Raise your hand if before the season you had William & Mary at 9-2 overall, including 1-0 in the Colonial Athletic Association, as the bulk of conference play was about to start. Raise your hand if you figured that would include wins over Richmond, Wake Forest and Maryland, as well as CAA stalwart VCU and defending Big South champion Radford.
I’m not surprised many hands aren’t going up.
My hand isn’t, so I can’t act like I saw this coming. As one of the CAA’s media voters, I picked the Tribe 11th in my preseason predicted order of finish, and coaches, SIDs and media collectively picked them 10th in the CAA’s preseason poll. So this start – the fifth time in program history they have gone 9-2 in the first 11 games – has surely caught a few people by surprise.
It’s easy to forget that just two years ago, the Tribe looked like a program on the verge. They made a great run in the CAA Tournament to reach the title game, winning three straight before losing to George Mason in the final. You saw a different side of coach Tony Shaver, an easy-going guy who would probably be quite content if he wasn’t coaching basketball. In fact, he’s the perfect fit at the school, one of the best academic institutions and similar to his prior school, Hampden-Sydney, where he averaged 21 wins a season.
But last year was different. Injuries plagued the team, especially starting guard Sean McCurdy, who only missed seven games but wasn’t 100 percent in many he played in. He wound up having surgery on both ankles in the spring. Danny Sumner didn’t have the kind of breakout year many felt he would after a good sophomore year, as his scoring and rebounding numbers were up but his shooting numbers were down significantly. Classmate David Schneider saw his shooting and assist numbers drop significantly as well. There was also youth served, as freshmen Quinn McDowell and Kendrix Brown started by the end of the season – and Brown also played hurt for much of the year.
The Tribe won consecutive games just twice all year and lost seven in a row at one point in CAA play. It made Shaver look prophetic when he told me at that CAA Tournament that maintaining momentum like what they had at the time may be more difficult than getting it in the first place.
Adding to the challenge is that this season’s non-conference schedule was not a light one, to be sure. In fact, at the conference’s Media Day in October, Shaver described it as “the most difficult schedule we face, without question,” and knew it could also lead to a deceiving record entering CAA play.
“The thing that’s a little bit scary is that this schedule is so difficult, we could be a much-improved team and have a difficult time winning a lot of games,” he added.
Early on, it looked like that schedule could be just what he spoke of as they lost at Connecticut and in triple overtime at Harvard. It wasn’t going to get easier after that 0-2 start. But a win over Richmond started a stretch with five of seven at home, and they’ve been winning ever since. They entered the week in the top ten in RPI, ahead of four undefeated teams.
Through 11 games, the Tribe look more like what one might have thought nearly two years ago. Schneider and Sumner have bounced back, and McCurdy is showing what they missed last year. The senior is healthy and playing excellent basketball in shooting over 40 percent from long range and with a 2.2 assist/turnover ratio.
The gem of the team, though, looks like McDowell, whom Shaver calls a “born leader.” The team’s second-leading scorer had 28 against Maryland, going 8-14 from the field and hitting all nine from the free throw line. He’s fifth in the CAA in scoring and third in field goal percentage, making 55.1 percent of his shots from the wing, and is making 46.2 percent of his shots from long range, good for second in the conference.
“I’ve coached very few young guys – he’s just a sophomore – that are as tough, mentally and physically as he is,” Shaver said. “He’s so composed.”
The offensive end is where this team is winning, as they’ve quite simply been efficient. They lead the CAA in scoring, field goal percentage and are shooting 40.5 percent from three-point range. They have the best assist/turnover ratio by a wide margin and give the ball away just 10.5 times per game, both numbers among the best in the country as well. Senior Steven Hess is the only player on the team with more turnovers (11) than assists (10) among those who play regular minutes.
“I couldn’t be more impressed with what our guys were doing right now,” Shaver said after the win at Maryland.
Despite the start, Shaver is guarded about this team going forward, and with good reason. Conference play is always different because there is more familiarity. The CAA also starts its play in earnest with four games in eight days, and as if the non-conference schedule wasn’t challenging enough, the Tribe has to go on the road for three of those four contests, starting with Hofstra on Saturday.
The Tribe also isn’t without its challenges. Brown missed the first six games of the season due to injury and is being integrated back into the lineup, and young contributors like freshmen Kyle Gaillard and Matt Rum can still get better.
But unlike last year at this time, the Tribe enters the meat of CAA play on a high note and playing well. They’re also healthy, and because of that, they’ve surprised a lot of people thus far.
