Prairie Bill Posted May 31, 2012 Share Posted May 31, 2012 From the Indy Star article: The inaugural 16-team tournament at the sparkling Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., will be a major event. Already, East Coast media are pondering how they will cover the A-10 and Big East tournaments — and which one will be more compelling.From the ESPN Brennan post:When the tourney move was announced in September, it was a bit of a head-scratcher. (McGlade cited the league's desire for more exposure in New York, which, well, OK. Whatever.) Now, it looks like the perfect setting to determine the A-10's automatic tournament bid, home to a 16-team event that stands to feature some of the most exciting conference-tourney action in the country. If all goes well, March's A-10 showdown could mix the big-time feel of a BCS conference tourney with a healthy dose of the mid-major do-or-die ethos, and if you're asking if this is something I would be interested in watching, the answer, my friends, is yes.What a difference a year has made since the tourney move was announced. The NY area has long been a net exporter of undergraduate students (not enough first-rate schools to accommodate the population). If you want SLU to improve its national academic reputation, and if you believe that a nationally respected MBB program helps in this regard, you have to love the idea of SLU pitching its tent in Fordham's back yard next March. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deutschkind Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 Anyone know what the format for the tournament will be this year? What buys will there be for the 16 teams? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duff Man Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 Anyone know what the format for the tournament will be this year? What buys will there be for the 16 teams? http://articles.dailypress.com/2012-05-31/sports/dp-spt-teel-column-atlantic10-20120531_1_vcu-and-butler-bradford-burgess-ncaa-tournament As the A-10 takes its basketball tournament to the new Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., McGlade said she anticipates retaining a 12-team, four-day format, meaning four schools will not qualify next season Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deutschkind Posted June 1, 2012 Share Posted June 1, 2012 Thanks. All 12 will be in New York, though, this year. Correct? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prairie Bill Posted June 2, 2012 Share Posted June 2, 2012 Thanks. All 12 will be in New York, though, this year. Correct?Correct. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quality Is Job 1 Posted June 3, 2012 Share Posted June 3, 2012 Yeah, a 12-team tournament makes more sense if all of the games are to be in one location. A 16-team tournament requires campus sites for the first round, as it's highly impractical to play eight games at one site in one day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Franchise_08 Posted June 3, 2012 Share Posted June 3, 2012 I know we have bashed the A10 officials nonstop and deservingly so, but the conference situation looks better than ever. A trip to Indianapolis to see Butler is such an easier destination than let's say Charlotte and Butler is a better home draw than Charlotte. I wonder if Nolan Berry knew anything about the possible move before he signed with Butler. Now if only the A10 can improve their television exposure in 2013 and do something about their crappy referees. A great start though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WVBilliken Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 Berry has NOT signed with Butler yet, can't until November signing period, 2012. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheeseman Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 Posts like this always annoy me because its the same crap that BCS schools talk about when teams like Gonzaga, Xavier etc. do well. VCU and Butler will do just fine in the A-10 and VCU may very well be our top competition for the league title. Could not agree more - you beat me with the post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IndyDawg Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 Nice find Metz. It is very easy to win 25+ games every year when you only have to "get up" for 3-4 games a year. Butler and VCU are going to be middle of the pack in my opinion. Wait until VCU has to go play at @SJU, @Dayton or even in terrible Olean. No longer will they be putting Dec-Feb on cruise control as they whip up on Towson, William and Mary, James Madison, and Georgia St. VCU circles George Mason on the calendar every year (scary). People who are anointing VCU and Butler has A-10 favorites could be very surprised when they look at the standings in late February. I cannot wait for RM to coach circles around Shaka. -Nick LOL. VCU and Butler might just be the two best teams in the conference (who the hell knows). How about pumping the breaks a little bit on poking the bear? Outside of Xavier, no one in the conference has come close to achieving as much (and of course Xavier has never been to a 3rd weekend). Lets just see how things fall. Hell, most of these preseason publications has all three schools in their Top 25. Here's one.... http://collegebasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/04/03/indiana-louisville-top-our-too-early-2012-13-preseason-top-25/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pistol Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 Home-and-home partners are official: SLU-Butler St. Bonaventure-Duquesne Richmond-VCU UMass-Rhode Island Fordham-St. Joe's Xavier-Dayton Charlotte-Temple GW-LaSalle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 Home-and-home partners are official: SLU-Butler St. Bonaventure-Duquesne Richmond-VCU UMass-Rhode Island Fordham-St. Joe's Xavier-Dayton Charlotte-Temple GW-LaSalle i like that they paired temple charlotte. they are leaving anyway so might as well set the rest of the league up for future rival building. wonder why lasalle and st joes arent matched against each other though? