In March of this year, Kyle Whelliston stated in an ESPN chat that the 2007-08 CAA was more balanced then the 2005-06 CAA. To get the 2008-09 season started, albeit two months early, I finally have decided to write a column which discusses that.
In 2005-06, as everyone who follows college basketball knows, George Mason put the CAA on the map by going to the Final Four before losing to eventual champion Florida in the semifinals. What everyone doesn’t know or remember, the CAA had four teams in the postseason; CAA champion UNC Wilmington, NCAA snub and CAA championship finalist Hofstra who went to the NIT, and the 2004-05 CAA champion, Old Dominion who also went to the NIT.
In 2007-08, the CAA had three postseason teams; George Mason, who won the CAA championship, VCU, the 2006-07 champ who upset Duke in the first round that year, made the NIT, and Old Dominion who made the inaugural College Basketball Invitational (CBI).
So far, the 2005-06 has a more favorable comparison on the balance scale, with four teams making the postseason as opposed to three for this past season’s teams. But balance is not determined by the number of postseason teams, its also determined by the strength of teams in the league.
Here’s a look at the regular season overall and conference records of the CAA in 2005-06
UNC Wilmington 25-8, 15-3
George Mason 27-8, 15-3
Hofstra 26-7, 14-4
Old Dominion 24-10, 13-5
Northeastern 19-11, 12-6
VCU 19-10, 11-7
Towson 12-16, 8-10
Drexel 15-16, 8-10
Delaware 8-20, 4-14
William and Mary 8-20, 3-15
Georgia State 7-22, 3-15
James Madison 5-23, 2-16
Compare that with this past season’s CAA
VCU 24-8, 15-3
UNC Wilmington 20-13, 12-6
George Mason 23-11, 12-6
Old Dominion 18-16, 11-7
William and Mary 17-16, 10-8
Northeastern 14-17, 9-9
Delaware 14-17, 9-9
Hofstra 12-18, 8-10
Towson 13-18, 7-11
Drexel 12-20, 5-13
James Madison 13-17, 5-13
Georgia State 9-21, 5-13
At first glance, you could say the 2005-06 was more bottom heavy with four teams with 4-14 records or worse while the worst team in 2007-08 had a 5-13 record (three teams in fact had 5-13 records). But upon closer look, both seasons had eight teams with 8-10 records or better. Upon closer review, you had six teams in the 2005-06 season with an 11-7 or better record, which to me is much more balanced. In fact only four games separated first (UNC Wilmington) from sixth (VCU) in 2005-06 as opposed to 2007-08 where six games separated first (VCU) from sixth (Northeastern). You could make a strong argument based on that fact that the 2005-06 season was more balanced, just on those two facts alone.
But there’s more. A balanced league should show general strength in the postseason. In the 2005-06 season, the four aforementioned postseason teams combined went an astounding 9-4 (UNC Wilmington 0-1, George Mason 4-1 in the NCAA, Hofstra 2-1, ODU 3-1, both in the NIT). Only UNC Wilmington lost their first game in a postseason tournament blowing a 20 point lead and losing late to George Washington 88-85.
Compare that with the 2007-08 season postseason teams who went a combined 1-3. Only ODU won a postseason game, a win over Rider at home in the first round of the CBI (still trying to figure out how ODU got a nod over UNC Wilmington for that tournament).
So the 2005-06 season is three for three in the balance argument. Let's use another factor to show how balanced a league is; their record against strong non conference competition.
In 2005-06, the CAA played some very strong non conference competition during the regular season and postseason. George Mason would play the strongest competition. The Patriots started their strong non-conference schedule run of wins by knocking off Manhattan, a NIT participant at Manhattan (Manhattan would knock off Maryland on the road in the first round of the NIT that year). George Mason would defeat fellow Sweet 16 member Wichita State twice, once during Bracket Buster Saturday then in the round of 16 in the NCAA tournament. Of course, the Patriots along with beating the Shockers knocked off Michigan State, North Carolina and UConn to get to the final four. UNC Wilmington won at Butler by 16 earlier that season (Butler would make the NIT that year and win its first round game at Florida State before losing at Miami of Ohio). Hofstra beat St Joe’s and Nebraska in the NIT before losing to fellow CAA member ODU in the quarterfinals of the NIT. ODU won at Colorado, then beat Manhattan and Hofstra before losing to Michigan in the semis of the NIT that season. VCU also knocked off Albany in their Bracket Buster game that season. Albany, the America East champs that year, almost knocked off UConn in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Compare that with this season. VCU’s best wins were over Maryland (lost in second round of NIT to Syracuse), Akron (lost in NIT second round to UMass) and Houston (lost in semifinals of CBI to Tulsa). George Mason defeated Cleveland State ( a NIT first round loser to Dayton), beat Dayton ( lost in NIT quarters to eventual NIT champ Ohio State) and knocked off Michael Beasley and Kansas State (made the NCAA’s and lost in second round to Wisconsin). Besides the win over Rider, ODU’s other sole big non conference win was over another NIT quarterfinalist, Virginia Tech.
So, despite a few nice wins, especially the win by the Patriots over the Wildcats, the 2007-08 season pales in comparison to the 2005-06 season when it comes to strong non conference wins.
If that’s not enough evidence for you, finally take a look at the players playing in the CAA the 2005-06 season. You had FOUR CAA most valuable players playing during that season (2004-05 CAA player of the year ODU’s Alex Loughton, 2006-07 player of the year Loren Stokes, 2007-08 player of the year Eric Maynor, and the 2005-06 CAA player of the year, Jose Juan Barea). Only Maynor played during the 2007-08 season (the others had since graduated). Throw in other great players like Isaiah Hunter, Antoine Agudio, Michael George, T.J. Carter, John Goldsberry and Towson’s great scorer Gary Neal, and it was no contest what season had the better balance of players.
The evidence clearly shows that it is obvious that the 2005-06 season was a much more balanced league than the 2007-08 season. For some reason, I just needed nearly six months to show Kyle Whelliston.
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