First, this is outstanding. The general theme is Sudanese youth being brought to America to play basketball, and its seamy side. Two kids are profiled, and one is Northeastern’s Mathiang Muo. (Thanks to DieHardDogs for the find…).
The conference RPI has crept to #9 and the surrounding statistics–laid out nicely by Brian Mull–”feel” right. And we repeat: I’m not saying anything other than this is what we asked the conference teams to do during the noncon season, and they did it. Later today we’ll revisit “the chart.”
What we need is a strong finish, and it begins tonight when the Dub travels to my hometown for a game against Richmond. (Requisite plug: this should be a conference game.) To me, it is the second toughest test before we begin conference play on Saturday.
The Fightin’ Pugs head to College Park on Wednesday and that is the #1 toughest game. Side note: somebody call Guinness to check on the record for most number of reasons you’d root for a team whose school you did not attend. We’ll be close, when you factor in the W&M, RPI, conference, get a win and a check, Gary Williams, ACC, Maryland fans, etc. angles.
Anyway, other than JMU (at Stanford) and Northeastern (at Santa Clara) being a long way from home, I can make an easy argument for CAA victories in the other 10 games. We’ll go into more depth later, however quickly:
UNCW at Richmond: roadie, toughie.
Hofstra at Fla Atlantic: winnable.
Rhode Island at Drexel: very tough but at home. This is ranked toughie #3.
East Carolina at VCU: winnable and at home.
Lafayette at Delaware: at home, and winnable.
NU at Santa Clara: long way from home but winnable.
JMU at Stanford: long way from home but winnable.
Mason at Radford: Scary to me and a roadie, but winnable.
Pugs at Maryland: Eesh.
Bowling Green at Towson: at home and certainly winnable.
Duquesne at ODU: home and winnable.
NU at TBD: certainly winnable because that field can be beaten.
***
So with 12 play, let’s realistically say:
Winners: Hofstra, VCU, NU (2x), Delaware, Mason, ODU, Towson.
Losers: UNCW, Drexel, W&M, JMU.
For now. More later when I get to think a little.
December 28th, 2009 at 2:25 pm
Mason’s trip to RU scares me as well. They did give W&M a heckuva game last week, too. Good luck to W&M vs. Maryland…oh, I hate the Terps. Beat ‘em, Tribe. (However, I root for Maryland’s Eric Hayes, since he’s a PWC – Prince William Co., VA – guy.)
December 28th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
If I were daring, I’d try to make the second half of the JMU-Stanford game (I’m going to be in Santa Clara with NU).
Santa Clara is a winnable game, but Kent and Wofford are pretty good teams.
December 29th, 2009 at 8:14 am
UNCW came soooo close to beating UR…darn.