CAA Tournament Preview

[IE]

The 2006-2007 CAA regular season saw the formation of three tiers within the conference: four at the top, four in the middle and four at the bottom. However, the stratification of the league does not clear a path for the top teams. Middle and bottom tier teams alike harbor dreams of dashing the NCAA tournament hopes of the league?s top members. With an automatic bid to the Big Dance awaiting the tournament champion, the 22nd CAA Tournament promises to be one of the most entertaining.





The conference?s four top teams ? Virginia Commonwealth University, Old Dominion University, Hofstra University and Drexel University ? distanced themselves from the rest of the league early on, proving their mettle with strong performances against non-conference opponents. Each of these four teams entertained at-large bid hopes during the season; however, it now appears that ODU and Drexel have the inside track over VCU and Hofstra due to their non-conference strengths of schedule.

1. Virginia Commonwealth University (24-6 overall, 16-2 CAA)
A statistical juggernaut offensively ? they lead the conference in scoring offense, scoring margin and field goal percentage ? the Rams also force a league-high 16.2 turnovers a game. With three players averaging double figures in points, VCU?s deep backcourt, spearheaded by seniors B.A. Walker and Jesse Pellot-Rosa and sophomore Eric Maynor, provides much of the offense. The Rams? full-court pressure defense also makes them a dangerous team, especially when playing in front of a home crowd in Richmond.

2. Old Dominion University (23-7, 15-3)
The conference?s hottest team rides an 11-game winning streak into the tournament. A starting lineup filled with upperclassmen gives the Monarchs valuable tournament experience; moreover, the starters blend well together and provide a bevy of offensive options, both on the perimeter and in the paint.

3. Hofstra University (22-8, 14-4)
Similar to VCU?s guard-oriented scheme, Hofstra relies heavily on its backcourt for its offensive production. Senior Loren Stokes and junior Antoine Agudio rank second and third respectively in the CAA for scoring average at 20.8 and 20.5 a piece.

4. Drexel University (22-7, 13-5)
The most offensively challenged of the top teams, Drexel uses its defense to stay in games. The Dragons lead the league in field goal percentage defense, steals and blocks. They do have offensive weapons in junior center Frank Elegar who averages 15.5 points per game, and senior guard Dominick Mejia, who contributes 11.9 points a contest.

The Middle Four

The CAA?s middle four teams share very similar characteristics. Each experienced its share of stirring victories and disappointing losses en route to their middle-of-the-road finishes. These four teams, however, have the potential to upset any of the top four teams and make a run to the semifinals or beyond.

5. Northeastern University (12-18, 9-9)
After starting CAA play 0-3, the Huskies turned things around just in time, winning four of their last five to capture the fifth seed. The emergence of freshman Matt Janning helped Northeastern climb in the standings. However, the Huskies rank 11th in both scoring offense and rebounding margin (they were out-rebounded in seven of their nine losses), both of which are concerns heading into the weekend.

6. George Mason University (15-14, 9-9)
Last year?s media darling and NCAA Final Four participant is a different team this year. Junior returnees Will Thomas and Folarin Campbell provide the Patriots with a solid one-two punch; nevertheless, George Mason?s offense has struggled while their defense, which leads the league in scoring defense, has kept them in games.

7. Towson University (14-16, 8-10)
Senior Gary Neal leads the league, averaging 25.6 points a game, but the Tigers only have one other significant scoring option in senior Dennard Abraham. However, Neal is more than capable of leading the Tigers to an upset or two.

8. William and Mary (15-14, 8-10)
Although the Tribe has dropped three straight games, they have proven they can play with the CAA?s top teams, as evidenced by wins over Drexel and George Mason and close losses to Old Dominion and Hofstra.

?I think the tournament is wide open,? Head Coach Tony Shaver said following the Tribe?s 57-62 loss to ODU. ?I think we?ll walk into Richmond with a lot of confidence.?

The CAA Tournament has traditionally been unkind to the Tribe, as the College has compiled a 3-21 record over the tournament?s 21-year history. However, the 2006-2007 edition of Tribe basketball has shown signs that a one-and-done trip in this year?s tournament is unlikely. The College captured eight regular season CAA victories and is in position to finish above .500 for the first time since the 1997-1998 campaign.

