After the CAA expanded to 13 schools ahead of the 2022-23 school year, and to 14 schools ahead of the 2023-24 school year, the men’s basketball tournament grew just the same.
An expanded tournament means the top four seeds receive a double bye to the quarterfinal round. Last year, all four top seeds advanced to the semifinals by defeating lower-seeded squads that had played the day before. Second-seeded College of Charleston ended up winning the tournament, earning an automatic bid to the Big Dance.
This year, Towson has work to do if it wants to secure a top-four seed in the CAA tournament, set to take place at the Entertainment & Sports Arena in D.C. from March 8-12. The Tigers are 17-12 overall and 10-6 in the conference, good for fifth in the league behind Charleston at 13-3 and three teams at 11-5. Their final two regular-season games come at North Carolina A&T (Feb. 29) and UNC Wilmington (March 2).
Towson had a chance to buttress its standing in the league against Charleston on Feb. 24, but it struggled from the jump against the conference’s top team. The Tigers lost, 72-56, as the Cougars made 15 of 22 threes.
“Not our best performance, but they had a lot to do with that. We couldn’t stop them,” Towson head coach Pat Skerry said. “Obviously would have liked to have played better, but it’s like a lot of the league. I think right now, [Charleston has] kind of separated themselves. A lot of us have really good moments and then not-as-good moments as we’d like. To win the whole thing, you’re going to need to have three or four really good nights.”
Skerry is searching for consistency from his group at this point of the season. The Tigers have gone 4-4 in February, a stretch that includes a 67-61 loss at last-place Hampton.
It was apparent by January that the Tigers were going to have to win in the CAA by playing high-level defense, but that’s been a little spotty of late. Delaware made 11 of 19 threes to beat Towson, 74-62, on Feb. 8, but Charleston took it to another level. Four starters — Ben Burnham, Frankie Policelli, Kobe Rodgers and Reyne Smith — hit multiple threes.
Towson still ranks second in the CAA in adjusted defensive efficiency, according to KenPom, but Skerry will work on figuring out what went wrong against Charleston regardless.
“We’re going to watch film. This group’s practiced well all year. Hopefully it’s our last loss. It’s not our first loss,” Skerry said. “We played a really good team. I think the biggest thing that sticks out for me is why did they shoot so well? Was it all them and/or was it a combination of us? I don’t want to say it wasn’t all them, because they’ve got good players and they were sticking it, but we need to see that.”
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