Hofstra smoke Delaware yesterday. And the really bad game for the conference: W&M beating UNCW at Trask. Brutal game to showcase on CBSSN too. 67 free throw attempts. W&M won 67-65. W&M had several players foul out and a few more with 4. It was U-G-L-Y. Bad loss for UNCW which hurts everyone including Charleston.

(01-15-2023 10:34 AM)dan10 Wrote:  Hofstra smoke Delaware yesterday. And the really bad game for the conference: W&M beating UNCW at Trask. Brutal game to showcase on CBSSN too. 67 free throw attempts. W&M won 67-65. W&M had several players foul out and a few more with 4. It was U-G-L-Y. Bad loss for UNCW which hurts everyone including Charleston.

Everyone but W&M.

(01-15-2023 03:36 PM)Zorch Wrote:  

(01-15-2023 10:34 AM)dan10 Wrote:  Hofstra smoke Delaware yesterday. And the really bad game for the conference: W&M beating UNCW at Trask. Brutal game to showcase on CBSSN too. 67 free throw attempts. W&M won 67-65. W&M had several players foul out and a few more with 4. It was U-G-L-Y. Bad loss for UNCW which hurts everyone including Charleston.

Everyone but W&M.

And the CAA has clearly sunk to new lows now that it has hired influencers for whistle companies as basketball officials.

(01-15-2023 10:34 AM)dan10 Wrote:  Hofstra smoke Delaware yesterday.

Hofstra has a great offense. Darlinstone Dubar, who is their third leading scorer, did not score yesterday, and Hofstra still won 86-62. The blowout let Hofstra use all 13 players, which was the first time they used at least 13 players since 2008. Hofstra's weakness is rebounding. Hofstra's next five games include Towson twice, hosting UNCW, and at Charleston. Hofstra's last two weeks have three home games, a short trip to Stony Brook, and not playing on the last Thursday.

(01-15-2023 03:36 PM)Zorch Wrote:  

(01-15-2023 10:34 AM)dan10 Wrote:  Hofstra smoke Delaware yesterday. And the really bad game for the conference: W&M beating UNCW at Trask. Brutal game to showcase on CBSSN too. 67 free throw attempts. W&M won 67-65. W&M had several players foul out and a few more with 4. It was U-G-L-Y. Bad loss for UNCW which hurts everyone including Charleston.

Everyone but W&M.

For sure. Great win for W&M. Not good for the conference in a clear quest for an at large. I believe UNCE fell 20 spots in the NET as a result of that one.

In yesterday's games, Delaware loses to NU and Hofstra gets smoked by Towson. Everyone has at least 2 losses now, except for Charleston.

Small lull in the schedule. Teams have played 6 or 7 games thus far. The standings are what they are, here are the NET's (out of 363 for the men and 361 for the women)

Men:
43- CofC
115- UNCW
121- Hofstra
150- Towson
161- Drexel
208- Delaware
266- W&M
272- NC A&T
277- Northeastern
306- Stony Brook
352- Elon
354- Hampton
358- Monmouth

Women:
102- Drexel
137- Delaware
149- Northeastern
168- Towson
177- Stony Brook
201- NC A&T
249- Monmouth
259- Hampton
270- W&M
281- Elon
282- CofC
291- Hofstra
303- UNCW

Drexel has the best combined men's and women's NET. Nice to see!

Close game at Monmouth tonight with Charleston pulling away in the 2nd half. I think most of the CAA was pulling for them. We're just two weeks away from a potential top 20 team coming to the DAC, so hopefully they keep on winning on until then.

Monmouth led by as much as 9, and by 3 at halftime. I said that Charleston could win by double-digits, and they won by 14. After blowing a 9 point lead and being 30-30 at halftime, Hofstra played an amazing second half to win 70-46 hosting UNCW. Hofstra played their fourth consecutive game decided by at least 20, and after being off on Saturday, maybe they can beat Elon by that much next Thursday. After that, they go to Charleston on January 28 in the only head-to-head game. If Charleston is undefeated after that, they are very likely to be regular season champion. Gonzaga lost 68-67 hosting Loyola Marymount. That ended Gonzaga's 93 game winning streak against unranked teams, and 75 game home winning streak. Will they remain a unanimous Number 1 in the Mid-Major Poll, or will Charleston (who is Number 2 on most ballots) got first place votes? Florida Atlantic has 1 loss, but Conference USA is one of ten ineligible conferences.

It really does not make sense to me that the WCC is eligible for the Mid-Major Poll, but CUSA is not. Nothing against CUSA, but it's not exactly a multi-bid league, whereas just last year, the WCC had three teams in the tournament, with a couple more on the bubble. Even if you remove BYU, since they're departing for the Big 12, the WCC has four teams in the KenPom top 100 while CUSA only has three.

