The Atlantic 10 Thread

[CM1847]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

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!

I haven't been following the SEC, I didn't know if LSU was any good this, I assumed not. I completely missed that they play Florida though, big game there.

I see what you're saying about Dayton, I would like to see them start really beating down some teams that they are obviosuly better than. But I still think the talent is there. They should use their next 3 easy games to build some momentum(they should win each by over 20) going into the UNM game which will be a good test for them. If they are struggling against Fordham in a month, I will be less of a believer, but it's fairly common for teams to struggle early, as long as they keep winning I can forgive them for making games closer than they should be, for now anyway...

Right now I think it's Dayton, Temple and Richmond for the A10 title. I'm biased towards Charlotte of course, but they haven't proved anything in the A10 since joining, this year's team seems different, but I'll have to see it before I consider them to be a legit threat. Xavier will be there too, I wouldn't be surprised to see them finish anywhere from 1st to 6th, they are really the 4th team I could see having a good shot at the title. I put Rhode Island, La Salle and Duquesne right there with Charlotte, good starts, but I need to see more. And then there's St. Louis, GW and the Bonnies who have good records, but I have no idea what to expect once A10 play starts.

And yeah, I need to get back here more often. It's a lazy day so I dropped in, I'll have to remember to check back more often.

[CM1847]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

Tough loss for Xavier, I didn't see the ending yet, but I heard it was strange.

Richmond with the huge win @Florida, would have been almost a sure thing to be ranked if they didn't get crushed by South Carolina earlier this week and lost to VCU last week. Temple over undefeated Seton Hall is a good W as well.

Also noticed UMass beat Memphis, always nice to see Memphis go down. Dayton lets Presbyterian stay relatively close in a 19 point win. La Salle wins. St. Louis can't knock off undefeated Missouri St. Duquesne falls to IUPUI.

Good night overall, would have been really nice if Xavier could have pulled out the W @Butler. Temple might sneak into the top 25 if some teams above them fell. Richmond made up for two straight losses, a win @Florida won't be easy to come by this year, it will look really good on their resume if they finish in the top 3-5 of the A10.

Today: Charlotte @ Winthrop, Fairfield(8-2) @ Rhode Island and Lehigh @ St. Joe's. Should be 3 wins, but Charlotte could stumble, Fairfield might be legit and St. Joe's really can't be sure of any wins this year.

[OSUFan_88]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

Rhody really should be focused and win today, seeing as how this is their first game in a week and their next game is in 9 days...

On the other hand, this is the type of game that Rhode Island specializes in losing.

[SlimKibbles]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

Tough loss for Xavier, I didn't see the ending yet, but I heard it was strange.

Richmond with the huge win @Florida, would have been almost a sure thing to be ranked if they didn't get crushed by South Carolina earlier this week and lost to VCU last week. Temple over undefeated Seton Hall is a good W as well.

Also noticed UMass beat Memphis, always nice to see Memphis go down. Dayton lets Presbyterian stay relatively close in a 19 point win. La Salle wins. St. Louis can't knock off undefeated Missouri St. Duquesne falls to IUPUI.

Good night overall, would have been really nice if Xavier could have pulled out the W @Butler. Temple might sneak into the top 25 if some teams above them fell. Richmond made up for two straight losses, a win @Florida won't be easy to come by this year, it will look really good on their resume if they finish in the top 3-5 of the A10.

Today: Charlotte @ Winthrop, Fairfield(8-2) @ Rhode Island and Lehigh @ St. Joe's. Should be 3 wins, but Charlotte could stumble, Fairfield might be legit and St. Joe's really can't be sure of any wins this year.

You'll have to check it out the XU loss. It was ridiculous. The interesting thing about it that, which really hasn't been talked about, is two of Chris Mack's assistants said that the clock "inadvertently" stopped more than once during that final minute or so. Someone on a local website posted part of the rulebook for what they do when the shot-clock goes off or inadvertently stops. Anything after that happens is null and they start from the point when the clock has issues. That either doesn't apply to the game-clock or the officials don't know the rulebook. I still think the officials could have either A) took Butler's game-winning basket away, set the clock to 14.7 seconds, and given Butler the ball at the point of the court where the clock stopped, or 2) let X have the ball under Butler's basket, down 1, with 1.2 seconds left. But, neither happened. They just ended the game because their stopwatch they used to count the time that passed when the clock stopped at 14.7 seconds obviously matched perfectly with how much time was left after Butler made their game-winning basket. I've never witnessed as controversial a finish with one of my teams involved. Funny thing is, Butler is my family's #2 team since my sister graduated from there!

I thought the A-10 as a whole did well yesterday. Duquesne played on the road against a good IUPUI team when they lost and SLU got beat by an undefeated team, as you pointed out. I don't have too much of an issue with that. Would have liked to have seen the Bonnies beat Syracuse. Andrew Nicholson must be an idiot. You're the leading scorer on your team playing against a regional rival at their place, actually are in the game, and you commit a low blow on a player and get yourself ejected. Coach, Mark Schmidt, said it was "an error in judgment." Yeah, no kidding. Anyway, I hope the teams playing today can wrap up a pretty good week for the conference.

