I'm excited about this weekend's tournament & I'm feeling nostalgic about the past 10 years of CAA tournaments.
What's been your favorite CAA Tournament memory? Any particular games stand out to you all?
10 years ago was the Leonard Mendez buzzer beater in Richmond. Which set us up perfectly for revenge the next year. The run in 2008 was special--Revenge on GSU and then beating ODU/VCU in two straight thrillers.
The 2010 win over Northeastern was one of the ugliest tournament wins I can recall, but it got the job done vs. Matt Janning.
And then of course the Hofstra win in 2015 was one of the most exciting games I've ever been to.
As I'm looking back on the brackets from previous years, there is one thing I think we can all agree on: It is really nice to not play on Friday's any more.
Go Tribe! Let's Dance!
You were at the Hofstra game in 2015?
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Planning my tournament weekend was always so much easier in the 80s, 90s, and 2000s. I knew I'd be free starting Saturday morning...
2008 I think, when we had last second wins over Georgia State, ODU, and VCU. My roommate and I were driving back from Spring Break in Florida and had the ODU game on the radio as we just barely hit radio range for the last ten minute of the second half. We drove up to Richmond from campus the next day for the VCU game. Rushing the court with maybe 20 people was a lot of fun. A picture of us doing that actually hung in the admissions office for a few years.
(03-03-2017 01:17 PM)zablenoise Wrote: [ -> ]You were at the Hofstra game in 2015?
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Yeah--I was at all 3 games that weekend. Had a beer with SF for a while at a bar after one of the games.
Excited? Nostalgic? My memories of CAA tournaments are . . . guaranteed and unrelenting pain. I attended W&M 1993 - 2000 (college and law school) -- ONE, ONE CAA tournament GAME one in that time.
That first round loss to American after winning the regular season title was particularly excruciating.
Then we started having a little success -- which introduced a new and more exquisite pain. Delaware, 1:20 to go, up by 6 . . . I'll never let that go . . . until we finally climb the mountain.
The Hofstra semifinal win in 2015 with my 7 year old son was a nice moment. One that was of course followed up by watching more disappointment with him the following night.
How any W&M can look forward to this time of year is beyond me. I cheer. And I believe, against all hope, that one day it will happen. But only with the excitement of a terrified man cowering under his couch, peeking out from the bottom.
(03-03-2017 09:16 AM)tribetime10 Wrote: [ -> ]I'm excited about this weekend's tournament & I'm feeling nostalgic about the past 10 years of CAA tournaments.
What's been your favorite CAA Tournament memory? Any particular games stand out to you all?
10 years ago was the Leonard Mendez buzzer beater in Richmond. Which set us up perfectly for revenge the next year. The run in 2008 was special--Revenge on GSU and then beating ODU/VCU in two straight thrillers.
The 2010 win over Northeastern was one of the ugliest tournament wins I can recall, but it got the job done vs. Matt Janning.
And then of course the Hofstra win in 2015 was one of the most exciting games I've ever been to.
As I'm looking back on the brackets from previous years, there is one thing I think we can all agree on: It is really nice to not play on Friday's any more.
Go Tribe! Let's Dance!
(03-03-2017 02:43 PM)wrnbldg Wrote: [ -> ]How any W&M can look forward to this time of year is beyond me. I cheer. And I believe, against all hope, that one day it will happen. But only with the excitement of a terrified man cowering under his couch, peeking out from the bottom.
Short-term memory, reckless optimism, and beer.
(03-03-2017 02:33 PM)tribetime10 Wrote: [ -> ] (03-03-2017 01:17 PM)zablenoise Wrote: [ -> ]You were at the Hofstra game in 2015?
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Yeah--I was at all 3 games that weekend. Had a beer with SF for a while at a bar after one of the games.
I think this was when he was tossed out of the bar too.
Seriously?
Favorite memory? None.
Nostalgia? None.
Excited? Only on certain Monday mornings.
This isn't a tournament.
This is an annual black rite which mars every beautiful Spring.
"The agony of defeat" occurs year after year after year ... decade after decade after decade...Tribe heroes stumbling and falling, not getting to the mountaintop, heroic deeds coming to naught.
The only mystery is which school holds the dagger, in which round the fatal blow will be made, and whether the Tribe's demise will be painless or gut-wrenching.
The "thrill of victory"? Still waiting.
(03-03-2017 02:43 PM)wrnbldg Wrote: [ -> ]How any W&M can look forward to this time of year is beyond me. I cheer. And I believe, against all hope, that one day it will happen. But only with the excitement of a terrified man cowering under his couch, peeking out from the bottom.
Yeah, that about wraps it up for many of us.
The two worst feelings I can remember were the 10 minutes following both the UD and Northeastern Championships - though the auto NIT helped ease the sting a bit after the Northeastern game. We were teased of hosting Illinois at Kaplan in round 1. That didn't happen either.
Still, I just love the tourney - at least since Shaver has been coaching.
