Atlantic 10 Tournament — 1st round

[Quality Is Job 1]

With the altered tournament format for the A-10 this year, one thing that will be missing is the chance to watch four consecutive games, since they will all be played at the same time. I think the game I'm most interested in watching tonight is the GW-Dayton game, because I'm interested to see how much fire the Flyers have in their belly, considering the preseason expectations. However, I'm also interested in watching the Rhode Island game because the Bills will face the winner of that game Friday.

Of the four games, only the Duquesne-Bonaventure game is NOT listed on Channelsurfing. But that's probably the yawner, anyway. Friday should be awesome for A-10 fans.

[Runnin'Billiken]

Rhody for me. If we want to win the tourney and get a bid, we're going to have to beat better than the likes of Rhody (a.k.a. Temple and X). Should we not win the tourney, beating St. Joes does absolutely nothing for our RPI and NIT resume. Beating URI on a neutral court does. Even going 1-1 vs. two top 40 teams helps us. beating URI and Temple and then losing in the final would be a significant SOS boost, two neutral court quality wins, and consideration for VERY good seeding in the NIT given the conference and our finish. I'm not considering at large as a possibility because it is not. Let's just win and we won't have to worry about any of this beauty contest junk.

[Quality Is Job 1]

Rhody for me. If we want to win the tourney and get a bid, we're going to have to beat better than the likes of Rhody (a.k.a. Temple and X). Should we not win the tourney, beating St. Joes does absolutely nothing for our RPI and NIT resume. Beating URI on a neutral court does. Even going 1-1 vs. two top 40 teams helps us. beating URI and Temple and then losing in the final would be a significant SOS boost, two neutral court quality wins, and consideration for VERY good seeding in the NIT given the conference and our finish. I'm not considering at large as a possibility because it is not. Let's just win and we won't have to worry about any of this beauty contest junk.

My thinking, exactly.

If the Bills get past Rhode Island, which I expect, Temple more than likely looms. I wouldn't say that Xavier would be a given in the final, though, as Richmond and Dayton will have something to say about that (and Charlotte is also in the mix, as they were able to win at Richmond, though that was avenged at Charlotte).

[Bizziken]

I'm interested in the outcome of the Duquesne-St. Bonaventure game...don't want to watch it, BUT Duquesne winning is VERY important for SLU...

Right now Duquesne is 102 in the RPI, if they win, they will drop below 100 and give SLU a respectable 6-7 record (instead of 4-7) vs. the top 100

[Bay Area Billiken]

I'm interested in the outcome of the Duquesne-St. Bonaventure game...don't want to watch it, BUT Duquesne winning is VERY important for SLU...

Right now Duquesne is 102 in the RPI, if they win, they will drop below 100 and give SLU a respectable 6-7 record (instead of 4-7) vs. the top 100

Go Dukes!

This sounds like a big deal in Olean, NY. They are playing it up in the papers as the Bonnies' first home playoff game since the 1995 NIT, which was well after Bob Lanier led St. Bona to the NCAA Final 4, but well prior to the welding certificate scandal, from which the Bonnies appear to be recovering.

For GW at Dayton, Dayton is expecting a crowd of only 7,500 at UD Arena.

[moytoy12]

Rhody for me. If we want to win the tourney and get a bid, we're going to have to beat better than the likes of Rhody (a.k.a. Temple and X). Should we not win the tourney, beating St. Joes does absolutely nothing for our RPI and NIT resume. Beating URI on a neutral court does. Even going 1-1 vs. two top 40 teams helps us. beating URI and Temple and then losing in the final would be a significant SOS boost, two neutral court quality wins, and consideration for VERY good seeding in the NIT given the conference and our finish. I'm not considering at large as a possibility because it is not. Let's just win and we won't have to worry about any of this beauty contest junk.

Great points. The flip side is that St. Joes seemingly gives us an easier path to an A-10 tourney championship.

[Bay Area Billiken]

Great points. The flip side is that St. Joes seemingly gives us an easier path to an A-10 tourney championship.

