NCAA Basketball: Picking winners of first 15 conference tournaments of 2023-24 season
By Bryan Mauro
Coastal Athletic Association
Dates: March 8th-12th
Location: Entertainment & Sports Arena in Washington D.C.
Top Seed: College of Charleston Cougars
Winner: College of Charleston Cougars
Pat Kelsey is a fantastic coach and believe it or not the Cougars have silently worked their way up to the top seed in the tournament. This was after not starting very well this year and taking losses to Duquesne, Vermont, and Wyoming it didn’t seem like the Cougars would be as good and last year was an outlier.
Never fear because Kelsey got it going and Charleston is going to win the league again and this year, they will probably win a game in the tournament. They are loaded with shooters and run a heavy three-point offense that sees them shoot 37% from deep and put up 80 points per game. The defense is smothering, and games can get lopsided quickly especially if the Cougars are hitting shots. The title runs through Charleston again. In addition to the three-point shooting for the Cougars, big man Ante Brzovic is the team’s leading scorer and a load inside
Sleeper: Stony Brook Seawolves
Stony Brook has the oldest roster in the league, and they also have the guard play to keep games interesting. Tyler Stephenson Moore is the do everything guard who can score from anywhere on the floor and when you add Aaron Clarke who is efficient from the floor and has a 3-1 assist to turnover ratio and guard Dean Noll who shoots 38% from deep you have a team that poses some problems for teams. Stony Brook can beat anyone in the league and lose to anyone in the league, but something tells me in the tournament they are going to be a tough out because as we all know guard play and experience usually wins and the Seawolves have that in a big way.