(02-26-2021 10:06 PM)Tribal Wrote: Why don't we stop complaining and just be glad we have W&M MBB? It's been a valuable rebuilding year with a lot of promise. Let's enjoy it.
+1
At many times this season, there was a good case to be made for shutting the whole thing down, as other programs have done.
(02-27-2021 12:11 AM)FauqDawg10 Wrote: I am appreciative our guys got to play at all during this crazy season, and I have no issues losing games we scheduled even when we didn't have to. But I'm interested in competitiveness, fairness and program success, and Delaware walking away from a game due to injury was none of those three things. I (and several others) said at the time that our players had every right to be pissed if that changed March seedings and, lo and behold, one foregone win put us at a significant disadvantage. It's a weird season and the league was right to make precautionary health measures, but this wasn't a Covid issue; this was a school who decided that playing its walk-ons (who would have loved to play) would be a competitive disadvantage and pressured the league into getting a mulligan in a weak spot. I am fine with taking lumps as they come, but that was the league pissing on our leg and telling us it's raining.
I pay for a monthly subscription just to watch the games and argue on an obscure forum about grainy Youtube highlights of some 16-year-old in a state I've never been to, so I obviously take it at least mildly seriously. I get bothered when it feels like others (the league, not you guys) don't.
If W&M had shut down the season (just as the Tribe women did) then that would have been fine. However, once you decide to play, then PLAY. That means playing each game to win (which we always do; I can't say the same for every other team), paying attention to seeding, and scheduling games where you can in order to prevent long layoffs (like the one that just killed us before Elon). I repeat that there was no reason why W&M should not have pursued playing Delaware, at Kaplan, this weekend and there should have been zero reason for Delaware to refuse. Joey D. could have forced them to do it for every reason except Covid.
Just casually dismissing everything that happens this year by saying "who cares, it is just Covid" means that if the athletic department or anyone in it really feels that way then they should have killed the season a month ago. It is hard to take them seriously when they don't take playing/winning seriously.
When the football team starts playing, aren't you going to expect them to compete and try to win every game? I know I will. I don't want to hear any stuff about "glorified spring practices" and such. If the team is going to play at all then they should be aiming for a national championship, just like any other year.
Well, basketball is no different. Play to win, which means seeding matters. Our best hope is that Charleston does not play, in which case we would get a bye for being in the top 7 teams.
(This post was last modified: 02-27-2021 12:50 AM by Zorch.)
Who knows what team or teams will suffer covid just before the tourney or within the tourney and withdraw? Seedings are at the mercy
of the pandemic. What if a team wins the tourney, gets covid, and can't go to the NCAA Tourney? League pick another or pull a name out of a hat?
Do we know W&M didn't demand to play the postponed UD game?
I'm as competitive as the next fan and I, too, think the CAA and UD screwed us over, but what's done is done. Martin is basically applying for our AD vacancy and I can see why he doesn't want to come off--in the eyes of the CAA, BoV, and Rowe--as a malcontent whiner. He is still in damage control and doing all he can to make us T9 compliant and in the black financially.
(02-27-2021 07:53 AM)Tribal Wrote: Do we know W&M didn't demand to play the postponed UD game?
I'm as competitive as the next fan and I, too, think the CAA and UD screwed us over, but what's done is done. Martin is basically applying for our AD vacancy and I can see why he doesn't want to come off--in the eyes of the CAA, BoV, and Rowe--as a malcontent whiner. He is still in damage control and doing all he can to make us T9 compliant and in the black financially.
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Not sure if the rescheduling of our canceled game with Delaware to this weekend was in the scope of what our AD could control.
(02-27-2021 07:53 AM)Tribal Wrote: ...I can see why he doesn't want to come off--in the eyes of the CAA, BoV, and Rowe--as a malcontent whiner. ...
Better a malcontent whiner than a wimpy pushover.
(02-27-2021 08:37 AM)wmmii Wrote: Not sure if the rescheduling of our canceled game with Delaware to this weekend was in the scope of what our AD could control.
Gotta disagree here. I keep seeing announcements that other schools are arranging and playing games on short notice (including Elon scheduling UNCW during the same timeframe this past week while we did nothing). That would seem to be the respective ADs doing their job more than anything going on with the league office --- the CAA office seems to be just standing there with a stupefied look on their face.
Sometimes it makes sense to think about what the players are going through in order for people like us who want to be entertained. First of all, many students don't live on campus, but if you do or you need to be on campus for an athletic program, there are very strict rules to follow. How many people on this thread have been tested for covid? I haven't. These kids are tested all the time just so that they can play a game with no fans. Our men's team has been quarantined at least twice this year that I'm aware of, and some players more than that. Do people even understand what that means? Stay in your room away from others until at least one negative test. Days of isolation sucks. Then throw in other things like deaths in the family, and it isn't really fun any more. These are students aged 18-22 and not pro athletes.
