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. Jon Teitel wraps it up with a recap of the title game on Tuesday.
Another game, another great pregame meal: pasta/meatballs/chicken/tomato/mozzarella/cake! The good news about the title game is that we had 2 decent crowds (finally!) because 1 of the schools was 40 minutes away from punching their ticket. Even though UNCW was the higher seed there were a LOT more fans from Delaware:
Let’s tip it off: 
It was a back-and-forth game in the 1st half with neither team leading by more than 6 PTS. Blue Hen 6’9″ SO PF Andrew Carr dominated inside during the 1st 20 minutes with 11 PTS/4-5 FG/6 REB, but UNCW used a balanced scoring effort to take a 34-30 lead at halftime. It remained close in the 2nd half with neither side pulling away but Carr kept doing work on both ends of the court and finished with quite the nice stat line (17 PTS/12 REB/3 BLK/3 STL). I wish I could find the guy who I gave my pregame prediction to (Delaware by 4) because now you just have to take my word for it, as the FIGHTIN’ Blue Hens won it 59-55 and will be making their 1st NCAA tourney appearance since 2014. I was able to head down to the court to try to get some celebration shots, so see below:
Coach Martin Inglesby celebrating with his son: 
…and making sure that his championship hat fits:
…and hoisting the trophy:
You can advance them in the bracket:
You rarely see a freshman who is named tourney MVP, but CAA ROY Jyare Davis has been receiving a lot of hardware during the past couple of weeks:
When you punch a ticket you need some proof:
I LOVE the idea of bringing the trophy into the stands to share it with the fans:
Grad student Dylan Painter got a taste of cutting down the nets when he played for Villanova, so maybe he is the lucky charm:
Jameer Nelson knows better than anyone that they do not just hand you the trophy if you are a #1 seed, as his 2004 St. Joseph’s Hawks were undefeated before losing in the A-10 tourney to Xavier, but tonight he was just a proud papa watching Jameer Jr. follow in his footsteps and make it to the NCAA tourney:
That is a wrap on the CAA tourney, congrats to Delaware, and check back later this week as the A-10 tourney comes to DC in a glorious never-ending parade of postseason basketball!