NCAA at-large bid possible for Drexel?

If Drexel wins a few games in the CAA Tournament which begins today, the Dragons may very well get on the NCAA at-large board. If they don't, it appears as if they have done enough to get an NIT bid. Of course, they could just win four times, win the tournament and get the conference's automatic NCAA bid.

Drexel coach Bruiser Flint has considered many scenarios, looked at bracket predictions and checked out resumes. Once he did that, he found that ``our stuff is pretty much matched up against those [final potential at-large] teams.''

"It's going to be hard to pick teams this year,'' Flint said. "Everybody's got a couple bad losses. I just wish that our league would get a little more attention. One of the big things is win games outside your conference.''

The CAA did more of that than any league in the country. Flint pointed out that just looking at conference records could be deceiving.

"Unbalanced conference schedules kind of distorts the records so you really have to look beyond the obvious numbers,'' he said.

Even if it were not the NCAA, the NIT would be a very nice reward for a team that certainly did not figure to win 20 games before the season started. The NIT looks like a very good possibility.

"That's what they're saying at the conference,'' Flint said. "They did tell us you better win on Friday. You win on Friday you should be a lock. If you don't win on Friday, you're leaving it to people then.''

Friday would be today. And the opponent this afternoon is Towson, which has not won a game in more than two months and did not win any league games this season.

George Mason is the team to beat in the tournament, but the soonest Drexel would see them is the semifinals. They are good, really good.

How do they compare to the 2006 GMU team that went to the Final Four?

"I don't think they're as good,'' Flint said. "They're a little deeper than that team, but they're not as big and physical as that team was.''

But still plenty good, as are the top six teams in the league (GMU, ODU, Hofstra, VCU, Drexel and James Madison). Once the tournament gets to tomorrow's quarterfinals, the competition is going to be very difficult. Any win will be a good win. Drexel would like to get as many as possible.