropriate for my audience.

One Tribe. One Family.

(02-03-2017 07:51 PM)Tribal Wrote:  I still hold faith that folks with a W&M education have a big enough vocabulary to use words agreeable to all. I'm far from PC but still try to use language appropriate for my audience.

One Tribe. One Family.

If extremely physical isn't sufficient, I'll go with minacious.

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Tim Rusthoven, I believe, was body slammed to the floor by a Towson player. I was pissed off. I sit 5 rows behind the visitors bench, the coach's wife, I believe, was sitting in a seat in front of me that she did not have a ticket for, and she was irritated when I told my wife what the whole team was made up of. I suggested that she turn around and mind her own business. I do not have a PC bone in my body when ii comes to Tribe basketball, but I do respect the rules of these boards and the privilege of posting on them.

The answer has already been provided. I just used the noun, not the adjective.