The Atlantic 10 Thread

[CM1847]

I know there are at least a few people on here who are fans of the league, so here we go....

This was suppossed to be a bounce-back year, but right now getting any more than 2 teams in the dance is being very optimistic. GW should be in, their RPI is horrible for a top 20 team though. St. Joe's has the highest A10 RPI on Kenpom and their is 45 with a record of 6-6. Xavier is looking like the other team that has a chance at an at-large big right now, 10-2 overall. The need to beat the few top 100 RPI teams the conference has to lock that up though.

Standings(1/12):
Charlotte 3-0 10-5
George Washington 2-0 11-1
Massachusetts 2-0 7-5
Xavier 2-0 10-2
La Salle 2-1 10-3
Fordham 1-1 6-9
Rhode Island 1-1 7-6
Richmond 1-1 8-7
Saint Louis 1-1 7-7
Saint Joseph's 1-2 6-6
Temple 1-2 7-6
Dayton 0-2 8-8
Duquesne 0-3 2-12
St. Bonaventure 0-3 6-8

The only terrible team is Duquesne, the only two legit teams seem to be GW(and even they got handled by NC State) and Xavier. It will be interesting to see the RPIs change once the conference contenders start playing.

Some big games this weekend with Xavier @ Charlotte, La Salle @ Temple and St. Joe's @ GW.

GW needs to prove that going to OT against St. Louis was a fluke, La Salle needs to prove they can beat somebody and the Xavier/Charlotte game winner probably takes the inside track on getting the 2nd bid from the A10(if they get two).

GW has been slumping a little while Charlotte has begun to roll, winning 9 of their last 11 after a super 1-3 start. Also won their last 4. Xavier seems tested with road wins at St. Joe's and Purdue, and taking Illinois down to the wire as well. Right now it seems like they are the three teams with a reasonable chance, but St. Joe's and Temple both have the RPI from OOC games to build a more impressive resume than Xavier or Charlotte. So it will be interesting.

[dkgojackets]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

49ers looking a lot better now than they did at the beginning.

[CM1847]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

49ers looking a lot better now than they did at the beginning.

Definitely, but unfortunately they were so bad early that they are still a ways away from getting back into the at-large bid race. That is what happens when your best player is sick and you have 5 transfers playing for the first time. Oh well, excuses excuses....

Next three games are all against A10 opponents with better RPIs, so a few wins would be pretty huge.

[Programmed2Kill]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

It I'm just glad La Salle, Temple and St. Joe's are putting themselves in play for the conference at the same time for once. Good basketball from the Philly teams Still alot of games left, though.

[Chuck]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

Fordham is starting to look like the team I thought they'd be.

[Mxracer23x]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

Umass looking good so far in a10 play. Best frontcourt with lasme and freeman. Ill be at the Umass Temple game

[CM1847]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

Umass looking good so far in a10 play. Best frontcourt with lasme and freeman. Ill be at the Umass Temple game

Yup, another team trying to shake off a non-spectacular OOC run with a good showing in conference. That 10 point win against St. Joe's was nice.

Good luck @ St. Louis, that place is a nightmare to play at, at least it always has been for Charlotte.

[SlimKibbles]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

Nice work starting this, CM. I can't wait until Saturday...except for the fact the damn game isn't on tv here. Why the hell do they choose to show Xavier's games against Eastern Kentucky and/or the FAMU's of the world but not Creighton or Charlotte? Looks like I'll be listening to it on the radio. I thought about coming to the game a while back but held out hope that the Bengals would still be playing at this point and didn't want to miss their game. So much for that.

[SlimKibbles]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

Fordham is starting to look like the team I thought they'd be.

I was a little disappointed with their overall OOC performance. Still, they'll do damage in the A-10. Dunston is a beast.

P2K, it's been a while since LaSalle was a threat. Good to see them playing great ball again. Probably not since the Lionel Simmons/Doug Overton days? I know too that Donnie Carr was a one man show when he was playing but that's all they had then. I like the Explorers this year. Steve Smith is a stud. I love watching him play.

[CM1847]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

Nice work starting this, CM. I can't wait until Saturday...except for the fact the damn game isn't on tv here. Why the hell do they choose to show Xavier's games against Eastern Kentucky and/or the FAMU's of the world but not Creighton or Charlotte? Looks like I'll be listening to it on the radio. I thought about coming to the game a while back but held out hope that the Bengals would still be playing at this point and didn't want to miss their game. So much for that.