Take the WCC out of the mid-major top 25, and it starts to look like an actual list of mid-major teams. Gonzaga and Saint Mary's being at the top doesn't tell us anything.

(01-20-2023 09:16 AM)jcohen42 Wrote:  It really does not make sense to me that the WCC is eligible for the Mid-Major Poll, but CUSA is not. Nothing against CUSA, but it's not exactly a multi-bid league, whereas just last year, the WCC had three teams in the tournament, with a couple more on the bubble. Even if you remove BYU, since they're departing for the Big 12, the WCC has four teams in the KenPom top 100 while CUSA only has three.

Take the WCC out of the mid-major top 25, and it starts to look like an actual list of mid-major teams. Gonzaga and Saint Mary's being at the top doesn't tell us anything.

I think it comes from it's roots. WCC was always a mid-major conference that's still a mid major that was lucky enough to birth a national powerhouse out of it.

Conference USA was built to be a power conference and used to be a pretty good conference. It's turned into a mid-major for sure. But maybe they don't want to be considered for the MM poll because that would be admitting defeat and failure as a conference.

With Delaware winning last night and UNCW losing, it sure appears the battle for 4th will intensify. Charleston is top team, right now it appears Hofstra is a solid #2. If Cam Holden is truly back I think Towson is on that 2/3 line which leaves UNCW us and Delaware fighting for that last bye. Our schedule toughens some as we start playing those top teams. That Stony Brook loss is already looming costly for us. We likely are going to have to beat one of those 2nd tier teams if we want to be entertained as a top 4 team. Delaware looms huge for several reasons including that one.

Updated list

Men:
57- CofC
92- Hofstra
134- UNCW
138- Towson
192- Drexel
229- Delaware
290- NC A&T
297- Northeastern
310- W&M
328- Elon
333- Stony Brook
349- Monmouth
350- Hampton

Women:
113- Drexel
151- Towson
154- Delaware
156- Northeastern
167- Stony Brook
207- NC A&T
251- W&M
253- Monmouth
265- Hampton
266- Elon
284- CofC
299- Hofstra
316- UNCW

Looks like Towson has passed us in terms of combined ranking. A median for the men of 290 is really rough, the conference has a lot of work to do.

It is still a clear 4 teams and then everyone else. UNCW is close to joining the everyone else. They have elevated numbers due to their schedule though so they wont fall too far. Also dont look now but the bottom 7 teams are within a game of each other. It will be a real battle for seeding down the stretch (of bad teams)

(02-09-2023 12:42 PM)jcohen42 Wrote:  Looks like Towson has passed us in terms of combined ranking. A median for the men of 290 is really rough, the conference has a lot of work to do.

The mean of 238 is 52 spots better than the median, but it is still bad. The CAA is 25th of 32 in the Conference NET, and behind two of the three conferences that had teams come to the CAA, MAAC and America East, while the CAA is one above the Big South. Fans of teams previously in the CAA are not happy with new teams not doing well, and if the CAA is about the same as teams' prior conferences while having more travel, I wonder if any teams will regret joining. The top four are the only teams with a chance at better than a 15 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The bottom nine might have to play in the First Four.

(02-09-2023 12:46 PM)dan10 Wrote:  Also dont look now but the bottom 7 teams are within a game of each other.

Of the other 31 conferences, the smallest gap between a group of teams that are a majority of the conference are 2 games in the Big 12, Big West, and Ivy League.

The newcomers are dragging the conference down for sure this year. But that is no surprise. Also other leagues can improve their NETs when you rid yourself of some bad teams. The skill level in our conference is still above those conferences, despite the rankings. That is also why the new teams are struggling so much. They are struggling to compete with the to of the league (all returnees). Time helps that with extra resources to those schools, but yes when you pull from lower league you will take a hit in the first few years while they are trying to get the the new level. Also the real hurt to our league is our inability to keep our star players while recruiting the portal relatively poorly in comparison.

Updated list heading into an important evening for seeding purposes and about to head in the home stretch (for the men)

Men:
54- CofC
87- Hofstra
134- UNCW
148- Towson
190- Drexel
227- Delaware
299- Northeastern
302- NC A&T
308- W&M
326- Elon
335- Stony Brook
347- Hampton
348- Monmouth

Women:
112- Drexel
155- Northeastern
157- Towson
170- Stony Brook
171- Delaware
224- NC A&T
239- W&M
246- Monmouth
257- Hampton
269- Elon
267- CofC
294- Hofstra
317- UNCW

The rankings for women is interesting. The closest team to Drexel in the rankings is in 6th place and Drexel's closest competition for 1st place are ranked over 100 places worse than Drexel is.