SJU, Charlotte & URI

[Snipe]

Other than the mighty men of X, SJU seems like the team to beat in the A-10 in terms of talent.

They have three home and homes like everyone else. Their partners are UMass, Temple and Xavier. They swept UMass and have already beaten Temple on the road. They should be able to defeat Temple at Hawk Hill. That would rap up 4 of the 6 games with partners against good competition. Then they play us home and away.

St. Joes has played three A-10 road games, going 2-1 at UMass, Charlotte (L) and at Temple. They should win every one of their home games except against us, which will be a battle. They should be able to fair well on the road. That team is talented. I could see them getting to 12 wins.

As for Charlotte, they play a weaker A-10 Schedule than Xavier or SJU. They are already done with UMass (L) and SJU (W). Their home and home partners are Richmond, Fordham & Temple. The could be able to win 5 of 6 out of those. Looking at their schedule, I could see them getting a good number of wins. We need to win in Charlotte to give us some distance and hold the tiebreaker.

URI plays Richmond and Dayton at home next. They should be looking at 5-2. Then they hit a stretch of 5 of 8 road games. (UMass & Temple being the toughest of them) Rhody has the advantage of playing the tougher schools on their schedule at home.

Those are the contenders to the throne in my opinion.

If I had to predict the top three in the A-10 right now it would be

Xavier
SJU
URI

[X-band '01]

Saint Joe's actually plays Temple at the Palestra next (their annual Big 5 matchup), but it is as good as a home game for them.

[PM Thor]

X plays St. Joes on the road in the second last game of the regular season. I don't see X winning that one, which, actually might not be a bad thing. But that is waaaay down the line.

[American X]

I think we'll see separation from XU & SJU.

URI should get to 10 wins.

Charlotte has alot of work to do in conference to make up for a mediocre non-con.

UMass has a great RPI but needs to start finding some Ws.

Dayton is floundering.

[Snipe]

SJU is talented and will pose match up problems. They are tough and they look like they are coming together.

[muskienick]

Snipe,

What about your mighty Dukes?

[X-band '01]

The Dukes have a big game at home on Wednesday against UMass - if UMass wins that one, that will get them back on track; their first half schedule in the A-10 has been absolutely brutal. If the Mighty Dukes get the win, people in the conference will take them more seriously than they already have. They need a makeup win for their loss at Fordham.

[Snipe]

Snipe,

What about your mighty Dukes?

The Dukes lost at URI by 2 and at Fordham by 1. They could have really been moving up with some wins there. They needed those games, especially Fordham.

They have UMass and SJU at home in their next three games (With SBU on the road). They need to win both if they want to contend for the league title. They won't. The best they will be is 5-3, or they well be 4-4. And they still have to visit Xavier.

I just don't see the Dukes in the league mix. They do have the talent to beat anyone in the league on any given night, but that applies to just about everyone.

[Muskie]

The Dukes lost at URI by 2 and at Fordham by 1. They could have really been moving up with some wins there. They needed those games, especially Fordham.

They have UMass and SJU at home in their next three games (With SBU on the road). They need to win both if they want to contend for the league title. They won't. The best they will be is 5-3, or they well be 4-4. And they still have to visit Xavier.

I just don't see the Dukes in the league mix. They do have the talent to beat anyone in the league on any given night, but that applies to just about everyone.

They have the talent, but the Dukes haven't turned the corner consistency wise yet. You don't lose to URI by 2 AND lost to Fordham by 1. Those two scores aren't evidence of consistency in my book.

[Snipe]

The Dukes have had some close games and come away with nothing. Drake was close, Pitt was close and URI and Fordham were right there. It wouldn't take much imagination to think of the Dukes sitting pretty as a contender. But they lost those games. I am rooting for UMass to beat them this week because UMass has a legitimate shot.

That game is tomorrow night, and should probably be the A-10 game of the week. I wonder what the over/under is going to be. 170+ points would not surprise me at all. Hell, 190 wouldn't surprise me. Don't think their is any TV for that game, but it should be a good one.

I had high hopes for the Dukes. They could still make a run to make things interesting. They are a dangerous team as we found out last year. They have added considerable talent since then with Sean James and Kojo Mensah. I hope to exact revenge and defeat them soundly at the Tas.