By Andy Walter

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Rock bottom came on Feb. 28.

That’s when the Delaware men’s basketball team, despite starting with a nine-point lead with 18:42 left, still managed to lose by 12 to Towson.

It was the Blue Hens’ third-straight loss to end the regular season.

Delaware coach Martin Ingelsby just remembers the gloomy mood on the busride back to Newark.

“We were a pretty beaten-down team,” said Ingelsby. “I texted my wife, Colleen, and I said, ‘We’ll be back around 9:30. Hey, let’s get a bottle of wine and drink our sorrows away.’

“And she texted me right back and she said, ‘Nope. You’re going to come home and you’re going to figure this out.’ I needed to hear that.”

Just eight days and three big wins later, that same Blue Hen squad made the ride back to Newark as champions of the Colonial Athletic Association.

The turnaround that Delaware made in just one week was nothing short of remarkable.

Consider that two of the teams the Hens beat in the tourney, league co-champions Towson and UNCW, had just beaten them the previous weekend.

The UNCW squad that No. 5 seed Delaware out-lasted, 59-55, in the CAA championship game on Tuesday night had won three of its last four meetings over UD.

And, during the regular season, the Hens were only 1-5 against their three tournament foes.

Ingelsby said last Tuesday he got his coaching staff together at his house to brainstorm.

He said the biggest thing they talked about was playing better, tougher defense. The Hens had just given up 99 points in a loss to Charleston and 41 points in only 19 minutes to Towson.

“We came with hard hats on Wednesday morning and we got back to work,” said Ingelsby. “We needed to change our practice plan to become tougher. These guys had it in them, I had to be able to pull it out of them.

“We didn’t re-invent the wheel but we got back to basics. We got back to some tough stuff on the defensive end. It was a balance between challenging them but also getting our guys loose and having fun again.

“It was not fun,” he said about some of the Hens’ scrimmages. “It was tough, it was physical. We mixed up the jerseys. It was really, really competitive. Guys weren’t happy with Coach, guys weren’t happy with their teammates.

“But I do think there was competitive spirit that was brought out during that time that this group really needed.”

When the dust settled, Delaware became the first team to hold three opponents under 60 points in the tourney since 2009. Those three foes were a combined 12-of-61 on three-pointers, with each one hitting just four.

The tournament was something of a coming-out party for some of the Hens’ underclassmen. Freshman Jyare Davis (49 points, 23 rebounds) — the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player — Andrew Carr (36 points, 35 rebounds, five blocks) and Jameer Nelson, Jr. (31 points) all asserted themselves.

But senior guards Kevin Anderson and Ryan Allen still remained the backbone of the squad.

While Ingelsby has been to a dozen NCAA Tournaments as either a player or assistant coach at Notre Dame, he said he wanted these players to know what that experience is like. Delaware will be making its first NCAA tourney appearance since 2014 next week.

“We’ve recruited really, really good basketball players but even better people,” said Ingelsby. “It’s a joy to go to work every day with these guys — and push buttons and challenge them every day. And I thank them for trusting in me to get them here.

“Sunday night (when the NCAA bracket is announced) is like Christmas morning for a student-athlete — to be able to see your name pop up and see where we’re going,” he added.

The 6-foot-10 Carr, in only his second season with the Hens, said there’s nothing that beats the feeling that he and his teammates had on Tuesday night.

“I always thought for me, personally, the district championship in high school was one of the best days of my life,” said Carr. “But I’d have to say this definitely tops it. It’s No. 1 right now.”

Davis said he remembered seeing something before the tourney that Delaware had just a six-percent chance of winning the CAA title. He kept it on his phone as motivation.

“I didn’t say anything, but I thought about it the whole time, and look now,” he said in a post-game TV interview, standing at mid-court.

“A lot of people counted us out,” the Sanford School grad also said.

Indeed, a week ago, there was no reason to think that the struggling Hens would fulfill their pre-season prediction as CAA favorite.

But they did it anyway.

Ingelsby said that beating fourth-seeded Drexel, 66-56, in the CAA quarterfinals on Sunday seemed to re-energize his players.

“It’s amazing in sports what one win can do for the confidence of a team,” he said. “Getting that one on Sunday, these guys were ready to roll. They were ready to compete, they were ready to lay it on the line for each other.

“And we had a chip on our shoulder. We were not happy with how we finished the season.

“But, boy, does that make this experience even more enjoyable for us — to be able to finish it and cut down nets, be champs.”

Free throws

Delaware was the first No. 5 seed to win the CAA tournament although Drexel was only No. 6 when it won the tournament a year ago. ... The Hens are now 18-19 in CAA tourney games while long-time member UNCW is 43-31. ... The Seahawks were playing in the title game for the 12th time. ... Some early projections have Delaware as a 14th seed playing No. 3-seeded Wisconsin in Milwaukee or a 16th seed playing No. 1-seed Kansas in Fort Worth, Tex. All that proves is that were the Hens end up is anybody’s guess.

Follow Andy Walter on Twitter at @DSNSports.