W&M Basketball is already a THIRD of the way through the 2016-2017 basketball season! Can you believe it? We can’t either. Though still early in the year, the Green and Gold has already experienced its fair share of ups and downs. And with the Tribe about to start in-conference play against Northeastern on New Year’s Eve, W&M will need to pick up the pace to compete in a competitive CAA.

We at the W&M Sports Blog thought it would be interesting to revisit the CAA preseason rankings to see just how “accurate” they’ve been in the early going. There have been several surprises, with a couple teams over-performing their original projection.

Preseason CAA Rankings

1. 
   UNCW (37 first-place votes) 
2. 
   Towson (2 first-place votes) 
3.  
   William & Mary (1 first-place vote)
4.  
   College of Charleston
5.  
   James Madison
6.  
   Hofstra
7.  
   Northeastern
8. 
   Elon
9.  
   Drexel
10.  
    Delaware

Current CAA Rankings
(29 DEC)

As previously noted, and has been the case in the last several years, the CAA seems to be very strong this season. Parity this season will likely be at a high, as any team can score an upset over another on any given night. Below is the updated CAA ranking, as of 29 December.

1. 
   UNCW: 11-2, (0-0 CAA), #21 RPI Ranking
    No Change From Preseason Rank
2. 
   College of Charleston: 9-4, (0-0 CAA), #58 RPI
    Preseason #4
3. 
   Elon: 8-5, (0-0 CAA), #154 RPI
    Preseason #8
4. 
   Hofstra: 8-5, (0-0 CAA), #187 RPI
    Preseason #6
5. 
   Towson: 8-5, (0-0 CAA), #106 RPI
    Preseason #2
6. 
   Northeastern: 7-5, (0-0 CAA), #120 RPI
    Preseason #7
7. 
   Delaware: 7-6, (0-0 CAA), #200 RPI
    Preseason #10
8.  
   William & Mary: 5-5, (0-0 CAA), #253 RPI
    Preseason #3
9.  
   Drexel: 6-7, (0-0 CAA), #175 RPI
    No Change From Preseason Rank
10.  
    James Madison: 2-11, (0-0 CAA), #343 RPI
     Preseason #5

Right off the bat, we should point out that little stock should be put in these early returns. Each CAA team has a completely different out of conference schedule. Some play against far weaker opponents than others. In general, not every schedule is created equal, and at the end of the year in the CAA, we bet just one team will make the NCAA Tournament; that team will have to win the CAA Tournament to secure the automatic bid. So in this case, checking out the RPI rankings noted above is helpful, which takes into account strength of schedule.

If we analyze the early returns, only two out of ten CAA teams have losing records, seven hold winning records, and one (your W&M Tribe) sits at .500. As predicted by the CAA pundits, UNCW has truly been the best team in the league up to this point. Elon has seemingly over-performed, while JMU looks like this year’s bottom-dwellers in the CAA. The Green and Gold has its work cut out for it, but definitely has the tools to get it done. The boys will look to get on track tonight vs. in-state rival ODU before a New Year’s tilt vs. Northeastern. LET’S GO TRIBE!!!

Next up for the Tribe

 @ ODU, 12/29

 @ Northeastern, 12/31

 @ Hofstra, 1/2