City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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(Ed. Note: This article is part of our 2016-17 season coverage, which will run for the six weeks preceding the first official games of the year on Nov. 11. To access all of our high school and college preview content for this season, click here.)

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It was a wild season in the Colonial Athletic Association, with half of the 10-team league finishing at 11-7 or better in conference play in what was a resurgent year for a conference that had been battered by realignment several years ago.

Resurgence is a good word to use, especially when discussing defending league champions UNC-Wilmington. At the turn of the century, the Seahawks were one of the CAA’s powerhouses, winning the league tournament four times in a seven-year span from 2000-06, but the program that head coach Kevin Keatts inherited in 2014 was coming off six consecutive losing seasons.

But chasing the Seahawks last year were quite a few programs that had every chance of winning the league's postseason tournament -- and many of them return the majority of their key players with high hopes for 2016-17. Programs like Hofstra, Towson and Charleston, which have all found stability in somewhat-new coaching regimes, while the bottom of the league begins anew.

Without further ado, our picks for all-league teams and how we think the CAA will shake out this season:

Preseason All-League Team
William Adala Moto (Sr./Towson)
Jarrell Brantley (Soph./Charleston)
*Chris Flemmings (Sr./UNCW)
Rokas Gustys (Jr./Hofstra)
Omar Prewitt (Sr./William & Mary)

* = League Player of the Year

1. UNC Wilmington Seahawks (25-8, 14-4)
Head Coach: Kevin Keatts, 3rd season (43-22, .622)
Key Losses: Craig Ponder (11.4 ppg, 3.1 rpg), C.J. Gettys (5.3 ppg, 5.1 rpg)
Key Returners: Chris Flemmings (R-Sr./G), Denzel Ingram (R-Sr./G), C.J. Bryce (Soph./G), Jordon Talley (Jr./G)

Outlook: Keatts didn’t need much time to turn around Wilmington, taking what had been a nine-win team the year before he arrived, doubling that total in his first season and then leading the Seahawks to equal their best win total since joining Division I in 1976-77, making the NCAA Tournament for their first time in a decade with an 80-73 win over Hofstra in the 2016 CAA championship game. And with four of their top five players returning -- including Flemmings, a 6-5 guard who began his career at the Division II level but had no trouble with the move to D-I, averaging 16.2 ppg and 5.8 rpg -- the Seahawks are the overwhelming favorites to repeat. Ingram (12.7 ppg), Bryce (10.1 ppg) and Talley (8.5 ppg) will provide additional scoring punch; games against East Carolina and Clemson just before conference play starts in late December will show us just how good these birds are.

2. Towson Tigers (20-13, 11-7)
Head Coach: Pat Skerry, 6th season (76-88, .463)
Key Losses: Byron Hawkins (13.2 ppg), Timajh Parker-Rivera (6.5 ppg, 6.5 rpg)
Key Returners: William Adala Moto (Sr./F), John Davis (Sr./F), Mike Morsell (Jr./G)

Outlook: It’s easy to forget that the Tigers were arguably the worst team in Division I basketball five years ago with a 1-31 record, as Skerry has quickly turned Towson into a perennial league contender. So far, the high-water mark has been a 25-win team in 2013-14, led by Georgetown transfer Jerrell Benimon; a 12-win season followed as the program adjusted to the loss of a big senior class, but bounced back nicely by hitting the 20-win mark a year ago. This group is athletic and physical, led by the 6-7 Adala Moto, another high-major transfer (Wake Forest) who averaged 13.9 ppg and 8.3 rpg to lead the team in both categories in his first year of action in a Towson uniform. He’ll be helped greatly by Morsell, a 6-5 wing who averaged 13.0 ppg last year, as well as Davis, a Neumann-Goretti grad; the physical 6-5 forward has averaged 11.1 ppg and 6.8 rpg over the last two seasons.

3. College of Charleston Cougars (17-14, 8-10)
Head Coach: Earl Grant, 3rd season (26-38, .406)
Key Losses: Canyon Barry (19.7 ppg, 3.4 rpg)
Key Returners: Cameron Johnson (Jr./G), Jarrell Brantley (Soph./F), Marquise Pointer (Soph./G)
Outlook: Picked fifth in the league’s poll, the Cougars could really make a big move up the league standings in Grant’s third season after going from nine to 17 wins between his first and second years. And many of those losses were close -- of the 10 losses Charleston suffered after Barry (now in a graduate transfer year at Florida) was lost for the season in December with a shoulder injury, all were by 10 or fewer points, and seven were within four points. And what’s scary for the rest of the league is that the entire rotation from that point is back, and many of them are still very young; that includes Brantley, a 6-7 forward who averaged 11.7 ppg and a team-best 7.3 rpg as a rookie, plus Johnson (12.3 ppg, .385 3PT%) and Pointer (11.2 ppg, 2.9 apg) out on the perimeter with him for at least the next two years. Several other juniors and sophomores could take big steps forward, including 6-10 sophomore Nick Harris, who averaged 4.5 ppg and 4.1 mpg in just under 20 minutes as a freshman.

