Friends of the Feather, welcome to this year’s inaugural Tribe basketball blog. We’ve now entered the best part of the year, as the Green & Gold suit up simultaneously on the gridiron and on the hardwood. The College’s cagers come into the 2011-2012 campaign with escalated expectations, returning four starters from last year’s squad and adding heralded freshman guard Marcus Thornton. Picked to finish sixth in the CAA by the league’s coaches and media members, the Tribe’s returning players accounted for 85.6% of The College’s scoring last season, as well as 81.9% of its rebounding. Keeping in line with The Gale’s affinity for Top 5 lists, here are the Top 5 Keys to William & Mary being on the bubble come March:

1. The Injury Bug

Since Spring practice, injuries plagued the Tribe’s football team, substantially affecting the Green & Gold’s performance on Saturdays this fall. Key players like Mike Paulus, Ryan Moody, Mike Graham, Dante Cook and Bryan Stinnie have been hobbled by injuries at one point or another. Their absence is part of the reason a team chosen by some as the preseason favorite to win the I-AA title finds itself at 4-4 and needing a lot of help to even make the playoffs.
Unfortunately, the injury bug hasn’t just bitten Tribe athletes who call the Laycock Center home; their wrath has also extended to William & Mary Hall where the Tribe basketball team is also fighting preseason, and now early season, health concerns. The College’s leading returner scorer and preseason 1st-Team All-CAA selection Quinn McDowell has been hobbled by a knee injury and stands to possibly miss the first two weeks of the season. Additionally, injuries have kept Tim Rusthoven and Andrew Pavloff off the court for stretches during preseason practice, while Kyle Gaillard will redshirt and miss the entire ’11-’12 campaign with an apparent stress fracture. Much like the Tribe football team, staying healthy will be key to The College’s cagers finding success and making another run at The Coliseum in March.

2. Horseshoes and Hand Grenades

As the saying goes, “Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.” And no saying more aptly describes the 2010-2011 William & Mary basketball team, who lost 10 games last season by five points or less, including eight conference games. But, such can be expected from a team that consisted of only one senior and saw a number of true freshmen garner significant playing time. Contrast that with the 2009-2010 edition of the Green & Gold who won 11 games by five points or less, including nine against conference opponents and two in the CAA tournament. The only glaring difference between those two teams were the make-up of their starting lineups; the ’09-’10 squad started four seniors, while last year’s team only started one. The final records of those two teams were almost mirror opposites as well, with the senior-led group finishing 22-11 overall and 12-6 in the CAA, while last year’s team ended with a 10-22 overall record en route to going 4-14 in the conference. Obvious moral of the story? The Tribe has to win its close games in order to have a shot at cutting down the nets in Richmond. With a number of key players returning, and valuable experience under their belt, let’s hope this season looks more like the memorable ’09-’10 campaign.

3. Turnovers

Last year’s William & Mary team was last in the CAA in turnover margin, at a negative 3.34 mark per game. That means the Tribe’s opponents got roughly three more offensive possessions per game than The College did. And in the Princeton-style offense The College employed, ball control and offensive efficiency were absolutely necessary for success. Three possessions may seem very insignificant; however, when you lose 10 games overall and eight games in the conference by five points of less, three possessions per game is the difference between finishing the year 20-12 and 10-22. Now this year’s squad, as admitted by Coach Shaver, is his most athletic bunch yet. Because of that, the product on the court may be a bit more of a hybrid of the Princeton-motivated offenses of the last few seasons and the high-energy, run-n-gun teams Shaver led at Hampden-Sydney. Theoretically, this style should produce more opportunities for the Tribe to force turnovers, but it also creates an environment conducive to committing them as well. If The College is able to eliminate their negative turnover margin and just stay even with their opponents, this year’s team should have a strong showing in CAA play.

4. Rainmakers

William & Mary’s success is directly tied to their three-point shooting. Their Princeton-based offense they run and their notable lack of an inside scoring presence at the five leaves them extremely dependent on their perimeter shooting. Last season, the Tribe attempted 689 shots from beyond the arc, second only to VCU. Those 689 three-point attempts accounted for 43.5% of The College’s shots taken meaning almost half of their offensive possession ended in an attempt from way downtown. Due to exemplary marksmen like Quinn McDowell and Julian Boatner, the Tribe was second in three-point field goals made with 250, second only, again, to VCU. With this year’s team expected to run a guard-heavy attack, success from three-point land will again prove critical to WM’s success.

5. Pass Their Boards

At an elite academic institution like William & Mary, passing the boards is generally not an issue. Unfortunately, William & Mary’s basketball team is tested on the glass and not in the classroom. And if The Gale had to give out grades in Offensive Rebounding 101, last year’s team did not receive passing grades. The Tribe finished dead-last in the CAA in offensive boards, pulling down a paltry 7.5 per game. What that means is absent seven or eight possessions per game, The College’s offense only took one shot and then it was back to the other end to play defense. With the Tribe’s three-point heavy attack, offensive rebounding is crucial to finding open looks. When a shot is taken, defenders crash the boards looking to haul in a rebound. This tends to leave three-point shooters on the perimeter unguarded. Grabbing offensive rebounds in a crowd of defenders enables kick-outs to shooters with open looks. The more open looks the Tribe backcourt gets, the more your inner-Vitale gets to say – “Nothing but nylon bab-ay!!!”

HARK