Around the A10 20-21 season

[Taj79]

Great viewing yesterday,  VCU lost at Penn State on a buzzer bearing three that was released with like .4 on the clock.  Lights went on as the shot was in the air.  Hasan Ward did all that he could to block it but maybe should have stayed closer to Myles Dread before the shot.  Of course, Dread played nine minutes and made one shot but it was that one.  Interesting note, announcers noted VCU has nine freshmen and sophomores on team.  In other words, they are young.  On;y double digit scorers were Hyland (11) and Stockard (13).  Stockard did really well on the interior but I can't help but wonder if that was because PSU played traditional bigs against whom Stockard matched up well.  This game was so even that even the stats don't separate the two.  VCU didn't so much lose as they ran out of time.  

Watched Duquesne run away from UNC-Greensboro in Louisville.  It looks like Dambrot ids starting Austin Rotroff at center over Michale Hughes to give Duquesne some sort of bench option going forward.  There is just very little proven talent on the Dukes bench what with Dunn-Martin starting so moving Hughes to sixth man seems to be the fix for now.  For some reason, Maceo Austin didn't play last night after playing 24 mpg in the opener.  Weathers was a beast, Carry was efficient, and Dunn-Martin hit four threes so UNCG had no real answer.  But there is nothing really new about Duquesne from last year to this.

Rhode Isalnd got that nice win against the Hall.  I wasn't that impressed with the Hall.  Seems like everything had to go through Sandro Mamukelashvili and that wasn't really enough variety for me.  He and former SLU recruit Jared Rhoden seem to be it for offense for the Hall.  Where did all their big guys go?  I did see Jermaine Harris back on the court for Rhodey so that answers a question I had on him earlier.  Fatts had an up-and-down game, make three of four threes but only shooting 1-of-8 otherwise.  Makhi Mitchell, who I consider the lesser of the twins, had a decent game for once.  It was a tight game through and through with Rhodey pulling away at the end.  Nice win and yes, I think Rhode Island will get better as the year progresses.

Finally, Davidson hung on to beat UNLV in the Maui run, 77 to 73.  Four points off their bench in 50 minutes.  Grady, Lee and Collins doing 61 of 77 points.  Still a three guard outfit with Lee taking over for JAG.  Some listed Mennenga as the top recruit in the A10 but I'm not seeing it yet.  He looks a little slow in picking up the speed of the American game.  I remember when UNLV was not only good but feared.  

It's early, but from what I've seen around the A10 so far is that the teams are who I thought they were.  Risers seem to be Rhode Island and St. Joe's.  Richmond, Duquesne, Davidson, VCU and La Salle have shown nothing above what I knew going in.  Have not seen Mason, Geedubya, the Bonnies, Dayton or Fordham yet.  Neither Umass.

[wgstl]

4 minutes ago, Taj79 said:

 

Finally, Davidson hung on to beat UNLV in the Maui run, 77 to 73.  Four points off their bench in 50 minutes.  Grady, Lee and Collins doing 61 of 77 points.  Still a three guard outfit with Lee taking over for JAG.  Some listed Mennenga as the top recruit in the A10 but I'm not seeing it yet.  He looks a little slow in picking up the speed of the American game.  I remember when UNLV was not only good but feared.  

 

Didnt watch last night, but I thought Mennenga looked great in the Texas(?) game. 

[Taj79]

He did not look good in the Providence nor UNLV games.  Unfortunately, I missed the Texas game.  He hasn't shownme much in the two I've watched ... 2 points in 19 minutes against UNLV and 4 points in 34 minutes against Providence.  Maybe he does better against better teams.  Right now, he's much more servicable than import bigs Nelson Boachie-Yiadom, David Kristenson and David Czerapowicz but he is not any much better than Luka Brajkovic.  I guess that's what happens when you take flyers on these Euro big men .... a 20% to 25% success rate.  Maybe?  

I think Mennenga's ceiling right now is similar to that of Rob Loe.  That's not a bad ceiling but team success will hinge on who surrounds Sam going forward.  Grady and Collins are done this year.  And there is very little waiting in the wings.