Senior Adam Payton has had a strong season, leading the team in points, rebounds, steals and free throw percentage. His aggressive penetration sparks the Tribe?s offense and his junior teammates, forward Laimis Kisielius and guard Nathan Mann, have followed his lead offensively.

For the College to be successful in the CAA tournament, they must rely on what has brought them to this point: strong defense and solid execution. When the Tribe plays high-intensity defense, it usually carries over to the offensive end. However, the College has had its share of cold shooting stretches, which limits their ability to stay within reach of its opponents, making rebounding and free throw shooting critical.

The Bottom Four

The bottom four have pulled off a few shockers throughout the season ? namely JMU?s surprising 72-65 win over visiting ODU. Turnovers and weak defense have kept these teams from winning and will most likely prevent them from any tournament victories.

9. Georgia State University (10-19, 5-13)
The Panthers gave VCU all it could handle this past Saturday, but they came up short as the experienced Rams overtook them in the game?s latter stages. Georgia State committed 17 turnovers, a reflection of their league-leading 15.8 turnovers a game.

10. University of North Carolina?Wilmington (7-21, 4-14)
Last year?s conference champions struggled this year under first-year Head Coach Benny Moss. The Seahawks have capable post players, with juniors Vladimir Kuljanin and Todd Hendley looming in the paint, but losing five of six to end the season is no way to enter the tournament.

11. James Madison University (7-22, 4-14)
Since the victory over ODU, the Dukes have gone 2-10 and, like their bottom-dwelling brethren, enter the tournament heading in the wrong direction.

12. University of Delaware (5-25, 3-15)
Losers of six straight, Delaware figures to be one of the first teams out of Richmond; however, the Blue Hens did upset Hofstra 72-68 and defeat the College 77-62. That said, a low-scoring Delaware team will be hard pressed for a tournament victory.

 

[IE]

Who needs height? CAA all about guards




Want to see some pretty good guards? Check out this weekend's CAA tournament, where plenty of them will be on display.

David Schneider is always up for a challenge. That doesn't mean he wouldn't appreciate a breather once in a while.

Schneider, a freshman guard at William and Mary, picked the wrong conference for that. One night he's up against those three kids from Hofstra. The next, it's those three guys from Virginia Commonwealth. Then it's Old Dominion's ball-hawking point guard combo. And ... uh oh ... here comes that scoring machine from Towson.

"You don't get a break," Schneider said. "There are so many good guards in this league that you can't list them all."

Let's try, anyway. Towson's Gary Neal leads the Colonial Athletic Association (and is fifth nationally) in scoring with 25.6 points a game. Hofstra's Loren Stokes and Antoine Agudio are second and third, respectively, with 20.8 and 20.5. And though he's more of a distributor than a scorer, VCU's Eric Maynor might be the best of them all.

When the All-CAA selections were announced Thursday night, each of those four guards made the first team. Valdas Vasylius, Old Dominion's 6-foot-7 forward, was the lone frontcourt representative. And of the 15 players who made up the three teams, 10 were 6-4 or smaller.

"It's not about the height," said Stokes, who was named CAA Player of the Year. "It's about bringing your game and leaving it all on the floor, and our guards do that."

It's no coincidence that the CAA's Big Four - VCU, Old Dominion, Hofstra and Drexel, who have won a combined 91 games - because all have excellent backcourts. The Rams offer Maynor, who is 11th in the league in scoring (13.8 points a game) and first in assists (6.4). His running mates are B.A. Walker (15.3 ppg) and Jesse Pellot-Rosa (13.4 ppg). VCU leads the league in scoring while committing the fewest turnovers.

No team in the nation relies as much on its backcourt as Hofstra. Stokes, Agudio and point guard Carlos Rivera (12.9 ppg) are combining for 74 percent of the Pride's scoring. One of them has been Hofstra's top scorer in every game this season. They accounted for 81 of the Pride's 98 points in a win over James Madison last week.

"What can you say about three guys who are going to score 5,000 (career) points as a group?" Hofstra coach Tom Pecora said.

