CAA Tournament 2012: VCU’s Going Dancing After Defeating Drexel, 59-56

Drexel and VCU have appeared to be on a collision course in the 2012 CAA Tournament since it began. On Monday, they will finally meet in Richmond with an automatic berth in the 2012 NCAA Tournament on the line.

The top-seeded Dragons knocked off UNC-Wilmington and Old Dominion to reach the final, while No. 2 VCU, trying to return to the NCAA Tournament in hopes of staging another run to the Final Four to rival their effort in 2011, topped Northeastern and George Mason en route to its matchup with Drexel.

The Colonial Athletic Association is deeper than most mid-major conferences, with a few teams that might make the 2012 NCAA Tournament. Some of them will meet on Sunday in the CAA semifinals.

Top-seeded Drexel will meet No. 4 Old Dominion in the day’s first semifinal, and No. 2 VCU and No. 3 George Mason will match up in a showdown between the conference’s two Final Four representatives of recent vintage. Of the four teams, only Old Dominion would really be seen as a dark horse tournament winner, but there’s only one spot for a CAA team in the NCAA Tournament in SB Nation’s latest bracketology, so all four will likely be playing what could be their last games of the season on Sunday.

The second semifinal of the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament has more closely resembled a rock fight than a basketball game between two competent teams in the first half. The Georgia State Panthers have a 30-25 lead on George Mason at halftime despite that.

If the 6-seed Panthers hope to pull of the upset, they will need to be much better on the boards. The Patriots enjoyed a 36-26 advantage during the January meeting. If Buckner stays hot, and can hold his own against Pearson, this game could be one of the closest affairs of the tournament.

For all news and information regarding college hoops, please visit SB Nation’s dedicated NCAA basketball hub.

CAA regular season runners-up VCU begin their CAA tournament campaign on Saturday night, when they take on Northeastern in the quarterfinals. Northeastern was surprisingly tested on Friday by a poor William and Mary team, and will be serious underdogs against the reigning NCAA semifinalists.

No one is expecting VCU to make a return to the Final Four, but a run to the final of the CAA conference tournament should see them return to the NCAA tournament. They are very much a bubble team at present, and a loss to Northeastern on Saturday could keep them out of the big dance.

Whether it can match Old Dominion, a team SB Nation’s Bill Connelly called the conference’s dark horse, will be the question of the day. In the previous matchup, the Monarchs won by just two in January, but there’s no telling how a team will respond to the pressure-packed atmosphere of a conference tournament. If history is any indication, ODU will be up to the challenge; they upset George Mason and VCU to win the tournament last year.

The game will tip off at 2:30 p.m. ET. You can watch the game live on CAASports.com, or you can listen to the live audio on the CAA mobile app.

Rendelman and the Seahawks have a very tall task ahead of them, however, as Drexel comes in on a 17-game winning streak. The Dragons are as balanced a team as there is in the country -- they rank 58th in offense and defense -- and they should be able to contain Rendelmen, which would effectively neutralize any advantage the Seahawks have over them.

The game will tip off at 12 p.m. ET. You can watch the game live on CAASports.com, or you can listen to the live audio on the CAA mobile app. You can find the full bracket and schedule for the CAA men’s basketball tournament by clicking right here.

The first round of the 2012 Colonial Athletic Association Tournament is in the books. After Friday’s slate of games has been put to bed, the top four seeds in the conference now know which teams they will face in the quarterfinal matches on Saturday.

For all news and information regarding college hoops, please visit SB Nation’s dedicated NCAA basketball hub.

You can watch the game live on CAASports.com, or you can listen to the live audio on the CAA mobile app. You can find the full bracket and schedule for the CAA men’s basketball tournament by clicking right here.

For all news and information regarding college hoops, please visit SB Nation’s dedicated NCAA basketball hub.

The 2012 Colonial Athletic Association men’s basketball tournament will begin on Friday. The scramble for a champion of the CAA will kick off with four big first-round games between the No. 5 through No. 12 seeds. At the end of the day, four of those teams will advance to Saturday’s quarterfinals, while the four losing teams will be heading home.

The game will tip off at 12:00 p.m. ET. You can watch the game live on CAASports.com, or you can listen to the live audio on the CAA mobile app. You can find the full bracket and schedule for the CAA men’s basketball tournament by clicking right here.

Will anyone from Friday’s schedule make a run to the Final Four like VCU last year and George Mason years before? Probably not. But if any conference is due for a few surprises when all the chips are on the table, it’s the CAA.

Day 1 Schedule (all times Eastern)