CAA Notebook ("Tournament Thoughts")

By: Michael Litos, Columnist
Photo Credit: William & Mary Sports Information

The CAA tournament gets underway with four games on Friday in the "opening round." To those new to this column or the conference, there are 12 teams in the CAA, and the top four seeds get a bye on Friday. They play the winners of the four Friday games between the eight bottom seeds.

That said, there's been an infusion of chatter this year about the difficulty of "winning four games in four days," and how the path is too taxing for a team. The excuse: it's too tiresome to play and win on four straight days.

The increasing chatter is especially loud this year because two teams that play Friday are dangerous. VCU has as much collective talent as any team in the league and NBA draft worthy Larry Sanders in the post. It isn't trivial that the tournament is being played about 25 blocks from the VCU campus. While it isn't a true home court advantage, there are clearly some geographical arguments to be made.

Hofstra comes into the tournament winners of nine of its past 10 games. The Pride boasts the likely conference player of the year in Charles Jenkins - if you haven't seen this kid play you are missing out - and a team that plays hard-nosed defense and rebounds. Considering the rock fights many CAA tournament games become, where very possession is critical, this is an important trait.

But I'm here today to say that whole "tired" thing is a bunch of hooey.

Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel, when he was coaching VCU, once said as much. Capel said these kids play four AAU games and drink Mountain Dew all day during the summer. He wasn't concerned about tired.

This I buy.

Twice in the past three seasons the CAA has had a Friday winner play on Monday. In 2008, William & Mary-a five seed-advanced to the finals and lost to #3 seed George Mason. The season before that, sixth-seeded George Mason lost to top seed VCU. Plus, that third seeded Mason team in 2008 is the only time since 2002 that the #1 seed has not won the CAA tournament.

The result is my strident belief: it's tough for a Friday team to win the CAA tournament because you are most likely playing three of the top four teams in the conference on three straight days. Let's take VCU this year. The Rams will most likely have to beat the #4 seed (Mason), the #1 seed (Old Dominion), and either the #2 (Northeastern) or #3 (William & Mary) seed. VCU was 2-5 against those teams during the regular season.

Let me be clear and say I think we're going to see some incredible games this weekend. There are eight teams that can win two games. It will be a blast, and I suggest you join us. But four games? Nah.

Check out further coverage and analysis on the matchups at CAA Hoops.

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Random CAA tournament facts:

• Since we're talking defense, in last season's tournament, VCUs 71-50 finals victory over Mason was the only game from the quarterfinals to the finals in which the winning team scored more than 61 points.
• In fact, the lowest scoring game in CAA tournament history came in the finals. Mason defeated UNCW 35-33 in the 2001 final game. The 1996 final was VCU 46, UNCW 43.
• No team has scored more than 89 points in a CAA tournament game since Richmond defeated Mason 93-77 in 1996.
• On the other end of the spectrum, Old Dominion beat Mason 110-94 in the 1995 quarterfinals.
• Since 2001-02, the only teams never to lose a game in their white/home jerseys: Georgia State and Delaware. In the 25 year history of the CAA tournament, only Navy, GSU and Delaware are undefeated in their home uniforms.
• Hofstra is the first team in CAA history to finish over .500 in conference play after falling at least five games under. The Pride was 2-7 in conference in late January and finished 10-8. Navy in 1987-88 started 0-5, improved to 6-5 and finished 6-8.
• The faster, the better for JMU. The Dukes average 70.25 possessions per game when they win, and 66.58 possessions when they lose. JMU is 9-9 in games with more then 67 possessions, and 3-10 in games with 67 possessions or less.
• This is the third time in the last six years that Old Dominion has won 15 conference games. The last time ODU was the #1 seed for the CAA Tournament was 2005, when it went on to edge VCU 73-66 in overtime to capture the championship.
• For the first time in CAA history, seven teams finished the regular season with 10 or more conference victories. Six teams have reached the 10-victory mark on four previous occasions, including last year. Hofstra will the the first #7 seed to have a winning record in CAA play.
• In a strange twist, two of the four first-round CAA Tournament games will be rematches of regular-season finales. Hofstra and Georgia State will meet on Friday after the Pride defeated the Panthers 87-74 last Saturday. Drexel will face James Madison on Friday after the Dragons got past the Dukes 67-64 last Saturday.

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