2019-20 CAA Men's Basketball Final Report
Bill Potter
2019-20 CAA Men's Basketball End-of-Year Report (PDF)
New Faces:
- UNCW filled its coaching vacancy with a familiar face, hiring Takayo Siddle as its new head coach on March 13 ... Previously at N.C. State, Siddle coached at UNCW from 2014-17, helping the Seahawks win three regular-season championships and two CAA Tournament crowns (2016, 2017).
- James Madison announced the hiring of Mark Byington on March 20 ... Byington spent seven years at the helm of the Georgia Southern men’s basketball program, where he led the Eagles to a 131-97 record ... Byington was the first GSU coach to win 20 or more games in three consecutive seasons - his final three in Statesboro - in more than 30 years.
On Pride Rock: Hofstra won its first CAA men’s basketball championship on March 10, rallying past Northeastern, 70-61 ... Desure Buie earned tournament Most Outstanding Player honors.
- Hofstra became the 21st program in CAA history to win the tournament as the No. 1 seed.
Shining Knight: William & Mary’s Nathan Knight collected a pair of Mid-Major Player of the Year honors, earning Lou Henson Mid-Major Player of the Year accolades from CollegeInsider.com and
Basketball Times on March 25.
- Knight was named a 2019-20 Senior CLASS Award Second Team All-American on March 31 ... An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School®, the Senior CLASS Award honors the attributes of senior student-athletes in four areas: community, classroom, character and competition ... Knight was selected as one of 10 finalists for the award in February.
- For the second straight season, Knight was among the five finalists for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Award ... Joining Knight among the Kareem Award finalists are Vernon Carey Jr. (Duke), Filip Petrusev (Gonzaga), Luka Garza (Iowa) and Udoka Azubuike (Kansas) ... Garza was named the winner of the award on April 7.
CAA Awards Season:
- William & Mary’s Nathan Knight was the first player since George Mason’s George Evans (1999, 2001) to be named both the CAA Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year.
- Charleston’s Grant Riller became the 13th player in CAA history to earn First Team All-CAA honors three times in his career ... Riller is the first player in the CAA to achieve the feat since Hofstra’s Charles Jenkins in 2009-11.
- Hofstra’s Desure Buie was the first player in program history to be named the recipient of the Dean Ehlers Leadership Award.
Declarations:
- Delaware’s Nate Darling entered his name into the NBA Draft on April 7 ... Darling will maintain his eligibility to return to the Blue Hens.
- In 2019-20, Darling was the lone junior voted onto the All-CAA First Team ... Darling’s 107 3-pointers in the 2019-20 season were the fifth-most in CAA single-season history.
- In Sam Vecenie’s April 2 NBA Draft Big Board for The Athletic, Charleston’s Grant Riller sits at No. 30, while William & Mary’s Nathan Knight is No. 100.
Tournament Odds & Ends:
- For the third time in 38 years, the CAA Men’s Basketball Championship featured a rematch from the previous year, as Hofstra and Northeastern squared off again:
- Navy vs. Richmond: 1984, 1985 (teams split, 1-1)
- James Madison vs. Old Dominion: 1994, 1995 (teams split, 1-1)
- Hofstra vs. Northeastern: 2019, 2020 (teams split, 1-1)
- Northeastern became the fifth program in CAA history to reach the CAA championship game in at least three straight years:
- 4 – Navy, 1984-87 (Coaches: Paul Evans 1984-86, Pete Herrmann 1987)
- 4 – James Madison, 1992-95 (Coach: “Lefty” Driesell)
- 4 – UNCW, 2000-03 (Coaches: Jerry Wainwright 2000-02, Brad Brownell 2003)
- 3 – George Mason, 2007-09 (Coach: Jim Larranaga)
- 3 - Northeastern, 2018-20 (Coach: Bill Coen)
- Elon entered the CAA Men’s Basketball Championship 1-5 all-time in the championship ... The Phoenix won twice in this year’s edition, reaching the program’s first CAA championship semifinal.
- No. 7 Elon’s win over No. 2 William & Mary marked the 13th time in CAA Men’s Basketball Championship history in which an upset of 5-or-more seeds occurred ... Elon is the first No. 7 seed to reach the CAA semifinals since UNCW in 2004.
