Wright State Raiders – Horizon League
Record: 21-13 and 15-7 in Conference
Colors: Gold and Hunter Green
Location: Dayton, Ohio
Last Appearance: 2017-2018
Wright State toyed with the idea of dropping sports a few seasons ago, but they made the right decision and decided to keep them. Their basketball team has been one of the better Horizon League programs over the last 10 years, even if they only have one other NCAA tournament appearance to show for it.
The Raiders were dreadful to start the season as they started at 2-8 before Christmas and then when they returned after the break, they really turned it on. The Raiders don’t shoot the ball particularly well from deep, but they do have two 19 point-per-game starters. One in big man Grant Basile and the other in guard Tanner Holden.
The Raiders are going to get a home game at one of the first four games in Dayton before heading off to play one of the top two seeds. It will be a very pro-Wright State crowd for the first four.
Delaware Blue Hens – CAA
Record: 22-12 and 10-8 in Conference
Colors: Blue and Gold
Location: Newark, Delaware
Last Appearance: 2013-2014
The Colonial tournament is always crazy. The top seeds rarely ever win that tournament, and it was more of the same this year as Delaware won the tournament as a five seed. The Blue Hens were not a team on anyone’s radar going into the conference tournament, but they ended up beating the top seed Towson and then had a comeback hard-fought victory over the second-seeded UNC Wilmington.
Delaware has a lot of good shooters and returned 100% of their minutes and scoring from last season. The Blue Hens are going to try and slow the game down and keep in the half-court. They are not built to run in transition and if the game turns into a track meet it won’t be good for Delaware. The Blue Hens are efficient on offense but play slow and to be in the game are going to need to continue to work the ball inside and keep their opponent in the half-court.