Conference tournaments are about basketball but also so much more: the fans, bands, cheerleaders, etc. The CAA Tournament is taking place in Washington, DC, this weekend and we could not be more excited to be there in person! HoopsHD will be covering all of the angles so you can look forward to a cascade of coverage in the days ahead. Jon Teitel keeps it going with a recap of the semifinal doubleheader on Monday.
Sunday night’s pregame meal set the bar pretty high but Monday was solid as well: make-your-own fajitas/beans/rice/fruit plate. I try very hard to never eat Mexican food outside the state of Arizona…but hungry times = desperate measures. Let’s tip it off: 
GAME #1: Delaware vs. Towson
For the 2nd straight night there was a lot of black and yellow in the crowd:
The Tigers do not have a huge lineup so 6’7” Delaware freshman Jyare Davis came out unstoppable in the paint in the 1st half with 10 PTS/6 REB. His FIGHTIN’ Blue Hens built a 16-PT lead after 15 minutes but then gave away most of it and were only up 35-28 at halftime. SR Kevin Anderson only had 15 PTS/2 STL combined in his past 3 games but was not ready to have his career end and he led by example with 17 PTS/3 STL. Towson kept forcing threes all night long and only made 4-23 from behind the arc in a 69-56 loss. In the postgame press conference I did not get to ask Delaware coach Martin Ingelsby any questions because the room was jam-packed, but he mentioned that after losing their final 3 regular season games to finish February the team took Tuesday off to “get away from each other”, then returned for a 45-minute practice at 7AM on Wednesday…and now they are in the championship game. 
I asked Towson coach Pat Skerry if there was at least a silver lining because his team will get to play in the NIT later this month. He said that his team would take a couple of days off to get healthy, then regroup and hopefully end up facing a big-name opponent on national TV. 
GAME #2: Charleston vs. UNCW
I got some delicious cake at the food table and had a fun podcast with the HoopsHD crew from the press conference room…while missing a tremendous game that went down to the buzzer before the Seahawks hung on to get the 60-57 win. That is a wrap for today, check back tomorrow to see who will punch their ticket!