The A-10 is much improved....

[xavierj]

Temple taking down Duke right now. Conference is improved.

Here is my predicted order of finish.

St. Louis
Temple
LaSalle
St. Joe's
UMASS
Dayton
Fordham
St. Bonnie
Duquesne
Xavier
Richmond
Charlotte
Rhode Island
GW

[X Factor]

Temple taking down Duke right now. Conference is improved.

Here is my predicted order of finish.

St. Louis
Temple
LaSalle
St. Joe's
UMASS
Dayton
Fordham
St. Bonnie
Duquesne
Xavier
Richmond
Charlotte
Rhode Island
GW

Put the crack pipe down.

[rjdog2001]

ok first the conference is not improved..it is the same three bid conference it has been the past couple of years. Just this year, Saint Louis might be replacing Richmond. I know you want to feel better about losing to Lasalle, but its still Lasalle. They still suck, even though Steve Wolf doesn't want you to believe it. They lost to Delaware...Delaware??

[xavierj]

ok first the conference is not improved..it is the same three bid conference it has been the past couple of years. Just this year, Saint Louis might be replacing Richmond. I know you want to feel better about losing to Lasalle, but its still Lasalle. They still suck, even though Steve Wolf doesn't want you to believe it. They lost to Delaware...Delaware??

If you do not think the conference is improved this year you are on crack and are not watching. Teams from the conference not named Xavier are beating big teams and that rarely happens. Freaking Dayton has even beat a couple of teams, Fordham has a top 25 win, are you kidding me?, Temple knocked out Duke, St. Louis has some good wins and St. Joe's beat Nova by 20. 9 teams in the conference have at least 9 non-conference wins and 9 teams are in the top 100 of the RPI. Again that never happens.

This also has nothing to do with LaSalle beating Xavier because Xavier sucks right now but at least the conference will not be a total drag on a teams resume throughout the year.

[waggy]

RPI Forecast predicts that X's OOC SOS will rank 35th. It predicts the overall SOS to rank 42nd. Not much of a drop really. I don't ever recall it being that small.

[XUFan09]

Rhode Island just had to sacrifice their dignity in order for the rest of the conference to improve.

[muskienick]

Rhode Island just had to sacrifice their dignity in order for the rest of the conference to improve.

By the looks of it to me, it appears the top of the A-10 has moved somewhat toward the middle of the pack and the dregs of the A-10 have elevated themselves somewhat from their usual horrendousness.

We'll see if the trend continues during the remainder of the Conference schedule.

[Snipe]

The A-10 is a great conference for us. This year it will be tougher than normal as all of the teams but a couple are competitive. As to how many bids that translates to depends on the "Martelli separation". Teams need to separate themselves from the rest of the conference. If everyone ended up around .500 it would be a one bid conference.

I love the A-10. Best thing that ever happened to Xavier. We own this league.

[MuskiePimp23]

LaSalle up 51-25 at the half against a 12-3 UMASS team. Wow, LaSuck is playing pretty well right now.

[X-band '01]

Had they been able to finish either Pitt or Villanova, they would be getting Top 25 votes at this stage.

They'll probably beat Penn on Tuesday and then it'll be interesting to see if they can win at UD. Both the Explorers and Flyers have shot out of their minds of late.

[Xville]

If you do not think the conference is improved this year you are on crack and are not watching. Teams from the conference not named Xavier are beating big teams and that rarely happens. Freaking Dayton has even beat a couple of teams, Fordham has a top 25 win, are you kidding me?, Temple knocked out Duke, St. Louis has some good wins and St. Joe's beat Nova by 20. 9 teams in the conference have at least 9 non-conference wins and 9 teams are in the top 100 of the RPI. Again that never happens.

This also has nothing to do with LaSalle beating Xavier because Xavier sucks right now but at least the conference will not be a total drag on a teams resume throughout the year.

I think that you might have lost a bit of credibility from the outset when you put Xavier in the bottom of the league, and LaSuck in the top four. Dayton beat Ole Miss (who is awful) and Alabama, they also lost to Buffalo at home by 40. There are some good OOC wins out there, but there still will be the bottom feeders who will hurt the rpi just by playing them this year.

This is still a 3 bid league...

[xavierj]

I think that you might have lost a bit of credibility from the outset when you put Xavier in the bottom of the league, and LaSuck in the top four. Dayton beat Ole Miss (who is awful) and Alabama, they also lost to Buffalo at home by 40. There are some good OOC wins out there, but there still will be the bottom feeders who will hurt the rpi just by playing them this year.

This is still a 3 bid league...

Its a 4 bid league at this point and maybe 5 if this work out right. There will not be much of an RPI drag due to 11 of 14 teams being in the top 110 of the RPI, 9 teams in the top 90 of the RPI and 5 in the top 55. Comparitively the Big East only has 8 of 16 teams in the top 100 of the RPI. This is a much improved league or maybe the league just scheduled better but the league still has 6th toughest strength of schedule.

