William & Mary??????

RICHMOND — Wow! The William & Mary Tribe in the CAA championship?

Yeah they were the No. 5 team in the tournament and crazier things have happened in March, but this is truly memorable stuff.

Not only has the Tribe never won the CAA tournament in 22 years, but it's never even played in the title game.

After winning the tournament last year and beating Duke in the first round of the NCAA tournament, it seemed a foregone conclusion that VCU would repeat after going 22-6 in the regular season. Well at least I was pretty sure they'd be playing tomorrow night on ESPN.

But the Rams will now have to wait it out and see if the committee thinks they're worthy enough for an at-large bid. Non-conference wins over Maryland, Houston and Bradley might help, but a semifinal loss to No. 161 W&M in the RPI — who is 0-5 against the top 100 — could dash any hopes and send them to the NIT.

And it all might be because of the clutch play of W&M senior forward Laimas Kisielius. The 6-foot-8 Lithuanian native, who made only third-team All-CAA, played like a first-teamer with his game-high 23 points including the game-winner on a runner with three seconds left in the game.

Sophomore Danny Sumner chipped in 19 points for CAA Head Coach of the Year, Tony Shaver, and gave VCU's Eric Maynor, the conference player of the year, some of the toughest defense he could handle.

Maynor finished with a team-high 16 points including four 3-pointers, but was unable to get his hands on the ball for the game's last shot.

The Tribe will try to continue its impressive run with a fourth win in as many games tomorrow night against the winner of George Mason and UNC-Wilmington. At halftime Mason leads UNCW 31-25.