From what I hear we have no Richmond this year on our schedule.

Richmond has already released their final schedule.

There are only a handful of teams left who have not. Looking at the list, the only potential games that appear possible would be Davidson, Sacred Heart or Lehigh.

Schedule is out...see below:

http://www.tribeathletics.com/ViewArticl...=210308392

Ugh... A D-III and an NAIA. 1 I can take after exams but I hate having 2 of those on the schedule. Rest of the Schedule looks decent though

As someone from the DC area I can honestly say I had never heard of UAW until today

Is there likely to be any ticket allotment for the UVA game on 12/5?

This is a tough schedule despite the Div III and NAIA home games...a couple of breathers
will come in handy against the week after week of high level opponents. Not great either that we have three home games with CAA opponents while students are out for break (but, having this every year, it's just something every team in the league has to go through...but three?

ODU, Central Michigan and High Point give us three tough out-of-league home games, something we rarely see in Kaplan. I also like we have two double header home games where we have the ladies team play the opener...the women's team is really on the upswing and play a very
exciting brand of basketball; these two nights will let them by seen by more than the usual four hundred or so.

But I miss having either Richmond or VCU here every other year as part of home and home
deals. These are solid, ancient rivalries that should overcome different leagues and I hope
we're working hard to bring these back.

And we can only hope, seeing how JMU and others have done it, we can one year get a home game with an ACC team here as part of a one for three/four home game deal.

But, all in all, a challenging schedule for our good guys this season. We can all look forward to some exciting Tribe basketball.

Agree overall this is challenging - but it should be unacceptable at this point that we would have not one, but two, non D1 games on the schedule. It can't be that hard to find a few opponents.

It's a complete waste of two games on the schedule.

(09-14-2015 04:50 PM)Sitting bull Wrote:  Agree overall this is challenging - but it should be unacceptable at this point that we would have not one, but two, non D1 games on the schedule. It can't be that hard to find a few opponents.

It's a complete waste of two games on the schedule.

+1

Also it would be nice to have a weekend home game OOC, but this is a minor gripe. Like the emphasis on regional opponents, but there is truly nothing to gain by scheduling NAIA--just have an open scrimmage at that point.

If we want a free win there's no reason we couldn't find a bottom of the barrel D1 team to come play us. Grambling State, Maine, UMBC or someone

I suspect there is a very good reason why we didn't fill that last spot with a bottom of the barrel D1 team - and why we don't get home games with the ACC schools.

I have to admit I don't know what the reason is. My guess is that for the smaller schools we don't pay them enough to "buy the win" and that for the bigger schools Williamsburg is not Tidewater and it's not Richmond. No one needs to capture the recruiting hotbed of Williamsburg/James City County or satisfy their large alumni base in the same area.

Not to mention that for the last couple of years we would not be guaranteed wins.

I don't think the problem is that it has never occurred to anyone associated with the basketball program that, come tourney time, all that matters is D1 wins and maybe we should schedule some D1 schools.

I think the Mary Washington game is there because Coach Shaver wants it; the Washington Adventist game reflects the structural weaknesses in our program, not the intelligence of those running it.

As to the overall OOC schedule, I think it is the best one we have had in many years, and the most challenging. We play three high prestige powers at their place (NC State, Dayton & UVa) and three very strong teams at HOME (ODU, High Point, Central Michigan). The two MEAC schools are typically challenges for us.

I am hoping this aggressive schedule is a result of a lot of confidence about the program and this year's team in particular. 6 and 5 would be nothing to sneeze at; 4 and 7 is not out of the realm of possibility and anything 7 and 4 or better would have us all giddy.

(09-14-2015 07:16 PM)tribeinexile Wrote:  I suspect there is a very good reason why we didn't fill that last spot with a bottom of the barrel D1 team - and why we don't get home games with the ACC schools.

I have to admit I don't know what the reason is. My guess is that for the smaller schools we don't pay them enough to "buy the win" and that for the bigger schools Williamsburg is not Tidewater and it's not Richmond. No one needs to capture the recruiting hotbed of Williamsburg/James City County or satisfy their large alumni base in the same area.

Not to mention that for the last couple of years we would not be guaranteed wins.

I don't think the problem is that it has never occurred to anyone associated with the basketball program that, come tourney time, all that matters is D1 wins and maybe we should schedule some D1 schools.

I think the Mary Washington game is there because Coach Shaver wants it; the Washington Adventist game reflects the structural weaknesses in our program, not the intelligence of those running it.

As to the overall OOC schedule, I think it is the best one we have had in many years, and the most challenging. We play three high prestige powers at their place (NC State, Dayton & UVa) and three very strong teams at HOME (ODU, High Point, Central Michigan). The two MEAC schools are typically challenges for us.

I am hoping this aggressive schedule is a result of a lot of confidence about the program and this year's team in particular. 6 and 5 would be nothing to sneeze at; 4 and 7 is not out of the realm of possibility and anything 7 and 4 or better would have us all giddy.

-------------------------------------------------------------------
I have no problem with the Mary Washington game at the end of W&M's Exam break. As far as I know, W&M is the only team in the CAA that closes down the basketball program for two weeks in the middle of the season for Exam period. [The first year Tony was at W&M we played VMI at the end of the Exam period and got blown off our oun court.] As to Washington Adventist, it is basically a public scrimage and the first opportunity for local fans to see the team on the court this year; this in the midst of some tough D-1 away games to kick off the season. This game will have no effect on the RPI [unless we lose] and all the guys on the team will get some playing time.

