Preseason projections

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charlestondxman
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Preseason projections

Post by charlestondxman »

Things are already gonna be all over the map this year with how few games everyone played last year.

Greg Peterson (Sports betting analyst from VSIN) projections from his podcast on the CAA with Shane Mettlen (JMU writer) last weekend:

The @GUnit_81 #CAAHoops projections from today’s podcast with Shane Mettlen:

1. Delaware
2. Northeastern
3. Drexel
4. Elon
5. James Madison
6. Towson
7. CofC
8. Hofstra
9. UNCW
10. William & Mary

Jordan Majewski (college basketball blogger) has CofC 2nd only behind JMU.

https://staringatthefloorboards.wordpre ... n-preview/
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swampcougar1
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Re: Preseason projections

Post by swampcougar1 »

Predicting order of finish this season is like predicting our starting line up this season. Lots of legitimate possibilities
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hungry
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Re: Preseason projections

Post by hungry »

Still like platooning. Don't know if those other schools have the talent/depth it looks like we have with returnees, recruits & transfers. A lot will depend on new staff, top to bottom. The transfer portal PLUS NCAA eligibility extensions make it a whole new game to predict.
matrojan
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Re: Preseason projections

Post by matrojan »

Obviously I am not up on CAA comings and goings since I am not sure what is the basis of making Delaware #1.
Inglesby has never finished higher than 4th in the CAA even with squads that they felt are stacked.
Cougie Monster
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Re: Preseason projections

Post by Cougie Monster »

I was bored at work earlier in the week, and thought most of the CAA preseason coverage has been subpar, so here is Cougie Monster’s 2021-2022 CAA basketball preview write up thing:

1 – Northeastern. If Tyson walker returned to Boston this year, NU would be the clear, likely unanimous, number 1 seed. Obviously Walker will be playing for Tom Izzo instead but I think the Huskies will still have enough and get the nod as my number 1. Coen will be running out an international squad this year with 5! guys from Canada (eh?) a German, a Croatian and an Englishman. Unfortunately for the rest of the league, Coach Coen has been very successful in the past recruiting the foreign waters (see Pusica, Vasa). Northeastern is always a pesky, well coached team who can typically shoot the ball. I see this team being in that same vein. I don’t think there is too much separation at the top of the league – indeed I would be surprised if any team ran away with it, but when in doubt, take Bill Coen.
2. Delaware – The most experienced team in the league, lead by 35 year old (numbers approximate) center Dylan Painter. Seriously I’m pretty sure this is his 6th year of D1 college hoops - really Van Wildering this thing. Ryan Allen and Kevin Anderson return as the spring chickens of the Blue Hens established starters. They are both 5th year seniors. I’ve seen a few publication have Delaware #1 in their rankings and it is tempting. They have size in Painter and Ochefu (believe it or not is also a 5th year senior!) along with 6’9 stretch 4 Andrew Card, and improved depth with Cougar killer Gianmarco Arletti likely seeing more minutes along with transfer Jameer Nelson Jr. (yep, that Jameer Nelson is his dad). Part of me wants to put them #1, but the Blue Hen never seem to live up to expectations.
3. Drexel – I’m not so confident with this selection, but I’m rewarding the Dragons for being the defending CAA champions albeit with a losing conference record last year. Coach Spiker does return my choice for CAA player of the year in Cam Wynter - and preseason POY plus defending champs, I gotta give them the 3 seed. I’m not sure they have the depth to repeat, but the tandem of Wynter and James Butler is probably the best inside out duo in the league. Rest of the roster is full of question marks, perhaps aside from Matey Juric, the plucky Canadian defensive stopper. The big question through for Drexel is where will the rest of the offense will come from?
4. Charleston – The Cougars have, by far, the largest standard deviation of any team in the league. Some publications have them as low as 9 (that’s risible) and as high as number 2. I think some Cougar fans (author included) could, after a few maroon colored beverages, make a good faith argument that the Cougs can finish first – but that would mean so many unknows and variable all breaking our way. Coach Kelsey called this team the great experiment and here’s what he means: Every single coach is new to every single player, only 3 guys remain from last year’s roster, they brought in transfers from D3, D2 and JUCO who will all be asked to play important minutes. Can all these guys’ games translate to this level? Will the team, with so many new players, gel? Can they play the style of basketball Kelsey wants to run? I don’t know. But say everything does work out in the College’s favor – this team could be very dangerous. John Meeks, Fah’mir Ali, Dalton Bolon, and Brenden Tucker can all score it. Charles Lampton and Osi should form a nice 1-2 protecting the rim and they should have enough depth that some combination of their bench players will be able to contribute game in and game out. If this team really can go 11 deep, and play at the pace coach wants them to, they very well might turn some heads. Here’s to sunshine and rainbows.
5. Elon – I’ve been higher on Elon than most over the last few years and they finally made me look like less of a moron as they made a run to the conference finals this past season. This team should be in the mix this year as well. The Phoenix return the Hunters (Woods and McIntosh), both Jrs with tons of minutes under their belts. McIntosh will likely get some votes for preseason player of the year. Coach Schrage hopes the injury bug doesn’t bite this year as Zach Irving rejoins the fold after missing all of last year. Mac McClung’s former high School running mate, Erving is one of those players who can do a little bit of everything. JaDun Michael’s year was derailed a bit by injury as well, but the former 4 star recruit has all of the tools to be a major factor in the CAA. Add to that core the complementary pieces of Burford and Chuck Hannah and I’m now talking myself into ranking them higher. The Phoenix are a program on the rise (I hate myself for writing that pun).
6. Hofstra – It’s Speedy Claxton time on Long Island! The pride of the.. uhhh Pride takes over the reigns as head coach of his alma mater. There is a nice circularity to Claxton finally getting the gig. He famously played for Jay Wright when he took Hofstra to the 2000 tournament – their first since 1977 and was on the bench as an assistant when they finally made it back to the big dance (cancelled ☹) in 2020. Now he’s the head man and has some tools to work with. Jalen Ray is a very good basketball player and probably the best pure scorer in the conference. The Pride singed a high scoring freshman in Jaquan Carlos and have a nice player in Caleb Burgess and a power 5 transfer but I’m not sure there is enough behind that. Depth will likely be a big issue for Speedy in his inaugural season.

