The Atlantic 10 Thread

[boomhauertjs]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

Ready for the big game on Saturday, Slim? I don't think UD has the outside shooting or point guard play to pull off the road upset.

[SlimKibbles]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

Ready for the big game on Saturday, Slim? I don't think UD has the outside shooting or point guard play to pull off the road upset.

I'm pumped. If there were a season where UD could actually beat Xavier in Cincinnati for the first time since Jimmy Carter was President, this would be the year. They match-up pretty well, although, you're right, I think X shoots it better from outside the arc. If X keeps the Johnson's in check and shoots from the outside like they normally do, they will win. CW will get his points for the Flyers and I don't think X has anyone that matches up well with him. It's going to be an interesting game.

[boomhauertjs]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

Sigh...maybe next year when UD finally gets a real point guard (Juwan Staten). Chris Wright has improved little, if any, from his freshman year and sure could use that senior season before he goes into the draft.

[CM1847]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

Big night of conference games:

Xavier @ Temple
Charlotte @ Richmond
GW @ Dayton
Duquesne @ Dayton

[SlimKibbles]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

Big night of conference games:

Xavier @ Temple
Charlotte @ Richmond
GW @ Dayton
Duquesne @ Rhody

FTFY

Scores

Temple 77, Xavier 72 - Bah!!!
Charlotte 75, Richmond 59 - Nice win for the Niners on the road.
dayton 66, GW 51
Rhody 75, Duquesne 67

[Marino]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

FTFY

Scores

Temple 77, Xavier 72 - Bah!!!
Charlotte 75, Richmond 59 - Nice win for the Niners on the road.
dayton 66, GW 51
Rhody 75, Duquesne 67

49ers are like fire and ice. You never know what you will get.

[OSUFan_88]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

URI is cruising...really too bad they couldn't take down Temple.

Bring on X.

[P2K]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

Sorry about the loss, Slim Fran has Temple playing awesome ball this year.

And let's not forget the guy in my avi...

[SlimKibbles]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

Sorry about the loss, Slim Fran has Temple playing awesome ball this year.

And let's not forget the guy in my avi...

I honestly didn't expect X to beat Temple at their place. They rarely do. Temple always seems to shoot the lights out when they play at home against X too. I mean they shot 59% last night. That's a little ridiculous. Grant it, X's defense seemed to part like the Red Sea at times when guys were driving to the basket. Oh well. I've been impressed with the Owls this year. Juan Fernandez is for real. Allen, Brooks and Guzman are really good too. I'm a little surprised folks didn't think more of them in the preseason with all they had coming back.

URI is cruising...really too bad they couldn't take down Temple.

Bring on X.

OSUFan, Rhody is going down. Double-digit victory for X. If the Muskies lose at home to the Rams, I'll sport a Rhody avy for a week.

[SlimKibbles]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

Interesting. It makes more sense for SLU to be in the MVC anyway. I can't see the administration at SLU agreeing to do that though. But, if it does happen, boot Fordham too. Bring Butler and another school, like Siena or Davidson, into the conference. They'd be like the Big East Lite.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/basketball/ncaa/01/21/stlouis.atlantic10.ap/index.html

Majerus wants out of Atlantic-10

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Saint Louis coach Rick Majerus is no fan of the school's affiliation with the Atlantic-10 Conference. Too much travel, too expensive, too hard on the student-athletes.

If Majerus had his way, the school would sacrifice a bit of prestige, put the athletes first and play in a league closer to home.

"We belong in the Missouri Valley," Majerus said after the Billikens whipped Fordham 75-48 Wednesday night, "if we care about the kids' academics."

It's not a sentiment likely to endear the ever-opinionated Majerus to the Rev. Lawrence Biondi, the school president who orchestrated the move from Conference USA to the Atlantic-10 for the 2005-06 season. But Majerus said he's concerned about all those trips to the East Coast leading to multiple classes missed.

Saint Louis has the youngest team in the nation, with eight freshmen or redshirt freshmen, and only one upperclassman. By Majerus' reckoning, after three weeks of the second semester, players will have attended classes for five days.

"They are great kids, but their academics are in peril," the coach said.

School spokesman Chuck Yahng said Saint Louis has no plans to change conferences.

