Colonial Athletic Association Notebook
Tournament Beckons
With the regular season behind us, it’s on to the conference tournament in Richmond. As noted a couple of weeks ago, the conference basically separates into three tiers of teams, led by the top four of VCU, red-hot Old Dominion, Hofstra and Drexel.
Matchups for the first two rounds look like this:
Friday, March 2, 2007
No. 8 William & Mary vs. No. 9 Georgia State
No. 5 Northeastern vs. No. 12 Delaware
No. 7 Towson vs. No. 10 UNC Wilmington
No. 6 George Mason vs. No. 11 James Madison
Saturday, March 3, 2007
No. 1 VCU vs. William & Mary/Georgia State
No. 4 Drexel vs. Northeastern/Delaware
No. 2 Old Dominion vs. Towson/UNC Wilmington
No. 3 Hofstra vs. George Mason/James Madison
While VCU and Old Dominion would seem to be the favorites, Hofstra still has their three super guards and Drexel is a tough matchup for anyone. The Dragons are also the best defensive team in the conference. In short, the only thing that would be a real surprise is if the winner is not among the top four seeds.
Rams Set Record En Route to Title
VCU came out on top in the final regular season standings, holding off Georgia State in Saturday’s regular season finale. That gave the Rams the outright regular season title and a record 16 CAA wins. Several teams, including Old Dominion this year and last season’s co-champs UNC Wilmington and George Mason, have won 15 in a season.
The Rams closed out a terrific regular season that saw them go 11-2 on the road for one of the best road records in the country. They are well-balanced and well-coached, and when you add that to playing close to home this weekend, they look like the team to beat.
Monarchs Are the Hot Team
No team enters the CAA Tournament playing better than Old Dominion, which finished the regular season with an 11-game winning streak. The Monarchs have done this led by their excellent senior trio of floor leader Drew Williamson and forwards Valdas Vasylius and Arnaud Dahi. Williamson’s value to this team is immense, Vasylius is one of the most improved players in the conference, and Dahi hasn’t been 100 percent for most of the season but has been better as it went along.
Head coach Blaine Taylor joins VCU’s Anthony Grant among the finalists for the Hugh Durham Award as the mid-major Coach of the Year. It is well-deserved with the job he has done after losing two key seniors and starting the season without a clear go-to guy on offense. Vasylius became that player, but that was hardly a given in October. Meanwhile, he played Williamson and junior Brandon Johnson together often, and they formed an excellent backcourt duo.
This continues a historic stretch for the program, as the 23 wins thus far mark the first time the team has won at least that many games in three straight years. The aforementioned senior class is also the winningest in program history with 92 wins.
Huskies Finish Solid Campaign
With a 73-50 blowout of George Mason on Saturday, Northeastern finished in fifth place at 9-9 in conference play. The depleted Huskies once again got big games from their three seniors, as they have for most of the season. That’s a prime reason this team accomplished what they did in Bill Coen’s first season at the helm, finishing well above where anyone would have imagined before the season.
The Huskies didn’t just survive their non-conference schedule, which was loaded with guarantee games on the road; they came away ready to win CAA games and did just that. Coen said he never saw a negative reaction to those games, and it clearly showed with the team’s development as the season went along.
Now, they ride a three-game winning streak into the CAA Tournament that includes a road win over the same Delaware Blue Hens they play on Friday.
Don’t Forget the Tribe
As good as the coaching job in Boston was, we can’t leave out the work done by William & Mary head coach Tony Shaver and his staff. The Tribe finished the regular season at 15-14 and 8-10 in CAA play, good for a tie for seventh and the No. 8 seed in the tournament. Although they ride a three-game losing streak into the tournament, this is clearly one of the most improved teams in the conference.
Adam Payton has been the leader of this team all season long as their go-to guy. He looked to be the most likely person to fill that role entering the season and did just that. Role players like Laimis Kisielius and Nathan Mann, the latter of whom remains a dangerous threat from long range, have done well supporting him. They also have one of several freshmen point guards who have come in and played well in David Schneider.
Rebuilding Efforts Underway
Among the bottom four seeds are teams that have begun rebuilding efforts this season.
- Georgia State lost four senior guards and was competitive in many games, but couldn’t pull through en route to a 5-13 record. The talent is clearly there.
- UNC Wilmington lost key seniors from last season’s team, had a coaching change and was then stung by an injury to their best player. T.J. Carter had to redshirt, while the Seahawks had a rough go of it with limited numbers and experience.
- James Madison showed signs that this team will make a move in the standings, but the real test will come next season when their young players are a year older and have another off-season under their belt.
- Delaware had a transition year with new head coach Monte Ross and a number of personnel changes along the way. There were bright spots, like the win over Hofstra in late January and the play of freshman point guard Brian Johnson, who will likely run the team for the next three years as well.
At this point, a win or two in the tournament would be a great bonus for any of these schools with promising futures.
