Season starts TOMORROW!

Projected starters, team analysis, and more in our article published TODAY!

W&M predicted to finish dead last in the CAA...we don't think so. Check out our season preview below.

Season Preview: https://wmsportsblog.com/2020/11/27/mens...-tomorrow/

If Dane can coach this roster to .500, he should have the CAA CoY named after him.

It's going to come down the match-ups - any team with a good big is going to have a day. A Sheldon or Rusthoven would go a long way. The good news is our Thornton-era teams lacked dominant bigs and we had some good squads.

I just want to see sound coaching and reasonable player development. Hoping for a couple of sparks. Dead last in the CAA sounds about right.

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I've heard Dane hangs his hat on defense. The way I look at it, if this is a good team defensive unit, we should be in every game. Will we get outsized, outathleted, or outscored? Most likely. But, as long as we compete and are in every game we have shot at pulling off a win. Hot shooting comes and goes game to game. Defensive attitude travels and is far more consistent.
I'm probably over optimistic, but in the tiny sample size I've seen the ragged early play of the CAA. A solid disciplined team could do some damage.

Dane is an excellent coach as we saw last year in the development of Lowe. I expect a finish between 4th and 6th place with us getting stronger as the season progresses. Our depth will be an advantage in the CAA with all but Elon being back to back games so i expect us to pull off some surprises in the second games we play in the CAA.

Go Tribe!

Our team was, defensively, mid-CAA last season with the conference DPoY in the middle.

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(11-27-2020 03:50 PM)Tribal Wrote:  Our team was, defensively, mid-CAA last season with the conference DPoY in the middle.

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I could be way off, but I believe this years team is more athletically equipped to be better defensively than last years unit. As awesome as Nate was, I believe Harvey potentially brings a similar defensive presence. That is, provided he actually plays.

(11-27-2020 04:28 PM)mrjoolius Wrote:  

(11-27-2020 03:50 PM)Tribal Wrote:  Our team was, defensively, mid-CAA last season with the conference DPoY in the middle.

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As awesome as Nate was, I believe Harvey potentially brings a similar defensive presence. That is, provided he actually plays.

Oh. Sure hope he plays, because we could use another DPoY.

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(11-27-2020 05:31 PM)Tribal Wrote:  

(11-27-2020 04:28 PM)mrjoolius Wrote:  

(11-27-2020 03:50 PM)Tribal Wrote:  Our team was, defensively, mid-CAA last season with the conference DPoY in the middle.

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As awesome as Nate was, I believe Harvey potentially brings a similar defensive presence. That is, provided he actually plays.

Oh. Sure hope he plays, because we could use another DPoY.

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I'm not saying he is Nate's equal defensively. I'm saying he brings a similar ability to block and alter shots. Doesn't mean he won't be out of position or pushed off the block, but his length is never in question.

(11-27-2020 05:40 PM)mrjoolius Wrote:  

(11-27-2020 05:31 PM)Tribal Wrote:  

(11-27-2020 04:28 PM)mrjoolius Wrote:  

(11-27-2020 03:50 PM)Tribal Wrote:  Our team was, defensively, mid-CAA last season with the conference DPoY in the middle.

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As awesome as Nate was, I believe Harvey potentially brings a similar defensive presence. That is, provided he actually plays.

Oh. Sure hope he plays, because we could use another DPoY.

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I'm not saying he is Nate's equal defensively. I'm saying he brings a similar ability to block and alter shots. Doesn't mean he won't be out of position or pushed off the block, but his length is never in question.

I agree with his ability to redirect shots; their only similarity. I was worried about you after the other post.

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(11-27-2020 05:42 PM)Tribal Wrote:  

(11-27-2020 05:40 PM)mrjoolius Wrote:  

(11-27-2020 05:31 PM)Tribal Wrote:  

(11-27-2020 04:28 PM)mrjoolius Wrote:  

(11-27-2020 03:50 PM)Tribal Wrote:  Our team was, defensively, mid-CAA last season with the conference DPoY in the middle.

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As awesome as Nate was, I believe Harvey potentially brings a similar defensive presence. That is, provided he actually plays.

Oh. Sure hope he plays, because we could use another DPoY.

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I'm not saying he is Nate's equal defensively. I'm saying he brings a similar ability to block and alter shots. Doesn't mean he won't be out of position or pushed off the block, but his length is never in question.

I agree with that. I was worried about you after the other post.

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It's no secret that I'm a Harvey stan and have always overvalued him on this team. IMO, an effective an opportunistic offensive & defensive rim-protecting Harvey lifts this from a bottom 3 team and puts them in them in the middle 3 to 4

Let's think about Harvey for a minute. He was a very young freshman (like Wight). He was forced to play his freshman year and was decent in stretches. Last year he was stuck behind two professional centers. If he progresses this season he can actually be here for two more years. Fingers crossed.

I think it's funny that one of Shaver's kinfolk voted that we'd finish between 7th-10th. Ha ha...love it.

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You made me look!

I did notice that someone from my class at the College picked us to be in 4-6 position. That is the most optimistic sign I’ve seen yet for this season.

(11-27-2020 03:34 PM)wmmii Wrote:  ... I expect a finish between 4th and 6th place with us getting stronger as the season progresses. Our depth will be an advantage in the CAA with all but Elon being back to back games so i expect us to pull off some surprises in the second games we play in the CAA.

(11-27-2020 04:28 PM)mrjoolius Wrote:  ... As awesome as Nate was, I believe Harvey potentially brings a similar defensive presence. That is, provided he actually plays.

