W&M Opens CAA Tourney with Georgia State

The Tribe and Panthers will meet for the second straight year in the opening round of the CAA Tournament on Friday, March 7, at 2:30 p.m.

03/06/08 8:00AM

Williamsburg - The William and Mary men’s basketball team garnered the fifth seed in the 2008 Aeropostale CAA Men’s Basketball Championship, March 7-10, at the Richmond Coliseum. For the second straight season, the Tribe will open the tournament against the No. 12 seed Georgia State on Friday, March 7, at 2:30 p.m. It marks only the fifth time in the conference’s 23-year history that the Tribe has been seeded No. 5 or higher in the tournament and third time it has garnered the No. 5 seed. W&M was also the No. 5 seed in 1993 and 1997.

The Tribe has won four of the last five meetings with the Panthers. W&M took the lone regular season meeting this season, 60-58, in Atlanta, but GSU won the CAA Tournament meeting last season in dramatic fashion. In the only two meetings ever between the No. 5 and No. 12 seeds in the CAA Tournament, the higher seed has come out on the winning end.

In a defensive struggle, W&M dropped its regular season finale to CAA regular season champion VCU, 54-43, on March 1. Junior Peter Stein led the Tribe charge with 15 points and six rebounds in the setback. Georgia State also lost its final regular season contest, falling at James Madison, 70-60. Leonard Mendez and Trae Goldston led the Panther charge with 15 points each.

For complete W&M men's basketball notes, click HERE.

Scouting Georgia State
The Panthers enter the CAA Tournament at 9-20 overall and tied for 10th in the league standings at 5-13. Under first-year head coach Rod Barnes, GSU has been on a bit of a roll lately with three wins over its last five games, including victories in two of the last three. The Panthers won its BracketBuster contest at Jacksonville State, 85-78, on Feb. 23, before downing Towson, 79-63, on Feb. 27. GSU wrapped up the regular season with a 70-60 setback at James Madison.

The Panthers are one of the top 3-point shooting team in the CAA, ranking second in the league at 37.5 percent from long range. The 3-point percentage also ranks 70th nationally in the NCAA rankings released on March 2. GSU leads the CAA in rebounding defense, while ranking third in offensive rebounding.

Leonard Mendez leads the Panthers in scoring and ranks fifth in the CAA at 16.1 points per game. Mendez has scored in double digits in 12 of his last 13 games and has produced 10 20-plus point game performances this year. He and Trae Goldston are two of the top 3-point shooters in the league. Both players are shooting 40.6 percent from 3-point range, which ranks fifth and sixth, respectively. Mendez connects on 2.31 treys per game, while Goldston hits just under two per game at 1.93. Goldston ranks second on the team in scoring at 9.3 points per game.

The Panthers have added another player with the ability to shoot the ball from the perimeter recently. After playing sparingly early in the season, Michael Moynihan is averaging 13.6 points and 3.8 assists per game over the last five games. He is shooting 42.9 percent from 3-point range. Rashad Chase adds 7.7 points and 7.7 rebounds per game to the Panther frontcourt. His rebounding average ranks fifth in the CAA and 90th nationally. He is ninth in the league in offensive rebounding and fifth in defensive boards.

Earlier this season, the Tribe rallied from a 16-point second-half deficit to tally a 60-58 win over Georgia State on Jan. 12. After back-to-back 3-pointers gave GSU a 48-32 lead with 15:14 remaining, the Tribe defense stiffened and the offense found its groove. The Tribe limited the Panthers to just 17.6 (3-of-17) over the final 15 minutes, while connecting on 10 of its final 13 chances (76.9 percent) from the floor. Nathan Mann led the Tribe in scoring with 11 points, while Laimis Kisielius and David Schneider chipped in 10 points apiece. Steven Hess turned in a career day in the victory for the College with nine points and six rebounds. Mendez and Goldston each had 15 points to lead GSU.

CAA Multimedia Schedule
All 11 games of the 2008 Aeropostale CAA Men’s Basketball Championship will be available on various media platforms. The four first-round games on Friday, March 7, will be webstreamed on CAASports.com. The games will be available free to CAA fans by visiting the conference Web site.

