CAA conference tournament preview

This is part 11 of a 32-part series.

Standings:
Hofstra 15-3
Northeastern 14-4
Charleston 12-6
William & Mary 10-8
Delaware 8-10
Drexel 7-11
Elon 7-11
James Madison 6-12
Towson 6-12
UNC Wilmington 5-13

Format:
All 10 teams at a neutral site in Charleston.  March 9-12, straight-up bracketing.

Matchups:
1) Hofstra vs. 8/9) James Madison/Towson
4) William & Mary vs. 5) Delaware
3) Charleston vs. 6) Drexel
2) Northeastern vs. 7/10) Elon/UNC Wilmington

The stakes:
A meh season overall for the CAA.  3 teams posting a respectable NET (Hofstra 68, NU 82, Charleston 109, everyone else pretty far down), but the conference never became a major player for a at-large bid.

Actually, Charleston wound up with 2 quality non-con wins (@VCU, N-Memphis).  But 6 losses was a couple too many in conference, including 2 Q4 losses.  Their non-con SoS is around 200, indicating some bad luck in who they scheduled.  (but they did schedule LSU, VCU, Memphis, Oklahoma St, URI, UAB....they really did try this time around, but their opponents let them down).  All this is my way of saying they could sneak up to the 13 line if they make it, or be a legitimate NIT at-large team.

Hofstra's the actual conference champ, but only 1 win in Q1/2 (and that's at Charleston).  I feel like the reputation of the CAA plus their overall record will sneak them onto the 13 line, but I can't blame anyone for seeding them as a 14 or even 15 if things break wrongly.

Northeastern is actually an interesting NIT bubble team (3 Q2 wins of N-Alabama, Hofstra, @Harvard, NET of 65).  They only got one game with Charleston and lost it...wonder if that'll be the tiebreaker if the NIT only feels like taking 1 at-large CAA team.  This feels like an unjust snub in the making.