CAA Men's Basketball Report - Feb. 12, 2024
CAA Men's Basketball Report - Feb. 12, 2024
The CAA Men's Basketball Player of the Week is Jyáre Davis!
PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Jyáre Davis, Delaware
Senior | Forward | Newark, Del. / Sanford
Davis contributed a pair of double-doubles to Delaware’s 2-0 week to push the Blue Hens’ winning streak to four. The forward from Newark notched 15 points and 15 rebounds in Thursday’s win at Towson that snapped the Tigers’ 18-game home winning streak and followed with 21 and 10 in the Blue Hens’ Saturday home victory over William & Mary. For the week, Davis averaged 18.0 points and 12.5 rebounds. The honor is Davis’ second of the year and Delaware’s fourth, as Jalun Trent has added two more.
ROOKIE OF THE WEEK
Jaret Valencia, Monmouth
Redshirt Freshman | Forward | Quibdó, Colombia / Legacy SSS (Texas)
Valencia contributed 8.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 3.5 blocks per game to Monmouth’s 1-1 week that included a win over William & Mary. The forward from Colombia became the sixth player in Monmouth history to block six or more shots in a game with his performance vs. W&M and the first CAA player with six in a conference game since Drexel’s Amari Williams on Dec. 31, 2022. Valencia tallied 11 points in the win over the Tribe and added six points and nine rebounds on Saturday at Northeastern.
NEWS AND NOTES
THIS IS GOING TO BE FUN
The top six teams in the CAA are separated by one game in the loss column with three conference weekends remaining.
UNCW and Charleston are tied atop the standings at 9-3, while Delaware, Drexel, and Hofstra are even at 8-4 and Towson sits at 7-4 entering Monday night’s CBS Sports Network game.
UNCW is in the receiving votes category of the AP Top 25 this week with an 18-6 record, nine wins in its last 10 games, and a 1-0 mark vs. the current Top 25. The Seahawks are the second CAA team to be recognized by AP voters this year, as Charleston was receiving votes in the preseason.
TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS
The first two weekends of CAA play in February looked drastically different, as after a first weekend in which 9 of 13 games were decided by four points or less, 11 of 13 games this past weekend were decided by 10 or more.
All six CAA games Feb. 3, plus Hampton’s non-league win, were decided by five points or less. It marked the first time 5+ conference games were decided by single digits since Feb. 8, 2020 and the first of five or more by five points or less since Feb. 16, 2008, when Hofstra and Old Dominion won one-point games and Drexel, Georgia State, and UNCW all won by two.
THEY GET BUCKETS
The CAA boasts three of the nation’s top 12 scorers as of Sunday morning. Hofstra’s Tyler Thomas leads the league and is sixth nationally at 21.8 ppg, while N.C. A&T’s Landon Glasper (21.3) is 11th and Monmouth’s Xander Rice (21.2) is 12th.
BOARD MEETING
Drexel and Towson have been two of the nation’s top teams at outworking their competition on the glass this season. Drexel’s +8.7 rebounding margin ranks 13th nationally, while Towson is 17th at +7.7. It was the Tigers who had the upper hand in the teams’ regular-season meeting with a +5 margin (42-37).
STATEMENT SATURDAY
Drexel and UNCW took down AP Top 25 opponents on Dec. 2 with Drexel holding off No. 18 Villanova, 57-55, and UNCW powering past No. 12 Kentucky, 80-73. It marked the first time in league history that two CAA teams defeated Top 25 opponents in the same day.
HEN-CINNATI
Delaware bounced back from a 10-point deficit in the first half to down Xavier, 87-80, on Dec. 5. The Blue Hens shot 50% and turned the Muskeeters over 17 times while receiving a career night from Jalun Trent (27 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists.)
COMPUTER GAMES
UNCW leads the CAA with a NET of 101 in the latest update with Charleston (116), Charleston (127), Delaware (134), Hofstra (137), and Towson (147) also in the top 150. UNCW (Kentucky), Drexel (Villanova), and Delaware (Xavier) each hold a Q1 win; UNCW, Charleston, Towson and Monmouth and have steered clear of a Q4 loss.
