CAA Releases 2018-19 League Schedule


6/28/2018 | Men's Basketball
RICHMOND, Va. - The Colonial Athletic Association announced the 2018-19 men's basketball conference schedule on Thursday. The 18-game league schedule opens on Friday, December 28 and concludes on Saturday, March 2.

This season will be the first of a five-year rotating conference schedule that pairs each school with a travel partner. With the exception of the opening weekend (Friday/Sunday), teams will compete in a Thursday/Saturday format that features back-to-back games at home or on the road. During the two weeks in which a team faces its travel partner, both squads will have a bye on Thursday night before playing on Saturday. The Tribe's travel partner over the next five years is Elon.

"The new travel partner schedule provides better balance and equality for all teams," CAA Commissioner Joe D'Antonio said. "We believe playing a full double round-robin format is the best way to begin the process of determining a true conference champion."

In 2017-18, the CAA was ranked 12th among the nation's 32 Division I conferences in the final NCAA RPI and three teams were among the top 100, including the Tribe. The CAA race was extremely competitive with every team recording at least six conference victories for the first time in league history. W&M won 11 league games, marking the fifth-straight season in which the program won double-digit CAA contests. Over the last five years, the Green and Gold leads the league with 96 overall victories and 54 in CAA play.

The Tribe plays five of its first seven league games at home, beginning with in-state rival James Madison on Friday, Dec. 28, at 7 p.m. W&M wraps up the weekend with Towson on Sunday, Dec. 30, at 4 p.m. Following a road trip to Delaware (Jan. 3) and Drexel (Jan. 5), the Green and Gold enjoys three straight inside Kaplan Arena, hosting Hofstra (Jan. 10), Northeastern (Jan. 12) and Elon (Jan. 19).

W&M travels to UNCW on Jan. 24 and Charleston (Jan. 26), before hosting Drexel, on Jan. 31 and Delaware on Feb. 2. The Tribe embarks on a three-game road trip with the northern swing at Northeastern (Feb. 7) and Hofstra (Feb. 9), before heading to travel partner Elon on Feb. 16.

The Tribe's final home weekend is set for Feb. 21 against Charleston at 7 p.m. and Feb. 23 vs. UNCW at 4 p.m. W&M wraps up the regular season at Towson on Feb. 28 and James Madison on March 2.

The 2019 CAA Men's Basketball Championship will be held March 9-12 at the North Charleston Coliseum in North Charleston, S.C. for the third consecutive year.

The Tribe released its non-conference schedule earlier this week, featuring five home games and six contests against teams that competed in the 2018 post season. Nine of the W&M's 11 Division I games are against programs that finished in the top five of their respective leagues. In total, the Tribe's opponents won 60.8 percent (226-146) of their games in 2017-18, including 62.8 percent (123-73) of their conference contests.




Someone PLEASE tell me that the kids get back to school BEFORE the 20th of January...

Unless I'm mistaken, Gold Rush can't happen on Charter Day weekend. Bummer.

Edit: Charter Day is 2/8/19, and the Tribe is away that weekend.

If students are out till the 20th, then we would have played half of our League home games without students present. (I'm thinking no other CAA school gets that sort of "special" treatment from the Commissioner's Office.)

So angry. The Tribe gets over half of their conference games at home before the students are back in. Then, no Gold Rush charter day weekend game. Finally, the last two on the road before the conference tourney. The only positive is the chance to start fast and win some home games to get near the top of the standings.

Essentially then there are only 2 home Saturdays after the students return. To be fair, maybe the schedule is pretty bad for everyone. Would think having Hofstra and NE getting the bad home dates makes more sense since they have little attendance regardless.

This is, as others have noted, a terrible schedule for us. And, of course, the Thursday-Saturday combination remains awful.

I'm sure we'll have a Gold Rush game...without, of course, the impetus of having it on the Charter Day Weekend.

On another note, there was no television announcement with the schedule. Is the CAA again not going to have their games on a regular channel like Comcast (as in the past)?

The extra A is for Agonizing

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(06-28-2018 02:53 PM)billymac Wrote:  If students are out till the 20th, then we would have played half of our League home games without students present. (I'm thinking no other CAA school gets that sort of "special" treatment from the Commissioner's Office.)

