The Colonial Athletic Association has often been overlooked given the relatively middling talent from the teams involved. But on the contrary, the CAA has actually been one of the more heated and competitive conferences in the nation this season.
For the second year in a row, the CAA has crowned co-regular season champions. Hofstra and UNC-Wilmington share this distinction and both are considered favorites to hoist the conference title when all is said and done.
However, a handful of other teams in the conference have also had superb seasons and could very well outclass the Pride and the Seahawks. Let’s now take a closer look at those contenders as well as the CAA’s co-champs’ prospects of winning the Colonial.
After this, check out our previews for the Big South and American East tournaments to place your stakes on even more exciting mid-major conference betting action.
2016 Colonial Athletic Association Conference Tournament Preview
Favorites
Hofstra Pride
This has been one heck of a season for the Hofstra Pride, alright. The team earned its first-ever regular season title (albeit shared with another team) behind a six-game winning streak to close out their campaign.
The Pride arguably have the best one-two punch in the Colonial in Sophomore center Rokas Gustys and senior point guard Juan’ya Green. The Lithuanian Gustys has a conference-best 19 double-doubles for the season, including monstrous back-to-back 20-20 games from mid-January. Green, meanwhile, sealed his second-career 1,000-point season – the fourth player in NCAA history to do so with two different Division I teams.
With momentum and a couple of bright stars on its side, Hofstra is in great shape to win its first conference championship title since 2001.
UNC-Wilmington Seahawks
Not to be outdone, the UNC-Wilmington Seahawks played just as exceptionally as Hofstra this season en route to its second-consecutive regular season title.
Despite losing two of their last three games – one being a brutal one-point defeat to Hofstra in the penultimate contest of the regular season – the Seahawks have been an imposing bunch pretty much the entire regular season. They once held an 11-game winning streak over CAA opponents and lost only four decisions to their conference rivals overall, just like the Pride.
Hofstra may have won the last encounter, but UNC-Wilmington also dealt the Pride a huge blow in early February by rallying from 20 points down and prevailing with a 70-67 victory on the road, proving that they are a team to be feared throughout this tournament regardless of the level of competition they’re about to face.
Sleepers
James Madison Dukes
The James Madison Dukes were definitely thrilled after beating the William & Mary Tribe in their regular season finale to fall into a three-way tie with W&M and the Towson Tigers for the second-best record in the conference.
JMU is led by senior guard Ron Curry (no relation to Steph, mind you), who currently has a league-best double-digit scoring streak of 22 games and also has 12 outings of 20 or more points scored this season.
Apart from having a top-caliber player in Curry, the Dukes have also boasted spectacular prowess on the defensive end all season long. They led the Colonial in field goal percentage defense as well as in three-point field goal defense, so the Harrisonburg faithful are indeed praying that the age old adage of “defense wins championships” still rings true to this day.
William & Mary Tribe
Speaking of the William & Mary Tribe, they’re really the exact opposite of James Madison as they are tops in the CAA in three-point shooting percentage and overall offensive efficiency.
That’s not to say that the Tribe have a glaring deficiency on D. As a matter of fact, senior swingman Terry Tarpey is the CAA’s season leader in steals, and also ranks second in blocks and fourth in rebounds.
Yes, W&M is still relatively porous on defense in essence, but that just makes the team’s rematch against James Madison in the semifinal round of the tournament all the more intriguing. Plus, the school is still searching for its first Colonial title so you can bet that they’ll be relying on their solid firepower to finally win that elusive conference championship this year.
Long Shot
Drexel Dragons
The Drexel Dragons ended their campaign with two wins over their last three games, but that doesn’t take away the reality that they’ve only won three contests all season long. And in their final game of the regular season, they gave up a 15-point lead and eventually lost to sixth-seeded Northwestern.
The Dragons are set to duke it out with the Elon Phoenix in the first round this week for the right to face mighty Hofstra in the semis, and that’s really easier said than done even before they begin figure out how they could upset the Pride in the next round. In the two meetings against Elon this season, Drexel lost both of those contests by five points each.
Writer’s Prediction
A decade-and-a-half-long championship drought is put to an end as the Hofstra Pride win their third-ever NCAA men’s basketball conference title.
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