This is the best thing I’ve read in months. Dave Fairbank of the Daily Press sat in on a recent talk Tony Shaver gave to a group of high school coaches. It is an outstanding piece worth your time and a look into how Shaver approaches basketball, and life.

Top of my list was Shaver’s admission of how W&Ms struggles affected him, and how he changed his philosophy: “it was probably to save my job, to be quite honest. It was the most difficult time in my life, professionally. It was flat-out scary.”

Shaver also mentioned a concept we all believe, and it reminded me of a comment another CAA coach made. It became the basis for this entire post. His tenet: “Emphasize and build team chemistry. A team will never reach its potential if team chemistry is poor.”

I think we’re going to find out a lot about chemistry this year in the CAA. Its impact on success has evolved to legendary cliche status in interviews. Coaches know everybody needs it, nobody is sure they have it. You know it when you see it. It’s a good thing to talk about when you don’t want to say “we need to rebound better.”

After some thought, it hit me that it impacts every CAA team in a significant way this season. Yes, I know it is important to every team every year, but for some eerie reason it looms especially large this year in The Association.

The other coach told me that last year The Pugs were wonderful to watch play. He said that they had something beyond chemistry; that they played like they were above the floor and nothing ever distracted them from their mission. Things would go wrong and it never remotely impacted them.

Today’s side note: Coaches appreciate these things and you should too. It’s one of the secret reasons you root for the Pugs, even if they are a hated conference rival. If you can’t muster appreciation for folks trying to do things the right way, fighting through struggles and seeing some success, then you are the one with the problem.

Anyway, back to some heavy white coat experimentation with chemistry this year.

Sans David Schneider (and Danny Sumner and Sean McCurdy and Steven Hess), can William & Mary keep it going? One thing you may not realize is how young The Pugs will be. Marcus Kitts is their only senior and they have four freshman who will challenge for playing time. That above-the-floor chemistry will be needed from underclassmen.

Georgia State has seven new faces on its roster and lost its top six scorers from last year’s team. Hofstra has five new faces to go alongside Charles Jenkins–eight if you count Paul Bilbo (injured/redshirt), Brad Kelleher (NCAA clearance), and Mike Moore (transfer from Fordham).

VCU can run waves of talented players at you. It seems Shaka Smart no longer has to worry about flour and vinegar getting together. If so, look out for the Rams. Mason is similar. Kevin Foster could’ve started for about six CAA teams last year and he barely sniffed the floor. He’s gone, but the theme remains–the Patriots appear to be a very talented but rudderless team. If they can put it together, danger Will Robinson.

ODU is the gold standard of chemistry–like vampires they smell blood and attack as a group (not teen angst Twilight vampires). I’ll leak some info to you in order to make my point: I can easily get through my preseason All CAA first and second teams and NOT have one ODU player listed. However ODU will be the preseason favorite, and that opinion won’t change. The Monarchs are the consummate “play better in March” team and that’s ALL chemistry.

Towson annually has a collection of talented players but they never seem to make it to January intact. UNCW has a new coach, a small team, and no reason to expect success. However chemistry can do wonderful things for disjointed and shorthanded teams.

Northeastern has Chase Allen and a bunch of guys you’ve seen and heard a little bit about. You betting against Bill Coen meshing spare parts? I’m not. It’s kind of the same at Delaware. Monte Ross has everybody back, and that includes point guard Brian Johnson.

Drexel’s entire success depends on team play and chemistry. It seems sometimes Bruiser gets the kids all rallying around a distaste for their coach, but it works. The Dragons have reached double figures wins in the CAA in seven of its nine seasons.

And that leaves James Madison, who to me has the best framework of any team this season. The Dukes have a superior point guard (Devon Moore), a shooter (Julius Wells), and the conference’s best big man (Give ‘Em Hell). Parts and roles come together and I can make an argument they challenge for the regular season title.

I guess it comes down to this: in the grand scheme, players come and players go. It’s how they come together in any particular and specific season that makes the difference in 9-9 and 13-5. (Keep in mind the number of two-possession league games at the under 4:00 media timeout.)