As for Lasalle they are as talented as anyone in the league and they are 10-1 since their best player became eligible. Galloway did not play in the loss at Pitt or Nova, games in which they should have won.

[boozehound]

The A-10 will be a 2-3 bid league again this year.

This thread seems to pop up at least every other year and we rarely end up with more than 3 teams some of the teams that are looking OK for an at large bid right now will drop some conference games and knock themselves out of the conversation.

[XULucho27]

The A-10 will be a 2-3 bid league again this year.

This thread seems to pop up at least every other year and we rarely end up with more than 3 teams some of the teams that are looking OK for an at large bid right now will drop some conference games and knock themselves out of the conversation.

*cough
Dayton
*cough

[xavierj]

The A-10 will be a 2-3 bid league again this year.

This thread seems to pop up at least every other year and we rarely end up with more than 3 teams some of the teams that are looking OK for an at large bid right now will drop some conference games and knock themselves out of the conversation.

I kind of agree but there really is not a whole lot of bad losses to be had. When you only have 4 teams in the so called bad loss category (over 100 rpi's) and really only 2 that are truely bad, GW and Rhody, there just won't be a ton of bad losses in league play. I think the top 4 in the league will go unless they completely shit the bed and lose like 7 or 8 conference games. I think the teams with the best shot to go this year would be Dayton, Xavier, Temple, St. Louis and even St. Joes who right now is 11-5 with a 43 RPI. I think the two with minimal margin for error would be St. Louis and St. Joe.

[bleedXblue]

The A-10 will be a 2-3 bid league again this year.

This thread seems to pop up at least every other year and we rarely end up with more than 3 teams some of the teams that are looking OK for an at large bid right now will drop some conference games and knock themselves out of the conversation.

EXACTLY

Now ay the A-10 get 5 teams.

Hell not one of us is even ranked right now.

I see 3 this year.

Someone is going to crap down their leg.........and either LaSalle or St. Louis is going to knock one or the other out.

[boozehound]

I kind of agree but there really is not a whole lot of bad losses to be had. When you only have 4 teams in the so called bad loss category (over 100 rpi's) and really only 2 that are truely bad, GW and Rhody, there just won't be a ton of bad losses in league play. I think the top 4 in the league will go unless they completely shit the bed and lose like 7 or 8 conference games. I think the teams with the best shot to go this year would be Dayton, Xavier, Temple, St. Louis and even St. Joes who right now is 11-5 with a 43 RPI. I think the two with minimal margin for error would be St. Louis and St. Joe.

I see your point, but I still don't think more than 3 teams get in.

[X-band '01]

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: BJ Monteiro - out since the Dukes A-10 opener (http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12004/1201140-135.stm)

I don't think I've seen this link on the board - one of the Dukes' top players hasn't played in the last 2 games after getting into the middle of a fight on New Year's Eve. It's not clear yet as to whether or not he'll be ready to play tomorrow night.

DDN Blog: Chris Johnson out indefinitely (http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/daytonflyers/entries/2012/01/10/uds_johnson_out_to_miss_bonnie.html?cxtype=feedbot )

Dayton hasn't missed a beat since losing Josh Benson to an ACL tear - Johnson's shoes will be even bigger to fill at this point.

[xavierj]

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: BJ Monteiro - out since the Dukes A-10 opener (http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12004/1201140-135.stm)

I don't think I've seen this link on the board - one of the Dukes' top players hasn't played in the last 2 games after getting into the middle of a fight on New Year's Eve. It's not clear yet as to whether or not he'll be ready to play tomorrow night.

DDN Blog: Chris Johnson out indefinitely (http://www.daytondailynews.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/dayton/daytonflyers/entries/2012/01/10/uds_johnson_out_to_miss_bonnie.html?cxtype=feedbot )

Dayton hasn't missed a beat since losing Josh Benson to an ACL tear - Johnson's shoes will be even bigger to fill at this point.

That is a tough loss for UD. I doubt they win tomorrow without him but it will be great for the UD fans that love a good excuse.

[GoMuskies]

If we go up to Dayton and they don't have Benson or Johnson, that's a huge break for us. I'm usually all for playing teams at full strength, but at this point I'll take a win against a depleted team and be glad to have it.

[DC Muskie]

God I have not paid attention to Dayton at all.

Benson and Johnson are now out? Man, those guy have awful breaks.

[AdamtheFlyer]

My guess is that Johnson misses St Bona and LaSalle at most, and I'd give him a good chance to play vs LaSalle on Saturday. They said he passed all the major tests, but he's feeling some symptoms. They're mostly worried about him flying, making things worse. They'll probably have him workout tomorrow and Thursday, and if no headaches, he'll be back on Saturday. If not, they have a week off before the X game.

[SixFig]

They're mostly worried about him flying,

Isn't he a Dayton Flyer? Irony can be pretty ironic sometimes.