(02-27-2021 07:53 AM)Tribal Wrote: ...I can see why he doesn't want to come off--in the eyes of the CAA, BoV, and Rowe--as a malcontent whiner. ...
Better a malcontent whiner than a wimpy pushover.
(02-27-2021 08:37 AM)wmmii Wrote: Not sure if the rescheduling of our canceled game with Delaware to this weekend was in the scope of what our AD could control.
Gotta disagree here. I keep seeing announcements that other schools are arranging and playing games on short notice (including Elon scheduling UNCW during the same timeframe this past week while we did nothing). That would seem to be the respective ADs doing their job more than anything going on with the league office --- the CAA office seems to be just standing there with a stupefied look on their face.
I very much would have liked to see us play this weekend. That being said, with regard to your criticism, I suspect that Delaware would hide from coming to the 'burg if at all possible, probably aided by less than stellar CAA administrators as you point out.
Furthermore, with the disaster that the interim AD has inherited from his predecessor, and the lack of experience he has in that role, he appears to be doing a reasonably capable job.
I rather suspect that he is swamped trying to straighten out the cluster that he inherited, navigating Covid, rebuild the integregity of the athletic department, hire folks better attuned to W&M to run it and clean up the tangled fiscal mess in place when he walked in the door.
I am actually more concerned with the potential of missing the opportunity of improving the facilities than I am by being tooled by Delaware and the CAA yet again in a year with an asterisk by everything in it.
(02-27-2021 07:53 AM)Tribal Wrote: ...I can see why he doesn't want to come off--in the eyes of the CAA, BoV, and Rowe--as a malcontent whiner. ...
Better a malcontent whiner than a wimpy pushover.
(02-27-2021 08:37 AM)wmmii Wrote: Not sure if the rescheduling of our canceled game with Delaware to this weekend was in the scope of what our AD could control.
Gotta disagree here. I keep seeing announcements that other schools are arranging and playing games on short notice (including Elon scheduling UNCW during the same timeframe this past week while we did nothing). That would seem to be the respective ADs doing their job more than anything going on with the league office --- the CAA office seems to be just standing there with a stupefied look on their face.
Apply to the AD vacancy as you seem to know everything.
(02-27-2021 12:24 AM)wmmii Wrote: Reflect on this fact:
"The CAA Men’s Basketball Championship has been one of the most competitive in the nation, with eight different schools having claimed the title over the past decade. During that period, two championship games have gone to overtime and three others have been decided by five points or less."
And really it should have been ten different tournament teams. I am not over Drexel in 2012 having early injuries, finishing the year 25-2 after getting healthy, and somehow not getting a bid. They would have given the 5-seeds absolute fits, just like VCU did.
(This post was last modified: 02-27-2021 12:23 PM by FauqDawg10.)
(02-27-2021 09:26 AM)Tribe32 Wrote: Sometimes it makes sense to think about what the players are going through in order for people like us who want to be entertained. First of all, many students don't live on campus, but if you do or you need to be on campus for an athletic program, there are very strict rules to follow. How many people on this thread have been tested for covid? I haven't. These kids are tested all the time just so that they can play a game with no fans. Our men's team has been quarantined at least twice this year that I'm aware of, and some players more than that. Do people even understand what that means? Stay in your room away from others until at least one negative test. Days of isolation sucks. Then throw in other things like deaths in the family, and it isn't really fun any more. These are students aged 18-22 and not pro athletes.
I don't disagree with any of those points -- but, to me, those are reasons to not play at all. However, if you do play (as I said before), then play. Besides, wasn't it on this board that multiple posters have said "the players just want to play"? I do agree that a player would probably rather play than mope around his room in isolation/quarantine. Probably just as likely to pick up something "hanging around" than practicing or playing in the Kap. But your point is understood and it is not like anything is being communicated to us ....
I agree this is not on the AD. I think most MBB scheduling is handled at the coach level and they have their hands full. Playing Delaware this weekend had no downside for either team in the standings but did subject Delaware to the Covid risk of travel so hopefully that was the reason for not playing....
(This post was last modified: 03-01-2021 02:02 PM by wmmii.)
The CAA did a lousy job of scheduling this season.
The eleven Big South teams were originally scheduled to play everyone twice, so 20 conference games each. They averaged 17.5 conference games played per school. That's pretty good compared to some other leagues.