4. James Madison Dukes (21-11, 11-7)
Head Coach: Louis Rowe, 1st season (0-0, .---)
Key Losses: Ronald Curry (17.3 ppg, 3.6 apg),
Key Returners: Shakir Brown (Sr./SF), Dimitrije Cabarkapa (R-SR./F), Yohanny Dalembert (Sr./PF), Jackson Kent (Sr./G), Tom Vodanovich (Sr./F)

Outlook: It’s certainly a bit of a head-scratcher that the Dukes are starting a new regime, as former head coach Matt Brady was let go after the program’s fourth 20-win season in his eight years there. So it’s up to Rowe, an assistant coach at JMU from 2007-12 before stops at Rider, FIU and Bowling Green took him back to Harrisonburg, Va., to continue what’s generally been a top-half program in the league for the better part of a decade. Do-everything guard Curry is gone, but Rowe has a diverse group of seven seniors to lean on in his first year as a head coach, from rangy wing Brown (10.9 ppg, .381 3PT%), to a powerful front line that includes the 6-8 Dalembert (9.3 ppg, 6.8 rpg), 6-10 Cabarkapa (9.6 ppg, 3.2 rpg) and 6-7 Vodanovich (6.2 ppg, 4.4 rpg).

5. William & Mary Tribe (20-11, 11-7)
Head Coach: Tony Shaver, 14th season (176-225, .439)
Key Losses: Terry Tarpey (12.5 ppg, 3.8 rpg), Sean Sheldon (8.5 ppg, 4.8 rpg)
Key Returners: Omar Prewitt (Sr./G-F), Daniel Dixon (Sr./G), David Cohn (R-Jr./G)

Outlook: Shaver has done a terrific job getting some continuity going with the Tribe, who had back-to-back 20-win seasons with the best scorer in the league, Marcus Thornton, leading the way; even after the explosive guard graduated in 2015, they still came back and hit the 20-win mark again. Now they’ll need to weather the graduation of two players who didn’t score quite as much as Thornton but were integral parts of a William & Mary system that requires all pieces to buy into the formula. They’ll be able to lean heavily on Prewitt, a versatile 6-7 wing who led the team with 17.8 ppg, adding in 5.2 rpg as well; Dixon, a 6-6 guard, followed him at 12.5 ppg while the 6-2 Cohn chipped in 9.6 ppg and a team-high 4.6 apg. Keep an eye on 6-10 freshman forward Nathan Knight, a skilled big out of Kimball Union (N.H.) with a 7-2 wingspan.

6. Hofstra Pride (24-10, 14-4)
Head Coach: Joe Mihalich, 4th season (54-47., 535)
Key Losses: Juan’ya Green (17.8 ppg, 7.1 apg), Ameen Tanksley (15.9 ppg, 5.2 rpg), Denton Koon (11.4 ppg, 6.6 rpg)
Key Returners: Brian Bernardi (Sr./G), Rokas Gustys (Jr./PF)

Outlook: The first three years of the Mihalich era at Hofstra were largely defined by Green and Tanksley, the Philly-area duo who followed their coach after playing their first two years of college basketball under him at Niagara. After a 10-win season in 2013-14, when they were sitting out their NCAA-mandated transfer year, the Archbishop Carroll and Imhotep product led the Pride to 44 wins over the last two seasons, though they fell short on their ultimate goal of winning a CAA championship and earning the program’s first March Madness bid since 2000-01. This year’s team will be built around a strong 1-2 punch in Bernardi, a 6-2 guard who averaged 12.3 ppg and shot .388 from 3-point range, and Gustys, a 6-9, 260-pound post who busted out for 13.5 ppg and 13.0 rpg a year ago. Look for sophomore Desuire Buie to step up into a big role after averaging 3.0 ppg in 12.6 mpg as a rookie.

