Fordham and UMASS play tonight.

An incredible 6 of the top 6 teams all lost Saturday, I believe first time ever.

I think there's not much separation at the very top, unlike in recent years.  KenPom has had Gonzaga way ahead all year of the pack but this Gonzaga team I think is vulnerable.

Last week of the regular season, and the A10 has a lot of teams on or near the bubble.  Big week ahead. Good bubble game on ESPN now, 1-7 Quad 1 North Carolina at home, down 12-3 to Syracuse.  A home loss to Cuse should knock them off and help the A10 bubble

How 1-7 Quad 1 Carolina is on the bubble in the 1st place is mysterious.

Also, how did Boeheim go from Derrick Coleman and Billy Owens and Carmelo Anthony (and even recent lottery picks 8-10 years ago) to having a very mediocre team year after year.  Been a long time since he's had the type of talent that was commonplace at Syracuse 80s-2012ish. Hasn't won more than 10 games in the league since 2014, even as the ACC has gotten weaker, and yet, barely slides into the Tourney (very charitable gifts at large) and has done well in the tourney.   





 

Last edited by The Dude (2/28/2022 7:15 pm)

That one (McCall) can not be any less surprising.

Thomas, case to case though right?  Kellan Grady is doing very  well for top 5  Kentucky, Fatts Russell is playing really in the Big10.

These transfers have really hurt the A10, we want a period without losing the very top players.

Speaking of transfers, Georgia is about to lose at home again, to fall to 6-24 and 1-16. Meanwhile, another big year for Rick Barnes.



 

Last edited by The Dude (3/01/2022 7:44 pm)

The Dude,  yeah, it is a case by case basis, Kellen Grady and Jacob Toppin(Obi's little brother who started at Rhode Island) are doing well/starting for Kentucky. My point about Tre Mitchell was, it was going to be very hard for him to get the same opportunity at a BCS school that he had at UMass, where the coach gave him the greenest of green lights!! T.Mitchell was probably the favorite to be A-10 Player of the Year if he stayed at UMass. I could understand Fatts Russell and Grady leaving because they had played for 4 years and saw an opportunity to make a deep NCAA tournament run at a BCS school. Former George Mason big man/star AJ Wilson is also struggling at South Carolina. He missed the start of the year with an injury which probably ruined his chances to make a bigger impact as other frontcourt players emerged with him out. 

Dayton beat Richmond by 2. They won with an alley-oop 1 handed dunk off an inbounds pass under their own basket with about 1 second left. R.J. Blakney was able to jump above 2 Richmond defenders. I don't think they were expecting that. 

VCU is up by 24 on St. Bonaventure with about 2 minutes left. St.Bonavenure's star big man Osun was out tonight with an ankle injury. Dayton and VCU look to be the other 2 teams who could get an at-large bid from the A-10 so these wins tonight are huge for them. The announcers mentioned the last time the A-10 got just 1 team in the tournament was 2005, which was GW. 

The Dude wrote:

Thomas, does seem those are the 2 A10 teams, after Davidson with the best shot of at large bids.  If everything breaks right the A10 could get 4 teams, 3 at large, and at worse, like 2005, none if Davidson wins the Tourney and no one else gets a bid.  Like most years, probably end up with 2-3 we almost always do.

Its interesting GW's excellent 2005-07 coincided with a real nadir for the A10.  We returned for a 3rd year in 2007 needing the A10 tourney win and we got it.  

I'm of the view A10 guys are generally better off staying (or coming to the A10) I have no doubt Tyler, JoeBam, Bishop, all benefited from coming here too, but the flip side of that is that most the elite A10 players could thrive almost anywhere, even Kentucky like Grady and Toppin (forgot about him good call) or Lasan going to UCONN the year they last won the National Title.

But generally I think better off staying put. Is Deandre Bembry, having a long NBA career, better off at St Joe's or being on of the guys somewhere else? I'd say the former.

 

Dayton and VCU's wins last night should really help their at-large chances. The best case scenario for 4 teams(3 at-large bids) getting in would be for someone like St. Louis or St. Bonaventure(or maybe Richmond) winning the A-10 tournament because St. Louis and St. Bonaventure picked up some very good OOC wins, so they could get in as a 9 or 10 seed, not an 11-seed who needs to win a play-in game.   

