The Blue Hens were awful this year OOC after a few years of being one of the better teams in the conference- culminating with the NCAA bid last year. Kyle Anderson their outside shooter had a broken hand and missed the first 7 games. They have been playing better with him back. Also what would have been the CAA player of the year- Jarvis Threatt was dismissed from the team over the summer. They have the lowest RPI in the league and had a couple of things been different they could be one of the better teams in conference. I also find it interesting that when you check on verbal commits they have 3 spots for next year only 5 offers listed and no commits to date. Despite the NCAA bid Monte Ross is a lame duck coach in the last year of his contract. Check out this article- they had a good recruit ready to commit and he's holding off pending Ross's status.

http://www.delawareonline.com/story/spor.../18603903/

The CAA isn't what the conference once was- that is obvious but this talk about the conference being terrible is exaggerated. Delaware really should be better than they are- they had a couple of things (injury, dismissal of their best player) working against them. Drexel much the same- injuries mostly- even Towson dismissed their PG last year which set them back (Hairston- a Virginia kid who JMU recruited when they were recruiting Ron Curry). Based on history College of Charleston will get better and UNCW is on the up swing. Candidly JMU should be better (Cooke, Nation) but this is what happens in college hoops you rely on players (19-22 year olds) some who are talented but may not be in sync with the coach or the team and if it doesn't work out it can set you back.

Who know's what happens with Ross and even Bruiser Flint but when folks write about the downfall of the CAA I believe it's premature. Whether JMU is a part of the conference or not- aside from Elon every other program has had some success in their recent history. The Northeast/Mid-Atlantic/Southern Footprint has some good players who will always need and want to play at the mid major level and I'd expect over time a program or two to rise to the top like a VCU, ODU, or Mason did before them. As for now I think its a league with a few solid teams and a few solid coaches- nothing extraordinary but not as awful as people make it out to be.

Elon plays in an elementary school gym.

The CAA was once a top 10 conference, it is now the 20th ranked conference, behind even the non scholarship Ivy League.

Nothing is ever going to get fixed, until we recognize there is a problem.

(01-28-2015 08:33 AM)Dukeman Wrote:  The CAA was once a top 10 conference, ...

Ah, finally an accurate statement from Dukeman! The CAA was a top 10 conference once - the year of Mason's final 4 run.

I wonder if it's true that Harvard requires all their basketball players to pay $60k per year to attend. Maybe someone will look into this.

What I find amazing is the short-sightedness of athletic directors in assessing the performance of their coaches. Granted, Ross got off to a rough start, but he also just completed a very successful season and has had a nice run over the past three years. Just when he can capitalize on this success by bringing in a touted recruit, they hesitate in re-signing him. That recruit is exactly the type of player that can take the program to the next level. If you lose Ross, you're effectively starting over again and you're sure to be lousy for the next two to three seasons. After that, you'll be lucky to get to the level you were just at. Not every mid-major school is going to be nationally ranked and have the recent success that a VCU has had, for example. That's fool's gold to think like that. There's something to be said for continuity and looking at things with a long view (and of course supporting your coaches). The Dallas Cowboys stuck with Jason Garrett following four .500 seasons or so and they were rewarded with a breakout year. That breakout year is what's needed in mid-major college basketball to catapult you in the right direction going forward.

CAA is ranked 19th in conference RPI, two spots behind Conference USA.

Delaware is at a point where they seem to be deemphasizing athletics. According to many of their posters, this is an agenda that their Prez Harker has been pushing since he got there.

(01-28-2015 10:58 AM)JMU2004 Wrote:  Delaware is at a point where they seem to be deemphasizing athletics. According to many of their posters, this is an agenda that their Prez Harker has been pushing since he got there.

Bingo.

Delaware has had the strangest journey from America East to the CAA. I feel like Hofstra, Drexel, and Towson have acclimated themselves to the CAA much better than Delaware has. It's bizarre that they thought that they could have America East style success.......on an America East budget. In addition, the whole "we're Delaware" schtick doesn't play as well in the CAA as it did in America East........where conference administrators bent over backwards to make sure that they were happy.

