I know it's early but ESPN just came out with their first in season Bracketology.
We are said to be representing the CAA as a 12 seed against Vandy. No others from CAA in the field or first 8 out.
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology
Of those on our schedule, UVA with 3 seed, Dayton with a 7 seed, ODU representing CUSA with a 14 seed (against UVA) and High Point representing their conference with a 15 seed
Kind of surprised they didn't choose Hofstra as the early favorite. Nice wins over FSU and @ St. Bonaventure and no bad losses. And of their 8 games played so far this year, 6 have either been on the road or at a neutral site. Though I suppose you could say the Indiana State loss on a neutral court and your loss @ Howard are about on the same level.
Clearly I'm biased, but right now I think Hofstra AND you guys deserve to be in the field in the early projections. You guys have the 2nd strongest resume, and ours is almost entirely dependent on how we fare @ Georgetown on Saturday.
Wow I'm surprised were getting the autobid this early. Suprised but pleased.
bracketology before the first conference game is played... comical
We should end the season right now and accept this bracket as presented to us. Probably the most favorable plea-bargain ever.
(12-08-2015 02:36 PM)Tribal Wrote: [ -> ]We should end the season right now and accept this bracket as presented to us. Probably the most favorable plea-bargain ever.
I totally agree. The rest of this month is crucial for the league. If the CAA can finish this month strong and remain in the 8-11 range in the conference power rankings, we stand a decent shot of getting 2 or 3(delusional?) teams in the field. The second part of that equation is having 3-4 CAA teams really do well within the conference. We cannot have 4 12-6 teams like last season, we need one or two have some separation in the regular season standings. We do seem to have some candidates to be strong(Hofstra, Charleston, UNCW, Northeastern, maybe JMU). Really pulling for UNCW against Georgetown and Northeastern against Michigan State. Even without the wins, close games and results help. So far, it has been better than expected for both the league and the Tribe. If we manage to win out with the rest of the OOC schedule, we would be 8-3. Any of us would have taken that before the season started. Dayton and UVA should be helps to us and the significant wins in the league over NC State, Miami, Florida State and LSU should help as well.
The key to the CAA race this season will be for a team to win all its home games. Every team will lose a couple or several road games so home losses are an anathama. In other words rather than anathama, don't lose at home.
There is another key. The Thursday-Saturday schedule this year will require each team to play 8 or 9 games within 48 hours or less of its last game.
W&M will have 8 such games (the JMU game on 1/31/16 is on Sunday due to television). In only one instance are the two game as much as 48 hours apart with no travel (1/31/15 & 1/2/16). Every other case there is less than 48 hours between games and in most cases travel is involved.
I find it hard to believe there won't be a number of upsets in the Saturday games. Hopefully W&M will have an advantage because of its depth.
From a league perspective, given the depth of the league and the demands of the Thursday-Saturday format, I don't see how one, much less two, team(s) will end the season with less than 4 losses.
That and the "Jay Bilas-hunger-strike-if-the-CAA-gets-two-bids" factor make me very skeptical that the CAA gets any NCAA bids other than the tourney qualifier.
(12-08-2015 08:53 PM)tribeinexile Wrote: [ -> ]There is another key. The Thursday-Saturday schedule this year will require each team to play 8 or 9 games within 48 hours or less of its last game.
W&M will have 8 such games (the JMU game on 1/31/16 is on Sunday due to television). In only one instance are the two game as much as 48 hours apart with no travel (1/31/15 & 1/2/16). Every other case there is less than 48 hours between games and in most cases travel is involved.
I find it hard to believe there won't be a number of upsets in the Saturday games. Hopefully W&M will have an advantage because of its depth.
From a league perspective, given the depth of the league and the demands of the Thursday-Saturday format, I don't see how one, much less two, team(s) will end the season with less than 4 losses.
That and the "Jay Bilas-hunger-strike-if-the-CAA-gets-two-bids" factor make me very skeptical that the CAA gets any NCAA bids other than the tourney qualifier.
Does anyone know what the rationale was for going to a Thursday/Saturday schedule?
Likely, easier travel so a team travelling on Thursday doesn't have to go home and then back out again. Smaller chance of missing more classes too.
We have 2 Away/Away games on Thursday/Saturday -
1/14 & 1/16 - Charleston then UNCW and
2/25 & 2/27 - Elon then JMU
Seems the league schedule the Away/Away games to be in close proximity of each other. We also have 2 home/home games though one of them is early to start the season on 12/31 & 1/2. Rest of the games are a home/away mix.
Over the next month, our guys will enjoy the comforts of home. 3 non-conference and 2 conference games at home before having to head off to Drexel on January 7
Just for balancing purposes, CBS has Hofstra as our lone representative as a #14 seed. THe only relevance to any of it becomes if the CAA looks like it could get multiple bids, then the projections start to matter as Lunardi and the other prognosticators usually get 32 of the at large teams right. Otherwise, it is only dreaming. If I am dreaming about Tribe basketball, Omar sinks the free throws and Thornton hits one of the last 2 attempts and we beat Delaware in 2013.
Reality is we are off to a solid start with a very long way to go.
CAA Basketball just posted a link to an NCAA article written by Brian Mull that mentions Hofstra, and it says they have a "moderate to good" chance at an at-large bid. There's definitely still a chance to be a multi-bid league.
Unless the conference leaders nose dive, based on the OOC results, I can't imagine the CAA autobid only getting a 14.
The CBS bracketology is not updated from the preseason one yet.
https://www.teamrankings.com/ncaa-tourna...ial-league
This site has us as a current #10 and projects the conference at 1.6 bids with Hofstra, Northeastern and UNCW as having a chance to get in with an at large. The percentages are low, but significantly higher at the moment than last year. If UNCW can win Saturday, or Northeastern somehow win vs. Michigan State, the percentages will rise significantly. We also need to avoid any more really bad losses which makes JMU's game Saturday with George Mason a critical one.
Our game with High Point looms. Can we finally defeat John Brown and High Point?
(12-10-2015 04:18 PM)TribePride91 Wrote: [ -> ]Our game with High Point looms. Can we finally defeat John Brown and High Point?
We beat them by 18 in 2012. Not saying losing the last two doesn't suck, but it's not like we're winless against them.
We played at High Point in the first game of this current 4-year series. It was one of the best-played Tribe games in the Shaver era. They play in a very small arena but they have a boisterous crowd. The Tribe exploited their full court pressure for a lot of easy buckets, jumped out to an early lead and never were challenged.
As I remember game two at the Hall, High Point was very well prepared for our style of play. The pulled off the press, so no cheap points by breaking it, and they stole more of our entry passes into the high post than any team I have seen.
They are well-coached and seem to view our game as an important OOC matchup. They will not be easy.