A-10 - 5th in Conference RPI

[SixFig]

Don't look now, but our little ol league is kickin butt.

Real Time RPI (http://www.realtimerpi.com/rpi_atl10_Men.html)

[jdm2000]

When will the A-10 suck factor (as WH so aptly puts it) rear its ugly head?

[XU05and07]

Pac-10 hasn't played one lick of solid basketball this year...and it doesn't look like it will turn it around. Opens up the 6 spot for the A10 by season end

[Juice]

Pac-10 hasn't played one lick of solid basketball this year...and it doesn't look like it will turn it around. Opens up the 6 spot for the A10 by season end

I completely agree. I will be disappointed if the A-10's RPI is lower than the PAC-10's.

Are any other "mid-major" conferences poised to have a good year? Unless I am mistaken, I do not think the MVC or Mountain West or any other will be as deep as the A-10 this year, so I think this is the A-10's year to be rated #6.

[PMI]

Is there an outside chance at staying at 5 or would Fordham have to tumble into the sea? I know we've been ahead of the SEC before and I feel like they generally kind of suck too in the grand scheme.

[dc_x]

Is there an outside chance at staying at 5 or would Fordham have to tumble into the sea? I know we've been ahead of the SEC before and I feel like they generally kind of suck too in the grand scheme.

No. The Big 10 is currently 14th, but that won't last. The Big 10 is pretty good this year andthey will certainly be in the top-5.

I think the A-10 could finish 6th, though, because the PAC 10 is way way way down this year.

[D-West & PO-Z]

I would be surprised if we finish any better than 7th. Has it ever happened?

[waggy]

At this point Pomeroy is probably the more "accurate" model since it is strictly efficiency based. He has the A10 8th, and there is a pretty big gap to 7th. Still, it is soo early. I think last season the A10 finished 9th in RPI rankings.

[Xpectations]

At this point Pomeroy is probably the more "accurate" model ...

Pomeroy is ALWAYS the more accurate model versus RPI, though it is substantially more accurate than the RPI early in the season (which is also true for Sagarin, Sonny Moore and dozens of others).

The RPI is an incredibly poor model (on par with a coin flip) when small sample sizes are small, and finally graduates to being simply poor after a sufficient number of games are played.

[waggy]

How has the end of year conference RPI rankings compared against Sagarin, et al, the last few years? My recollection is they've been reasonably comparable. What I meant, and what I should've made clear is that Pomeroy is right now probably more accurate with regards to an end of year of projection.

[SixFig]

If St. Louis wins, than the A-10 is undefead on the day.

Hip hip hurrayyyyyyyyy

[Jesuit4Life]

If St. Louis wins, than the A-10 is undefead on the day.

Hip hip hurrayyyyyyyyy

SLU wins 75-39. Handshakes all around.

[Xpectations]

How has the end of year conference RPI rankings compared against Sagarin, et al, the last few years? My recollection is they've been reasonably comparable. What I meant, and what I should've made clear is that Pomeroy is right now probably more accurate with regards to an end of year of projection.

Haven't seen data ranking the systems on a conference-wide basis -- only how well they have performed for individual teams. I would imagine the differences between conferences would be similar to the differences between teams.

I definitely agree with your point about Pomeroy being a much better guage at the moment, whereas its advantage will drop steadily as the season progresses.

[X-band '01]

I would be surprised if we finish any better than 7th. Has it ever happened?

The A-10 finished as high as 5th in the mid-90s, but that was the heyday of Temple-UMass-GW and just 9 teams in the A-10 (Temple, UMass, GW, URI, St. Bona, SJU, Duquesne, Rutgers, and West Va).

[SixFig]

If the A-10 contracts back to 10-12 teams then it could challenge for a top 6 spot annually.

Bottom feeders do no one any good. The selection committee has shown that its not quantity but quality of wins.

[D-West & PO-Z]

The A-10 finished as high as 5th in the mid-90s, but that was the heyday of Temple-UMass-GW and just 9 teams in the A-10 (Temple, UMass, GW, URI, St. Bona, SJU, Duquesne, Rutgers, and West Va).

Ya it makes sense that it happened back then. I was more wondering if it had ever happened since XU had been in the A10.

[QueensbridgeMF]

The A-10 finished as high as 5th in the mid-90s, but that was the heyday of Temple-UMass-GW and just 9 teams in the A-10 (Temple, UMass, GW, URI, St. Bona, SJU, Duquesne, Rutgers, and West Va).

Was it called the A-10 when there were 9? then there was 12, now 14. How many years did the A-10 actually have 10 teams

[X-band '01]

Penn State was the 10th team until they jumped over to the Big 10.

[Masterofreality]

Don't forget that Virginia Tech was in the league too when XU entered.

[waggy]

I really enjoy following the A10 teams in Pomeroy efficiency ratings. Especially early in the season when large fluctuations are more possible.

Right now a few things pop out.

If Charlotte can tighten up on the defensive end (and there is a lot of room for improvement), they have the 2nd most efficient offense. I think they could get close to a top 100 club in Pomeroy, which should put them in the top 100 in RPI.

Richmond is good defensively. Once they get things figured out on the offensive end, they are going to be tough, tough, tough.

GW has been playing good defensively. I think they are going to need to keep doing so to keep winning.

Don't sleep on Rhody. Not all is lost with Baron and Seawright gone - they still have a number of good players.

Saint Louis is better than expected. Mitchell is a very very good point.

La Salle has been surprisingly weak on the defensive end. But again, there is a lot of room for improvement. Right now they are ranked 192 in combined efficiency. I'll be very surprised if they don't finish in the top 100. But they need to pick it up.

Duquesne cannot be as good as they would have been with Bolding out. With him they would have been very solid - at least top 75 - but without him they are not top 100.

Temple is solid.

I think Dayton might have read too many press-clippings. Or maybe the tough opening schedule have the numbers skewed some.

Though I didn't actually compare, the Bonnies numbers look surprisingly similiar to last seasons... 150 range in combined efficiency. Depending upon the performance of the rest of the conference, they should get real close to be a top 100 RPI club.

http://kenpom.com/conf.php?y=2010&c=A10

[Xpectations]

The A-10's conference RPI since 1999 ...

1999: #10
2000: #9
2001: #9
2002: #9
2003: #9
2004: #8
2005: #15
2006: #11
2007: #10
2008: #7
2009: #8

AVERAGE RPI RANKING: 9.5

I would love for the A-10 to consistently be in a Top 7 conference, occassionally surpassing a BCS conference or two.

[Masterofreality]

I notice that Waggy had nothing to say about Fordham. :p

Are they still in the league?

[waggy]

Or UMess.