Good point about Hobbs elite/NCAA tourney teams(2005-2007), under normal circumstances(with Temple, Xavier, Dayton and St.Joe's being very good in conference) the 2005 and 2006 teams would have entered the NCAA as very high seeds. Remember the 2005 team put on a DUNKFEST as they took out highly ranked Michigan State and Maryland at the BB&T Classic and went from being unranked to the top 15 but they may have needed to win the conference tournament to get in because of how bad the A-10 was. GW's 2004 team was probably an NCAA tournament team, but the A-10 was a lot stronger that year.

As for players transferring, I think it's about 50/50 in terms of hurting or helping the A-10 because for every Jacob Toppin and Tre Mitchell that transfers out, guys like Joe Bamisile, James Bishop, Dayton's Camara and Kobe Elvis, UMass' Fernandes and Kelly, St.Louis' Okoro, George Mason's Schwartz and Gaines, St.Joe's Obinna coming in from BCS schools. Also having recent A-10 players like Bembry, Toppin, Bones Hyland and Yuta having long and productive NBA careers also helps as you wrote

Georgetown at Seton Hall   7 CBS Sports Network - Georgetown is likely headed for their 19TH straight loss tonight but something to watch for is...Will They Cover!! Georgetown is a 14.5 point underdog but what they've done in several games is, once they are down by 18-25 and the opposing coach "calls off the dogs", Ewing has Georgetown full-court press and they start knocking down 3's which allows for the backdoor cover!! You guys think Ewing is taking the Georgetown plus the points in these games where they are big underdogs?? LOL  

Rutgers at Indiana  7 Big 10 Network - Despite the streak of wins against top 25 teams earlier, Rutgers may actually be on the bubble after some recent losses, so this could be a play-in game for both teams. The NCAA will probably put both of them in, but a blowout loss could be damaging for either team. 

Minnesota at Maryland  9 Big 10 Network - Maryland is actually starting to play up to their preseason billing(thanks in large part to Fatts Russel) but it's too little too late at this point

Mentzinger wrote:

Not sure there's an A-10 team with an at large resume worthy of consideration outside Davidson. Two bids max.

The team that baffles me is VCU.  Why are their computer metrics so poor?  They've lost to a 24-7 Chattanooga team (by 2),  a19-5 Wagner team, nationally ranked Baylor and UCONN (each by single digits), and conference games to St. Bonaventure (who they trashed in the rematch last night), Davidson (who they split with) and Dayton (who they also split with).  They are an unreal 9-1 in true road games having won at Vandy, Syracuse, Dayton, Davidson and Richmond.  If they win Saturday at SLU, I'm just not sure how they haven't already clinched an at large.

Jamison Battle now has 34 POINTS with 10 minutes left in the 2nd half at Maryland, Minnesota trails by 10(61-51) though. He had 20 in the 1st half

Maryland did a decent job of slowing down Battle after I posted, I thought he was going to score 50+!! He did end up breaking the record for most points scored by a visiting player(the announcers mentioned that Wake Forest guard Justin Gray scored 38 in 2006,I wouldn't have guessed him, but he was a good player) at Xfinity Center and he tied the all-time record of any player which was set by Diamond Stone.

I listened to some of Maryland's post game broadcast on the radio and they mentioned that some GW players attended the game(after the triple OT win) and Battle was speaking with them after the game. Maybe that was some of the motivation behind his spectacular performance. 

Thomas wrote:

I listened to some of Maryland's post game broadcast on the radio and they mentioned that some GW players attended the game(after the triple OT win) and Battle was speaking with them after the game. Maybe that was some of the motivation behind his spectacular performance. 

Chase Paar was at the game but not so sure about any of the guys on the current roster.

Say what you will about our lack of success these past 6 years, we never did what Georgetown just did. Im not even just talking about going winless, we never finished last or even second to last in conference.

Last edited by GW0509 (3/05/2022 9:40 pm)