Hampton University opens CAA play with New Year’s Day showdown at Drexel

Coach Buck Joyner and the Hampton Pirates will ring in the new year with their first game of Coastal Athletic Association play on New Year’s Day against Drexel.

The matchup is the first CAA contest of the 2023-2024 season and will be broadcast nationally at noon on CBS Sports Network.

“We’re gonna go in and play our brand of basketball,” Joyner said. “Of course, you can’t hide behind the situation where you’re probably the only basketball game on (TV), or one of the few, if not the only one, on. So you get a chance to have the world’s eyes on you, so we’re gonna put our best foot forward to try to show that we’re gonna be about throughout this conference play.”

Hampton enters the new year with a 4-8 record, and just one of those wins came against a Division I opponent. The Pirates are on a three-game losing streak, including back-to-back close losses at Bowling Green and Eastern Michigan.

The 4-8 record may seem ugly on paper, but it’s an improvement from last season, when Hampton entered CAA play at 3-9.

“It’s a new season,” Joyner said. “As I told (the team) and we say every day while we’re practicing and preparing ourselves, it’s 0-0 now. There’s two parts of the season, non-conference and conference. The beauty of it is you do everything in the non-conference to try to prepare yourself for what you’re going to play against. That’s what we feel like we were able to do. Now we gotta get ready for this part of the season.”

Before this season, Joyner said Hampton wasn’t able to fully compete in the CAA last year due to a lack of depth and size. Joyner added several transfers — Tristan Maxwell, Tedrick Wilcox and Ja’Von Benson to name a few — who made an immediate impact.

With the recent addition of last year’s leading scorer, Jordan Nesbitt, and sophomore Trey Thomas into the lineup, Joyner said he’s feeling better about CAA play in year two.

“We felt like we just needed time to chemically blend that and we knew that it would take a couple of games,” Joyner said. “We thought that we would be able to win more of those games than we did, but it is what it is. But we felt like with those three or four games and with this week of practice that we’re having before we have to play this game, we feel like we’re very confident.”

Thomas exploded for a career-high 17 points in 25 minutes off the bench against Eastern Michigan before Christmas. Joyner described Thomas as an “alpha dog” type of player who will make an impact for Hampton no matter when he touches the floor.

“We feel like, hands down, he’s probably one of the top three or four pure basketball players you’ve got,” Joyner said. “So we feel like whatever point he enters the game, he can make an impact because he feels that way. … He adds to the depth, but he also adds to the mental toughness of the team.”

Drexel enters the matchup with a 7-6 record and a 91% chance to win, per KenPom (analyst Ken Pomeroy’s metrics). One of Hampton’s five CAA wins last year came against Drexel.

This year’s Dragons roster is one of the “most experienced” teams in the CAA, Joyner said. According to KenPom, Drexel’s most frequently used lineup in the last five games contains five seniors.

Drexel’s calling card is its defense, a unit anchored by back-to-back CAA Defensive Player of the Year Amari Williams. The England native is second on the team in scoring with at 11.1 points per game and leads the CAA with 1.9 blocked shots per game.

“Their defense is exceptional,” Joyner said. “It’s good because one, they’ve got the reigning Defensive Player of the Year in Amari. Not only does he block shots, but just his presence around makes them tougher and better defensively.”

The Drexel defense is No. 2 in the conference, allowing its opponents to average just 63.6 points per game. On offense, Drexel is No. 11 in the CAA, averaging 70.5.

“Offensively, they may not come out and look to score 100 points,” Joyner said. “They’re going to play good and they’re going to play together because they know each other and they’ve been around each other for three or four years. You’re going to have to beat their experience, you’re not going to rattle them. You’re going to have to play for 40 minutes.”

Joyner said his team is chomping at the bit after recent losses and is prepared for CAA competition.

“They want to win and they want to win big,” Joyner said. “They believe that they can make a difference in this conference this year and make us a different team than we were last year.”

Michael Sauls, michael.sauls@virginiamedia.com, (757) 803-5774