Most likely, one team from the Colonial Athletic Association will make the NCAA Tournament, so a lot is on the line as the conference tournament begins on Friday, March 7 in the Baltimore Arena.
CAA Tournament 2014: Delaware and Towson chasing bid to NCAA Tournament
There has been some solid turnover for the CAA Tournament champion over the years, but Delaware and Towson haven’t been included in the March fun.
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The Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens enter the tournament as the top seed and have a good chance at coming away with their first tournament championship and NCAA bid since 1999. The CAA has been one of the more balanced, smaller leagues in college, with five different schools winning the CAA Tournament in the past decade.
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For the first time in a decade, Delaware and Towson are in the mix as the top two seeds in the tournament. The Fightin’ Blue Hens are an aggressive team with a relentless pace. They average 79.2 points per game, tops in the conference and 26th overall in the country. Delaware shoots a ton of shots in the process. The school ranked third in the nation with 1,884 field goal attempts and 35th in the nation with 659 three-point attempts.
Delaware burnt teams with a solid, veteran backcourt of Devon Saddler, Jarvis Threatt and Davon Usher. Together, the trio combined for 57.5 points per game. Despite the overwhelming offensive firepower, Delaware didn't easily waltz to its 14-2 conference record. It won seven of those games by five points or fewer. In Delaware's two losses, the shots just weren't falling as the Blue Hens shot under 40 percent from the floor. For teams that push the tempo, the lack of defensive intensity makes it hard to win games when you can't hit any sort of shot.
The Towson Tigers are in a nice spot to secure their spot in March for the first time since 1991. The Tigers are one of the more balanced teams in the CAA. In conference-only games, Towson is third in the CAA with 72.4 points per game and fourth with 66.3 points against. The Tigers defense smothered their conference opponents, only allowing them to shoot 39 percent from the field and 28 percent from beyond the arc, the best marks in the conference.
On offense, Towson runs through senior forward Jerrelle Benimon. Benimon is the nation’s top rebounder and was a double-double machine throughout the season. He finished with 20 double-doubles while averaging 18.9 points and 11.7 rebounds per game.
After Delaware and Towson, the situation of the CAA gets a little murky. The rest of the conference did a fantastic job of beating each other up, and only William & Macy joined Delaware and Towson with conference records above .500. William & Mary finished with six conference losses and four of those were to Towson and Delaware.
The full tournament bracket can be found here. The first game will be streamed live on CAA.tv. The quarterfinals will be broadcast on Comcast Sportsnet. After that, it switches to NBCSN for the semifinals and championship game.
Friday, March 7 (first round)
No. 8 Hofstra vs. No. 9 UNC-Wilmington, 7 p.m. ET
Saturday, March 8 (quarterfinals)
No. 1 Delaware vs. Winner of No. 8/9, 12 p.m. ET
No. 4 Drexel vs. No. 5 Northeastern, 2:30 p.m. ET
No. 2 Towson vs. No. 7 James Madison, 6 p.m. ET
No. 3 William & Mary vs. No. 6 Charleston, 8:30 p.m. ET
Sunday, March 9 (semifinals)
Winner of No. 1/8/9 vs. Winner of No. 4/5, 2:30 p.m. ET
Winner of No. 2/7 vs. Winner of No. 3/6, 5 p.m. ET
Monday, March 10
Championship game, 7 p.m. ET
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