Over the last six years, the CAA has put as many different teams in the NCAA basketball Final Four as the ACC and Big Ten and one more than the Big 12 or Pac-12. According to Old Dominion coach Blaine Taylor, however, that’s not the most impressive feat for college basketball’s most accomplished mid-major conference.
“If you want to speak to how strong the league is, in both cases, neither of those [Final Four] teams won the regular-season title and neither of those teams won our tournament,” Taylor said.
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This was the tenor of a festive CAA Media Day on Tuesday at Pentagon City, where the league toasted its most recent success, the stunning advancement of Virginia Commonwealth to the 2011 NCAA semifinals. The man most anxious to forget is Rams coach Shaka Smart.
“Shakespeare said joy’s soul lies in the doing. What’s won is done,” Smart said. “It’s over with.”
VCU was picked to finish third in the 12-team CAA behind favored Drexel and 2006 NCAA semifinalist George Mason, under new coach Paul Hewitt.
“If anyone doesn’t pick Drexel, they’re crazy,” Smart said.
Drexel returns six of its seven rotation players from last year’s 21-10 squad. Smart had high praise for coach Bruiser Flint and his perpetually rugged team.
“Every team we played in the NCAA tournament from Purdue on was supposed to be the best defensive team in the country. Florida was supposed to be the best defensive team in the country. Butler was supposed to be the best defensive team in the country,” Smart said. “No, Drexel was way tougher to score on than any of those teams.”
– Kevin Dunleavy
