Men’s Basketball Schedule Released
Posted by TTHS on August 25th, 2006
The Tribe Men’s Basketball program announced their 2006-2007 schedule on Friday, and I’ll give a month-by-month breakdown.
November
The season starts off @ Kansas State to kick off Bob Huggins career at K-State. This game was obviously not meant to be a win, but it will be nice to give the Freshman and Sophmores a chance to play at a big-time arena. The home-opener will be against Wagner, who went 13-14 last year. Their season highlight was obviously their 2-point loss @ UCLA, but outside of that game they were very mediocre. This is a winnable game. W&M’s third game of the season is @ Holy Cross, a team that beat them by 12 points at Kaplan last year. HC had 3 20-point scorers in that game, and 2 are returning. The final game of the month is at Navy, who went 10-18 last year. If we don’t win this game we are in trouble.
Predicted November record-2-2
December
The start of December also marks the start of the William and Mary tip-off classic, where W&M faces Jacksonville State in the first round. They were #4 in the Ohio Valley Conference last year, with a record of 16-13. It is unlikely they are that good again this year, though, as they are losing 6 players. The second game of the Tip-Off Classic is against either VMI or Cornell, VMI being the inferior team. Like the Classic, the entire month is at home, and Towson comes to the Hall on the 5th. They are expected to be one of the top teams in the CAA this year, with nation’s leading scorer Gary Neal returning. North Florida is up next, and they are W&M’s version of a cupcake. 3-17 in conference, 6-22 overall. Ouch. UMBC is the next game, and they narrowly defeated W&M in Maryland last year. They are losing 2 of their top 3 leading scorers, and were a not-so-impressive 10-19 last year. This is the type of game we need to win. The next 2 games are Hampton and Richmond. Last year we barely lost to Richmond and beat Hapton by 10 at their house. We need to go 1-1, hopefully 2-0, in these games.
Predicted December Record-5-2
January
The month of January begins at last year’s final four team and conference foe George Mason. They lost their 3 best players from last season, but still return Will Thomas, one of the best players in the CAA. We then come back to Kaplan to face Northeastern, who lost their top 2 players and if I remember correctly their coach. This could be the battle for the basement of the CAA. We then go to Atlanta to face the Georgia State Panthers. We split with them last year, but they are expected to be significantly improved from last season. Up next is VCU at the Hall, another team breaking in a new Coach(Jeff Capel moved to Oklahoma). They, as always, are expected to be in the top half of the CAA, but I could see an upset in a game like this. Then it’s off to Newark to face the Blue Hens of Delaware(who don’t come to Williamsburg this year for football or basketball). They lost all-CAA center/foward Harding Nana, which will surely be a shot to the team. Last year in the only meeting they beat us in OT at the Hall. We then get Mason at home, followed by a trip to Long Island to face the favorites to win the CAA, Hofstra. This one will probably be ugly, as Stokes and Aguido are a leathal combo. The schedule doesn’t get any better, as we face ODU who is always near the top of the CAA. They did lose Alex Laughton last year, and he always seemed to kill us. After facing GSU at home home and traveling to Richmond to face VCU, Madison comes to the Burg. Last year we swept them, and they had 6 players leave from last year, but the best one, James, isn’t going anywhere and will be tough to stop.
Predicted January Record-4-7
February
We start off the final month of the regular season with UNCW, who is always a favorite to win it all. Last year they beat us at the Hall and in Wilmington. We go to JMU later in the week, and just a week after playing them at home we play @ UNCW. We get Drexel at home, who beat us last year and is supposed to be MUCH better this year, then play away vs. an unknown team in the bracket buster game, and then play in Philly vs. Drexel. We close the regular season on 2/24, at 2 PM at the Hall, and it will be rocking as always when ODU comes to town. It would be great to beat them just once…
Predicted February Record-1-5, plus the bracket buster
Predicted Final Record-12-16
Some more basketball news, the rosters have been update and here are the changes-
Danny Sumner-#22
Matt McFadden-#31
David Schneider-#2
Stephen Hess-#00
The entire schedule can be found here