Tennessee Colonial wrote:

Should be a good reason to reduce Big 5 teams in Tourney because of their poor performance. Of course they won't schedule mid majors because of fear of getting beat. 

Unfortunately the opposite has been recently occurring and is likely to continue.  It has already squeezed many non P5 league teams out of at large bids.  Many in the P5 do not want to stop there.  The SEC commissioner and Michigan State Head Coach Tom Izzo have in fact come out in the last few days advocating for the elimination of lesser league's automatic berths in the tournament arguing for P5 teams to replace them.     
 

Last six NCAA Tournaments before this season
A-10 had just four wins going 4-12 with a forfeit.  Per the seed line of first round games, the A-10 should have won just three games which is what it has done (not incl SBU which won a PIG game versus the same # seed).

2023 #12 VCU lost to St Mary's 63-51
2022 #10 Davidson lost to Mich State 74-73 | #12 Richmond beat Iowa 67-63 - Lost to Providence 79-51
2021 #9 SBU lost to LSU 76-61 | #10 VCU forfeited
2020 Cancelled due to Covid
2019 #13 St Louis lost to Va Tech 66-52 | #8 VCU lost to UCF 73-58
2018 #11 SBU beat UCLA in PIG 65-58 - lost to Florida 77-62 | #12 Davidson lost to Kentucky 78-73 | #7 URI beat Oklahoma 83-78 - lost to Duke 87-62
2017 #10 VCU lost to St Mary's 85-77 | #11 URI beat Creighton 84-72 - lost to Oregon 75-72 | #7 Dayton lost to Wichita St 64-58

 

St Joe's is one of six games left in the regular season for GW.  Four of these are on the road.

@ St Joe's
@ St Louis
UMass
@ LaSalle
St Bonaventure
@Duquesne
 

Thomas wrote:

gwstudent2024 wrote:

UMass football is a punching bag and they don't even have a conference now. It would be a bloodbath if they joined any semi-respectable conference

I had zero knowledge or insight on UMass football until it was brought up here. I just looked it up and saw they are indeed one of 4 FBS independent schools and are terrible as you pointed out. I always thought UMass played in a lower-tier football conference, similar to Georgetown football. UMass is 1-5 and lost 52-28 at home to Arkansas State in their last game, Arkansas State's freshman QB passed for a school-record 6 touchdown in the loss! I guess it would be more beneficial for UMass to join the AAC and have all of their embarrassing losses televised on one of the big networks (ESPN, Fox, CBS or whoever has the AAC television contract) instead of what they have now!!

UMass used to play football at the FCS level (formerly 1AA) where it was relatively successful.  It was a longtime member of the Yankee Conference with most of the other New England state flagships (UConn, URI, UNH, Maine).  The Yankee Conference eventually expanded (mostly south) and has gone through several name and administrative changes.  It was briefly managed by the A-10 before being taken over by the CAA.  This football league today includes both Richmond and URI.

UMass saw UConn make the jump up to Big East football and decided to upgrade to FBS in 2012 joining the MAC.  It initially played many of its games 90+ miles from campus at the Patriots Gillette Stadium.  The team drew very small crowds and eventually stopped playing there after several years.  When Temple left the MAC, an entrance clause for UMass kicked in which required it join the league for all sports (it had mainly been admitted as an eastern partner for Temple). The school did not want all its sports in the Great Lakes region dominated conference and chose to become independent. Since jumping to the FBS level, the program

Free Quebec wrote:

Are there any other 6 syllable nicknames in D1?

I would think they follow the lead of the New England Revolution in the MLS and mostly go by the REVS moniker.

moneybox wrote:

A 12th seed in the Big Dance and no teams in the NIT. Boy was this an off year for the A10!

This is the worst showing ever for the A-10 for these postseason tournaments in the league's nearly 50 year history. Making it even worse to ponder is the league now has the highest number of members in that time having long operated with far few schools.
 

AT Hiker wrote:

As to Brayon Freeman, there is no way he returns to GW. Coach Caputo is recruiting top notch guards that will take us in the right direction. I hope JB decides to play another year with GW; if he does, we will be the most improved program in the A-10 next year.

I also believe Freeman would now have to sit out a year if he were to transfer.  The transfer rule change for immediate eligibility is only in effect for a first transfer which he has used up going to Rhode Island from GW. 

A-10 opponent pairings were announced today:

George Washington
Home: Dayton, Duquesne, Massachusetts, Saint Louis, VCU, George Mason, La Salle, Richmond, Saint Joseph’s
Away: Davidson, Fordham, Loyola, Rhode Island, St. Bonaventure, George Mason, La Salle, Richmond, Saint Joseph’s

https://atlantic10.com/news/2022/6/27/atlantic-10-announces-schedule-pairings-for-2022-23-mens-basketball-conference-season.aspx

Hopefully GW will avoid Hawaii.  The tournament is played on their home court and games versus them are are not neutral as they are true road games.

Seems like a good hire.  Let's just hope he makes an easy and quick transition from assistant to head coach running his own program.