- Top-3 seeds have won 35-of-38 CAA Men’s Basketball Championships ... No. 1 seeds are 85-17 all-time in the championship.
- Northeastern has now appeared in the CAA semifinals seven times in eight years.
Total Eclipse ... Of Last Season’s Wins: Delaware, Towson and William & Mary bested its respective win totals from last season.
- Towson improved by 9.0 games from a season ago, with Pat Skerry’s team tied for the 11th-best improvement in the country this season.
- For the fourth straight season, Delaware improved upon its wins total from the previous year, picking up its 18th win of the year on Feb. 8 and finishing with 22 ... The Blue Hens have improved their win total each season under Martin Ingelsby.
- Under head coach Dane Fischer, William & Mary increased its wins total by seven games, from 14 to 21 ... William & Mary’s 21 wins are the program’s best since the 1949-50 season.
- Drexel matched its win total from a season ago ... Under Zach Spiker, Drexel has now won 13 games in each of the last three years.
Cause this is Riller, Riller Knight:
- Both Grant Riller and Nathan Knight finished their respective careers among the top 13 scorers in CAA history:
| Career Points |
Player, Team |
Year(s) |
| 2,669 |
David Robinson, Navy |
1983-87 |
| 2,513 |
Charles Jenkins, Hofstra |
2008-11 |
| 2,474 |
Grant Riller, Charleston |
2016-20 |
| 2,420* |
Carlos Yates, George Mason |
1981-85 |
| 2,387 |
Justin Wright-Foreman, Hofstra |
2015-19 |
| 2,383 |
Johnny Newman, Richmond |
1982-86 |
| 2,276 |
Antoine Agudio, Hofstra |
2005-08 |
| 2,222 |
Devon Saddler, Delaware |
2011-14 |
| 2,178 |
Marcus Thornton, William & Mary |
2012-15 |
| 2,177 |
Kenny Sanders, George Mason |
1986-89 |
| 2,148 |
Loren Stokes, Hofstra |
2004-07 |
| 2,144 |
Brett Blizzard, UNCW |
2000-03 |
| 2,141 |
Nathan Knight, William & Mary |
2016-20 |
| 2,117 |
Odell Hodge, Old Dominion |
1992-97 |
| 2,013 |
Brian Gilgeous, American |
1989-92 |
- With 2,474 career points, Riller finished his career in second place on the CofC career scoring list, just 100 points away from Andrew Goudelock for first.
- At 20.7 ppg and 10.5 rpg, Knight is just the fourth player in CAA history to at least 20.0 points and 10.0 rebounds in a season:
- 1984-85: David Robinson, Navy (23.6/11.6)
- 1985-86: David Robinson, Navy (22.7/13.0)
- 1986-87: David Robinson, Navy (25.4/11.8)
- 1986-87: Brian Rowsom, UNCW (21.2/11.5)
- 1987-88: Kenny Sanders, George Mason (22.0/11.7)
- 1988-89: Kenny Sanders, George Mason (26.6/10.9)
- 2019-20: Nathan Knight, William & Mary (20.7/10.5)
- Knight wrapped his career 13th in CAA history in career rebounds:
| Career Rebounds |
Player, Team |
Year(s) |
| 1,314 |
David Robinson, Navy |
1983-87 |
| 1,305 |
Rokas Gustys, Hofstra |
2015-18 |
| 1,263 |
Devontae Cacok, UNCW |
2015-19 |
| 1,115 |
Vernon Butler, Navy |
1982-86 |
| 1,086 |
Odell Hodge, Old Dominion |
1992-97 |
| 1,078 |
Jamelle Hagins, Delaware |
2010-13 |
| 1,059 |
Samme Givens, Drexel |
2009-12 |
| 1,055 |
Keith Rendleman, UNCW |
2010-13 |
| 1,026 |
Kenny Sanders, George Mason |
1986-89 |
| 1,012 |
Brian Rowsom, UNCW |
1984-87 |
| 993 |
Will Thomas, George Mason |
2005-08 |
| 967 |
Jarrell Brantley, Charleston |
2015-19 |
| 964 |
Nathan Knight, William & Mary |
2016-20 |
| 953 |
George Evans, George Mason |
1998-2001 |
| 952 |
Alex Loughton, Old Dominion |
2003-06 |
| 925 |
Robert Dykes, George Mason |
1987-91 |
- Knight finished his career second in Tribe history with 2,141 career points and third with 964 career rebounds ... Knight was one of only two Tribe players to record 1,900 career points and 900 career rebounds.
