Taj79

I have heard all sorts of "this transfer and that transfer" and seems to me, most transfer for personal reasons and while they are not all character issues (like Juwann Staten at Dayton), they are not the god-send saviors folks think they will be. This year alone, Xavier got Andre Walker and Travis Taylor in from Vandy and Manhatten. Short of being a body, both sucked air in my opinion. Yes, a Reggie Bryant worked out well, but Jamall Johnson, Evan Pedersen and Topm Frericks? Not as well IMO. Jordan Latham was a three- or four-star recruit at Xavier. Went to Loyola of Maryland and doesn't see the floor much there either. Chris Wright peaked his first year at Dayton. Brooks Hall was a mega-recruit. Chaz Williams and Halil Kanoseciv were nice gets out of Hofstra at Umass and St. Joe's. Who was the big goon transferred to Charlotte from BC and got kicked out? Or was that Braswell? All I'm saying is press reports and product on the floor are light years away from each other. If Stevens and Butler win, I doubt it will be the talent that does it ----- I'd like to believe it will be character and style of play.

@UofMemphis -- not arguing with you on the supposed readiness of Pastner, I heard similar arguments about Quinn Snyder, Mike Brey, Brian Gregory, Ollie Purnell and many others. I don't care if Pastner studied at the foot of God, Iba and Knight. All I'm saying is I'll take a HOF coach over this youngster in this particular matchup. I believe I have a number of buds on this board that would question just what exactly Pastner "learned" under Calipari --- Calipari is about as bad a game coach as I've ever seen. He has lost games he had no buisness of losing with the payroll on his bench. If I were Pastner, I wouldn't associate my resume with Cal's. Just saying. Remember --- if you can't dazzle 'em with brilliance, baffle 'em with bullshat. If all that fails, use statistics. It's going to be a great game, I think.

I'd play Northwestern and Seton Hall no problem. Miami would have to upgrade your numbers just from the ACC bounce back but I don't really care to understand all the numbers. Drexel? No. Unless they come here. Remekun was from Texas; so was Cobbin. What about some games down there? We already do the east/west coasts.

Bobby: you'd waste one of your daily posts on this???????

Pastner's system against Majerus' system? Hmmmmmmmm. For some reason, I'm going with the vet over the kid. And there is a whole bunch of homerism in that pick too but Memphis looks like a good matchup for us. I am pleasantly surprised to know that according to a Memphis fan, Memphis has problems wiht the inside game and rebounding. That cna be our issue too so maybe we can actually get an advantage here in an area normally ouir achilles heel.

Jim: good to see you in AC.

No one was going to deprive Andrew Nicholson this past weekend in AC. Kid had a spectacular weekend and the rest of the Bonnies, especially Conger and Kloof, picked it up when they had to. I am going to assume Nicholson got MVP although I was home in Maryland watching on TV when the game ended. Going to be interesting to see if he can do the same against the front line Florida State provides. There were no big men in the A10 his equivalent this past weekend. Even if we had gotten past Xavier on Saturday, I'm not sure what we could have done to counter him if we were there Sunday. i doubt he would have been saddled with foul;s as he was when he came to St. Louis back in January.

I am here with the kid, larry72. Thanks for asking! The day was glorious, truly the best basketball in four games the A10 has to offer. We saw them all. Watched all Philly fans go home sad. Caught between a rock and a hard place in the X/Dayton game (which Dayton blew). Temple fans are, in some cases, as classy and profane as old UC fans. Bills performed well. Disagree with putting Conk on Pettis but we won. Jett shot lights out and Dwayne hit two threes. Who have thunk that. Cody had an off night and if we are going inside, I'd rather we tried to find Conk and not Cody. But it worked put fine in the end. Woof! Th Bonnies' cheerleaders. That's all I'll say. Back to the Trump for noon.

.... how does this gem work? I mean, you schedule a year or so out and teams you think will be worthwhile. For whatever reason, they are or they aren't. Ours this year --- Washington, Nova, BC and Oklahoma --- were less than stellar resultin gin what ESPN now says is an SOS of 110.. But were we that bad? St. Joe's currently has a SOS of 38. Really? Xavier has a 51. And Dayton, who' sbest claim to fame was Alabama and Murray State, has a 78 SOS. Curious as to the formula, if anyone knows.