(11-27-2020 05:47 PM)mrjoolius Wrote:  It's no secret that I'm a Harvey stan and have always overvalued him on this team. IMO, an effective an opportunistic offensive & defensive rim-protecting Harvey lifts this from a bottom 3 team and puts them in them in the middle 3 to 4

I agree with all of the above comments. We definitely won't finish last!

- Loewe must play at least as well as last year. Improving would be stupendous.

- Harvey or Wight have to hold their own in the middle. Actually scoring points here or there would be a nice bonus.

- Scott is now a Junior and hopefully won't be making those bonehead passes that he did at least once a game in the past.

- Blair can be the heart of the team.

- One of the freshmen needs to really step up. Two or three doing it would be super great and would prove that this staff can really recruit.

- Role players (like Ayesa or Hermanovskis) need to excel in their roles.

- Audige is a helluva player and Brown is okay, too. Oh, wait...Never mind.

- Must avoid injuries. Otherwise, all of us who predict anything higher than tenth will be disappointed.

4-4 or 5-3 in OOC. 11-7 in CAA. Split with everybody except sweep JMU and CofC (who have never won in W'burg; they believe they are jinxed). If we get swept by Hofstra then it will be 10-6.

Of course, those people who think that we will be 3-15 could be right, instead:

- Loewe can't do it all, every game. He slowly but surely gets worn down as the year goes on.

- Harvey doesn't play much and doesn't score even when he does play. Wight gets pushed around in the paint and, being a freshmen, gets the benefit of zero calls. Thus, W&M is vulnerable to every team with size.

- Scott keeps making bonehead passes and tries to take over games late.

- Blair does have heart but can't score enough to turn L's into W's.

- The freshmen play like freshmen.

- Role players are not starters for a reason.

- Audige is a helluva player and Brown is okay, too. And they are playing elsewhere.

- Heaven forbid there are injuries or Covid sitouts.

That is the 3-15 scenario. But if you can't be idiotically optimistic in the preseason then when can you be idiotically optimistic?

CAVEAT: All predictions rely on W&M playing a full schedule. Personally, I don't think W&M will play a full schedule. Even if we follow protocols religiously, there will be some opponents who will unfortunately fall victim to Covid outages. So I don't think that we will play all of our games. The NCAA will still have a tournament this year because they can't afford to lose the billions of dollars in rights fees. Similarly, the Power 5 will complete their seasons because they want their usual lion's share of the payouts. Thus, the smaller leagues will have to complete their seasons just to get their minuscule (but necessary) portions.

(11-27-2020 05:47 PM)mrjoolius Wrote:  It's no secret that I'm a Harvey stan and have always overvalued him on this team. IMO, an effective an opportunistic offensive & defensive rim-protecting Harvey lifts this from a bottom 3 team and puts them in them in the middle 3 to 4

I've never been impressed with Harvey, but even if he can be *not a complete liability* on offense (which I do kinda think he was even last year) that seriously raises the floor of this team.

I still think Wight will probably get a plurality of the minutes at the 5, but we'll see what happens.

(11-28-2020 09:56 AM)NoBidNation Wrote:  

(11-27-2020 05:47 PM)mrjoolius Wrote:  It's no secret that I'm a Harvey stan and have always overvalued him on this team. IMO, an effective an opportunistic offensive & defensive rim-protecting Harvey lifts this from a bottom 3 team and puts them in them in the middle 3 to 4

I've never been impressed with Harvey, but even if he can be *not a complete liability* on offense (which I do kinda think he was even last year) that seriously raises the floor of this team.

I still think Wight will probably get a plurality of the minutes at the 5, but we'll see what happens.

The thing that always worries me about Wight is his weight. There is no doubt that he is our most skilled big, but without checking, I'm pretty sure every team we face this season trots out at least one big that is 225lbs plus. Sure, Wight can have success against these bigger players but it's generally a matter of time before size and physicality takes its toll. Harvey may be lacking in the scoring department, but his additional bulk and freakish length can help offset the mismatches inside. As a bonus, Harvey is an able shot alterer and can step in & clean up times when our guards are beaten on penetration.
Our guys get beat up physically yearly. This season, with a smaller squad, it's even more worrisome. Tonight will be a nice indicator/test. ODU is always a squad that implements the throw the shot up/crash the glass offense. If we can't match physicality and don't box out, it will be a long evening of high percentage put backs, fouls, & 3pt plays. If we do a fair job on the defensive glass and run unselfish offense, I think we do fine.

I don't even know how to evaluate Harvey. He barely played last year and this year they are running a different system. I would hope that Dane is putting things in place to leverage what he's got on the team. Physically, Harvey should be elite in the league this year. We'll see.

How do people know about Wight, minus hearsay and a few practices?

Since we haven't seen him in actual game play (aside from the small amount we saw before he got into serious foul trouble against ODU), I'd soon rather assume it's too early to tell which one (Harvey or Wight) might be a better fit at the 5 spot.

There definitely seems to be arguments on both sides at this early juncture in the season.

As stated above, there is very little data on either Harvey and Wright. Personally I would echo the comment made on the last NoBidNation podcast that Harvey is perhaps the key player for this year’s success.

It is ironic that so many posters on this board would love to see more of Harvey and yet Fischer, who is reputed to be a defensively oriented coach, seems to talk up Wright because Harvey’s offense holds him back.

Granted that is a lot of supposition with very little data.