[MichaelC]

21 minutes ago, Taj79 said:

It's early, but from what I've seen around the A10 so far is that the teams are who I thought they were.  Risers seem to be Rhode Island and St. Joe's.  Richmond, Duquesne, Davidson, VCU and La Salle have shown nothing above what I knew going in.  Have not seen Mason, Geedubya, the Bonnies, Dayton or Fordham yet.  Neither Umass.

I've seen Geedubya twice and they are not very good. They have decent guards/wings in Nelson Jr, Battle and LSU transfer James Bishop (their best player) but very little size. Paar is a legit 6-10 but he is not a big body, the Navy and Hampton bigs had their way in the paint. If you slow down Bishop their offense grinds to a halt. 

[maverick]

1 hour ago, Taj79 said:

Great viewing yesterday,  VCU lost at Penn State on a buzzer bearing three that was released with like .4 on the clock.  Lights went on as the shot was in the air.  Hasan Ward did all that he could to block it but maybe should have stayed closer to Myles Dread before the shot.  Of course, Dread played nine minutes and made one shot but it was that one.  Interesting note, announcers noted VCU has nine freshmen and sophomores on team.  In other words, they are young.  On;y double digit scorers were Hyland (11) and Stockard (13).  Stockard did really well on the interior but I can't help but wonder if that was because PSU played traditional bigs against whom Stockard matched up well.  This game was so even that even the stats don't separate the two.  VCU didn't so much lose as they ran out of time.  

Watched Duquesne run away from UNC-Greensboro in Louisville.  It looks like Dambrot ids starting Austin Rotroff at center over Michale Hughes to give Duquesne some sort of bench option going forward.  There is just very little proven talent on the Dukes bench what with Dunn-Martin starting so moving Hughes to sixth man seems to be the fix for now.  For some reason, Maceo Austin didn't play last night after playing 24 mpg in the opener.  Weathers was a beast, Carry was efficient, and Dunn-Martin hit four threes so UNCG had no real answer.  But there is nothing really new about Duquesne from last year to this.

Rhode Isalnd got that nice win against the Hall.  I wasn't that impressed with the Hall.  Seems like everything had to go through Sandro Mamukelashvili and that wasn't really enough variety for me.  He and former SLU recruit Jared Rhoden seem to be it for offense for the Hall.  Where did all their big guys go?  I did see Jermaine Harris back on the court for Rhodey so that answers a question I had on him earlier.  Fatts had an up-and-down game, make three of four threes but only shooting 1-of-8 otherwise.  Makhi Mitchell, who I consider the lesser of the twins, had a decent game for once.  It was a tight game through and through with Rhodey pulling away at the end.  Nice win and yes, I think Rhode Island will get better as the year progresses.

Finally, Davidson hung on to beat UNLV in the Maui run, 77 to 73.  Four points off their bench in 50 minutes.  Grady, Lee and Collins doing 61 of 77 points.  Still a three guard outfit with Lee taking over for JAG.  Some listed Mennenga as the top recruit in the A10 but I'm not seeing it yet.  He looks a little slow in picking up the speed of the American game.  I remember when UNLV was not only good but feared.  

It's early, but from what I've seen around the A10 so far is that the teams are who I thought they were.  Risers seem to be Rhode Island and St. Joe's.  Richmond, Duquesne, Davidson, VCU and La Salle have shown nothing above what I knew going in.  Have not seen Mason, Geedubya, the Bonnies, Dayton or Fordham yet.  Neither Umass.

The end of that Davidson game reminded me of Billikens games past -- Davidson hung on, but it shouldn't have been quite that close at the end. If Davidson's shooters get hot, they could be a real threat. But very nice point about the lack of bench contributions.

[HoosierPal]

Currently UMass shows their first game v LaSalle on Dec 9 and then their only OOC game against Northeastern on Dec 13.  Today they have only 19 games scheduled.  And I'd bet that a few of those get canceled by the virus. 

