Compton

So Duquesne just downgraded the king of the jungle to duke status?

Our ranking and neighbors in today's AP poll:

I think when you bundle a lot of factors together into "comfort" it's a huge factor - no flight the day before, no possible time zone change, no bus trips to and form a hotel, sleeping in your own bed, eating your usual/favorite dining hall meal before a game, no relaxing/taking mind off things by playing your playstation with your teammates the night before, walk throughs/practicing in your own gym on game day, having your own locker with your own random stuff in it, etc, etc...

Getting 1,200-1,500 attendees a game (if that) means a lot of current and future hedge funders, CEOs, real estate tycoons, tech entrepreneurs, etc... aren't going to Rams games and catching the Fordham version of whatever bug Dr. Chaifetz and everyone on this message board has.

Very close. Mario Gabelli. Done a lot for Fordham. The business school is named after him.

....and coaching, and funding, and administration.

I'm coming around to this view after the initial shock/depression of losing SLU basketball for (at least) two weeks. Unlike a bunch of other teams - Fordham, Bonnies, Duquesne - we played a full and solid non-conference schedule. This team has a good sense of what works and what they need to work on. After some initial try outs (which Linssen and Jacobs took full advantage of), coach more or less has his rotation set. Additionally, missing (hopefully only) 4 games means less wear and tear, less of Yuri getting banged around, less of Hashan getting hacked, more time for Thatch and Jimerso

At this rate if we don't play any more games this regular season we'll be in line for a 1 seed.

Then post about basketball.

There are some pretty wonky rankings in there. #14 Colorado (7-3 losing 2 of their last 3), #16 Colgate (1-1 with a win and loss against Army), #20 Drake (10-0 but hasn't played anyone in Quad 1 or 2). I'm sure those outliers will get ironed out as more games are played. And we're certainly far more deserving of our #12 starting spot than they are.

Additionally, just in terms of incoming talent, Fordham's coach's contract is up at the end of this season. It's got to be nearly impossible to recruit when kids don't know who they're signing up to play for their sophomore year or after sitting for a year as a transfer.

Many of the teams in front of us in line in the AP Top 25 have tacked on losses in the last week. Xavier (Seton Hall), UNC (Georgia Tech), Arkansas (Mizzou), Colorado (Arizona). Nice to see their resumes getting dinged while we're not able to add to ours.

The MVC has an interesting schedule this year, with most of their games played on back-to-back days. It results in most season match-ups being home or away instead of home and away. Really tough to beat the same team 2 days in a row, but that could be one means of getting the UMass and LaSalle games in (if the latter ends up getting cancelled).

That's a shame. A strong Dayton team is (was?) good for the A10. SMU - Dayton's only loss before tonight - is looking increasingly solid at 6-0 with a 2-0 start in conference play and got their first AP Top 25 vote on Monday. Losing to LaSalle at home is a big step back for the Flyers.