KenPom ranks two league offenses in the top 100: UNCW (54) and Charleston (81). Pomeroy’s metric, along with Bart Torvik’s T-Rank, also have UNCW at No. 101 overall.
The computers in Bristol value the Seahawks as a top-100 team at 97 in BPI and 77 in Strength of Record, while the KPI metric rates UNCW 82nd.
HEALTHY COMPETITION
The CAA was .500 or better against the Horizon (4-0), Missouri Valley (3-0), CUSA (1-0), Southland (1-0), Patriot League (9-1), MAAC (6-1), Big South (4-2), Sun Belt (8-3), Atlantic Sun (3-2), and MEAC (7-5) in non-conference play.
The CAA has two wins against the Big East (Drexel at Villanova, Delaware at Xavier) and The American (Northeastern vs. East Carolina, Hofstra vs. South Florida) and one vs. the Big 12 (Monmouth at West Virginia) and SEC (UNCW at Kentucky).
HIGH FIVE!
CAA players have earned one of the five spots on the USBWA’s Player of the Week list three times this season. Hofstra’s Tyler Thomas has done it twice - Nov. 28 for his Gulf Coast Showcase performance and Feb. 6 for a stellar week - while UNCW’s Trazarien White collected the honor Dec. 12 for his effort in the Seahawks’ win at Kentucky.
ALMOST HEAVEN, CENTRAL JERSEY
Monmouth made a statement in the season’s opening week with a 73-65 victory at West Virginia. Xander Rice scored 30 points in his second game playing for his father, King Rice, who defeated a high-major opponent for the ninth time at Monmouth. The victory was the CAA’s first over a school in the Big 12 at the time of the matchup since VCU’s Elite Eight win over Kansas in 2011.
TROPHIES
Drexel and Hofstra were winners of their multi-team events with the Dragons taking both games in the Market Street Challenge and the Pride sweeping the three-game bracketed Gulf Coast Showcase. Hofstra’s Tyler Thomas took MVP honors in Florida after averaging 30.3 points per game.
WHOLE LOTTA WINS
Northeastern’s Bill Coen passed Jim Larranaga for first in CAA history with his 184th league win (CAA games + CAA Championship) in January.
Towson’s Pat Skerry ranks sixth on the list with 121, while North Carolina A&T’s Monté Ross is the active coach closest to entering the top 10 with 88 league wins, 83 of which came in his time at Delaware.
AND-ONES
One Thing To Know On Each CAA Hoops Team
Campbell’s 30-assist performance Saturday was the 10th by a D1 team vs. another a D1 team this season (Iowa [2x], Colorado State, Kansas, Michigan State, Minnesota, Mississippi State, Nevada, UIC)
CJ Fulton leads the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio (4.48).
Christian Ray recorded his 1,000th career rebound in Saturday’s win; Ray reached 1,000 career points the previous Saturday.
Drexel ranks 13th nationally in rebounding margin (+8.7) and has been outrebounded just three times in 25 games.
Zac Ervin made his 200th career three-pointer Thursday, becoming the ninth player in school history to surpass the mark.
Jerry Deng was Hampton’s first weekly award winner this season and third over the Pirates’ first two years in the CAA, as Jordan Nesbitt collected Player of the Week honors and Kyrese Mullen earned a Rookie of the Week nod last season.
Hofstra won back-to-back games while scoring less than 70 points in both games for the first time since wins over UNCW (66) and William & Mary (67) on Jan. 19 & 22, 2011.
Monmouth’s 151-spot jump in KenPom from the start of the season ranks eighth nationally.
N.C. A&T’s turnover rate of 13.8% is the 13th-best nationally.
UNCW is 9-1 in its last 10 games after an 0-2 start to league play.
Luka Sakota averaged 19.5 points on 53% shooting in his return from injury the past week; Northeastern is 4-2 in CAA games when Sakota plays 20+ minutes.
Stony Brook is 8-4 this year when it makes at least nine three-pointers.
Charles Thompson moved into third place in program history in minutes played Thursday.
Chase Lowe is averaging 18.7 points and 10.0 rebounds over his last three games with a pair of double-doubles in the stretch.