Around the CAA

[EvanJ]

Here are halftime scores:

Campbell at Drexel is tied at 27. Drexel led by 8. Drexel's Shane Blakeney and Campbell's Jeremiah Johnson scored 10. Campbell's D.J. Smith, who averages 19.8 points, shot 1-6 and scored 2.

Towson led 26-22 at halftime hosting Elon, and Towson leads 32-30 early in the second half. Tyler Tejada and Dylan Williamson are scoreless.

UNCW leads 44-26 hosting NC A&T.

W&M leads 35-32 hosting Northeastern. Northeastern's Ryan Williams scored 13, and Youri Fritz scored 5 without missing and got 8 rebounds. W&M has no offensive rebounds, but they have 10 steals and 14 fast break points.

Monmouth leads 51-35 hosting Stony Brook early in the second half.

Edit: Northeastern does not have their two leading scorers, William Kermoury and Xavier Abreu, and they are doing well down 53-51 at W&M. Campbell scored only 2 in the first 7 minutes of the second half, and Drexel leads 38-31. Monmouth leads Stony Brook 62-54, which is much closer than when Monmouth's lead peaked at 40-18. UNCW is the only team up more than 8.

Edit: Two games were decided in the last minute. Here are the final scores:

After two offensive rebounds, Jack Doumbia Jr. scored with 14.3 seconds left to give Towson a 58-56 hosting Elon. Towson's Tyler Coleman led all players with 17 points. Tyler Tejada had 6 points and 7 assists. Dylan Williamson did not score. Chandler Cuthrell led Elon with 13 points, but he shot 4-16. He had only 3 rebounds. He entered averaging 20.1 points and 6.7 rebounds. Towson shot threes 3-23 (.130). Ryan Conway shot 3-10 with all of his attempts being threes, and his teammates shot threes 0-13, including 0-6 by Williamson, who missed 1 two-pointer.

Drexel won 65-60 hosting Campbell. Drexel's Shane Blakeney and Campbell's Dovydas Butka tied for the most points with 22. Blakeney made the winning shot with 37.3 seconds left. Campbell's D.J. Smith, who entered averaging 19.8 points, had 10 points, 1 rebound, and 1 assist.

UNCW won 88-65 hosting NC A&T. UNCW's Patrick Wessler led all players with 19 points. Teammate Greedy Williams shot 6-9 to score 14, and led all players with 6 assists. Zamoku Weluche-Ume led NC A&T with 15 points. Both teams had four double-digit scorers. UNCW had a great ratio of 18 assists to 4 turnovers.

W&M won 84-77 hosting Northeastern, who was without their top two scorers. Ryan Williams made up for it by leading all CAA players with 29 points, and he made 7 threes. Youri Fritz had a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds. Mike Loughnane had 14 points, 8 rebounds, and 9 assists. Kilian Brockhoff led W&M with 21 points. W&M shot free throws 32-39, and Northeastern shot free throws 6-9. W&M shot threes 2-18 (.111).

Monmouth won 82-69 hosting Stony Brook. Monmouth's Jason Rivera-Torres led all players with 25 points includinge 5 threes. He had 6 rebounds and 4 assists. Kavion McClain had 15 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists. Erik Pratt and Rob Brown III tied for Stony Brook's lead with 14 points. Pratt led all players in assists with 8, fouls with 5 including a technical, and turnovers with 5.

Every home team won tonight. Here are the standings:

UNCW 14-2
Charleston 13-4
Hofstra 10-6
Drexel 10-7
Monmouth 9-7 (2-0 vs. Stony Brook)
Stony Brook 9-7
W&M 8-8
Towson 7-9 (they have not played Campbell yet, they host Campbell on Saturday, and for now Towson wins the tiebreaker with a better record against Charleston)
Campbell 7-9
Hampton 6-10 (1-0 vs. Elon)
Elon 6-10
NC A&T 4-12
Northeastern 2-14

Before hosting Charleston, UNCW can clinch the 1 seed with W&M loses, and then if we win. To win a tiebreaker over UNCW, Charleston needs W&M to catch us, and for Stony Brook to lose their last game. If UNCW and Charleston tie, and we tie Stony Brook and W&M, UNCW and Charleston would have the same winning percentage against every team or group of tied teams, and something unusual like the NET would have to break the tie. UNCW has a much better NET. Including their own games, Charleston needs seven games to go a certain way in order to get the 1 seed.