Getting Buckets:
- The CAA finished the season as the only conference in the country to boast four of the NCAA’s top 20 scorers ... Northeastern’s Jordan Roland (21.9 ppg) ranks 10th, while Charleston’s Grant Riller (21.9) is 11th ... Delaware’s Nate Darling (21.0) is 18th, while William & Mary’s Nathan Knight rounds out the quartet at 20.7 ppg, good for 19th.
- With James Madison’s Matt Lewis (19.0 - 50th), Elon’s Marcus Sheffield II (18.4 - 68th) and Hofstra’s Desure Buie (18.2 - 73rd), the CAA accounts for seven of the nation’s top 75 scorers.
The Road Less Traveled:
- Through the end of the season, Hofstra’s 16 road/neutral wins tied for the most in the nation:
| Team |
Road/Neutral Wins |
| Hofstra |
16 |
| San Diego State |
16 |
| ETSU |
14 |
| Gonzaga |
14 |
| Belmont |
13 |
| Kansas |
13 |
| Liberty |
13 |
| Vermont |
13 |
| Yale |
13 |
Phoenix Rookies Making a Mark:
- When Zac Ervin was named CAA Rookie of the Week on Jan. 13, it gave Elon three different freshmen to earn the honor this season as he joined Hunter McIntosh and Hunter Woods ... The Phoenix are the first program since James Madison in 2008-09 (Julius Wells, Devon Moore, Andrey Semenov) to see three rookies so honored.
- McIntosh earned a place on the CollegeInsider.com Kyle Macy Freshman All-America Team ... Averaging 14.7 points and 4.7 rebounds, McIntosh earned CAA Rookie of the Year honors and was the lone freshman in the CAA to make the list.
Roland the (Thompson) Gunner:
- With 722 points this season, Northeastern’s Jordan Roland ranks second all-time in program history, trailing only Reggie Lewis.
- Roland’s 42 points against Harvard set a Northeastern program record, breaking the previous mark of 41 held by J. J. Barea (vs. Stony Brook; March 5, 2006) and Lewis (vs. Siena; Feb. 19, 1986).
- Roland’s 81 points in Northeastern’s first two games were the most by a Division I player against Division I competition in at least 10 years, per ESPN Stats and Info.
Coaching Accolades:
- Three CAA head coaches were among the finalists for CollegeInsider.com coaching accolades ... William & Mary’s Dane Fischer was a finalist for both the Hugh Durham and Joe B. Hall Awards ... Fischer was joined by Hofstra’s Joe Mihalich as a Hugh Durham finalist ... In addition, Mihalich was among the finalists both the Jim Phelan and Skip Prosser Awards ... Elon head coach Mike Schrage was a finalist for the Joe B. Hall Award alongside Fischer.
- The Hugh Durham Award is presented annually to the top mid-major coach in Division I college basketball ... The Joe B. Hall Award is awarded annually to the top first-year coach in Division I college basketball.
- The Jim Phelan Award, which is presented annually to the nation’s top Division I coach ... The Skip Prosser Award recognizes those who not only achieve success on the basketball court but who also display moral integrity off of it as well.
Bill & Joe’s Excellent Adventures:
- With Northeastern’s win over Charleston on Feb. 15, head coach Bill Coen moved into second place among CAA coaches with his 159th victory in conference and tournament play ... Coen passed former Drexel head coach Bruiser Flint ... With 163 wins, Coen sits 21 victories from tying Jim Larranaga (George Mason, 1998-2011) for first in CAA history.
- Hofstra head coach Joe Mihalich won his 400th career game on Feb. 15 ... Mihalich became the 52nd active Division I coach with at least 400 career victories.
Rankings:
- In the final CollegeInsider.com poll of the season, Hofstra finished among the top 10 at No. 10 ... Delaware finished the year among teams receiving votes in the poll.
- Delaware (Dec. 2) and Northeastern (Nov. 11) each earned a vote in the Associated Press poll this season.