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobby Metzinger Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 Our conference @ games are official: BU, DUQ, FOR, GW, RICH, SBU, TEM, XAV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kshoe Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 Our conference @ games are official: BU, DUQ, FOR, GW, RICH, SBU, TEM, XAV. Which obviously means the official home opponents are: BU, CHA, DAY, LAS, UMASS, URI, SJU and VCU. Charlotte, LaSalle and RI aren't terribly exciting but the other 5 should draw pretty well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
showthebill Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 I wish we were to get either Xavier or Temple at home..... Playing both away from home is a tough draw Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waldo027 Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 Arguably the top teams in the conference besides us are SJU, UMass, and VCU, and we get them all at home. Temple, Xavier, and Butler on the road are the only really tough games we have. The schedule is very favorable, again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clock_Tower Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 Arguably the top teams in the conference besides us are SJU, UMass, and VCU, and we get them all at home. Temple, Xavier, and Butler on the road are the only really tough games we have. The schedule is very favorable, again. What? You don't have Butler as a top team but you do have SJU and UMass as top teams? Road games at Butler, St. Bona, Temple and X is rather tough. Don't get me wrong, I could care less about winning the A10 regular season as compared to coming in second or third. Instead, I want to play the best teams we can for experience, rpi and quality wins. If the BCS schools won't play us, then I'm thrilled that we get to play Butler twice (though St. Joe's has a much easier go at it by playing Fordham twice), X, UD and both Temple and VCU this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DistrictBaller Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 VCU has to play St. Louis, Xavier, St. Bonaventure and Temple on the road this year. On the other hand we get Butler, Dayton, UMass, and St. Joe's at home. Playing at SLU is absolutely a tough game, but I can't help but think that if there was any year we'd want to play at X or Temple, this would be it with as much as they are having to replace. We may well still lose those games, but we probably have as good a chance as we'll ever at those places with as many pieces as those squads are having to replace. Just looking at the schedule it's ridiculous how stacked the league is going to be. From a VCU perspective that VCU-Butler game is made for ESPN. Shaka Smart vs. Brad Stevens (the 2 hottest young coaches in the country) in a rematch of the 2011 Final Four. The Siegel Center is going to be rocking that night. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kshoe Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 The key point is that there are about 8 really good teams in the A-10 this coming year and you'll likely get 3-5 of them at home and 3-5 of them on the road. Its a really good situation to be in. For SLU the schedule will feel like we traded 1 game each with Xavier, Dayton and Duquesne for two with Butler and one with VCU. A good trade in my mind. Next year, we'll make another trade of one Charlotte and one Temple for hopefully one Xavier and one Dayton. Another good trade. In the end, we'll have replaced games with Duq, Charlotte and Temple for 2 with Butler and one with VCU. An excellent overall trade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waldo027 Posted June 5, 2012 Share Posted June 5, 2012 What? You don't have Butler as a top team but you do have SJU and UMass as top teams? Road games at Butler, St. Bona, Temple and X is rather tough. Don't get me wrong, I could care less about winning the A10 regular season as compared to coming in second or third. Instead, I want to play the best teams we can for experience, rpi and quality wins. If the BCS schools won't play us, then I'm thrilled that we get to play Butler twice (though St. Joe's has a much easier go at it by playing Fordham twice), X, UD and both Temple and VCU this year. My top 6 in no particular order are SLU, VCU, Butler, Xavier, SJU, and UMass. I was replying to showthebill who claimed we got a tough draw on the schedule. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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