CAA Basketball: Top contenders for 2019 Player of the Year Award

CAA Basketball is filled with many talented veterans. Which of them is the most likely to win the top individual award at the end of the season?

For the casual basketball fan, it’s easy to get caught up by a Kentucky, Duke or Kansas. Between scheduling convenience and overall brand recognition, those are the teams fans know best. However, for the college hoop junkies, one of the most captivating races we may see all year takes place in the Colonial Athletic Association for the 2018-19 Player of The Year award.

The race can seemingly go one of any five ways:

Vasa Pusica, Northeastern

You could argue that heading into the season, Vasa is the front runner for the CAA Player of the Year and it’s easy to see why. At 17.9 PPG last season, Vasa showed immense efficiency by shooting 57.4% on 2-point field goal attempts. After his red shirt transfer year in 2016-17, Pusica became an immediate focal point for Northeastern, as his 26.1% usage rate dictates. The Serbian native figures to be the man for Northeastern and should have the ball in his hands with regularity. Should this end up being the case, and he continues to build off of last season, then one can make the case who the CAA POY favorite should be.

Nathan Knight, William & Mary

After an 18 & 7 season—where we saw him shoot 57.5% overall from the field—it felt as though the love and appreciation for Nathan Knight just quite wasn’t there when he landed on the CAA All 2nd Team. With an even higher usage rate than Pusia, Knight (30.8%) doesn’t only put the ball in the basket and clean up on the glass, but his 2 blocks per outing last year speaks to an ability to redirect air traffic in the paint. The 6’9”, 255 pound native New Yorker will have plenty of chances to introduce a few fans to his name prior to CAA play as William & Mary has both Notre Dame and Virginia on the docket all before Christmas.

Justin Wright-Foreman, Hofstra

Good thing this list is in no order, because I can hear the fans out in Hempstead typing away with a vengeance! The reigning CAA Player of the Year, and an absolute bucket getting guard, Wright-Foreman will undoubtedly be in the running to defend his crown against this tough semblance of competition. A “how do you want it?” type of scorer, Wright-Foreman eclipsed the 30-point benchmark SEVEN times last season! Even more impressive, each of those game saw him shoot over 50% with the lone exception being a 39 point outing in a loss to Elon where he shot 41.2%.

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While is overall production isn’t an all-around stat sheet filler as the other two, it’s hard to argue that Wright-Foreman isn’t by and far the best scorer in the CAA, and one of the more elite scorers in the country. If you don’t believe me, Jay Wright and Villanova can give you 25 reasons why Wright-Foreman is always a threat on the basketball floor.

Devontae Cacok, UNC-Wilmington

At first sight, it seems this should be an open-and-shut case. How does the guy who averaged 17.7 points and 13.5 rebounds per game in 2017-18 not seem like the favorite to be the conference POY? Well, consider it a nod to how many truly skilled players the CAA has this season. The UNC-Wilmington big man is a handful for most teams. A true throwback, you won’t find this bruiser shooting three pointers. What’s most impressive about this young man is his fever inducing rebounding ability. Last season, Cacok grabbed 24.3% of available rebounds—even more impressive was that he nabbed 32.2% of all available defensive rebounds. There’s little that teams in the Colonial can do to STOP this beast—there was only one CAA game last year where he scored and grabbed in single digits for both categories—and it’s easy to theorize that we’ll see this name near if not atop the CAA Player of the Year list in a few months.

Jarrell Brantley, College of Charleston

On a Joe Chealey-led team last year, Brantley left his mark; 17.3 PPG, 7.1 RPG, 1.3 APG and 1.0 SPG. A 59% True Shooting Percentage, the 6’7” wing has the ability to put the ball on the deck and go. While he may not have the Wright-Foreman levels of scoring, or the Cacok ferocity in the rebounding department, it’s an almost certainty that the name ‘Brantley’ will find it’s way under many scouting reports for the opposing teams top defender to attend to.

The well rounded wing should piece together one impressive season will an assumed revamped workload now that the touches Chealey once had are now up for grabs.