Drexel’s defeat of Delaware in last March’s Colonial Athletic Association Tournament was simultaneously a major upset, and par for the course in the conference.

After an unprecedented season, changes and collective depth around the league promises to make the 2021-22 Colonial Athletic Association season one of the most unpredictable ever.

When Mike Schrage came to Elon in 2019, he brought a philosophy cultivated in tenures coaching alongside Chris Holtmann and Brad Stevens that each individual team should craft its own identity unique to the personalities, talents of and circumstances facing it. 

Years from now, no one will remember three of the four 2021 CAA Tournament quarterfinal games turned out as projected as fourth-seeded Hofstra and second-seeded Northeastern beat Delaware and William & Mary while sixth-seeded Drexel, favored by the computer models, beat third-seeded Charleston.

Several conference tournaments turned into chaotic free-for-alls Saturday — the equivalent of a road race being overtaken by the casual runners who sprint at the sound of the shooter’s gun and run as hard as they can for as long as they can.

Zach Spiker, a veteran of 12 Senior Days as a head coach at two different stops, figured there’d still be some of the familiar trappings in a most unfamiliar season. Maybe he’d commission paintings of seniors, as he did during his seven years as Army’s head coach. Maybe he’d oversee the framing of their uniforms.

Basketball is for the kids. 

No Grant Riller, who graduated last spring.

The St. Louis Blues and Washington Nationals mounted two of the most remarkable in-season comebacks in sports history to win championships in 2019. But there were no Blues or Nationals-type stories to be found in the sports that were able to crown champions during the pandemic-dominated 2020.

Free throws are exactly as advertised — points free from defense or the game clock. That’s the idea, anyway. 

Mike Schrage spent the last three weekends treating the broadcast college basketball schedule like the rest of us have treated the streaming services the last 10 months. He’d watch a little of one genre here and a little of another genre there before trying to catch the endings to all the good shows he’d heard about via word of mouth.

Hofstra’s imperfect sweep of the opening weekend of CAA play left acting head coach Mike Farrelly relying upon one of the most famous quotes in NFL history — words uttered just a few hundred feet from where he sat Sunday afternoon.

This is the message coach Mike Schrage has for his Elon Phoenix in Year 2 at the helm, coming off a strong finish to Year 1: “Be confident, not comfortable.” 

The first two rounds of the 2020 CAA Men's Basketball Championship will be streaming live and on demand exclusively on FloHoops and the FloSports apps from Saturday March 7th to Sunday March 8th.