Took a quick look at ESPN (take the source for what it's worth - sometimes they miss some non-DI games) for last year, and the below numbers seem to be the gaps around exam time for the CAA schools. Elon and JMU didn't even seem to take a break, last year. We were the largest by a couple of days, but I was a little surprised by how many (5/9) of the other teams had double-digit "breaks" at some point. While we were the only ones who played a non-DI team, I'd also argue that Hofstra eased back in after their break. JMU and Elon didn't take a break, or I'd say the same about them- and several didn't play marquis matchups (UNCG, ECU, Columbia, CalPoly, and SCST).

I think an ease back into it game is fine and I have no problem with it coming right after exams. I'm just not a fan of seeing more than one non-DI team on the schedule.

Based on my quick look at ESPN:

W&M took 13 days off before playing Washington College (12/6-12/19)

UNCW took 11 off before Louisville (12/3-12/14)
Towson took 10 days off before La Salle (12/10-12/20)
Northeastern took 11 days off before CalPoly (12/6-12/17)
JMU took 6 days off (if you could call it a break) before ECU (12/7-12/13)
Hofstra took 10 days off before Columbia (12/10-12/20)
Elon took 5 days off (if you could call it a break) before UNCG (12/15-12/20)
Drexel took 9 days off before La Salle (12/4-12/13)
Delaware took 11 days off before Temple (12/7-12/18)
Charleston took 9 days off before South Carolina St. (12/2-12/11)

I'd much prefer all D1 opponents. The D1 OOC schedule looks strong to me. I always hope for a schedule that if we do well would put us in consideration for a wild card bid. Although the rest of the schedule is strong, I'm not sure a D3 and a NAIA school on the schedule will impress the selection committee. Certainly the issue of a wild card is very slim, given the weakness of the CAA, but hope springs eternal.

(09-15-2015 04:24 PM)LeadBolt Wrote:  I'd much prefer all D1 opponents. The D1 OOC schedule looks strong to me. I always hope for a schedule that if we do well would put us in consideration for a wild card bid. Although the rest of the schedule is strong, I'm not sure a D3 and a NAIA school on the schedule will impress the selection committee. Certainly the issue of a wild card is very slim, given the weakness of the CAA, but hope springs eternal.

Not sure about a "wild card", but an at large bid to the NCAA tournament seems highly unlikely. We had our best hope with our OOC schedule and performance in 2010 and did not get one then. The CAA is much weaker now than then. We are very likely a 1 bid league. I give Tony credit for doing his best to schedule some impressive games. I still think a pre-season or holiday tourney would yield a couple other good games that might make the difference. Most of the schools simply play more games OOC than we do.

(09-15-2015 04:06 PM)TribeNiner Wrote:  Took a quick look at ESPN (take the source for what it's worth - sometimes they miss some non-DI games) for last year, and the below numbers seem to be the gaps around exam time for the CAA schools. Elon and JMU didn't even seem to take a break, last year. We were the largest by a couple of days, but I was a little surprised by how many (5/9) of the other teams had double-digit "breaks" at some point. While we were the only ones who played a non-DI team, I'd also argue that Hofstra eased back in after their break. JMU and Elon didn't take a break, or I'd say the same about them- and several didn't play marquis matchups (UNCG, ECU, Columbia, CalPoly, and SCST).

I think an ease back into it game is fine and I have no problem with it coming right after exams. I'm just not a fan of seeing more than one non-DI team on the schedule.

Based on my quick look at ESPN:

W&M took 13 days off before playing Washington College (12/6-12/19)

UNCW took 11 off before Louisville (12/3-12/14)
Towson took 10 days off before La Salle (12/10-12/20)
Northeastern took 11 days off before CalPoly (12/6-12/17)
JMU took 6 days off (if you could call it a break) before ECU (12/7-12/13)
Hofstra took 10 days off before Columbia (12/10-12/20)
Elon took 5 days off (if you could call it a break) before UNCG (12/15-12/20)
Drexel took 9 days off before La Salle (12/4-12/13)
Delaware took 11 days off before Temple (12/7-12/18)
Charleston took 9 days off before South Carolina St. (12/2-12/11)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
W&M is much more rigiourous academically than the above listed schools. It is not so much that games are not played [days off] but that the amount of practice is severely restricted and because of exam scheduling the W&M team is rarely able to practice together during this perion.

Our SOS in 2010 was 110. The problem that year just had to do with bad losses. You can't drop games against Towson, JMU, and Wilmington that year if you want to make the tournament. We (rightfully) didn't make it with an RPI of 58. Our RPI needed to be about 10 spots lower to have a shot. Drop one of those and we probably would have.

The next year, though the team took a step back, our SOS was actually improved (ranked 97). I think that we're probably okay with a SOS in the top-150, if we're hoping to have a shot as an at-large (you just have to win the games, obviously). The real issues are years like 2012-2013 when our SOS is 309. Forget about any at-large bid, that type of schedule doesn't even get the team prepared for CAA play.

Scheduling is an unpredictable game, though. 2012-2013, for example, had a lot more to do with Wake Forest, Purdue, Vanderbilt, ODU, and Richmond being down than it did our scheduling philosophy.

http://www.tribeathletics.com/SportSelec...SID=606383

Women's schedule is up too

"The William & Mary men’s basketball team’s home game with James Madison has been moved to Sunday, Jan. 31. The game was originally slated for Saturday, Jan. 30, but was moved to Sunday and will carry a 7 p.m. tip time."

Anybody know what that's all about, since the rest of the CAA play is Thur/Sat for all games this season??

Tribe women have Northeastern at Kaplan on the 31st, but hard to believe the chance at another doubleheader warranted that change alone.

Probably for TV schedule.