By the way, I'd like to point out that dayton was up by only one at half against Presbyterian yesterday. The players have to be sleep-walking in the first half of games against these cupcakes or something.

[CM1847]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

That sounds pretty messed up Slim, I'll have to check out the highlights online to see for myself. Sounds like Xavier got jipped either way.

Charlotte and Rhode Island both pick up wins today, both probably a little closer than they would have liked(Charlotte by 10, URI by 5), but wins nonetheless.

Next up for Charlotte is a game agaisnt ODU on Wednesday, hopefully they are due for a letdown after the Georgetown upset.

Also this week:
Mon - La Salle @ OK State
Tues - GW @ ECU, Bonnies @ Niagra (7-4)
Weds - UMass @ BC

No headline games this week, but there are a few smaller statements that can be made. I think the La Salle/OKSU game is on ESPN2.

[CM1847]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

So I checked out the Butler/Xavier highlights, that was really strange, I've never seen refs do anything like that. What conference was the crew from? Has there been anything said officially by the NCAA about it?

[SlimKibbles]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

So I checked out the Butler/Xavier highlights, that was really strange, I've never seen refs do anything like that. What conference was the crew from? Has there been anything said officially by the NCAA about it?

I'm not sure of the conference but a quick Google search showed two of them did the 2007 MAC tournament. Doesn't mean they are still with the MAC. I don't think they were A-10 refs because I didn't really recognize any of them. I've become somewhat familiar with the ones who are having seen so many conference games at the Cintas Center. My guess is either MAC or Horizon League refs.

Here's a link to Andy Katz's blog with an explanation of what went on. This doesn't look like Insider info, which I have access to on there. I still think the whole thing is a hose-job, but whatever. Apparently a Xavier player pounded his fist once onto a water fountain at Hinkle and it broke away from the wall. Once Butler fans found out about that, they've been up-in-arms. I'd like to know just how old the fountain was. Maybe it didn't take a ton of force for it to come away from the wall by pounding on it.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blog/...name=katz_andy

[CM1847]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

Interesting article. It makes more sense now. The thing I don't like about the situation is the selective instant replay system. If 1.5 seconds is important enough to review on the last possession, then it should be important enough to review earlier in the game. And if you are going to deny the earlier reviews then you shouldn't be able to review it at the end. I can see reviewing for last-second shots. But if the clock has been malfunctioning all game, I don't buy that it is fair to go in and only alter the time during the last possession. Odd situation, good writeup by Katz and it seems like the officials handled it properly, but I don't like the rule.

La Salle lost to OKSU last night. Dayton beat App State by 16, but again were lackluster in the first half, only leading by 3 at the break. They might be a team that plays down to their opponants all year, it will bite them eventually.

Edit: I read that Dayton is missing some players right now, so I'll cut them some slack on these games.

[Marino]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

Charlotte has a big game coming up against ODU, hopefully we can improve to 10-1

[SlimKibbles]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

...Dayton beat App State by 16, but again were lackluster in the first half, only leading by 3 at the break. They might be a team that plays down to their opponants all year, it will bite them eventually.

Edit: I read that Dayton is missing some players right now, so I'll cut them some slack on these games.

Looks like both Marcus Johnson and Chris Johnson were out. Don't know why. They get no slack from me though.

[CM1847]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

Everyone took care of business last night except the Bonnies falling @ Niagra. GW needed OT to escape ECU, but other than that it was a good night.

Charlotte @ ODU and UMass @ BC are the two big games tonigh, both would be solid wins for the conference.

[CM1847]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

Ugh, Charlotte mailed it in against ODU and got destroyed, hopefully it is a wake up call.

[SlimKibbles]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

Ugh, Charlotte mailed it in against ODU and got destroyed, hopefully it is a wake up call.

Apparently ODU isn't half bad. They did beat G'town in DC, although I imagine they had a light crowd due to that snowstorm. Anyway, sometimes teams need wake-up calls like that. The Niners were cruising.

Last bit of OOC games for the conference happening this week. Some notable games:

12/28 - none really
12/29 - LSU @ Xavier, St. Joe's @ Siena, Cornell @ La Salle
12/30 - Duquesne @ ODU, GW @ Harvard
12/31 - Richmond @ Wake
1/1 - dayton @ New Mexico
1/2 - Kansas @ Temple, GT @ Charlotte, Oklahoma St @ Rhody
1/3 - Xavier @ Wake

[CM1847]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

Apparently ODU isn't half bad. They did beat G'town in DC, although I imagine they had a light crowd due to that snowstorm. Anyway, sometimes teams need wake-up calls like that. The Niners were cruising.

No shame in losing @ODU, they are a solid team with some good wins and played two of the top A10 teams close on the road, but there's no excuse to losing by 30+ to any team. Charlotte' been smacked in the mouth twice on the road this year and both times they folded and got destroyed. They have to be tougher to have a shot in the A10.

A lot of big games this week for the league.

[SlimKibbles]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

I saw that Xavier's first in-conference home game is against Charlotte on 1/13. Heck of a way to start conference-play at home. Their first five conference games period are not going to be easy: @ La Salle, @ GW, v. Charlotte, v. Dayton, @ Temple. That's rough.