Many of the school's fans have been saying Saint Louis joined the wrong league when it opted for the Atlantic-10. From a competition standpoint it's a step up from the Valley, but at what cost?

One of Majerus' chief complaints is that it's a terrible fit geographically.

"The A-10's a good league, but you've got to cross two states," Majerus said. "What rivalry do we have? Dayton or Xavier? They sure don't consider us to be big rivals."

Those are the schools within reasonable distance. Then there's Fordham, Duquesne, George Washington, La Salle and St. Bonaventure.

"No one wants to go to Olean, N.Y., (St. Bonaventure) and Massachusetts and those places," Majerus said.

Also, the big cities in the Atlantic-10 -- Philadelphia and New York -- are pricey. Majerus said he has to use his own connections to reduce lodging costs.

Majerus noted costs would be considerably lower to travel by bus a few hours to Peoria, Ill., to play Bradley, or Carbondale, Ill., to play Southern Illinois -- both schools in the Missouri Valley.

"Everything here is about money," the coach added. "You want to fly to Rhode Island, New York, Charlotte, all these places and stay out and spend and be in high-end cost cities, or do you want to go on a bus and go to Bradley and Southern Illinois and Indiana State and those places?"

Majerus' rant wasn't done yet.

"Those Eastern airports," he added, "are the worst in America."

[phenom1990]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

Interesting. It makes more sense for SLU to be in the MVC anyway. I can't see the administration at SLU agreeing to do that though. But, if it does happen, boot Fordham too. Bring Butler and another school, like Siena or Davidson, into the conference. They'd be like the Big East Lite.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/201....ap/index.html

I think Butler would consider it, but do you think Butler would think of the issues Majerus has and decline the offer because of the travel. To be honest if the A-10 lost St. Louis and Fordham, i think they should just keep the league at 12 teams. It would allow the top teams to play each other more, raising their SOS and RPI resulting in better at large profiles.

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[P2K]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

Never understood St. Louis being in the A-10. Never, ever.

[SlimKibbles]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

I think Butler would consider it, but do you think Butler would think of the issues Majerus has and decline the offer because of the travel. To be honest if the A-10 lost St. Louis and Fordham, i think they should just keep the league at 12 teams. It would allow the top teams to play each other more, raising their SOS and RPI resulting in better at large profiles.

Keeping it at 12 teams is something that crossed my mind as well. It isn't a bad thought and what you mention about playing each other more and RPI are good reasons why. I think Butler would jump into the A-10 if it got the chance. They have rivalries with Dayton and Xavier due to proximity (about a 2-hour drive) while also having been former foes for years in the old MCC (now Horizon). I don't think the travel is as much an issue for them.

Never understood St. Louis being in the A-10. Never, ever.

When all of those teams left C-USA for the Big East (2005?), SLU and Charlotte were kind of left out to dry. I can't remember if they had an offer from the MVC at that time or not but the A-10 made a little sense due to conference strength and having been in a conference (MCC) with Dayton and Xavier in the past. Plus, they really didn't have another choice, although staying in C-USA with Memphis probably wouldn't have been terrible, unless their recruiting sucked. But, they really haven't done anything since joining the A-10 and the MVC really does make more sense, especially since they were in that conference 30+ years ago. Being a stud, which could happen, in the MVC isn't such a bad gig.

[OSUFan_88]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

OSUFan, Rhody is going down. Double-digit victory for X. If the Muskies lose at home to the Rams, I'll sport a Rhody avy for a week.

If Rhody loses, I will support X for a week as well, to be fair.

I have the feeling, though, that it's going to be a hard fall for the Rams...It seems like this is the time of year that they start losing to teams they both should and should not lose to.

As far as St. Louis goes...meh, so be it. Too far from everyone else.

[CM1847]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

Big Rick has wanted out of the A10 since he took over the team, he seems to rant about it every few months. I think St. Louis is a solid program that Majerus will continue to build, so they wouldn't be my first choice from a basketball standpoint, but it absolutely does make sense for them to be in the MVC. The A10 needs to trim at least two teams.

Rhody @ Xavier the big game of the weekend. The rest of the top portion of the league get road tests(except Temple, because Fordham isn't a test at this point) against teams they should beat, but someone will probably be upset. UMass gets a shot at Baylor a win would be an RPI boost for the league, but likely not to happen.