At the media day for the Colonial Athletic Association on Tuesday October 18th, the Drexel men’s basketball team was picked to win the CAA title in the pre-season poll voted on by CAA coaches and media members.
Coach Bruiser Flint brings back four of his five starters from last year’s team as well as the top two reserves. Dragon senior forward Samme Givens was selected to the pre-season All-CAA First Team and junior guard Chris Fouch was selected to the second team. Fouch will miss the non-conference portion of the schedule because of off-season knee surgery, but he will be back once conference play begins in January 2012. Also, sophomore forward Dartaye Ruffin, who is coming off a stellar freshman season, was named as an honorable mention for the pre-season All-CAA team.
Behind Drexel in the pre-season poll were George Mason, VCU and Old Dominion, respectively. All three of those teams made the NCAA Tournament last season, which included a Final Four run by tournament Cinderella, VCU.
This is a huge honor for the Dragons to be selected ahead of those three great programs and it shows the respect the rest of the CAA has for this year’s Drexel team. But now Coach Flint and his team have some high expectations to live up to. This could be the year the Drexel men’s basketball program makes it back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1996, but the bulls-eye is now on their back and it won’t be an easy journey.
Nonetheless, this Drexel team is up to the challenge and they have the talent to live up to the billing of pre-season favorite. In addition to Givens, Fouch and Ruffin, the Dragons have Derrick Thomas, Frantz Massenat and Daryl McCoy all returning to the lineup for the 2011-2012 season. With these six great returning players combined with five newcomers as part of a highly touted freshman class, this Drexel team will certainly be able to compete with the top teams in the CAA this year.
The Drexel Dragons begin their 2011-2012 season on November 15th at six-o'clock in the morning at Rider University as part of the ESPN Tip-Off Marathon. After the opener, Drexel will fly off to the Virgin Islands to participate in the highly competitve Paradise Jam tournament.
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