Old Dominion's top scorer is Vasylius, but the Monarchs wouldn't be 23-7 if not for the harmony between 6-1 point guards Drew Williamson and Brandon Johnson. ODU coach Blaine Taylor expected to play them together some this season, but he didn't expect them to end up 1-2 on the team in minutes played.

With Johnson averaging 4.8 boards a game, the Monarchs are the CAA's best rebounding team. They also have the best assist-to-turnover ratio.

The BCS leagues have strong guard play as well, but with few exceptions (Virginia, for example) they don't rely as heavily on them. In the ACC, for example, the top three scorers are 6-7 Jared Dudley, 6-8 Al Thornton and 6-9 Tyler Hansbrough. The top two scorers in both the Big East and Big 12 are at least 6-7.

But the guards take over at the mid-major level. In the Missouri Valley, six of the top eight scorers are guards 6-3 or shorter. In the Southern, it's six of the top nine. In the Horizon, it's five of the top six.

"We can get guards as well as anybody in the country," Pecora said. "Just by human nature, there's enough 6-2, 6-3 people running around the planet. You can go find those diamonds in the rough. The challenge for the mid-majors is getting big people, developing them, and getting them to play at a level where you can compete with the big boys night in and night out."

True, you can't live on guards alone. At Old Dominion on Feb. 13, Stokes, Agudio and Rivera went for 21, 20 and 26. They were a combined 24-of-49 from the field and 10-of-15 from the 3-point arc. Yet with no answer in the post for Vasylius, Hofstra lost by 14 points.

Along with ODU, Drexel has that balance. The frontcourt is anchored by 6-8 Frank Elegar, who averages 15.5 points a game, and 6-10 Chaz Crawford, the CAA's leading rebounder.

But the Dragons also have a seasoned backcourt. Dominick Mejia, a starter the last two seasons, is fourth in the conference with 67 3-pointers. Bashir Mason has started 113 of his 117 career games and made the league's all-defensive team for the fourth straight year.

Even the two teams at the bottom of the standings - No. 11 James Madison and No. 12 Delaware - hope to make a climb behind two freshman guards. Pierre Curtis is averaging 11.2 points and 3.7 assists a game for the Dukes who, barring attrition, will return everyone on their roster next season. The Blue Hens' Brian Johnson is fourth in the conference at 4.2 assists per game.

"Every night you come in, you're playing against good guards," Williamson said. "It's been like that since I first got here, and that makes it kind of fun."

 

[8)ELVIS(8]

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[IE]

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Weary Hens may be down to final game

Seven-man team begins CAA tourney play

NEWARK -- Herb Courtney had ice packs wrapped around his left knee and right ankle as he shuffled across the hallway, from the University of Delaware men's basketball locker room to the training room, last Wednesday night after a loss to Northeastern at the Carpenter Center.

In that same game, freshman point guard Brian Johnson was so physically spent that walk-on forward Deon Goodman and senior guard Chris Prothro, unaccustomed to such duty, brought the basketball down the court on one possession.

Delaware's lack of personnel -- just six scholarship players and one walk-on for the past six games -- has had that effect on the weary Blue Hens. They are 5-25 and take a five-game losing streak into today's 2:30 p.m. Colonial Athletic Association Tournament first-round game against Northeastern (12-18) at the Richmond Coliseum.

"It's been a toll on top of a toll," Delaware coach Monte Ross said. "I know at this time of the year everybody in the country is banged up, everybody's tired. But most guys are getting some breaks [in games]. Our situation is, they're not getting any breaks."

Delaware had eight available players beginning with the Jan. 8 home game against Towson, including Goodman, a former manager who has played 11 minutes this season.

The number dropped to seven when Calvin Cannon was declared academically ineligible Feb. 7. The Hens then beat UNC Wilmington that night. They haven't won since, and the fatigue has shown.

Johnson is second in the CAA in minutes played in conference games with 38.39 a game (Hofstra's Antoine Agudio is first at 39.06). Junior forward Courtney ranks seventh (36.89) and junior guard Sam McMahon is 10th (35.72). The maximum is 40 minutes a game.