@sshoe --- I've been in the building a few times, but never seen a game. Last time I was there, all the bleachers were those old-fashoned wood-and-metal frame bleachers like the one's at high school football games or hwere Belushi was lurking in "Animal House" looking up at Mandy and Babs. You could walk under the seats and this is where the concession stands were. Seemed to me they could all be taken down quite quickly if need be. Still -- a greta old place. I need to get inside the Palestra ---- don't kno whow the Palestra could beat Hinkle.

Some folks like to b*tch about us playing the likes of the Bonnies, Umass, GeeDub and Richmond. Why would Bradley want to leave the confines of its very cozy MoValley conference and trade SIu, Indiana State and Illinois State for the same? Why would Creighton? Why would Butler leave the Horizon where, even as dogs this year, they were two games away from another trip to the Big Dance? Teams are moving for football-related reasons. With that in mind, I can't see basketball-only schools outside of the school saffected by the football moves, giving a crap one way or the other. According to today's Baltimore Sun, Temple had to pay the MAC a $6 million exit fee. "A source told ESPN the school believes it will quickly recoup that money with increased revenue from Big East affiliuation." It also said Temple will owe the A10 "$1 million for giving the A10 one year's notice to leave or $2 million for less thna one year." So total move is costing them $7 million right now. Templ ei sinheriting West Virginia's league scheudle for nest year.

If you place it the other way, you will limit the "good" seats. I always felt that was the case at Louisville's Freedom Hall. All the seats were in the end zones.

@delphadj ---- Umass looked doubtful at home to an undermanned Duquesne team. Going to need a substantial boost to take Temple down but can do it seeing as they took them to overtime at Liacouras Center a few weeks ago. Possible. The Bonnies needed two overtimes to subdue St. Joe's in Olean. I think the Fighting Maretelli's get them this time. St. Joe's has traveled well to AC in the past. You already know I agree on Dayton. @bizz --- the last time La Salle actually made it to AC, I was surprised there were any La Salles fans, let alone that many. I'm sure a drunken display will serve to neutralize all that, no doubt.

Galloway is not the issue ------------------- our guards will frustrate him into multiple turnovers. We did that at Gola. Pettis is the scorer and as a fifth year senior, has the moxie to try and take this game over to control it. Wright will be a beast in a year or two and we might need a nice game from Remekun again to neutralize him and their sixth man big. Duren is in a slump --- last five games he's has 17 turnovers and 15 assists. Plus he made one shot the whole night against Richmond. Mills is a non-factor and we must keep him that way. While we need to take advantage of their playing four guards, we cannot change our game plan especially and exclusively to attack it. I thought we took ourselves --- no I think we allowed them to stay in the game longer in Philly because we played away from our game too much to the advantage. The crowd at the start of an evening session 55 miles down the road from Philly will be pro-La Salle. In addition, I expect any and all X and Dayton fans to cheer for La Salle as well. This will be a hostile environment. Still, we are the largest favorite of the night and I think it should be even bigger. As for the others, TEMPLE and ST. JOE's would seem to trend to nice winsdown that same expressway. I have no clue on the nightcap ---------------- thta deservers to be tight. I think DAYTON stands a good chance -------------- they pulverized X in Dayton and X needed overtime at home to best the Fryers there. Neutral floor? Who knows.

We don't beat La Salle, maybe we don't deserve to be in, huh? There is no reason to lose to La Salle --------------------we are bigger than them, we have a deeper bench then them, we have a coach and they do not, we play a system and they do not, and we beat them at their place handily.

I'll ask them.

Umass pulls away. Alltop seeds win. Friday will be the best the A10 has to offer. Can't wait!

Umass up four with 114 to go.

Student technical on Umass. That's the fifth of the night in Amhert.

Umass student throws water bottle from stands at BJ Montiero after Montiero fouls out AND gets his own technical. Fourth technical in the Umass game.

Dayton plays X in the nightcap.

St. Joe's. La Salle. Dayton. Move on. Umass and Duquesne in a nip=n=tuck shoot out.

St. Joe's up twelve under a minute. La salle up ten same. GeeDub down 11. Hush, hush SignPunk.

La Salle up 15 now. Richmond appears out of gas with under four to go.

La Salle holding off all Richmond runs,in deepfoul trouble but up seven near the under 8 to.