The negative Nellies are down on the CAA, but I'll say it again, this is a better conference than many believe. I was impressed by the quality of Hofstra's team and Drexel's team when I saw them in person recently. Both teams have size, athleticism and skill. The quality of play in the CAA semi between Hofstra and W&M was nothing less than outstanding when I watched that game on TV. Northeastern looked solid in what was a lackluster CAA final, in large part due to the Tribe's evident fatigue. NE's Achilles heel is turnovers, but they pass the ball well and have good size and can score inside and out.
As Matt Brady mentioned the other day, 24 of the CAA's top 30 scorers return next season.
If I were to handicap the league at this early juncture, I might group the teams into three tiers and in no particular order within each tier.
Top would be Hofstra (lose two key guys in Dion Nesmith and Moussa Kane), NE (loses Reggie Spencer and Scott Eatherton), Drexel (lose Wilson, but not much else and return Lee and their point guard, Major Canady, if he's the guy they had lost at point). JMU could join this group if Roland joins the fold and they can add an impact front court player. With a poor offseason, however, JMU could easily fall out of this upper tier to the bottom of the league.
To the dismay of Wilmington fans, I'm going to put UNCW in the middle tier (and I know they add 4 transfers and 4 freshman to a core of Craig Ponder and Jordan Talley [with his low shooting percentages from the field], but they also lose two of the top 7 players in the league in Spruill and Jackson and their starting center, who led them in rebounding), along with Delaware (lose Kyle Anderson) and W&M (lost Thornton and Schalk, but pick up a transfer from CO State).
Bottom tier will be Elon, Charleston and Towson (who loses Four McGlynn but adds a 4 star transfer from Wake). Elon adds a couple of freshman, including one rated three stars if I recall correctly. Charleston loses Baru and Elon also loses a key senior. Charleston, as Brady has pointed out, though, has some good pieces in place, including Rick Barry's son, Canyon.
Probably not a great deal of difference between these groupings and as UNCW showed this season, a team picked at the bottom can finish on top.
Pundits, by the way, have Colonial team (now known as NE, of course) anywhere from 14th to 16th. Hopefully, NE can get a 14th seed, giving them some chance to compete in the first game.
I watched a little bit of Gonzaga and BYU and was not particularly impressed with either team. I agree with JMU Nation that CAA is more comparable to the A-10 than many believe, even though the RPI ratings show a huge disparity (7th versus 19th). JMU and NE both beat Richmond and DE beat St. Bonnie. Both Richmond and St. Bonnie beat VCU, of course.
Dukeman, what say you to VCU's thrashing at the hands of Davidson the other night?