CAA Basketball: 2021 conference tournament preview, predictions

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 Grant Halverson/Getty Images /

Key teams

Favorite: Northeastern Huskies

With James Madison a different team without Matt Lewis, Northeastern appears poised to fill the void. The Huskies actually tired with the Dukes for first place in the CAA at 8-2 but lost the top seed in a tiebreaker. Northeastern swept two of the better teams in the conference in Charleston and Hofstra and split their meetings with James Madison. If they can avoid an unexpected upset, they appear most primed to tackle the upper echelon teams in the conference.

Biggest Threat: Hofstra Pride

Hofstra was headed to the NCAA Tournament last year when COVID-19 struck. Sadly, some of their best players left the program without that elusive tournament berth and this year’s Pride hasn’t been able to keep up. Still, they remain plenty dangerous, led by Jalen Ray, averaging 18.6 points per game. Hofstra’s trio of top players stacks up with the best of them in the conference, making them a threat to repeat as conference tournament champions.

Sleeper: Drexel Dragons

Drexel saw 13 games postponed or cancelled by COVID-19 this season, including four of their last five. They won road games at Hofstra and James Madison in two of the last three games they played, however, and the loss was a close one at Hofstra. Camren Wynter is one of the best players in the conference (17.6 ppg) and James Butler was close to averaging a double-double this season (13.4 ppg, 9.1 rpg). The Dragons didn’t lose a single conference game by double-digits and can get over the hump against any team.