The CAA scheduled 18 conference games per school, the average conference games played per team is 10. The Big South regular season ended a week earlier than the CAA.
(02-28-2021 07:54 AM)NC Tribe Wrote: The CAA did a lousy job of scheduling this season.
The eleven Big South teams were originally scheduled to play everyone twice, so 20 conference games each. They averaged 17.5 conference games played per school. That's pretty good compared to some other leagues.
The CAA scheduled 18 conference games per school, the average conference games played per team is 10. The Big South regular season ended a week earlier than the CAA.
The scheduling looks very similar, but started before Christmas. I'd suggest that most of the Big South teams are in Podunk towns rather than metro areas (Hampton and Charleston Southern are the exception). Not as much Covid is my bet. Also, the distance for travel is generally shorter, so perhaps the CAA was more conservative not to let teams travel from say Boston to Charleston for nothing.
(02-27-2021 07:53 AM)Tribal Wrote: ...I can see why he doesn't want to come off--in the eyes of the CAA, BoV, and Rowe--as a malcontent whiner. ...
Better a malcontent whiner than a wimpy pushover.
(02-27-2021 08:37 AM)wmmii Wrote: Not sure if the rescheduling of our canceled game with Delaware to this weekend was in the scope of what our AD could control.
Gotta disagree here. I keep seeing announcements that other schools are arranging and playing games on short notice (including Elon scheduling UNCW during the same timeframe this past week while we did nothing). That would seem to be the respective ADs doing their job more than anything going on with the league office --- the CAA office seems to be just standing there with a stupefied look on their face.
Apply to the AD vacancy as you seem to know everything.
Unfortunately in this world it is not what you know but who you know. Martin knows Rowe and all I know is, well, you guys.
(02-27-2021 07:53 AM)Tribal Wrote: ...I can see why he doesn't want to come off--in the eyes of the CAA, BoV, and Rowe--as a malcontent whiner. ...
Better a malcontent whiner than a wimpy pushover.
(02-27-2021 08:37 AM)wmmii Wrote: Not sure if the rescheduling of our canceled game with Delaware to this weekend was in the scope of what our AD could control.
Gotta disagree here. I keep seeing announcements that other schools are arranging and playing games on short notice (including Elon scheduling UNCW during the same timeframe this past week while we did nothing). That would seem to be the respective ADs doing their job more than anything going on with the league office --- the CAA office seems to be just standing there with a stupefied look on their face.
Apply to the AD vacancy as you seem to know everything.
Unfortunately in this world it is not what you know but who you know. Martin knows Rowe and all I know is, well, you guys.
(02-27-2021 12:24 AM)wmmii Wrote: Reflect on this fact:
"The CAA Men’s Basketball Championship has been one of the most competitive in the nation, with eight different schools having claimed the title over the past decade. During that period, two championship games have gone to overtime and three others have been decided by five points or less."
And really it should have been ten different tournament teams. I am not over Drexel in 2012 having early injuries, finishing the year 25-2 after getting healthy, and somehow not getting a bid. They would have given the 5-seeds absolute fits, just like VCU did.
You just made me shudder again, thanks. It was ridiculous. Still irks me to this day (the players too) that the Norfolk State loss was the determining factor. NSU was a tournament team that year and upset Missouri in the first round due to soon to be NBA-er Kyle O'Quinn. Had a decent run with the Knicks too before going overseas like many. A real shame. That was a really damn good team that never got their chance
(02-28-2021 07:54 AM)NC Tribe Wrote: The CAA did a lousy job of scheduling this season.
The eleven Big South teams were originally scheduled to play everyone twice, so 20 conference games each. They averaged 17.5 conference games played per school. That's pretty good compared to some other leagues.
The CAA scheduled 18 conference games per school, the average conference games played per team is 10. The Big South regular season ended a week earlier than the CAA.
The CAA voted on this and it was approved to let AD's at each school handle all scheduling. They then voted on it again mid season and the schools again voted on keeping scheduling with them and no interference from the league. So did the league do anything? No but its because they let the schools vote for themselves to handle it. So they stayed out.
The scheduling hurt Drexel, W&M, and UNCW as much as anyone. Drexel had the fewest home games in the league and I think was the only school that did not have their own COVID shutdown. UNCW went for a very long time(4 weeks) without playing any games and did not play even 8 games in league play.
COC will not have played a league game in 3 weeks when they take the Court in Harrisonburg(if they do).
Of all teams we played, Drexel was the most talented. I have no idea who will win the tourney if all 10 games get played, but Drexel, Northeastern and Hofstra likely have the most talent(especially now that Lewis got hurt for JMU).
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MBB CAA Tournament seeding projections
