Rank 'em

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It's never been tougher to rank the CAA schools....but I'll give it a shot:

1. Northeastern: Has reeled off 5 straight wins after a 4-8 start, and is playing a LOT more like the team I felt would win the CAA before the season started. They seem to be finding some productive players off the bench of late, something they desperately needed earlier in the season.

2. William & Mary: Suffered their worst loss of the season on Monday night, but otherwise their resume is simply stellar. 2 wins on the road against ACC schools, when the CAA had only 7 wins against the ACC all-time coming into this season. They only dropped to 19th in the RPI, which is also good news for their tournament resume.

3. VCU: A totally dominating effort over a UNCW team that beat the Tribe two nights later, they have nothing to be ashamed about in falling to the Huskies. A revenge win would have been nice for the Rams after losing at the Siegel Center to NU last season, but methinks there will be not one but two chances, once in Boston and again in Richmond come March.

4. George Mason: I'm still not entirely sold on the Patriots, and I believe they're a year away. Still, to be so young AND be winning at the same time (3-0 CAA start) shows the crazy amount of potential Mason has. All of their conference wins have been impressive so far, and it will be very hard to knock them off the # 1 spot, let alone knock them out of the top 4, as CAA play continues.

5. Old Dominion: What a disappointment so far. Monarch fans are calling for Blaine Taylor's head already, and if they don't start living up their enormous expectations, those demands will be justified. I'm confident ODU avoids playing on Friday night like they've done every season they've been in the CAA, but they had better find some shooters to complement their frontcourt mates.

6. Hofstra: Can hang with any team in the conference, but they need to start translating the close losses they've taken into wins. Jenkins, needless to say, can't do it all himself, and his teammates can't simply defer to him, especially in crunchtime, if they want to crash the party at the top of the conference.

7. UNC Wilmington: You never know what you're going to get out of the Seahawks, and their start to the new year is a perfect example of how they've played all year. A blow out loss followed by a complete turnaround and a big win. UNCW has top-4 talent but whether Benny Moss can coach them to meet that potential is still a mystery halfway into his 4th season as a Head Coach. Stay tuned.

8. James Madison: Denzel Bowles is playing out of his mind and the Dukes are playing a bit more like they did last season. Imagine where they'd be with Devon Moore? JMU is going to be outstanding next season, I'm sure of it; whatever they accomplish this season would be icing on the cake in Matt Brady's 2nd season.

9. Drexel: I'm not sure how they managed to lose to Delaware, but the Dragons are similar to UNCW in that they are inconsistent. They defeated Northeastern in their first CAA game back in December and nearly knocked off Rhode Island, lost to Delaware, then defeated GSU by 15. The difference is Drexel plays very good defense, and D never has to take a night off.

10. Delaware: The Hens have been playing better ball of late than they had been, and the Drexel win will go a long way towards keeping them out of the cellar this season. They've had some great efforts this year (OT loss to Virginia Tech) and some awful ones (blowout losses to Villanova, ODU, and others), so it remains to be seen what they can accomplish with basically just their guards (primarily Dawson, Carter) carrying them.

11. Georgia State: Knocked off Towson, then got blown out by Drexel at home. Rod Barnes just hasn't been able to figure things out just yet, and is proving as the season goes on that his "transfer experiment" just isn't working. You never know what you're going to get when you bring in so many new faces year after year from other schools.

12. Towson: Simply put, Towson is bottom of the barrel, and needs to take a serious look at firing Pat Kennedy, if they haven't done so already. He's about as lame duck of a coach as Jim Zorn was for the 2009 Redskins, and the Tigers' 0-3 start has to be pretty devastating.
 
I like Rank 'em.

The difference is Drexel plays very good defense, and D never has to take a night off.
-----D can take a night off.

1. Northeastern: Has reeled off 5 straight wins after a 4-8 start, and is playing a LOT more like the team I felt would win the CAA before the season started. They seem to be finding some productive players off the bench of late, something they desperately needed earlier in the season.
------What bench?

I like Rank 'em. The standings suffice to me, but I do appreciate your contributing to these boards.
 
Good stuff and pretty spot on. I would flip JMU & Drexel, but other than that would agree.
 
Good stuff. I'd make it :

1 - Northeastern
2 - William & Mary
3 - ODU
4 - George Mason
5 - VCU
6 - Hofstra

After that it's a wash.

I think it's hard to put us in the top 4 at 1-2 in conference. Even though we were good OOC and it's early in conference play the top 4 are the "bye" teams and you don't get byes with a losing conference record.

W&M and NU both beat us and are 2-1 so of course they'd be above us. ODU gets my 3rd place vote. They are well built for CAA play an they also have the best OOC win. Their conference loss to GMU is no shame as it's a tough place to play. GMU is 3-0 so they get a top 4 nod from me for the in-conference record.

I suspect that opinions on 1-5 could change weekly - - most of us play tonight.
 
BaNgMyPrOgRaM said:
I like Rank 'em.

The difference is Drexel plays very good defense, and D never has to take a night off.
-----D can take a night off.

1. Northeastern: Has reeled off 5 straight wins after a 4-8 start, and is playing a LOT more like the team I felt would win the CAA before the season started. They seem to be finding some productive players off the bench of late, something they desperately needed earlier in the season.
------What bench?

I like Rank 'em. The standings suffice to me, but I do appreciate your contributing to these boards.


As far as the "D never has to take a night off" comment goes, my point was not that D does NOT take nights off, but there is little reason it HAS to. Defense has much fewer variables than offense; intensity and effort are primary factors to playing D, and the potential is there for a team to play with high effort and intensity every game.

And pertaining to Northeastern, yes, they do have a bench. Bataille, Bigby, Muo and a few others have been contributing a LOT more than they had early in the season. NU's rotation went from 6 guys to 8 or 9 guys, and that's HUGE for their chances this season.
 
might be time to move VCU down 1-3 and still have not played GMU away ODU away NU away Hofstra away......
 
Based on our play we are about #6-7 right now. After 4 straight wins we might climb into the top 4, but not until we are sporting something like a 5-3 or 6-3 record.
 
I'd go with this now:

1. Northeastern
2. W & M
3. ODU
4. Mason
5. VCU
6. Hofstra
7. Drexel
8. UNCW
9. JMU
10. Delaware
11. GSU
12. Towson

6-9 is a bit of a toss-up at the moment.
 
I'd say Hofstra is clearly the leader of that pack and could compete for a top 4 spot.
 
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