The thought was to take the Northeastern loss to Siena to illustrate an early season paradigm for all fans. You see, after one or two games every fan has the season figured out. Every game from here to March will only validate the November belief. I love fans for exactly this passion, and it’s why we keep after it every single year.

Side note: This is another area in which we have it better in mid major-ville, for our joy and angst is real. We feel it and it matters. In the major conferences November and December wins and losses largely don’t actually matter. They are generally jockeying for seeds in the NCAA tournament, and Andy Katz column inches. For this, their angst is whining and their joy is hollow.

Anyway, the perspective usually lands in two camps: we’re terrible, or we’re great. Wins and losses merely dictate the severity of either view. This hit me in making sense of Northeastern/Siena and how a 20-6 lead in which the Huskies would’ve looked good against the Celtics became an ugly, gut-wrenching loss. It’s this way for every team right now.

You can say that this was the same Nor’easter as last year–good, but missing critical pieces. Long lulls in scoring but tough defense. Need freshman playing and producing. You can see another 12-6 CAA season that ends in frustration.

Or, you can see that Chase Allen played probably his worst game as a collegian, Matt Janning only took 11 shots (seven when it mattered), that they turned the ball over 16 times and other than the early burst looked ragged. And lost to a darn good basketball team on the road by only six points.

ODU fans are either guarded by the thought of looking world-beating but realizing B-CU and Longwood adds sheen to any team, or they are actually Sweet 16 material.

Drexel: solid execution but continued bricklaying; this time from inside two feet. Look good, make shots. Either? Neither? Both?

UNCW: more competitive, looking better, but two losses. Good, bad, or indifferent?

The more I think about it, the more I’m thinking the CAA is the macro version of Corny Vines. Perspective is a funny animal.

***

As frequently stated, the perspective in these parts is very glass-half-full. We’re not the kind of folk who obtain joy from joyless; nor does self-schadenfreude get us through the day. We like to believe because that’s the only way success tastes right when it comes.

But last night tests even our will.

Delaware, at home, managed to keep its game with Bucknell interesting for about 18 minutes. Repeat that sentence, out loud. The Bison led 22-20 but bridged the half on a 20-4 jaunt to take a 42-24 lead and seal the game. We can understand a loss, but that’s not a good loss.

Speaking of bad losses, VCU was blitzed by Western Michigan in the huh? game of the season. The Rams led 28-11 at one point. This is one of those games that doesn’t need analysis. A 17-point lead turning into a 16-point loss is sufficient.

Here’s where we tie yesterday’s post and yesterday’s somewhat-unrelated games together. Guard play?

Fonzie Dawson chucked a 4-21 (1-8 from three) for Delaware, and Joey Rodriguez hoisted 16 shots and made two (zippo for eight from distance). Keep your calculator, I’ve done the math: combined 6-37 (16.2%) overall and 1-16 (6.3%) from the arc.

And I’m unsure what this means, but it is significant and warrants attention.  Combined free throws were 25-35 for the CAA and 56-68 for the opponents.

These were games against Bucknell and Western Michigan, not UConn and Kansas. Save the bad officiating line because I don’t believe it. Something is there having to do with CAA play.

Final statistical note: the CAA is now 0-11 in road games.

We’ll be back later today with ODU@Liberty, hopefully ending the bagel.