Coastal Athletic Association basketball programs boast Hall of Fame players and legendary coaches, and the conference has launched multiple Final Four runs. In 2023-24 with a team coming off a Top 25 season and others returning multiple starring contributors, the coming CAA season may well be the league's most memorable yet. 

CAA media day offered a preview of what to expect in the 2023-24 season. A year in which a variety of teams are prime contenders to breakout offers plenty of intriguing storylines; media day comments addressed some of them. 

Scheduling Challenges

When former UNC Wilmington assistant coach Takayo Siddle was hired in 2020 to take over as Seahawks head coach, the tradition-rich program had fallen on hard times. UNCW finished 11-21, 10-23 and 10-22 in the three seasons immediately following Kevin Keatts' departure for NC State. 

Siddle stepped in amid a global pandemic and a truncated schedule, but in his first full year, coached the Seahawks to a 27-9 overall finish; a share of the CAA regular-season title; and a College Basketball Invitational championship. UNCW lost its two leading contributors after that 2021-22 campaign, yet proceeded to come just a few possessions away from advancing to the 2023 NCAA Tournament. 

Heading into Year 4 under Siddle, UNCW is built for a special season. 

"When you look at our personnel, this is probably the most complete team that we've had," Siddle said. "We've had a couple really good teams over the last couple years, but this is the most complete team when you talk about depth...So the program's in a really good place. I think we can reach so many heights." 

Potential non-conference opponents apparently recognize it, too — and that has made for difficulties crafting an out-of-league schedule. 

"This time around, it was impossible," Siddle said of getting marquee opponents to come to Trask Coliseum. "People around here [who] don't know what scheduling is and what all goes into it, they're asking, 'Why don't you have any non-conference home games?' And it's like we didn't try, but we tried. We tried everything we could to get some home games." 

All of UNCW's home non-CAA games are against lower-division opponents, but not by design. The Seahawks still play a challenging schedule — an especially challenging one, in fact. 

The Seahawks visit perennial ASUN contender Florida Gulf Coast as part of the Fort Meyers Tipoff, a Thanksgiving week tournament that also pits UNCW against mid-major powerhouse Murray State. UNCW will look to repeat its success from last year's Baha Mar Nassau Championship, where it beat tough Vermont and North Texas teams. 

The Seahawks also visit running-and-gunning Marshall, and take two trips to SEC Country for games against Kentucky and Arkansas. But as for getting opponents into always-rowdy Trask Coliseum, UNCW is victim to an increasing disparity for quality programs outside of the autonomy five football conferences. 

Non-Conference Highlights

While UNCW's schedule is indicative of a broader problem around college basketball, CAA teams play a bevy of outstanding non-conference games in preparation for the league gauntlet. 

Commissioner Joe D'Antonio said at media day that the conference slate begins a week later this year and is more condensed, eschewing bye dates, to give CAA members an opportunity to play high-profile games in late December. 

Teams are taking advantage. 

UNCW visits Arkansas on Dec. 30, looking to become the second CAA program in recent years to beat the Razorbacks in Fayetteville. Hofstra did so in the 2021-22 campaign. 

🎥🎥🎥 from last night's #Hofstra win over #24 Arkansas❗

(courtesy @KATVNews) pic.twitter.com/IiH7HjM6yF

— Hofstra Men's Basketball (@HofstraMBB) December 19, 2021

As for Hofstra, the Pride's grueling non-conference schedule concludes on Dec. 30 with a neutral-site matchup at the new UBS Arena against St. John's. The Rick Pitino era for the Red Storm begins Nov. 6 against another New York-based CAA squad, Stony Brook. 

"I knew it was gonna be a huge game nationally, let alone regionally," Seawolves coach Geno Ford said. "Everybody will care that Coach Pitino] is there and starting his career at St. John's. So getting our players a chance to play in front of a sold-out crowd in a nationally relevant game on opening night is huge — not only for our players and our program, but honestly, also [for] the university."

Regional matchups provide some intriguing dates throughout the opening two months for CAA teams, and perhaps nowhere more so than at Drexel. The Dragons become a recognized part of the Philadelphia Big Five, now the City Six, and thus play in the Big Five Classic Dec. 2 at Wells Fargo Center. 

Bigger. Better. Big 5. pic.twitter.com/HK2KfIsgWJ

— Drexel Men's Basketball (@DrexelMBB) April 11, 2023

Before then, the Dragons draw Temple at home. 

