Sorry for the long break everyone, a combination of intense writer’s block, contempt for Vox Media’s policies, and holiday travel have badly delayed the NMTC series. If you’re not aware, I write a column about the teams that are vying to make their first appearance in the NCAA Tournament.

There are three William & Mary grads in my office. Recently, I asked one of them how he felt about the Tribe never making the NCAA Tournament.

“We’ve definitely made it at some point,” he said.

“Uh, no, you haven’t.”

“Seriously? That can’t be right.”

“I am the Internet’s foremost expert on teams that have never made the NCAA Tournament, and I can assure you they’ve never made it.”

“But we’ve definitely made it, right?”

They have not. William & Mary are one of the illustrious “Founding Fathers”, the teams that were in Division I when the NCAA Tournament began, but have since failed to make any of them. Along with St. Francis (NY), Army, and The Citadel, William & Mary have been searching in the desert for a long time. In fact, they’ve been waiting twice as long as the Israelites waited for the Promised Land—it’s been 81 years since the first NCAA Tournament.

I’d imagine diehard William & Mary fans, wherever you are, are getting quite stressed. The Tribe are good, there’s no doubt about that. They’ve won three straight road games to start CAA play, and are the No. 4 team in the conference by KenPom. With good seeding, they could definitely make a run. Nathan Knight is one of the best scorers in the country, and the rest of the squad is deep and filled with dangerous shooters. They are seventh in the country in eFG% and four players shooting better than 40% from three.

Wisconsin transfer Andy Van Vliet, a 7-footer who shoots 41% from three, is providing all kinds of floor spacing for Knight and Milwaukee transfer Bryce Barnes. There’s a chance the drought ends this year. It might even be a good chance. After starting the year at No. 251 on KenPom, W&M is up to 151 after knocking off Northeastern on the road last Saturday. They have one of the easiest schedules in the conference and are currently projected to go 21-10, which would probably put them in the No. 1 or No. 2 seed.

But with the regular season not mattering quite as much for mid-majors, especially mid-tier CAA teams, the pressure of making your first NCAA Tournament towers over everything. We’ve seen Founding Fathers crumble in the past—just take a look at poor St. Francis Brooklyn in 2015, who won the conference and advanced to the title game, only to heartbreakingly lose 66-63 to Robert Morris. William & Mary had this happen in 2015 as well. After winning the conference and making the title game, they lost 72-66 to Northeastern. The expectation for these long-term members of the club is a curse to be reckoned with.

As someone who was attending Northwestern when it finally broke the curse and made the NCAA Tournament in 2017, I can assure Tribe fans that the catharsis is immensely gratifying. It also weighs upon the team like a giant cement scarf. In “the year”, Northwestern blew numerous chances to really seal its spot, and very nearly screwed everything up completely until the famous Taphorn-to-Pardon buzzer beater against Michigan.

But, as a TV show has recently popularized, this is the way. You cannot join the NMTC and expect anything easy. Now, please enjoy some lazy bullet points to wrap up the last six weeks in NMTC-land.

Bullet Points

In the last days of non-conference play, Hartford enacted brutality and defeated Northwestern 67-66. Northwestern has now lost two buy games to NMTC teams, which is perfect.