(03-03-2017 02:33 PM)tribetime10 Wrote: [ -> ] (03-03-2017 01:17 PM)zablenoise Wrote: [ -> ]You were at the Hofstra game in 2015?
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Yeah--I was at all 3 games that weekend. Had a beer with SF for a while at a bar after one of the games.
Oh, that's the tournament when SF DIDN'T get kicked out of the bar. Rare moment. ..I hope you took pics.
Ha, I didn't get as far as you guys bringing this up. No, seriously, most people don't realize that the reason the tournament was moved to Charleston is because SF ran out of welcoming bars in Baltimore. Fun fact.
One Tribe. One Family.
(03-03-2017 02:43 PM)wrnbldg Wrote: [ -> ]Excited? Nostalgic? My memories of CAA tournaments are . . . guaranteed and unrelenting pain. I attended W&M 1993 - 2000 (college and law school) -- ONE, ONE CAA tournament GAME one in that time.
How any W&M can look forward to this time of year is beyond me. I cheer. And I believe, against all hope, that one day it will happen. But only with the excitement of a terrified man cowering under his couch, peeking out from the bottom.
My disappointments go back even farther, to dashed hopes in the Southern Conference Tourney, against Furman in '74-'75, the ECAC South, against JMU in '82-'83, to the numerous recent close calls in the CAA, many of them from close up.
All I can say is it is mostly attributed to a short memory, a measure of gullibility and basically ...endless ...Hope.
I remember going to the string of buzzer beaters against GA ST., ODU, & VCU that got us to the finals before losing to Mason for the 2007-08 season. That was a fun time, too bad there was like 5 of us for the 1st 2 games.
(03-03-2017 04:08 PM)Tribal Wrote: [ -> ] (03-03-2017 02:33 PM)tribetime10 Wrote: [ -> ] (03-03-2017 01:17 PM)zablenoise Wrote: [ -> ]You were at the Hofstra game in 2015?
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Yeah--I was at all 3 games that weekend. Had a beer with SF for a while at a bar after one of the games.
Oh, that's the tournament when SF DIDN'T get kicked out of the bar. Rare moment. ..I hope you took pics.
Ha, I didn't get as far as you guys bringing this up. No, seriously, most people don't realize that the reason the tournament was moved to Charleston is because SF ran out of welcoming bars in Baltimore. Fun fact.
One Tribe. One Family.
Slanderous!!! There was only one bar in Baltimore that didn't welcome my convivial self.... ALEWHORE!!!
Well, tournaments are merely symbolic of how another year’s gone by and how little we’ve grown. No matter how desperate we are that someday a better self will emerge, with each passing of the ball through the hoop we know it’s not to be. That for the rest of our sad, wretched, pathetic lives, this is who we are to the bitter end – inevitably, irrevocably. Happy tournament? No such thing.
Go Tribe
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(03-03-2017 05:42 PM)zablenoise Wrote: [ -> ]Well, tournaments are merely symbolic of how another year’s gone by and how little we’ve grown. No matter how desperate we are that someday a better self will emerge, with each passing of the ball through the hoop we know it’s not to be. That for the rest of our sad, wretched, pathetic lives, this is who we are to the bitter end – inevitably, irrevocably. Happy tournament? No such thing.
Go Tribe
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I hate to admit it but that post speaks to me.
(03-03-2017 05:42 PM)zablenoise Wrote: [ -> ]Well, tournaments are merely symbolic of how another year’s gone by and how little we’ve grown. No matter how desperate we are that someday a better self will emerge, with each passing of the ball through the hoop we know it’s not to be. That for the rest of our sad, wretched, pathetic lives, this is who we are to the bitter end – inevitably, irrevocably. Happy tournament? No such thing.
Go Tribe
"
Like sands through the hourglass, so are the Days of Our Lives."
Losing to JMU at The Robins Center in 1983, if memory serves me...I drank all the way back home and well into the early morning...we had only lost one conference game that year...?
(03-03-2017 05:42 PM)zablenoise Wrote: [ -> ]Well, tournaments are merely symbolic of how another year’s gone by and how little we’ve grown. No matter how desperate we are that someday a better self will emerge, with each passing of the ball through the hoop we know it’s not to be. That for the rest of our sad, wretched, pathetic lives, this is who we are to the bitter end – inevitably, irrevocably. Happy tournament? No such thing.
Go Tribe
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Damn. I'm going to be hitting the bourbon hard tonight...
All of this negativity is garbage. We've had realistic NCAA chances almost every year since 2010. To lump the teams since Schneider's freshman year in with the rest of our history is stupid. We're a completely different program now. I can't wait to see how Jihar, Nathan, Justin, and Luke turn next year's team into a contender.
My favorite tournament memory is putting to bed one and done CAA tournaments. Every year Omar and Daniel were here we had no worse than a puncher's chance and at best were the conference favorite. That's what I remember about the CAA tournament.