Men's Basketball | 2/23/2023 1:10:00 PM

STREAM: The game will stream live on FloHoops, with Spencer Turkin handling play-by-play and Walter Johnson providing analysis. RADIO: Ryan Stone will handle the play-by-play. 

NORTH CAROLINA A&T AGGIES STORYLINES 

• A&T's next two games will go a long way in determining seeding at the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Men's Basketball Championship Tournament at Washington, DC's Entertainment and Sports Arena, March 3-7. 
• The Aggies come into Thursday's game against Delaware in sixth place in the CAA standings. They are a game ahead of four teams, including Delaware, Northeastern, Stony Brook and Elon. 
• A&T has a win over Stony Brook and two wins over Elon. They did lose at Northeastern on Dec. 29. The Aggies are 1 ½ games behind Drexel for the fifth-place spot. If the Aggies can end in a fifth-place tie with the Dragons, they own the head-to-head tiebreaker. 
• A No. 5 seed would get the Aggies the No. 12/No. 13 winner on Saturday, March 4, at 2:30 p.m. A sixth seed puts the Aggies in the late game on Saturday (8:30 p.m.) against the No. 11 seed. 
• The Aggies have an excellent chance to get the fifth seed with their final two regular-season games at home as they face HBCU rival Hampton Saturday afternoon at 2 from Corbett on Senior Day. 
• Getting hot before the tournament would be a plus for A&T as they come into their final two regular-season games, losing five of its last six games, including an 87-75 loss to Towson last Saturday. 
• A&T has been hampered all season with injuries to their post players. Before the season started, the Aggies lost 6-foot-11 Harry Morrice and 6-9 Will Felton to injury. Austin Johnson, a 6-9 senior, also missed time with a high ankle sprain. 
• The latest to go down is 6-6 Jeremy Robinson, who has missed the Aggies last five games with an injury. The injuries made the Aggies a perimeter team, whereas, before Saturday, the Aggies were 25-for-96 (.260) from 3-point range. They did go 8-for-20 (.400) against the Tigers, which helped them rally from a 20-2 deficit early in the game. 
• In the absence of Aggie post players, redshirt freshman Duncan Powell recorded his second career double-double as he finished with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Five of his rebounds came on the offensive end. He also blocked two shots. 
• Senior Demetric Horton also found his range from 3-point range, going 5-for-6 to score 17 points for A & T. 
• Phillip Shumpert is the Aggies head coach on an interim basis. He took over the program for Will Jones in August. He missed three games with COVID but returned to earn the big win over UNCG. 
• Shumpert has been a significant part in helping the Aggies recruit some of their talent. 
• Shumpert took over on an interim basis in August. Shumpert has coached on many levels, including high school, Division II, junior college and Division I, and has head coaching experience on the junior college level for five years. 

 SCOUTING THE DELAWARE BLUE HENS

• The Blue Hens feature one of the best players in the conference and mid-major men's basketball in Jameer Nelson, Jr. 
• Nelson, whose father played in the NBA, averages 20.0 points, 3.6 assists and 2.5 steals per game. He was named to the Oscar Robinson Trophy Watch List, the USBWA's National Player of the Year awarded since 1958-59, and named after its two-time winner in January.
• Nelson is also coming off a CAA player of the week honor after he scored 39 points in a 75-66 win over UNC Wilmington in the Blue Hens' home finale on Saturday. 
• Nelson has scored 20 or more points 13 times this season and 30 or more points three times. He is coming off a season where he earned second-team All-CAA honors. 
• Delaware has won two of three after their win over the Seahawks. He comes after they lost three in a row to Monmouth, College of Charleston and Drexel. 
• The Blue Hens' other scorer is Jyare Davis, who comes into the game averaging 15.9 points per game. He only played three minutes and scored only two points in the win over UNCW.
• But before the Seahawks game, Davis scored in double figures in 20 straight games. Over his previous six games, he was averaging 17.2 points and 6.0 rebounds. 
• Christian Ray leads the team in rebounding at 8.7 boards per game, and Cavan Reilly is the Blue Hens' most accurate outside shooter, making 46.4 percent (32-for-69) of his threes this season. 
• Nelson (42), Reilly (32), LJ Owens (34) and Ebby Asamoah (38) all have connected on more than 30 pointers this season. 
• Delaware head coach Martin Ingelsby is in his seventh season with the Blue Hens. He has a 109-100 record with the Blue Hens and has gone 51-64 against CAA competition during the regular season. 
• Delaware represented the CAA in the NCAA tournament last season as its champion after winning the conference tournament. The Blue Hens went 22-12 overall and 10-8 in the conference last season. Ingelsby has led Delaware to two 20-win seasons.  

THE SERIES                 

• Delaware and A&T are facing each for the first time. 
• The Aggies are 4-3 against CAA opponents they have faced for the first time this season.