But since Feb. 7, Courtney and McMahon haven't played fewer than 38 minutes in a game. McMahon has played 40 minutes four times and Courtney has done it three times.

Johnson hasn't played fewer than 38 minutes in UD's past 14 games and has played 40 minutes 11 times since that Jan. 8 Towson game.

"It wears on you," McMahon said. "We're playing a lot of minutes, and your legs are tired. You just have to take care of your body, ice your legs, and get it done on the floor."

The Hens go into today's game, however, having had their longest break between games since mid-December.

Team athletic trainer Dan Watson said he is amazed the Hens have held up so well, considering they're two injuries away from having no substitutes at all.

"We've been fortunate," Watson said. "Probably the biggest thing is, coach Ross has just been very cognizant of the situation, tapering practices, giving appropriate rest."

Ross has kept the players on the court for as few as 45 minutes in some practices.

Overuse injuries -- many often end with the suffix "itis," such as tendinitis -- Watson said, are most common in such a situation, particularly to the lower extremities.

Courtney said he is feeling it in his ankle and knee, McMahon in his elbow. Prothro, a fifth-year senior whose career has been ravaged by injuries, has been able to get through this season by spending as much time stretching as he has playing basketball.

On top of all that, Courtney, Goodman and Prothro passed around a case of the flu this week.

"Every day, it wears on you," assistant coach R.C. Kehoe said. "It's hard to play with that intensity every day, especially when you're losing.

"But coach Ross has asked these guys to go all out, not one of them has blinked and they should all be commended for that. To keep some of these games as close as we have with our lack of depth, against teams that are running guys in and out ... these guys have just never stopped until the horn sounded."

Players have refused to use their fatigue as an excuse or even acknowledge its effect without prodding.

"Even though we have low numbers," Courtney said, "we're going to keep on going and going and going."

Or at least trying and trying and trying ...

The opportunity to play too much sure beats the frustration of playing too little.

"This is [NCAA] Division I; it's my dream," McMahon said. "I can get up for this every day."

 

[IE]

UNCW needs postal delivery
Seahawks haven't gotten enough out of their big men


Dejan Grkovic and his three fellow post players remained on the Trask Coliseum court for half an hour after practice Wednesday. They shot free throws, worked on low-post moves and jump shots.

Disgruntled by a dismal performance in their first game against Towson, UNC-Wilmington's big men are determined to throw their weight around when the teams meet tonight.

UNCW held an edge in the frontcourt against most teams this season. Vlad Kuljanin leads the team in scoring; Todd Hendley was the Seahawks' best player during the second half of the season; Grkovic hustled, grabbed rebounds and made strong drives to the basket; Jeff Horowitz knocked down open 3-pointers and banged inside.

Each upperclassman is at least 6-foot-8 and weighs 230 pounds.

But in a 75-61 loss to Towson on Jan. 20, the Seahawks frontcourt played smaller than the puniest point guard.

"That was probably the biggest disappointment. We came out flat and weren't prepared. They outscored us 38-22," Grkovic said. "We gave up key defensive rebounds. Us four, we feel we can play with anybody in this conference."

UNCW coach Benny Moss expects his frontcourt foursome to rebound. Not that they were the only ones to blame for one of the worst outings of the season. The Seahawks guards also committed 24 turnovers leading to 24 points for the Tigers.

"Our guys know how bad their

effort was that game. They really do," Moss said. "They understand how they performed. That was ridiculous and it won't happen again."

That game was a turning point for the Seahawks, even if it doesn't appear that way by looking at their record. They won just three of their final 11 games, but Moss can't fault his team's effort during the final month of the regular season.

"One of the biggest differences from then is our maturity level. It was disappointing to see the type of excitement and attitude we came out with," Grkovic said. "The team saw that and realized that's not acceptable."

Because his players realized and corrected their mistake, Moss feels confident UNCW can make a run in the Colonial Athletic Association tournament.

"Dejan and Temi (Soyebo), they've had enough bad happen their senior year. They deserve better than just the win against Delaware," Moss said. "I want the guys coming back to know that they can win games when it matters and take that with us into the offseason."

 

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