(01-28-2015 10:37 AM)Dukes84 Wrote:  What I find amazing is the short-sightedness of athletic directors in assessing the performance of their coaches. Granted, Ross got off to a rough start, but he also just completed a very successful season and has had a nice run over the past three years. Just when he can capitalize on this success by bringing in a touted recruit, they hesitate in re-signing him. That recruit is exactly the type of player that can take the program to the next level. If you lose Ross, you're effectively starting over again and you're sure to be lousy for the next two to three seasons. After that, you'll be lucky to get to the level you were just at. Not every mid-major school is going to be nationally ranked and have the recent success that a VCU has had, for example. That's fool's gold to think like that. There's something to be said for continuity and looking at things with a long view (and of course supporting your coaches). The Dallas Cowboys stuck with Jason Garrett following four .500 seasons or so and they were rewarded with a breakout year. That breakout year is what's needed in mid-major college basketball to catapult you in the right direction going forward.

CAA is ranked 19th in conference RPI, two spots behind Conference USA.

The UD Admin's problem with Ross MAY be based more on player academic performance and behavior off the court issues than with Basketball. Many UD fans are not confident that Ross' successor will be an improvement from a Basketball perspective because they don't trust AD Ziady to conduct a true national search and pick the best candidate (rather than a buddy hire), UD's salary andoverall support is not very competitive, and any candidate would have concerns about the current UD Admin support of athletics.

(01-28-2015 11:56 AM)mainejeff Wrote:  

(01-28-2015 10:58 AM)JMU2004 Wrote:  Delaware is at a point where they seem to be deemphasizing athletics. According to many of their posters, this is an agenda that their Prez Harker has been pushing since he got there.

Bingo.

Delaware has had the strangest journey from America East to the CAA. I feel like Hofstra, Drexel, and Towson have acclimated themselves to the CAA much better than Delaware has. It's bizarre that they thought that they could have America East style success.......on an America East budget. In addition, the whole "we're Delaware" schtick doesn't play as well in the CAA as it did in America East........where conference administrators bent over backwards to make sure that they were happy.

There's a common denominator that is the difference between the schools you mentioned (HU/DU/TU) who have "acclimatized themselves to the CAA" and UD/JMU. Not to hard to figure out why the latter two, when it comes to finding their level overall in Athletics, have ended up looking like a monkey f'ing a football.

(01-28-2015 11:58 AM)BlueHenBill Wrote:  

(01-28-2015 10:37 AM)Dukes84 Wrote:  What I find amazing is the short-sightedness of athletic directors in assessing the performance of their coaches. Granted, Ross got off to a rough start, but he also just completed a very successful season and has had a nice run over the past three years. Just when he can capitalize on this success by bringing in a touted recruit, they hesitate in re-signing him. That recruit is exactly the type of player that can take the program to the next level. If you lose Ross, you're effectively starting over again and you're sure to be lousy for the next two to three seasons. After that, you'll be lucky to get to the level you were just at. Not every mid-major school is going to be nationally ranked and have the recent success that a VCU has had, for example. That's fool's gold to think like that. There's something to be said for continuity and looking at things with a long view (and of course supporting your coaches). The Dallas Cowboys stuck with Jason Garrett following four .500 seasons or so and they were rewarded with a breakout year. That breakout year is what's needed in mid-major college basketball to catapult you in the right direction going forward.

CAA is ranked 19th in conference RPI, two spots behind Conference USA.

The UD Admin's problem with Ross MAY be based more on player academic performance and behavior off the court issues than with Basketball. Many UD fans are not confident that Ross' successor will be an improvement from a Basketball perspective because they don't trust AD Ziady to conduct a true national search and pick the best candidate (rather than a buddy hire), UD's salary andoverall support is not very competitive, and any candidate would have concerns about the current UD Admin support of athletics.

This sounds eerily familiar to JMU MBB fans

Interesting that JMU has (according to speculation) attempted to hitch their horse to a school that is deemphasizing athletics. When the MAC fantasies were being floated last year seemed like JMU wanted Del to come along for the party.

(01-28-2015 12:58 PM)UofRfan Wrote:  Interesting that JMU has (according to speculation) attempted to hitch their horse to a school that is deemphasizing athletics. When the MAC fantasies were being floated last year seemed like JMU wanted Del to come along for the party.

I think that was more pre 2012. From what our Athletic Director has said at DC meetings/tailgate chats, we are no longer attached to UD as a partner.

At one point we were being told that we were attached to ODU.

It appears Elon would be a closer match.

(01-28-2015 08:33 AM)Dukeman Wrote:  Elon plays in an elementary school gym.

The CAA was once a top 10 conference, it is now the 20th ranked conference, behind even the non scholarship Ivy League.