We moved up 1 spot to 93rd in KenPom.

[Jojogunne]

Remaining schedules among the teams fighting to finish in the top four:

-- Hofstra vs. SBU & Drexel

-- SBU at Hofstra and vs. Towson

-- Drexel vs. Campbell and at Hofstra

-- Monmouth vs. Elon and at Northeastern

Who has the easiest path to third or fourth place?

https://caasports.com/standings.aspx?path=mbball

[EvanJ]

It looks to me like W&M is still alive for fourth. If we lose both, Drexel's win over us makes them finish above W&M. If we lose both, Stony Brook loses to Towson, Monmouth loses both, and W&M wins both, W&M would be 1-0 against us and 1-0 against Stony Brook to be the top team in a three-way tie for fourth.

[Wags]

It looks to me like W&M is still alive for fourth. If we lose both, Drexel's win over us makes them finish above W&M. If we lose both, Stony Brook loses to Towson, Monmouth loses both, and W&M wins both, W&M would be 1-0 against us and 1-0 against Stony Brook to be the top team in a three-way tie for fourth.

This is true, W&M can still get the 4. Let's hope this doesn't happen as Hofstra would finish last in a three-way tie and drop to 6th in that scenario.

Same scenario, but Monmouth wins one of two, and Hofstra would finish last in a four-way tie and drop to 7th.

https://bball.notnothing.net/bracket_cl ... ?conf=caam

I think after tonight's results, it'll likely end up as follows, which would be a challenging 3/6 game for Hofstra:

1. UNCW (16 - 2)
2. Charleston (13 - 5)
3. Hofstra (12 - 6)
4. Monmouth (11 - 7)
5. Drexel (10 - 8) - Above W&M and Stony Brook based on round-robin record (2-1).
6. William & Mary (10 - 8) - Above Stony Brook and below Drexel based on round-robin record (1-1).
7. Stony Brook (10 - 8) - Below Drexel and W&M based on round-robin record (1-2).
8. Towson (8 - 10) - Above Campbell based on head-to-head record (1-0).
9. Campbell (8 - 10) - Below Towson based on head-to-head record (0-1).
10. Hampton (6 - 12) - Above Elon based on head-to-head record (1-0).
11. Elon (6 - 12) - Below Hampton based on head-to-head record (0-1).
12. NC A&T (4 - 14)
13. Northeastern (3 - 15)

[Jojogunne]

FYI, here's the bracket:

https://caasports.com/documents/2026/1/ ... df?id=7260

[Wags]

FYI, here's the bracket:

https://caasports.com/documents/2026/1/ ... df?id=7260

If we TCB at home, we'll be in the last game on Sunday again (8:30 pm), which could be an extra help this year with all but Charleston playing on Tuesday, whereas in most years, everyone is done the Saturday before the tournament (only three days rest instead of the usual six before the 6 or 11 seed plays Saturday and then plays on Sunday in that case against Hofstra, which will be playing on about 4 1/2 days rest by that point). Not a huge difference, but still different than usual, and every extra edge can help. That can also obviously carry over for the next two rounds, when maybe that shorter rest time than usual between Tuesday and the tournament could have an effect for teams as they advance.

[Wags]

Hofstra has allowed under 70 points in 60% of their games this year. They're 17-1 in those games.

They've allowed under 65 points in 40% of their games this year. They're undefeated (12-0) in those games.

Towson leads the CAA with 66.6 ppg allowed. Hofstra is right behind them with 66.7 ppg allowed. Hofstra has allowed only one more point (2,000) in 30 games than Towson (1,999 pts allowed). UNCW has allowed the fewest total points (1,945), but they will play their 30th game tonight (on CBS Sports Network, hosting Charleston).

Hofstra is the only CAA team allowing under 40% shooting overall (38.9%).

[EvanJ]

By us winning to clinch being above W&M, UNCW clinched the 1 seed over Charleston with a better record against us if that tiebreaker is necessary. I was unable to find confirmation of that, but I will be surprised if I am wrong. UNCW still wants to win tonight for senior day, national TV, sweeping their rival, having sole possession of first, and getting as good an NCAA Tournament seed as possible if they make it.

