The Atlantic 10 Thread

[SlimKibbles]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

Ughhh UMass got stomped by UCF. At least the freshmen played well....

Saw that. Little surprised by that outcome.

[Marino]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

UNCC still shoots way to many 3s but hopefully that was only because Spears was out. And watch out everyone for Chris Braswell he can be dangerous

[SlimKibbles]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

Don't know if you guys saw this but Fordham got rid of Dereck Whittenburg. Assistant coach, Jared Grasso, becomes the interim coach and youngest coach in D-I at 29 years of age. They are immediately looking for permanent candidates. I wonder if this change will keep Jio Fontan there longer.

http://www.fordhamsports.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/120309aaa.html

BTW, marino & CM, nice win for Charlotte yesterday at Louisville. Braswell finally broke out with a big game.

[Marino]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

Don't know if you guys saw this but Fordham got rid of Dereck Whittenberg. Assistant coach, Jared Grasso, becomes the interim coach and youngest coach in D-I at 29 years of age. They are immediately looking for permanent candidates. I wonder if this change will keep Jio Fontan there longer.

http://www.fordhamsports.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/120309aaa.html

BTW, marino & CM, nice win for Charlotte yesterday at Louisville. Braswell finally broke out with a big game.

That was his 3rd double double of the year, which is a freshman record at Charlotte. And the thing is, we are not even in conference play yet.

The sky's the limit for the freshmen on this 49ers team, they really impressed me yesterday.

[OSUFan_88]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

My man Slim not congradulating Rhody!?

Ya know what? I'll have you know that Rhody may only lose by 10 to X this year! That'll show ya!

[Marino]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

My man Slim not congradulating Rhody!?

Ya know what? I'll have you know that Rhody may only lose by 10 to X this year! That'll show ya!

Charlotte tells both X and Rhody to bring it on.

[SlimKibbles]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

My man Slim not congradulating Rhody!?

Ya know what? I'll have you know that Rhody may only lose by 10 to X this year! That'll show ya!

Oops. Just saw they had their big rivalry game with Providence and came away with a W. Nice work, Rams!

A-10 has done pretty well so far in OOC play. Here are some good wins:

Richmond: Mississippi St., Mizzou
Charlotte: Louisville, Hofstra
GW: George Mason
Rhody: Providence
Duquesne: Iowa
Temple: Siena, Va Tech, Penn St.
dayton: Georgia Tech, Creighton
Xavier: Creighton
La Salle: none
SLU: Nebraska, S. Illinois
St. Bona: none
UMass: none
St. Joe's: Boston College

Every team has at least a .500 record except for Fordham. I'd say that's pretty darn good.

[OSUFan_88]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

Temple, Dayton and Richmond have some really impressive wins, IMO.

Like Marino and I discussed, this conference should be considered a Major now, but I don't think ESPN will allow it.

[SlimKibbles]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

Per zagsblog, Jio Fontan has been released from Fordham. Despite the big victory over Sacred Heart, their basketball team will be even more of a mess this year without Jio. I think it's time the A-10 boot this school. Replace them with Butler.

Jio Fontan got a conditional release from Fordham Monday and has already heard from a handful schools.

Southern Cal, Miami, Indiana, Oklahoma State and Kansas State have reached out to the Fontan family and Jorge Fontan said they may visit USC this coming weekend.

“Yeah, we’re probably gonna go,” Jorge said. ”USC already called and offered him a scholarship. They want us to go out this weekend.”

Jorge said the other schools have already called, and he expects that Arizona may call as well.

“We want to try to take every visit we can,” Jorge said.

According to the conditional release Jio cannot play for any other Atlantic 10 schools or any schools in the tri-state area.

Fontan must sit a year before suiting up in December 2010, at which point he will have a year and a half of eligibility left.

Asked what the timetable was, Jorge said: “Obviously, before the end of the month.”

[SlimKibbles]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

Good column from Pat Forde on the Xavier-Cincinnati rivalry that was played last night. It's a shame they moved the game to ESPNU on a Sunday night...right before final exams.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/column...pat&id=4740338

[CM1847]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

I don't visit OS regularly anymore, but good to see this thread still living on.

Charlotte is an inside-out team for the first time since I've been watching them. Teams have focused on Spears after his hot start, and Braswell has benefitted. If they get consistent 3 point shooting they will be in the thick of hte A10 race all year.

Good to see the A10 having a strong year, too bad Richmond lost to South Carolina, that would have been another solid win for them, I think they'll be near the top of the league all year, the good thing about running such a boring offense is that you rarely have horrible games.

Dayton is still the class of the league IMO, they got dropped from the top 25 but losing to 'Nova and Kansas State is nothing to be ashamed of, their game agaisnt New Mexico should be a good one.

Good to see URI doing well, but they still need to play somebody.

Temple is really surprising, they could grab some more pub by knocking off Seton Hall tomorrow.

Could be a huge year for the A10 as long as the top 5-7 teams in the league clearly define themselves and dominate the lower half of the league. If 3-5 teams don't really pull away from the pack then the league will just be beating each other out of NCAA bids. Still a few showcase OOC games left to make some additional noise, should be a fun season to watch. At this point they are far-and-away the best non-BCS league this year(and probably better than the Pac-10), the league needs to hold onto that title.

[Marino]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

What other big non conference games do we have left for the A-10?

I know Charlotte still has Tennessee and ODU on the road, and GT at home. What about everyone else? This could be a huge year for the A-10, and we have started strong, just need to keep it up.

[OSUFan_88]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

I know Rhody still has Oklahoma State on the docket...

[CM1847]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

Big OOC Games:

Charlotte - @Tenn., vs. GT
Dayton - @New Mexico
URI - OK State
Richmond - Florida, @ Wake Forest
Temple - @Seton Hall, Kansas
Xavier - Butler, @Wake Forest
La Salle - Cornell and OK State
Bonnies - @ Syracuse

That was just a quick look through the schedules, I probably missed some.

[SlimKibbles]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

Big OOC Games:

Charlotte - @Tenn., vs. GT
Dayton - @New Mexico
URI - OK State
Richmond - Florida, @ Wake Forest
Temple - @Seton Hall, Kansas
Xavier - @Butler, LSU, @Wake Forest, @Florida
La Salle - Cornell and OK State
Bonnies - @ Syracuse

That was just a quick look through the schedules, I probably missed some.

FTFY. Anyway, I've been happy with what the A-10 has done so far. Even GW has gotten off to a good start. As usual I'm sure everybody will beat the crap out of each other in conference play. As far as dayton goes, I've been disappointed with them. For all of the smack talk I've heard from their fans outside of OS, they sure haven't impressed me much. Yeah, the win over GT was good and they had good losses to Villanova and K-State, but the games they've barely won (like being down to Towson by 18 at home and coming back to win by 5) are puzzling. I expected them to roll through their OOC schedule beating teams rather soundly considering it was weak but that hasn't happened. We'll see who is still standing at the end but I'm not convinced it's going to be dayton. Might be a team like Charlotte, Temple, Richmond, or even Xavier if the Cincinnati win springboards them to a nice run of wins.

CM, good to hear from you again!