Nothing is ever going to get fixed, until we recognize there is a problem.

I think when all programs are playing at full strength you can expect 3 in the 75-100 rpi level another 3 in the 100-150 rpi level, a couple 150-200 and a couple over 200 rpi. 1 NCAA birth 13 or 14 seed, 1 or 2 NIT births etc. That's not unlike the CAA before its peak when VCU and GMU both made runs to the Final Four.

(01-28-2015 01:00 PM)JMU2004 Wrote:  

(01-28-2015 12:58 PM)UofRfan Wrote:  Interesting that JMU has (according to speculation) attempted to hitch their horse to a school that is deemphasizing athletics. When the MAC fantasies were being floated last year seemed like JMU wanted Del to come along for the party.

I think that was more pre 2012. From what our Athletic Director has said at DC meetings/tailgate chats, we are no longer attached to UD as a partner.

So JMU/Bourne were attached to Delaware but since, a few years to late, Bourne has figured out that Delaware could give 2 ##### about athletics (remember when many of us were questioning why Delaware & JMU had no feasibility study commissioned while the bus was warming up?)...so we are now, where, did Bourne drop any gems on the tailgate?

That shoots any hope of a MAC invite in the foot.

I feel better.

(01-28-2015 12:09 PM)Purple Pilgrim Wrote:  

(01-28-2015 11:58 AM)BlueHenBill Wrote:  

(01-28-2015 10:37 AM)Dukes84 Wrote:  What I find amazing is the short-sightedness of athletic directors in assessing the performance of their coaches. Granted, Ross got off to a rough start, but he also just completed a very successful season and has had a nice run over the past three years. Just when he can capitalize on this success by bringing in a touted recruit, they hesitate in re-signing him. That recruit is exactly the type of player that can take the program to the next level. If you lose Ross, you're effectively starting over again and you're sure to be lousy for the next two to three seasons. After that, you'll be lucky to get to the level you were just at. Not every mid-major school is going to be nationally ranked and have the recent success that a VCU has had, for example. That's fool's gold to think like that. There's something to be said for continuity and looking at things with a long view (and of course supporting your coaches). The Dallas Cowboys stuck with Jason Garrett following four .500 seasons or so and they were rewarded with a breakout year. That breakout year is what's needed in mid-major college basketball to catapult you in the right direction going forward.

CAA is ranked 19th in conference RPI, two spots behind Conference USA.

The UD Admin's problem with Ross MAY be based more on player academic performance and behavior off the court issues than with Basketball. Many UD fans are not confident that Ross' successor will be an improvement from a Basketball perspective because they don't trust AD Ziady to conduct a true national search and pick the best candidate (rather than a buddy hire), UD's salary andoverall support is not very competitive, and any candidate would have concerns about the current UD Admin support of athletics.

This sounds eerily familiar to JMU MBB fans

Yes very familiar and the tenure for each coach and fact that they both were St Joes assistants makes it even moreso. My guess is that Delaware not unlike JMU is not as fond of Ross and probably measures him against the good old days of Mike Brey. Like JMU if you feel that way and hamstring the program a little along the way you better get the next hire right- if c+ and B - aren't good enough as compared to D and F from previous coaches (not saying C+ and B - should be good enough) than you better get an A with your next coach and an A with a mid major coach will mean eventual facilities upgrades, assistant coach comp upgrades, and head coach comp upgrades or you will be trying to hire another A coach 3-4 years later.

(01-28-2015 01:19 PM)Purplehazed Wrote:  

(01-28-2015 01:00 PM)JMU2004 Wrote:  

(01-28-2015 12:58 PM)UofRfan Wrote:  Interesting that JMU has (according to speculation) attempted to hitch their horse to a school that is deemphasizing athletics. When the MAC fantasies were being floated last year seemed like JMU wanted Del to come along for the party.

I think that was more pre 2012. From what our Athletic Director has said at DC meetings/tailgate chats, we are no longer attached to UD as a partner.

So JMU/Bourne were attached to Delaware but since, a few years to late, Bourne has figured out that Delaware could give 2 ##### about athletics (remember when many of us were questioning why Delaware & JMU had no feasibility study commissioned while the bus was warming up?)...so we are now, where, did Bourne drop any gems on the tailgate?

That shoots any hope of a MAC invite in the foot.

I feel better.

Take it FWIW. I don't think we're going FBS, but we're not tied to UD either.