CAA MBB Tournament 2024-25 - Early Outlook

[Mikey77]

Think we are 3 - 0 with a couple of blowouts of Delaware against the CAA finalists. Geez, what could have been.

[Wags]

Kinda like OSPREYS...LOL If we can call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, we can certainly change our name to Ospresys.

Or, reference flying but not necessarily birds. Something like, I don't know... Flying Dutchmen might work.

[Wags]

Think we are 3 - 0 with a couple of blowouts of Delaware against the CAA finalists. Geez, what could have been.

Correct but Delaware has been a very different, much more confident team with much better defense in DC than in Hempstead and in Newark against Hofstra this year, and UNCW was 2-2 in the CAA after that loss in Hempstead. It was early on before UNCW started rolling. The Seahawks have only lost twice since.

[Wags]

Anyone watching the title game?

Delaware started 3/19 but is 9/14 since and on a 27-11 run after trailing 29-14.

[Wags]

Another good CAA championship game on national TV, another good look for the conference.

Tough loss for Delaware. What a run. Just a few points short of being the lowest seed to ever win any conference tournament in college basketball history. I hope they'll still meet Hofstra OOC going forward.

Congrats to UNCW on their record 7th CAA tournament title, passing ODU's six titles.

Maybe Edmead could be a rookie like Pasha? We'd all take that.

[dutchPride86]

Maybe Edmead could be a rookie like Pasha? We'd all take that.

Had the exact same thought. That kid maturing from being raw freshman might have been as big a reason as anything for their Cinderella run. He'd be in the running for conf player of year if Delaware was staying

[HUSID74]

If Edmead is anything like Pasha that would be a huge boost to our program. Kid is a baller!

[HUSID74]

Another good CAA championship game on national TV, another good look for the conference.

Tough loss for Delaware. What a run. Just a few points short of being the lowest seed to ever win any conference tournament in college basketball history. I hope they'll still meet Hofstra OOC going forward.

Congrats to UNCW on their record 7th CAA tournament title, passing ODU's six titles.

Maybe Edmead could be a rookie like Pasha? We'd all take that.

It would be a huge embarrassment for the CAA if Delaware won last night...a 12 seed and yet leaving the Conference...not a good look.
Great game, glad to see one of our flagship programs get the bid.

[Wags]

Another good CAA championship game on national TV, another good look for the conference.

Tough loss for Delaware. What a run. Just a few points short of being the lowest seed to ever win any conference tournament in college basketball history. I hope they'll still meet Hofstra OOC going forward.

Congrats to UNCW on their record 7th CAA tournament title, passing ODU's six titles.

Maybe Edmead could be a rookie like Pasha? We'd all take that.

It would be a huge embarrassment for the CAA if Delaware won last night...a 12 seed and yet leaving the Conference...not a good look.

Not if they stayed hot and did what Fairleigh Dickinson did two years ago, especially after (in that case) first making history as the lowest seed to ever win a conference tourney (although yeah, leaving the conference wouldn't have been a good part of the story for the CAA).

[EvanJ]

UNCW won 76-72. The attendance was 2,653, which is much less than what UNCW averages at home, and less than what we averaged in some of the 2000s. The CAA is the median conference in the NET, but they may have below the median amount of fans, and they haven't won an NCAA Tournament game or gotten better than a 13 seed in a while. The NET has UNCW as the top team, so it could be good for the CAA that Towson did not win, and Joe Lunardi is giving UNCW a 13. Delaware could have been a 16 seed in the First Four, which is why I was rooting for UNCW.

[Wags]

UNCW won 76-72. The attendance was 2,653, which is much less than what UNCW averages at home, and less than what we averaged in some of the 2000s. The CAA is the median conference in the NET, but they may have below the median amount of fans, and they haven't won an NCAA Tournament game or gotten better than a 13 seed in a while. The NET has UNCW as the top team, so it could be good for the CAA that Towson did not win, and Joe Lunardi is giving UNCW a 13. Delaware could have been a 16 seed in the First Four, which is why I was rooting for UNCW.

UNCW could do some damage as a 13 seed especially if Newby plays well. Delaware definitely would've been in the First Four but so was Farleigh Dickinson before beating Purdue.

One good thing that could come out of expanding to 72 or 76, which they could do anyway right now at 68 is have the beginning round be exclusively bubble teams. That's how the First Four should be now, it should be the last eight to get in playing four four spots (and it shouldn't be at Dayton, just play those games at the sites the winners would play at next). Anyone that wins a conference tournament has already qualified. Making AQs play their way in again against another auto-qualifier is wrong. That should strictly be for bubble teams. A slight expansion could fix that (if they did it the right way) but I have little faith they would use such an opportunity that way. They would probably still have AQs playing the beginning round even with 72 or 76, the same way they screw that up now with 68.

[EvanJ]

Without playing, UNCW fell to a 14, and Joe Lunardi has them facing Maryland.