The four Saturday quarterfinal games and the two Sunday semifinal games will be televised by CN8 and on the web at CN8.tv. Regional sports networks CSS and SportsNet New York and WSKY in eastern Virginia will also carry quarterfinal and semifinal games. Monday’s title game will be televised nationally on ESPN at 7 p.m.

The entire CAA Men’s Basketball Championship will also be broadcast nationally on Sirius Satellite Radio channel 119. In Richmond, ESPN Radio 950 AM will air the games. W&M fans can follow all the Tribe action on the Tribe Radio Network with Jay Colley, Bill McDonald and Charlie Woollum on the call. Fans can also follow W&M men’s basketball live on the Web at TribeAthletics.com.

So We Meet Again
W&M and Georgia State will meet in the first round of the CAA Tournament for the second straight season. Many Tribe fans would rather forget the previous meeting as the No. 9-seeded Panthers ended the College’s 2007 season as now junior Leonard Mendez connected on a 35-foot heave at the buzzer to propel GSU to a 70-68 win. W&M, the No. 8 seed in 2007, erased a nine-point deficit over the final 1:17 of the game and took its first lead since the 14:16 mark of the first half on All-CAA selection Adam Payton’s driving 3-point play with 4.7 seconds remaining. This time the two teams will square off at 2:30 p.m. in the 5-12 game.

Taking Aim at the CAA 3-Point Records
William and Mary has a chance to moved into the Colonial Athletic Association Record Books for both 3-pointers made and attempted. The Tribe already bettered its school records from last season, knocking down 225 treys on 660 attempts.

At its current pace of 22.8 3-pointers attempted per game, the College could move past the previous CAA record of 681 set by Northeastern in 2005-06 during its opening round game against Georgia State. The Tribe will need to do a bit more work to get into the CAA top-five in 3-pointers made all-time. The 225 threes from W&M this season is 15 shy of fifth on the CAA list. Northeastern (2006-07) is fifth at 240 just behind VCU (1998-99) and Richmond (1997-98), who are tied for third at 241. The conference record to 656 set by Hofstra last season.

3-Point Field Goals Made by a CAA Team
1. Hofstra - 2006-07 - 256
2. VCU - 2006-07 - 244
3. VCU - 1998-99 - 241
3. Richmond - 1997-98 - 241
5. Northeastern - 2006-07 - 240

3-Point Field Goals Attempted by a CAA Team
1. Northeastern - 2005-06 - 681
2. Old Dominion - 2006-07 - 678
3. Northeastern - 2006-07 - 674
4. VCU - 1998-99 - 667
5. East Carolina - 2000-01 - 662

Schneider in the National Rankings
Sophomore David Schneider ranks among the NCAA leaders as of March 2 in a trio of categories. The Phoenix, Ariz., native ranks among the national leaders in free throw shooting, steals and assist-to-turnover ratio. He ranks second in the CAA and 43rd nationally in free throw shooting at 85.5 percent. In the assist-to-turnover ratio category, Schneider is third in the CAA and 69th nationally at 1.96. His 1.8 steals per game rank fourth in the CAA and 90th nationally.

Schneider Leading the Way
After earning CAA All-Rookie team honors a season ago, much was expected of sophomore guard David Schneider, and the Phoenix, Ariz., native has done little to disappoint. Schneider is one of nine players nationally (as of March 2) that lead their respective teams in points (10.9), rebounds (4.8) and assists (3.7) per game. Of the nine players on the list, Schneider is the youngest player and the only sophomore. The 6-3 guard also tops the Tribe in steals and minutes played as well, while ranking among the CAA leaders in six statistical categories.

Schneider has led the Tribe in scoring on team-high eight occasions. Most recently, Schneider led the Tribe with 19 points, six rebounds and five assists at George Mason on Feb. 27. It marked the first time this season that a Tribe player led the team in points, rebounds and assists in a single game. He drilled a career-best five 3-pointers against the Patriots as well. Earlier this season, Schneider had a career-high 24, including 22 in the second half, at Old Dominion. He has also led the Tribe in rebounding on seven occasions, while topping the squad in assists 19 times.