"This is the best city for college basketball in America," Drexel coach Zach Spiker said of Philadelphia. "The Dec. 2 event, along with the other games played leading up to it, will really put Philadelphia basketball on display for everybody to see."

Part of the attractiveness of CAA basketball is its representation across several hoops meccas. With representation in Philadelphia, North Carolina's Tobacco Road, Virginia's Tidewater region, the DMV and New York, there are plenty of opportunities to claim bragging rights within a basketball-mad locale. 

The same is true for Northeastern up in Boston. The Huskies play two of their first three games against city counterparts Boston University and Harvard. 

"Those local rivalries are really important. And kudos to BU and Harvard., they're very consistent with us," Northeastern coach Bill Coen said. "Scheduling in college basketball can be tricky. But those guys have always continued to play. They see the same value that we do: Playing quality opponents right here in the hometown to kind of generates some local interest."

Defending CAA champion Charleston faces 2023 Final Four participant FAU, preceding a lengthy homestand in which the Cougars draw Rhode Island and Saint Joseph's at TD Arena. The Atlantic 10 programs' visits continue a strong home slate for Charleston, which begins on opening night against always-tough Iona and new head coach Tobin Anderson. 

Anderson coached Cinderella No. 16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson to an upset of top-ranked Purdue in last year's NCAA Tournament. 

Experience Isn't Everything

Much of the excitement about the upcoming CAA season stems from the conference's collective veteran presences. College of Charleston reloads after its breakthrough campaign under coach Pat Kelsey with the inside-outside duo of Ante Brzovic and Reyne Smith leading the way; Towson welcomes back proven interior bruiser Charles Thompson; UNCW features Trazarien White, Maleeck Harden-Hayes and Shykeim Phillips; and perhaps biggest of them all, Drexel has Preseason Player of the Year Amari Williams in the middle. 

🏀 Men's #CAAHoops Preseason Player of the Year@drexelmbb's Amari Williams capped his junior year by being named the CAA's Defensive Player of the Year in back-to-back seasons and was also named to the All-CAA first team

📰 https://t.co/GyLdmkrYV6 pic.twitter.com/R9n2Ax6q2l

— CAA Basketball (@CAABasketball) October 19, 2023

Experience matters in college basketball. One need look no further than at the recent run of national champions. Even in an era when much attention is paid freshman phenoms, teams constructed around upperclassmen headline "One Shining Moment." 

"We are assuming nothing and we are continuing to go through the basics and making sure that we're really good at them," Drexel's coach Spiker said. "That's a dangerous game of coaching roulette to assume because we're older that things will just take care of themselves."

Minutes played can be a meaningful predictive stat, but there's also some mystery to how it will apply in the age of the transfer portal. Experienced newcomers are still ultimately newcomers, meaning rosters need to find the right chemistry to mesh. 

Towson features one of the more intriguing collections of transfer talent, welcoming in Nendah Tarke from Coppin State and a talented wing with CAA experience, North Carolina A&T import Marcus Watson. 

🗳️ @ncatmbb’s Marcus Watson was voted by the fans as the #CAAHoops Player of the Night!

▪️ 22 points
▪️ 8 rebounds
⬇️ This dunkpic.twitter.com/y9Y9N3NyLn

— CAA Basketball (@CAABasketball) January 27, 2023

"The vibe is great," Tigers forward Thompson said. "I didn't realize we would be such good friends to now. I've only known them for about four or five months, but I feel like I've known everybody for at least five years." 

Thompson praised Tomiwa Sulaiman, a transfer from Div. II IUP, for taking a particularly vocal role with his new team. 

"He's always using his voice. He's always talking," Thompson said. "Usually new guys kind of stray away and kind of try to find their role, but he kind of defines his own role, like just with leadership and communication from the majority of practice."

That perhaps the more under-the-radar of Towson's transfers is positioning himself as a leader speaks to the unique nature of experience and chemistry combining to shape new-look rosters in this age of basketball. 

But really, the emergence of new standouts isn't exclusive to the last few years of more lenient NCAA transfer rules. No one knows that better than Hofstra coach Speedy Claxton. 

Asked about replacing 20.2-point per game scorer Aaron Estrada, Claxton said: "Once upon a time years back, Hofstra did lose a special player and that [next] year they still were good. And they still went to the NCAA Tournament."

Claxton is referencing the 2000-01 Pride team under then-head coach Jay Wright, which went into the season replacing a 22.8-point, 6-assist, 3.3-steal per game producing guard. His name? Speedy Claxton.