Tough call- I think the ultimate goal is to win the A-10 Tournament, in which case it is probably better to play St. Joe's in the quarter-finals.

But in the beauty contest category, playing St. Joe's again will not help SLU's RPI, as noted in the above post. That comes into play in the secondary goal of making this SLU team look better on paper, certainly for NIT purposes, we hope even for NCAA at large, as some of the pundits are talking about SLU at least as being on the periphery of the NCAA.

URI hammered St. Joe's 101-74 in the regular season. St. Joe's played a zone the whole game in its last game against LaSalle, the first time Phil Martelli has gone zone for a whole game. But I doubt a zone will work against URI.

Jim Baron is taking some heat at URI. And still we keep hearing that URI is an NCAA bubble team with its RPI of 41.

The GW-Dayton game sounds like an up and down, drive to the hoop type game. I expect Dayton to win there. The vested are not happy campers these days. Assuming Dayton wins, that will yield the rubber match with Xavier in Atlantic City. Dayton, 8-8, the 7th Place team in the A-10, is also still being discussed as an NCAA bubble team with its RPI of 51.

This is a year that I wish there wasn't an RPI. What about head to head play? SLU beat URI and beat Dayton twice. What better index is there than head to head play?

Also, one would think St. Bona can handle Duquesne on the Bona home court, where it beat the Dukes by 12 in the regular season. That seems to me to be the closest of the four games to being a toss-up.

Who knows about UMass at Charlotte? Charlotte has tanked, but I expect Bobby Lutz's troops will win this one at home.

[dneuner]

How sweet would it be for GW to beat Dayton at Dayton?

Interestingly, Majerus said he's not prepping for URI or Joe's. He's just prepping in general. That will probably change tomorrow, though.

[NH]

I think that if we get in, it is going to be in spite of our RPI, so if St. Joes wins I will take it. Our best shot is to win the tourney and playing St. joes is our best shot at that.

[showthebill]

dayton winning would bump them from 51 to in the top 50 so that would make our wins vs top 50 4-3 instead of 2-3. However, them losing the next game could drop them back to 51 i would think

[Quality Is Job 1]

GW leads Dayton early 13-8.

I can't get the picture w/ the Rhode Island game.

[b.hayes]

GW leads Dayton early 13-8.

I can't get the picture w/ the Rhode Island game.

I know it wouldn't help us any, but I'd be full of LOLZ if Dayton kept losing....

[brianstl]

How sweet would it be for GW to beat Dayton at Dayton?

Interestingly, Majerus said he's not prepping for URI or Joe's. He's just prepping in general. That will probably change tomorrow, though.

Not very. It would hurt our RPI because we played Dayton twice and GW once. We want every team we have played twice to win at least one game.

[Quality Is Job 1]

Dayton now leads 20-19 @ the under 8:00 TO.

[dneuner]

All four games are close contests thus far. Good ball.

[Quality Is Job 1]

Now have picture on the Channelsurfing URI game.

[Quality Is Job 1]

Dayton leads 29-24 w/ 4:55 left in 1st.

[thetorch]

St. Joes was awful this year but their big guard gives Kwamain fits. I'd rather play RI.

[Quality Is Job 1]

35-28 Dayton w/ 2 & change left in 1st.

I can't see the URI score.

[brianstl]

RI up 37-32

[Bay Area Billiken]

UD 37 GW 33 at half.

[SluSignGuy]

C'mon G-Dub. Give me two teams in Atlantic City!

[TheChosenOne]

All four games are close contests thus far. Good ball.

Here is what the games are looking at through the first 20 minutes:

Rhode Island up on Saint Joseph's 37-32

Dayton up on GW 37-33

UMass up on Charlotte 31-29

St. Bonaventure up on Duquesne 34-30

[billikenfan05]

Doug Gotlieb just said this tournament is being played in the witness protection program because of the TV deal!

[Bishop]

why did I ever put money on Charlotte... EVER