CAA notes: Larranaga says this could be league's best year

By: | Times-Dispatch
Published: October 21, 2009

Larranaga sees big season for league

The Colonial Athletic Association put two teams in the NCAA basketball tournament in 1986, 2006 and '07.

George Mason coach Jim Larranaga believes this could be the year the conference tops those high-water marks.

"This has the potential of being the best year in league history -- and similar to the Missouri Valley's run in 2005-06," Larranaga said at yesterday's media day. "In that year, everybody talked about how deep that league was, and they got four teams in the tournament. I think the CAA coaches and players are feeling that this is our year to do the same thing."

The top six picks -- Old Dominion, Northeastern, Virginia Commonwealth, George Mason, James Madison and Hofstra -- all return significant portions of their lineups and marquee players from teams that won at least 19 games.

Some coaches were more cautious, saying the conference had to raise its RPI by doing well in high-profile nonconference games early in the season.

Drexel plays Kentucky; Mason plays Villanova and Dayton; Hofstra plays Kansas and potentially Connecticut; Madison plays Ohio State; ODU plays Missouri, Dayton and Georgetown; VCU plays Oklahoma and Nevada; and William and Mary plays Connecticut, Wake Forest and Maryland.

"With all the veteran players . . . I'd be disappointed if we didn't get three and possibly four," said Larranaga, who adds a heralded recruiting class. "Now, that's based on how those teams are going to have to perform early in the season."

Brady raises bar

On the day he was hired last year, James Madison coach Matt Brady immediately set about changing the mindset of a program that hadn't produced a winner since 2000.

"I left the podium in my press conference, walked in the locker room and said we were going to win right away because I believed we were going to win," he said. "There was no choice."

The Dukes went 21-15, and now Brady says his players expect to win even more. To a nucleus of three impact sophomores -- Julius Wells, Devon Moore and Andrey Semenov -- JMU adds touted 6-10 Texas A&M transfer Denzel Bowles.

"We had to become relevant in the CAA," he said. "To do that, we needed to play young players. We won games with three freshmen on the court most of the time. Now I have a second recruiting class that's going to be good over time. It won't have the instant impact, but they will have similar type careers.

"There's enough there for us to be consistently good."

Boost for Tribe

William and Mary struggled to capitalize on its 2008 finish, when it lost in the CAA tournament championship game. After going 17-16 in '08, the Tribe was 10-20 last year.

William and Mary coach Tony Shaver said his two catalysts, guard David Schneider (14.1 points) and forward Danny Sumner (13.4), probably played out of character trying to make up for graduated players and injuries.

This season, he believes Schneider is "back in the body of David Schneider."

"I think David and Danny, like our team, were a little disappointed last year," Shaver said. "All I want David to do is what he does best. That's be a great defender, be the heart and soul of our team on loose balls. He can score, but he doesn't have to score 20 points a game to be great for us.

"I think Danny has really, really worked hard. When you see him physically, he's a different-looking kid. He's worked very hard on his jump shot. He's paid the price to be good. That's what gives us confidence." -- Tim Pearrell