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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.
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.