[Wags]

By us winning to clinch being above W&M, UNCW clinched the 1 seed over Charleston with a better record against us if that tiebreaker is necessary. I was unable to find confirmation of that, but I will be surprised if I am wrong. UNCW still wants to win tonight for senior day, national TV, sweeping their rival, having sole possession of first, and getting as good an NCAA Tournament seed as possible if they make it.

That's correct. Even if you give Charleston a win tonight and UNCW a loss on Tuesday, UNCW still wins the tiebreaker. So, the Seahawks have already clinched the top seed based their records vs. Hofstra, now that Hofstra has clinched the 3rd seed:

https://bball.notnothing.net/caa.php?sport=mbb

1. UNCW (14 - 4) - Above Charleston based on winning percentage against #3 teams all played at least once (1-0).
2. Charleston (14 - 4) - Below UNCW based on winning percentage against #3 teams all played at least once (1-1).

[Wags]

UNCW can lock up the regular season title outright with a win and be in a prime position to receive an automatic bid to the National Invitation Tournament based on their “KNIT” score, which is the average of seven major metrics, including NET Rankings and KenPom. UNCW currently sits with a “KNIT” score of 89.

[EvanJ]

I did not know of the KNIT score and automatic bids to the NIT. If UNCW is 89 now, it will be hard for them to go to worse than 125. It is a compromise between giving automatic bids to all regular season champions who do not make the NCAA Tournament, and giving no automatic bids. It will be bad if the CAA's regular season champion ever has a KNIT worse than 125.

Charleston at UNCW is on CBS Sports Network, and I hope that they say at the beginning that UNCW clinched the 1 seed. https://stats.statbroadcast.com/broadcast/?id=613440 will have statistics.

Edit: Charleston came back from down 15 to win 79-76 at UNCW. UNCW won their previous six games against Charleston. A team has never had exactly 2 CAA losses that were against the same opponent, and that continues. In Charleston's four games against UNCW and us, the road team won every game.

[Wags]

A team has never had exactly 2 CAA losses that were against the same opponent, and that continues.

So close!

In Charleston's four games against UNCW and us, the road team won every game.

That means Hofstra is due to beat Charleston again in a possible 2/3 semifinal matchup, since although a neutral game, it'll sound like it's at Charleston.

[JoeyBagODonuts1]

This shows how HUGE our win at Charleston was. It is preventing the Cougars from having any chance at the #1 seed, as it results in a loss in any tiebreak scenario with UNCW.

[Wags]

This shows how HUGE our win at Charleston was. It is preventing the Cougars from having any chance at the #1 seed, as it results in a loss in any tiebreak scenario with UNCW.

It also shows that UNCW isn't so invincible. They gave up 56 second-half points after allowing 23 in the first half.

On the other hand, the Charleston we saw in the first half last night was the same Charleston that looked pretty beatable often times this year. But the Charleston that appeared in the second half last night could be a problem for everyone in D.C., UNCW included.

[EvanJ]

I was surprised to see that we lead the CAA in scoring margin in CAA games.

[Wags]

I was surprised to see that we lead the CAA in scoring margin in CAA games.

Not bad for a team that "doesn't win by enough, often enough," huh?

[triplec2195]

I think in retrospect I would like a redo on the NCA&T game a game we should win and ditto on the Elon game a game if we played them again would have an entirely different outcome. Other losses you can kind of live with!

[Polito]

Let's see if that scoring margin produces an NCAAT. Because that's all that matters. If it does, then giddyup baby!! If it doesn't, then you can put that stat with all the others in the 'meaningless - no one cares' column.

[Wags]

Let's see if that scoring margin produces an NCAAT. Because that's all that matters. If it does, then giddyup baby!! If it doesn't, then you can put that stat with all the others in the 'meaningless - no one cares' column.

True, but we can't fairly say it matters and place importance on it during the regular season (saying they weren't winning enough, often enough, when they actually were) and then say it doesn't matter at all (even if that's true) if they don't win the tournament.

Fully agree, we can place the stat in the "no one cares" column if they lose in DC. But then, why was such a big deal made about it a couple of weeks ago? (even when it shouldn't have been, because they actually were doing what was being complained about).

[Wags]

https://www.midmajormadness.com/coastal ... eason-ends

Good job, Wags. Will you be covering all of the CAAT games?