7. JMU – Okay here’s where my bias may be showing. I am not a fan of Mark Byington. I graduated from CofC in 2007 so I got a front row seat to the Herrion years and the rapid implosion of our once proud program. Sitting next to Tom Herrion was Mark Byington. I still cant get that taste out of my mouth. That said, JMU did win the regular season last year largely through the heroics of Matt Lewis. With Lewis out for the season with an injury towards the end of last season, the Dukes lost their opening game of the CAA tournament to 8th seeded Elon. Lewis is now trying to latch on and make it with the Timberwolves so Byington will be without his services and the remaining cupboard seems a bit bare to this untrained eye. Maybe I’m being too harsh, but Byington doesn’t get my benefit of the doubt. On the bright side they have a great new arena!

8. UNCW – I really want UNCW to be good. It would be great for the league and they are the perfect, natural rival for Charleston. But as we have seen in the holy city, a bad hire can really set your program back, and boy did CB McGrath turn out to be a bad hire. Takayo Siddle inherited a mess and this will prove to be a multi-year rebuild at best. The boobery of the CAA didn’t help the situation, but the Seahawks only managed one conference win last year. Siddle is from the Kevin Keatts coaching tree and has said he want to get back to that style of play – aggressive press, match-up trapping zone, turn you over, run, score, repeat. It’s Rick Pitino’s system and it isn’t easy to coach. Can Siddle turn it around in year 2? I honestly hope so. But I wouldn’t put my money on it.

9. Towson – When you live and die by the transfer portal, it’s very difficult to build anything. It seems Pat Skerry turns his roster over faster than any other coach in the league, which makes it even more impressive that every iteration looks the exact same; bad shot selection, poor shooting, crashing the boards, mucking it up and overall ugly basketball. There is a reason Jarrell Brantly would refer to Towson as “the football team.” They are physical if nothing else. I don’t know why anyone choses to spend their time and money watching a Pat Skerry led team. I don’t have anything nice to say about Towson (except for their gym) so I wont say much at all. I would like to put them dead last, but fortunately for Skerry, there is another team in the league.

10. William and Mary – And bringing up the rear is the Tribe of William and Mary. I do expect them to come in last and karma might be playing a role. We need to rewind to the 2019 offseason where Tony Shaver had a promising young team and the conference’s top ranked recruiting class coming in. Athletic Director Samantha Huge decided that was the right time to fire Shaver - a year before she was forced to resign amid uproar that she was cutting 7 sports and had plagiarized the press release explaining the decision. W&M fans were rightfully pissed. Coach Dane Fischer did lead that 2019 – 2020 team to 21 wins, but frankly he should have never had the job. In a covid truncated 2020 – 2021 season, the Tribe won 6 games. I don’t this year’s team has the athletes to crack 10 wins. Which is a shame. William and Mary has a great fan base and is a world class public school. They deserved better than Samantha Huge.
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