2024 CAA Conference Basketball Tournament

The 2024 CAA Conference Tournament is back at the Entertainment and Sports Arena in Washington D.C. for the third straight year, as Charleston looks to run it back as the champions. The top-seeded Cougars lead a 14-team field into the tournament with one bid in the NCAA Tournament up for grabs.

Every team in the conference qualified for the tournament. Seeds 5 through 10 get a first-round bye into the second round and the top four seeds all get a bye into the Quarterfinals. The schedule separates the games into a day and night session, so there are some mild rest advantages as the tournament goes along.

 

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How to Watch the CAA Conference Tournament

When: March 8-12

Where: Entertainment and Sports Arena in Washington D.C.

Format: Seeds 5-10 get byes to the second round; top four get byes to Quarterfinals

Watch: FloHoops and CBSSN; Championship Game on CBS Sports Network on Mar. 12 at 7 p.m. ET

College Basketball Odds | College Basketball Betting Splits | Greg Peterson’s Daily Lines | Steve Makinen’s Power Ratings

CAA Conference Tournament Bracket

CAA Conference Tournament Seeds, Teams and Odds

1. Charleston (+225)

2. Drexel (+380)

3. Hofstra (+280)

4. UNC Wilmington (+380) 

5. Towson (+950)

6. Delaware (+1300)

7. Stony Brook (+3000)

8. Monmouth (+3500)

9. Campbell (+25000)

10. Northeastern (+5000)

11. Elon (+50000)

12. North Carolina A&T (+50000)

13. William & Mary (+50000)

14. Hampton (+50000)

(odds from DraftKings Sportsbook accurate at time of publish)

Favorite To Win CAA Conference Tournament

Charleston is a deserving favorite here, as the top-ranked CAA team by both Ken Pom and Bart Torvik, but this is a pretty balanced conference at the top. The odds certainly imply that, as Charleston is the highest-priced favorite we’ve seen to this point. UNC Wilmington was Pat Kelsey’s kryptonite, as two of his team’s three losses came at the hands of the Seahawks.

The Cougars were eighth in adjusted defensive efficiency at the end of the regular season, but the top offensive squad. UNCW also struggles on the defensive end relative to their CAA peers, but finished second to Charleston in offense. Only Drexel and Hofstra rank in the top four in both offensive and defensive efficiency. That’s why we see the odds the way that we do for the CAA Tournament. 

CAA Conference Tournament Darkhorse

Consistency issues have plagued all of the teams outside of the top four, as some have even alternated wins and losses down the stretch, like Towson and Monmouth. I wish Delaware was in better current form, as Martin Inglesby had a great run in this tournament two years ago to win as a No. 5 seed.

Towson did beat Charleston during the regular season, but the path for the Tigers right now looks like UNCW, Charleston, and the Drexel/Hofstra winner for four games in four days. The darkhorse to keep an eye on is Stony Brook. They have a head coach in Geno Ford who found some success in the MAC Tournament with Kent State in the early 2010s and they were a top-five team in both adjusted offensive and defensive efficiency.

Players to Watch in CAA Conference Tournament

This is a conference that doesn’t play a ton of defense, so there are a lot of pretty prolific scorers, beginning with Hofstra’s dynamic duo of Tyler Thomas (22.3 PPG) and Darlinstone Dubar (19.1 PPG). Speedy Claxton’s team is jump-shot heavy, but these two are shooting 37.2% and 39.9% from 3. The Pride are really dangerous with these two and Jaquan Carlos, who has benefited from the shooting prowess with 6.4 assists per game. That’s 2.3 more than any other player in the CAA.

Hofstra isn’t the only team with scorers. UNC Wilmington has Trazarien White (19.6 PPG) and Shykeim Phillips(14 PPG) as two guys in the top 10 in the league. Delaware relies heavily on Jyare Davis, who was the conference tournament MVP back in 2022 and has averaged 17.5 points and 7.7 rebounds per game.

Campbell is a pretty interesting team down towards the bottom of this conference that plays at an appropriately-slow pace as the Camels. Anthony Dell’Orso is a pure scorer with 19.4 PPG and he’s shooting 48.9% from the floor overall.

The interesting thing about Charleston is that nobody scores more than 12.7 PPG, but they have three players with over 11.8 PPG in Reyne Smith, Ante Brzovic, and Ben Burnham, so this is the definition of a balanced attack.

Betting Pick to Win The CAA Conference Tournament

They had a road hiccup at Drexel and lost to Charleston in the regular season finale, but I really like the way that Hofstra is playing. I am certainly concerned about a jump-shooting team in a neutral-site, but I like Hofstra’s quarterfinal matchup more than what others will face and I like that they would avoid Charleston or UNC Wilmington until the final.

The Pride split with Drexel and just beat UNC Wilmington by 11. I think the Seahawks could knock off the Cougars in the semis, which would also help Hofstra’s case.

Pick: Hofstra +280

Makinen Power Ratings for CAA Conference

Check out the other previews in our 2024 College Basketball Conference Tournament Betting Guide.

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