Spring Break
Nova's shocker benefits CAA
Mike Mazzeo
Issue date: 5/8/09 Section: Sports
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In fact, in horse racing terms, I would've given them less than a "Mine That Bird's" chance.
However, the fourth-seeded Wildcats stunned everyone, going into Johnny Unitas Stadium and knocking off the second-seeded Towson Tigers in their house 10-9 May 2 in the CAA Championship game to earn the conference's automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.
But what makes this particular run exceptional - aside from the fact that Villanova became the lowest seed ever to win the tournament - was the fact that the Wildcats also had to upset the No. 9 team in the entire country, top-seeded Hofstra, 9-7, also on the road in the semifinals just to reach the championship game.
If you were a betting man before the tournament started and your superfecta read something like this: 1. Villanova, 2. Towson, 3. Hofstra, 4. Drexel, you would most certainly be a millionaire.
Two-bid league
For the second time in three years, the CAA will have two teams competing for an NCAA title in men's lacrosse.
Aforementioned Villanova, and Hofstra, which garnered an at-large berth, will have the opportunity to represent the conference in the field of 16.
The Wildcats get the opportunity to play Cinderella against No. 1 Virginia, while the Pride get that chance versus No. 5 Cornell.
Hard to believe that circa 2005, no one really knew what a CAA was.
However, the Cinderella Final Four run by George Mason certainly changed that. And Drexel has been a key cog on keeping the conference's new perception.
The men's basketball team's 23-9 season in 2006-07, which featured upsets of Syracuse, Villanova and Creighton among others; the men's lacrosse team's 24-9 two-year run from 2007-08, which featured arguable the best upset in Drexel history over top-ranked Virginia; and of course, most recently, the record-setting 24-9 season put together by the 2008-09 women's basketball team which featured the first CAA Championship in university history all added to the notoriety the conference has continued to receive over the past five years.
Now, the CAA garners multiple bids in a myriad of difference sports with regularity.
The conference is currently a place where recruits want to go, and as Jeff Capel and Anthony Grant have shown, a stepping-stone for rising coaches who want to take the next step and eventually take over at a big-time, high profile BSC program like Oklahoma or Alabama.
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