7. Elon Phoenix (16-16, 7-11)
Head Coach: Matt Matheny, 8th season (108-116., 482)
Key Losses: Tanner Samson (11.8 ppg, 4.3 rpg)
Key Returners: Luke Eddy (Sr./G), Dimitri Thompson (Jr./G), Tyler Seibring (Soph./F)

Outlook: It’s tough to figure out exactly where to put the Phoenix, because the only player they lost was Samsom, the leading scorer on an extremely balanced Elon attack last year; seven players averaged between 8.6 and 11.8 ppg, some impressive parity indeed. Three members of that group -- Seibring (9.8 ppg), Damian Swoope (9.1 ppg) and Steven Santa Ana (8.6 ppg) were only freshmen, though it’ll likely be Eddy (10.5 ppg) who serves as their primary offensive option this year. The Phoenix, which joined the league in 2014-15 along with Charleston, are still looking for their first above-.500 finish in their new conference, and this team could certainly accomplish that feat and then some.

8. Northeastern Huskies (18-15, 9-9)
Head Coach: Bill Coen, 11th season (163-160, .505)
Key Losses: David Walker (17.9 ppg, 3.8 rpg), Quincy Ford (16.4 ppg, 7.0 rpg), Zach Stahl (10.6 ppg, 6.1 rpg)
Key Returners: Jeremy Miller (Soph./F), T.J. Williams (Sr./G)

Outlook: This is a Huskies program in transition after graduating three seniors crucial to the team’s success, including leading them to a league championship and NCAA Tournament berth in 2015. Ford, who’s currently with the Utah Jazz’s D-League team, will be the toughest to replace, as the 6-8 wing forward scored over 1,600 points and grabbed 741 rebounds in his five-year career, which saw him miss all but two games of the 2013-14 season after undergoing back surgery. To help out a rather young group, Coen brought in former Duke/Florida forward Alex Walker as a grad transfer to support the 6-10 Miller (8.3 ppg, 3.9 rpg) and Williams (6.8 ppg, 2.0 rpg), who’s looking to bounce back after averaging 9.6 ppg and 3.2 apg as a sophomore. Miller is one of three players on the roster standing 6-10 or taller, along with a pair of sophomores, Sajon Ford (6-11) and Anthony Green (6-10).

9. Delaware Blue Hens (7-23, 2-16)
Head Coach: Martin Ingelsby, 1st season (0-0, .---)
Key Losses: Kory Holden (17.7 ppg, 4.2 apg), Marvin King-Davis (14.8 ppg, 9.0 rpg), Maurice Jeffers (5.2 ppg, 4.8 rpg)
Key Returners: Cazmon Hayes (Sr./SG), Anthony Mosely (Jr./PG), Chivarsky Corbett (RS-Soph./SF), Eric Carter (RS-Soph./PF)

Outlook: Delaware went through a brutal three-month wait for a new coach as the school searched for both a new president and Athletic Director, but the Blue Hens roster breathed a huge sigh of relief when the new administration hired Ingelsby, who had spent the past seven years under former UDel head coach Mike Brey at Notre Dame. The hiring convinced Corbett -- a 6-7 wing who had originally announced his intent to transfer to UTSA -- to return to Newark, but more importantly re-energized a group that had won just 17 games in two years after making the NCAA Tournament in 2013-14. Corbett only played in four games last year before tearing his ACL, averaging 9.0 ppg and 5.8 rpg; Carter, a 6-9 post from Jackson Memorial (N.J.), missed the entire 2015-16 season with an ACL tear of his own suffered in the preseason. Hayes (11.3 ppg, 5.2 rpg) and now-eligible George Washington transfer Darien Bryant should lead the way on the perimeter for a squad that won’t be highly-thought-of but has a chance to make some noise if the new staff can unlock its potential.

10. Drexel Dragons (6-25, 3-15)
Head Coach: Zach Spiker, 1st season (0-0, .---)
Key Losses: Tavon Allen (13.1 ppg, 2.8 rpg), Terrell Allen (9.8 ppg, 3.5 apg), Kazembe Abif (9.3 ppg, 7.0 rpg), Rashann London (7.5 ppg, 2.3 rpg)
Key Returners: Rodney Williams (10.5 ppg, 5.6 rpg), Sammy Mojica (8.9 ppg, 3.5 rpg)

Outlook: After a solid seven-year run at Army that saw him become just one of three coaches in Black Knights history to win 19-or-more games in a season -- some guys named Bobby Knight, Mike Krzyzewksi were the others -- Spiker comes to Philadelphia to take over a Drexel program in desperate need of some positive momentum. Injuries and defections have wracked the Dragons’ program over the last four years, culminating in a program-worst season that ended the 15-year reign of Bruiser Flint. With a freshman (Kurk Lee Jr.) likely to start at point guard for the third consecutive season, Spiker will need to lean heavily on Williams, a 6-7 senior big, plus Wake Forest transfer/Philadelphia native Miles Overton, a 6-4 wing who can play four positions. How they adjust to Spiker’s uptempo pace and free-flowing offense will determine a lot about how watchable the Dragons will be this season.