CAA Basketball: Preseason power rankings for 2020-21 season

WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 10: The Hofstra Pride celebrate winning the CAA Men's Basketball Tournament - Championship college basketball game against the Northeastern Huskies at the Entertainment & Sports Arena on March 10, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** /

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Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images /

9. Elon Phoenix

Slowly but surely, the Elon Phoenix are starting to emerge as a legitimate program in the CAA. That probably won’t be validated by their play during the 2020-21 season, though.

Last year, Mike Schrage showed some progress during his first season as Elon’s coach. The team went 7-11 in conference play, then made a surprising run to the semifinals of the conference tournament before falling to Northeastern.

They are losing leading scorer Marcus Sheffield II, who dominated CAA play as a graduate transfer to the tune of 18.4 points per game. The reason hopes are high for Elon, however, is each of their next three leading scorers from a season ago were freshmen.

Hunter McIntosh led the way, scoring 11.7 points per game while shooting 40.4 percent from three-point range. Hunter Woods followed closely behind, averaging 10.1 points and 6.6 rebounds per game. Zac Ervin brings up the rear, averaging 8.4 points per game a season ago.

The three guards have the makings of being one of the best classes in Elon history, but the lack of solid forwards will make things challenging for the Phoenix in the paint. Still, they may be just a year away from being one of the top teams in the CAA.

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