Drexel Looks For A Reset In CAA Tourney

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Drexel University men's basketball team will open play in the Colonial Athletic Association tournament on Friday night when they take on James Madison in a first round match-up in North Charleston, South Carolina.

Drexel struggled during the regular season, finishing 9-22 and 3-15 in the CAA. But when a regular season doesn't go as planned, a conference tournament is a great chance to hit the reset button.

"About five minutes after the College of Charleston regular season game last Saturday night," Drexel head coach Zach Spiker tells KYW Newsradio, "the first thing we did on the board is put our record up and it was 0-0 and I said there's nine other teams with the same record. We're all on even footing, we're going to play this tournament at a neutral site and lets have our best basketball ahead of us."

Listen to the entire interview with Drexel head coach Zach Spiker:

Drexel lost both match-ups to James Madison during the regular season. On New Year's Eve, the Dragons dropped a 78-67 decision down in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Then, just about a week-and-a-half ago on Feb. 23 at the DAC, Drexel lost, 70-64.

"We did not do a good job taking care of the basketball in either game, especially in our first game," Spiker says. "Our point guard had nine turnovers and he was a freshman and saw some different looks there that he hadn't seen to that point. But since then, we've seen that a lot, we're much more comfortable with it as a team. I think we're excited for this opportunity to play this team and give them a better effort than we did the first two times."

Senior forward Rodney Williams leads the Dragons, pouring in 15.9 points and pulling down 6.8 rebounds a game.

The champion of this conference tournament gets an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

The winner of this game plays the College of Charleston in the quarterfinals on Saturday.

Drexel and James Madison will get underway at 8:30 on Friday night.