This is the year to get creative with ticket sales, and let the general public (Tribe alumni and friends of the College only) have access to the student seats for those games that the school is not in session.

Six games while the school is not in session, right? St. Joe's plus five CAA games. That's too many to have a black hole in the student section.

All those with connections ... get to work on this!

:-)

(06-29-2018 05:44 AM)Tribal Wrote:  The extra A is for Agonizing

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Yeah, I certainly couldn't give it to them for their scheduling prowess, so that was as good as anywhere to put it...




also, could be annoying or apathetic.

I didn't realize until this schedule came out that the league tournament is a week later then usual in 2019. Would normally be the first weekend in March, not the second.

I will either be in Thailand or Minneapolis the week of the tourney.

Since i won't be there, the Tribe will go dancing in 2019!

According to W&M academic calendar, classes start 1/16/19.

(06-29-2018 07:55 AM)NC Tribe Wrote:  I didn't realize until this schedule came out that the league tournament is a week later then usual in 2019. Would normally be the first weekend in March, not the second.

I will either be in Thailand or Minneapolis the week of the tourney.

Since i won't be there, the Tribe will go dancing in 2019!

I saw the same thing, and Selection Sunday is pushed back, so, everyone's conference schedules are finishing later.

I'm sure that's the reason for the two weeks where no Thursday games are played which will be strange. I originally wanted to credit the league for minimizing time away from class, but obviously that is not what drove the empty Thursdays. They could have easily scheduled those Thursdays instead of having a cramped opening weekend before New Year's. Could have started on Thursday after New Year's and given the opportunity to schedule another OOC game between Xmas and New Year's.

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I'm a big, big proponent of weekend home games for lots of reasons (preferably Saturdays).

W&M has homes games on the following weekends:

11/24 (Saturday)
12/1 (Saturday)
12/16 (Sunday)
12/28 (Friday)
12/30 (Sunday)

That is just outstanding. I'll take the 12/28 and 12/30 conference home games over any OOC game (likely on the road) any time.

I also like the the travel partner concept. It makes the schedule easier to follow. There's a rhyme and reason to it. Building a rivalry with Elon has real potential. UNCW and Charleston must love their pairing. Teaming Hofstra and NU, and UNCW and Charleston, makes so much sense from a travel standpoint. From a home game standpoint, NU-Hofstra weekends, and UNCW-Charleton weekends, are pretty good stuff to plan a weekend visit to the Burg around.

Lots to be excited about!

(06-29-2018 10:08 AM)nj alum Wrote:  I also like the the travel partner concept. It makes the schedule easier to follow. There's a rhyme and reason to it. Building a rivalry with Elon has real potential. UNCW and Charleston must love their pairing. Teaming Hofstra and NU, and UNCW and Charleston, makes so much sense from a travel standpoint. From a home game standpoint, NU-Hofstra weekends, and UNCW-Charleton weekends, are pretty good stuff to plan a weekend visit to the Burg around.

Lots to be excited about!

I like having the UNCW/Charleston road weekend in place again, as it was for at least two years prior to last year. Make for a fun road trip from Williamsburg.

Is our academic calendar typical of our conference mates or significantly different? I would assume if it is similar that we're not lone rangers in so many conference games w/o students present.

I guess I can understand some angst about the Thursday-Saturday schedule, but as an out-of-town (483 miles away) season ticket holder, this year's schedule is manna from heaven.

Basically the travel partner approach creates four weekends each season where I can go to Williamsburg and watch two conference games in one trip. I suspect there are a decent number of Tribe football fans who travel a good distance for Saturday football games, maybe spending a night or two in town. This is the basketball equivalent and it's all good for me.

The large number of Saturday games is also quite positive, though that impact is more significant for fans living between Richmond and Virginia Beach. It should create some continuity for fans who will come to expect spending Saturdays at the Hall during basketball season. The frequent 4:00 starts will allow those with an hour or two drive to see these games as a day trip. (And 4:00 allows students to see a game without impacting their social life.)

I understand the issue with the number of games with student not on campus. However, as long as our academic calendar does not start the second semester until mid-January, I don't see how to solve that problem. We can only compensate by developing stronger local and regional support - and it seems we are making some progress in that area.

The Saturday games also bring in families...we had many more parents with their kids last year than in previous seasons.