#CAAHoops MBB Notebook - Nov. 6
Miles McQuiggan
RICHMOND, Va. (Nov. 6, 2023) - The CAA Men's Basketball season tips off Monday morning, which means the CAA Notebook is back. News, facts, posts, and more for the Opening Day of the 2023-24 season are below.
SCHEDULE AND RESULTS
WEEKLY AWARDS
First Awards – Nov. 13
NEWS AND NOTES
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Twelve CAA teams begin their 2023-24 season Monday with six at home and six on the road, including three at major-conference opponents.
Eleven of Monday’s contests will be in the evening with Hofstra tipping off the season for the CAA at 11:30 a.m.
UP FOR THE CHALLENGE
CAA teams are slated to play five of the top 14 teams in the preseason AP Top 25, in addition to four non-conference opponents who are receiving votes.
Two of those foes in the receiving votes category will be season openers, as Towson plays at Colorado on Monday (7:30 p.m., PAC12) and Stony Brook opens at St. John’s on Tuesday (7 p.m., FS1).
BY ASSOCIATION, THAT’S PRETTY GOOD
Drexel’s Amari Williams was named Preseason Player of the Year after collecting his second straight Defensive Player of the Year honor in March. Williams is the fifth player all-time to win multiple Defensive Player of the Year honors since the award was insituted in 1999. Two of the prior four - Kent Bazemore and Larry Sanders - went on to play in the NBA.
KNOWN UNKNOWNS
The CAA’s 14 head coaches were polled on the league’s predicted order of finish; in recent outcomes, they have not succeeded in that endeavor, but have been on target in DC.
Over the last three seasons, the eventual No. 1 seed in the CAA Championship has not received a single vote in the preseason poll:
2022-23: Hofstra (2nd)
2021-22: Towson (8th)
2020-21: James Madison (9th)
Meanwhile, the eventual league champion received at least one first-place vote in all three years:
2022-23: Charleston (4th, 1)
2021-22: Delaware (1st, 19*)
2020-21: Drexel (3rd, 7*)
* 2021-22 was the final year with a media vote.
FOR THE FUN OF NIT
Hofstra added another major-conference win to the Pride’s program accomplishments with an 88-86 overtime win over top-seeded Rutgers in the NIT First Round. The victory was the first for the CAA in the NIT since 2012.
CHARLESTON: 31-4
Charleston concluded its 2022-23 season in the NCAA First Round with a 31-4 record, falling to national runner-up San Diego State.
The Cougars received votes in the final 16 AP polls of the year and were ranked for four, while finishing with the nation’s third-best winning percentage (.886) and fourth-most wins (31). The 31 wins were the most in a season by a league member. The 1985-86 Navy team won 30 games including its NCAA Tournament run. Charleston’s 28 wins in the regular season were also the most by a CAA team, surpassing the 26 by UNCW in 2016-17.
W10
Three CAA teams put together four different win streaks of 10+ games last season.
Charleston ran off 20 straight victories from Nov. 14-Jan. 21 and 10 in a row from Feb. 4-March 7. UNCW won 13 from Nov. 21-Jan. 7, while Hofstra won 12 from Jan. 19-March 5.
AND-ONES
One thing to know on each #CAAHoops team
- Campbell joins the CAA after advancing to the Big South title game a year ago.
- Charleston in the receiving votes category of the preseason AP Top 25; CofC received votes for 16 weeks last season and was ranked for four.
- Delaware’s Jyáre Davis is a preseason second team honoree for the second-straight year; Davis was CAA Rookie of the Year in 2022.
- Drexel will play in the Big 5 for the first time in 2023-24; Big 5 play opens for the Dragons Tuesday night at La Salle.
- Elon will play one game outside of the Carolinas and Virginia before Feb. 12; that game will be Sunday at North Dakota.
- Hampton will face Howard twice this season - once in Tuesday’s season opener in DC and again on February 3 in Newark, New Jersey, at the Invesco QQQ Legacy Classic on TNT.
- Hofstra will be the second team in the nation to tip off this season, as the Pride’s 11:30 start trails only IUPUI’s 11 a.m. tip.
- Monmouth will face three other New Jersey schools in its non-conference schedule: Sweet 16 team Princeton, Seton Hall, and MAAC favorite Rider.
- Monté Ross arrives at North Carolina A&T to lead his second CAA program; Ross coached Delaware from 2007-16 and won the 2014 CAA title.
- UNCW’s 51 wins over the last two seasons are the most of any CAA program.
- Northeastern will play five of its non-conference games against New England opponents in addition to nationally televised challenges at Seton Hall and Virginia.
- Stony Brook will open the season with a drive out to Queens to face a St. John’s team receiving votes in both national polls.
- Towson opens the season with a trip to visit a Colorado team just outside the Top 25 to begin the year.
- Gabe Dorsey was named a preseason honorable mention selection for William & Mary.
JUST A SONG BEFORE I GO
Monday begins a 127-day sprint to the title game of the 2024 Jersey Mike's CAA Men's Basketball Championship in Washington, D.C. Who's dancing in March?
The #CAAHoops Notebook is a weekly look around CAA Men's Basketball for conference fans, media, and more. Like it? Have suggestions for how to make it better? Email the writer at mmcquiggan@caasports.com or find him on Twitter @MilesMcQuiggan.
We had a lot of fun tweets embedded in this story, but it's Twitter in 2023, so... they didn't work.
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