Hoops HD

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 gets us started with a recap of the quarterfinal quadruple-header on Sunday.

Not sure if you can ever be “ready” for a quarterfinal quadruple-header but I got a nice night of sleep followed by a pregame meal of a cold ham and cheese sandwich/pretzels/chocolate chip cookie. Let’s tip off a LONG day of games:

GAME #1: Northeastern vs. Towson
The Huskies got out to an early 18-8 lead and I wondered if I should just start tearing my bracket into pieces. However, it did not last long as the Tigers came storming back to make it a 1-PT deficit at halftime. It felt like a Towson home game with a lot of black & yellow in the crowd as they took the lead and increased it to double-digits in the 2nd half.

Northeastern kept fighting and actually cut the lead to a single point in the final 2 minutes before running out of gas as Towson won 68-61. Cam Holden finished with 18 PTS/6 REB/6 AST and Nicolas Timberlake scored a game-high 25 PTS on 5-7 3PM. In the postgame press conference I asked Towson coach Pat Skerry how it felt to be 1 game over .500 after going 1-31 in his 1st year as coach a decade ago. He thanked me for bringing up such a painful memory(!), admitted that his 1st year was a hard year, but is proud of both his university/players.

I followed up with Northeastern coach Bill Coen about Towson’s terrific turnaround (they went 4-14 last year before winning 25 games [and counting] this year). He responded that with the transfer portal it is hard to predict whose roster is the best because there is a lot of unpredictability, but also gave Coach Skerry a lot of credit for assembling a great team.

GAME #2: Delaware vs. Drexel
The Dragons started 0-11 from 3-PT range but the Blue Hens were not much better from behind the arc as they started 2-10, but they did have great balanced scoring (5 guys who each scored 9-17 PTS). CAA POY Cam Wynter tried to keep Drexel in the game singlehandedly, and almost did (he scored 26 of his team’s 1st 44 PTS!), but FR Jyare Davis played well beyond his years and finished with a double-double (17 PTS/10 REB) as Delaware won 66-56. In the postgame press conference I asked Delaware coach Martin Ingelsby if his team needs to make more threes to beat Towson (they only made 5 in each of their 2 losses to the Tigers this year), and if he is a believer in the “it is hard to beat the same team 3 times in 1 season” theory. He admitted that anytime you can make 3-PT shots it helps and that there is indeed something to the theory: he lost a title game in that very fashion when he was in high school.

I decided to see if Drexel coach Zach Spiker agreed that a season featuring a COVID pause, a broken bus, and a leaky roof qualified as the craziest of his career. He smiled and responded that at the time he thought last season was the craziest. He told his team to keep a straight face even though they had a lot of ups and downs. He knows that every school has adversity and that you just have to overcome it…but confirmed that the last 2 seasons have featured some of the most unique situations ever.

GAME #3: Elon vs. UNCW
The pregame dinner was delicious: mac and cheese/flank steak/pulled chicken with mustard BBQ sauce/lemon bars/cookies! Hunter McIntosh had a huge 1st half for the Phoenix with 13 PTS/5-6 FG as his team led 36-31 at intermission, but it all went wrong in the 2nd half as the team only made 2-13 FG through the 1st 13 minutes of the 2nd stanza. The Seahawks finally took the lead 2 minutes after halftime and pulled away from there. Trazarien White finished with a double-double (15 PTS/11 REB) as UNCW won 75-58. In the postgame press conference I asked UNCW coach Takayo Siddle about how he held Darius Burford to 4 PTS in 34 minutes (after Burford had scored at least 23 PTS vs. the Seahawks in each of their 3 previous meetings). He admitted that he talked about that to his team and that Burford is a “hard right-hand driver”, so his team did a really good job of covering the driving lanes and closing them down.

Since Elon coach Mike Schrage spent almost a decade working for Duke in Durham, I was obligated to get his thoughts on the retirement of his former boss. He thought about it for a second and agreed that it is crazy to imagine a college basketball world without Coach K since he is the best of all-time: even though Schrage is biased he thinks Coach K might be the best coach in college sports in general. In addition to being a tremendous coach he called him a tremendous man who replies to letters and calls sick kids in the hospital. Schrage is proud to have played a small part and has to salute him.

GAME #4: Hofstra vs. Charleston
I am sure that it was an enjoyable game…for people who had not spent the past 10 hours at the arena! That is a wrap for today, check back tomorrow for a semifinal doubleheader.