Lockdown Defense
While the Tribe ranks second in the CAA in scoring defense, the College has really started to step up its play on the defensive end recently. Over the last four games, the Tribe limited opponents to just 58.8 points per game. More impressive than those stats are the fact that W&M held two of the top scoring team in the CAA (George Mason and VCU) to an average of 57 points per game over the final two regular season games.

The College held George Mason to just 60 points on its Senior Night, while also forcing 17 Patriot turnovers. The point production was 11 points below GMU’s season average, while the turnover total was five more than its season average. Against VCU, the Tribe limited Rams to 54 points, 14 fewer than their season average.

W&M also did an impressive job of limiting the top scoring threats against both the Patriots and Rams. The Tribe displayed some impressive post defense in limiting GMU’s leading scorer and the CAA’s leading rebounder Will Thomas to just 10 points and eight rebounds in the Feb. 27 meeting.

The Tribe did the job defensively on the Rams’ top two scorers as well limiting the production of Eric Maynor and Jamal Shuler. The VCU duo came into the game averaging a combined 33.9 points per game and rankings among the top 10 in the CAA in scoring (Maynor second at 18.0 and Shuler eighth at 15.9). For the year, the tandem was shooting a combined 46.1 percent from the floor and 41.6 percent from 3-point range prior to the contest with the Tribe. W&M limited Maynor and Shuler to just 28.6 percent shooting (6-of-21) from the floor and 27.2 percent (3-of-11) from 3-point range for 20 total points.

1,000-Point Duo
The senior duo of Nathan Mann and Laimis Kisielius became only the third set of teammates and the first that spent all four years of the Tribe careers together to reached the 1,000-point mark in the same season. After Kisielius joined the group on Jan. 30 with his 1,000th career point at JMU, Mann accomplished the feat in the Tribe’s game at George Mason. They became the 29th and 30th members of the W&M 1,000-point club.

The duo became only the third pair in history to score their 1,000th career points in the same season. Matt Courage and John Lowenhaupt both scored their 1,000th career points in 1977, while Matt Verkey and Carl Parker reached the mark in 1996. Kisielius and Mann are the first to do it in the same season after spending their entire careers together. Two other duos, Bev Vaughan and Jeff Cohen (1958-61) as well as Kevin Richardson and Keith Cieplicki (1982-85), played their entire careers together, but scored their 1,000th career points in separate seasons.

Kisielius currently sits at 1,066 points in his career and ranks 24th in the program’s annals. The Vilnius, Lithuania native is the College’s second-leading scorer at 10.5 points per game over his senior campaign. Mann is at 1,009 points on his career and is averaging a career-best 10 points per game this season.

Building a Winner
Building a consistent winner at William and Mary was a charge of head coach Tony Shaver when he took over the reigns at the College five seasons ago. Those goals are starting to come to fruition as W&M won its 14th game of the season with its victory over Drexel on Feb. 20. It marked the second straight season that W&M has won 14 or more contests. The last time W&M tallied 14 or more wins in back-to-back seasons was during the 1983-84 and 1984-85 seasons.

The 14 wins this season marks the fourth time in the last 20 years that the College has collected at least 14 victories in a season. The 2007-08 version of Tribe hoops is the 27th in the 103-year history of W&M men’s hoops that it has won 14 or more games.

Double-Digit League Wins
The Tribe wrapped up the CAA portion of the schedule with 10 victories, marking only the second time in the Tribe’s 23-year history in the league that it has reached double-digit wins in conference play. The 10 wins are the second-most CAA victories for a W&M team behind only the program-best 13 league wins in 1997-98.

The 2007-08 version of Tribe basketball joined some elite company with its 10th league win against Drexel. In the program’s 71-year affiliation with a conference, it marks only the eighth time a W&M team won 10 or more league games. It occurred six times as a member of the Southern Conference (1948-49 [10], 1949-50 [12], 1950-51 [13], 1951-52 [10], 1959-60 [10] and 1962-63 [10]) and only once as a member of the CAA (1997-98 [13]). W&M was a member of the Southern Conference from 1936-77, before joining the ECAC South from 1977-85. The Tribe was a charter member of the CAA and has been with the league since 1985.