Should be a good one, I didn't even realize it wasn't on TV, but doesn't suprise me. We have a pretty decent TV schedule the rest of the way, everything but 2 or 3 are home or televised, I spent all of the OOC schedule huddled around a radio though, I feel your pain.

Can't wait to see Thorton. Charlotte, surprisingly, let Withers play Steven Smith in man defense pretty much all game last night, I think we will see more of that against Xavier. I guess Thorton is considered your center though, right? Unless Doellman, all 210 of him, starts there. Maybe zone rather than go one on one with any of our centers against Thorton, we'll see.

PS. I love how the Xavier athletic site lists Thorton at 6-8.5, I have never seen that before.

[SlimKibbles]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

Should be a good one, I didn't even realize it wasn't on TV, but doesn't suprise me. We have a pretty decent TV schedule the rest of the way, everything but 2 or 3 are home or televised, I spent all of the OOC schedule huddled around a radio though, I feel your pain.

Can't wait to see Thorton. Charlotte, surprisingly, let Withers play Steven Smith in man defense pretty much all game last night, I think we will see more of that against Xavier. I guess Thorton is considered your center though, right? Unless Doellman, all 210 of him, starts there. Maybe zone rather than go one on one with any of our centers against Thorton, we'll see.

PS. I love how the Xavier athletic site lists Thorton at 6-8.5, I have never seen that before.

Yeah, Thornton and Caudle are usually at the 5 spot. Doellman usually plays the 4. He's dangerous because he can hit shots from 3-pt range all day even though he's that tall. Creates matchup problems. The funny thing is, word around the Xavier team is that freshman PG, Johnny Wolf, is the best 3-pt shooter on the team. That's saying something considering Josh Duncan, who is almost as tall as Doellman, was probably the best heading into the season. And, you can't forget about Hammer (Stanley Burrell). Should be a great game. I've always liked Bobby Lutz. He runs a good program there. I'm glad they joined the league.

I had no idea BT is listed as 6-8.5. That hilarious. That's probably an accurate height but I've never seen such an honest measure of it for a player.

[Chuck]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

I was a little disappointed with their overall OOC performance. Still, they'll do damage in the A-10. Dunston is a beast.

They had a nice road win @Virginia, and a nice win at home against a good Penn team, but they dug themselves in a hole early with bad losses to teams like St. Francis and Holy Cross.

[Programmed2Kill]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

P2K, it's been a while since LaSalle was a threat. Good to see them playing great ball again. Probably not since the Lionel Simmons/Doug Overton days? I know too that Donnie Carr was a one man show when he was playing but that's all they had then. I like the Explorers this year. Steve Smith is a stud. I love watching him play.

Heck, I remember when Kareem Townes was ripping it up, too. And yeah, Donnie did everything. Even though he's a Roman Catholic kid (can't stand them...I went to West Catholic ), I was a big fan of his.

I don't think we will ever have La Salle be a national power again. The big-time, nationally coveted Philly kids go out of state. Every once in a while, one or two end up at Villanova (Kyle Lowry...Reggie Redding coming in next year). That trend really came to a head when Philly high school b-ball was at an all-time high and all but one of the deemed "Big Three" stayed home. 'Sheed went to UNC, Tyrone Weeks went to UMass and Jason Lawson stayed home at 'Nova. That's when all of Philly finally understood that despite the great college hoops atmosphere here, the great players will rarely stay and play here.

[SlimKibbles]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

Heck, I remember when Kareem Townes was ripping it up, too. And yeah, Donnie did everything. Even though he's a Roman Catholic kid (can't stand them...I went to West Catholic ), I was a big fan of his.

I forgot about Townes. Watched him play several times against X. He was a great player too.

It is too bad that the Philly kids don't stay at home to play ball more often. Hell, USC even got Hank Gathers and Bo Kimble to leave Philly in the late 80's for the west coast while Simmons and Overton stayed and played at LaSalle. Can you imagine if Gathers and Kimble had stayed home and played for LaSalle too or St. Joe's or even Drexel? I always like it when a top-notch player decides to stay in town to take a hometown team to the top even though it's probably better for them to go to school away from home. Keeping my fingers crossed that OJ Mayo will play his only year of college ball at XU.

[Mxracer23x]

Re: The Atlantic 10 Thread

Steve Smith is an amazing player for LaSalle. So far hes my player of the year in the a10.
Defensive player- No question about this one... Lasme