Monday, March 10, 2008

Everyone Is Asking Me...

...if William and Mary has a chance against George Mason tonight in the Colonial Athletic Association championship game.

Actually, no one is asking me. I'll tell you anyway.

William & Mary is a middling defensive team - better on team defense than individual defense. On offense they rely heavily on outside shooting. They have what we used to call "gunners" (I imagine they are called something else now) in Laimis Kisielius*, David Schneider, and Danny Sumner. If their shots drop, they have a chance against a generally better team. W&M also passes quite well, which they will need. GMU has - I just learned, I haven't paid the slightest attention to them - Will Thomas and Folarin Campbell, who will probably be more than W&M can handle.

Realistically, they have no chance. But they had no chance against Virginia Commonwealth either and won. As the conference champion gets an automatic NCAA bid, it would indeed be cool for The College to get in with a 17-15 record. Prediction: George Mason 61-47. Update: GMU up 27-26 at the half. Kisielius is hitting his shots, the others are not. Watch for George Mason to pull away immediately. Update: Final George Mason 68-59. Not bad for us.

Both W&M and GMU have Romanian players, BTW. Vali Lazarescu and Vlad Moldoveanu, respectively

*Kisielius is a Lithuanian who was on his country's "B" team last year, but I can't find if he is this year.

No comments: