UMass beat 8 ranked opponents, 4 in the top 10 before. They lost twice, one to mighty GW and once to eventual National Champion Kentucky in the Final Four. They did beat them first game of the year, though. UMass also won the A10 Tournament.

St Joe’s beat 3 ranked opponents, one ranked 10th, didn’t win the A10 tourney, and lost in the Elite Eight. St. Joe’s did have two players with significant NBA careers, where UMass just had Marcus Camby as an elite talent.

I’m a little young to truly talk about 1996 UMass, So I’m not going to act like I was watching the Minutement when I was 11, but the UMass teams seemed to be a true national power for a few years there where St. Joe’s was more of a league power that had one exceptional year. Going back the year prior to their peak UMass was in the Elite Eight and beat #1 Arkansas to start the season. St. Joe’s didn’t beat a ranked team in the regular season and lost in the first round of the tournament.

Some good choices! Any other prime candidates?

Rutgers with another big win today  is expected to join the AP top 25 for the first time since 1978 today btw. The GW duo strikes again.

I had just got to GW for Camby's Umass team so that was a lot of fun.  One of GW's biggest victories, with the President in the house (and locker room) to witness the historic victory.

I'd lean to that St Joe's behemoth, with  pair of college veteran, soon to be NBA 1st round picks and long NBA careers in the backcourt, they had NCAA title makings. 4 NBA players, Jameer, Delonte West, Dwayne Jones and Pat Caroll 
What a dominant A10 team!

Thoughts?
 

Last edited by The Dude (1/20/2020 2:42 am)

That 2004 St. Joe's team was so much fun to watch. Jameer Nelson Sr. and Delonte West were the original splash brothers before Step Curry and Klay Thompson.  Also that year, Xavier led by Romain Sato and Thad Mata was as good as any A-10 great coming down the stretch, winning the A-10 tournament before barely falling to Duke in the elite eight. We actually beat that same Xavier earlier in the season. 

I'd go with the 1996 Marcus Camby-led UMass team because of how dominant Camby, he ended up being the 2nd pick in the 1996 draft. They also beat that juggernaut 1996 Kentucky team(before they lost to them in rematch at the Final 4) as bmac pointed out. Many consider that 1996 Kentucky team to be one of the greatest teams in NCAA history.

This year's Dayton team may go down as an all-time great A10 team because of how well they played in the OOC(which got them national attention) and having an All-World player in Obi Toppin, who could go in the top 5 of the 2020 NBA draft. I'm guessing Dayton could get a 2 seed in the NCAA tournament if they go undefeated or 17-1 in conference play. A deep NCAA tournament run as a high seed would put them amongst the likes of 1996 UMass, 2004 St.Joe's and 1988 Temple.

Gwmayhem wrote:

The 1987-88 Temple teamed coached by John Chaney may even have been better than the Jameer-SJU team.  They went 18-0 in the conference, won the A10 Tournament, and went 32-2 overall.  The two losses were by 1 point at 8th ranked UNLV and by 10 points to 5th ranked Duke in the Elite Eight of the NCAA's.  Imagine having a second team All American (Mark Macon) who was not even the Player of the Year in the A10 (that went to Macon's teammate, Tim Perry, who went on to become the 7th player taken in the following year's NBA draft).  Let's also mention Howard Evans who was the third player on that team, along with Macon and Perry, to be named First Team A10.

GW lead that Temple team at the half in their game at the Smith Center. (Any reports that Ramon Rivas then went bonkers in the 2nd and scored a bazillion points are just plain true and it continues to cause me nightmares to this very day)

Except, Paar and Battle were Mojo's recruits, not JC.
 

BM wrote:

fungerhall wrote:

Also that year, Xavier led by Romain Sato and Thad Mata was as good as any A-10 great coming down the stretch, winning the A-10 tournament before barely falling to Duke in the elite eight. We actually beat that same Xavier earlier in the season. 

That was a massive beatdown of Xavier.  Looked like we were going to take them by 30 before Hobbs called off the dogs.  This was when we were blood enemies with many competitive games.  I don't think I've ever seen us dunk as much as we did in that game.  Matta was livid and Sato looked like he was about to cry.  I think they lost the subsequent game (Duquesne?) and then went on a huge run to the elite eight.
 

I sort of forget the particulars on why this happened but I was a student at the time and got a seat down on the sideline in front of the blue seats and had gotten a little loose pregame and was just working Sato and Dedrick Finn. Not saying I made him cry, but not not saying it either.