We have seen pop up games happen in a 24 hour window.  UMass needs to add a few relatively high ranked opponents if they have any hope of getting NCAA Tourney interest.  Going 14-4, 13-5, or so in the A10 plus a win at NE, won't get them there.  They play the Bills twice and Richmond once, so their potential Q1 games are limited in conference.  

[wgstl]

7 minutes ago, HoosierPal said:

Currently UMass shows their first game v LaSalle on Dec 9 and then their only OOC game against Northeastern on Dec 13.  Today they have only 19 games scheduled.  And I'd bet that a few of those get canceled by the virus. 

We have seen pop up games happen in a 24 hour window.  UMass needs to add a few relatively high ranked opponents if they have any hope of getting NCAA Tourney interest.  Going 14-4, 13-5, or so in the A10 plus a win at NE, won't get them there.  They play the Bills twice and Richmond once, so their potential Q1 games are limited in conference.  

isnt there still like 25 teams who have yet to play?  Seems like these pop up games are far from over. 

[HoosierPal]

31 minutes ago, wgstl said:

isnt there still like 25 teams who have yet to play?  Seems like these pop up games are far from over. 

I don't know the number but you are probably close.  Once conferences start, the OOC pop-ups will be more difficult.  And as teams get further into their conference season, making up conference games will be more difficult.  I think the A10 has built in a week prior to the Conference tourney for make up games, but that could be very interesting if one team has 3 or 4 to make up and another has none. 

[wgstl]

1 hour ago, HoosierPal said:

I don't know the number but you are probably close.  Once conferences start, the OOC pop-ups will be more difficult.  And as teams get further into their conference season, making up conference games will be more difficult.  I think the A10 has built in a week prior to the Conference tourney for make up games, but that could be very interesting if one team has 3 or 4 to make up and another has none. 

Counted, 39 teams currently.  Agreed that it will get harder, but there are stretches in conference(as of now) that call for week long gap between games. 

[HoosierPal]

1 hour ago, wgstl said:

Counted, 39 teams currently.  Agreed that it will get harder, but there are stretches in conference(as of now) that call for week long gap between games. 

UMass, Fordham and St. Bonnie are three of them.

[CenHudDude]

Isn’t George Mason a 4th?

[HoosierPal]

20 minutes ago, CenHudDude said:

Isn’t George Mason a 4th?

They have 3 in the books.

[Taj79]

Mason just went on COVID quarantine cancelling their scheduled game ay UMd tonight.  Uh-oh.

[HoosierPal]

Looks like Rhody got a pop up game in 12 hour (or less) window!  Just keep the bus moving down the road to the next gym. 

You want to be shirts or skins?

[Littlebill]

35 minutes ago, HoosierPal said:

Looks like Rhody got a pop up game in 12 hour (or less) window!  Just keep the bus moving down the road to the next gym. 

You want to be shirts or skins?

Wrong rhode island

[MichaelC]

Dayton has their hands full with SMU, down 2 with 6 minutes left. 

[brianstl]

Dayton has some fans in attendance 

[MichaelC]

Just now, brianstl said:

Dayton has some fans in attendance 

They announced it as 250.

[MichaelC]

Dayton loses by 2 on a last second shot. Crutcher was not good today, 10 points and 5 turnovers. 

[Franchise_08]

Dayton...hmm. Not impressed. 

[3star_recruit]

Just now, Franchise_08 said:

Dayton...hmm. Not impressed. 

Early struggles were totally predictable as Crutcher adapts to life without Obi.  No alley oops for easy buckets, no easy drives to the hoop as defenses collapse on a future lottery pick.  There's a vocal contingent of the Flyer fanbase that wants that adaptation to happen right away.  I don't think that's realistic.  

[MichaelC]

3 minutes ago, 3star_recruit said:

Early struggles were totally predictable as Crutcher adapts to life without Obi.  No alley oops for easy buckets, no easy drives to the hoop as defenses collapse on a future lottery pick.  There's a vocal contingent of the Flyer fanbase that wants that adaptation to happen right away.  I don't think that's realistic.  

All true. And if you think they struggled when Crutcher was on the floor you should have seen them when he was on the bench with 4 fouls late in the late, they looked completely disjointed, it appears they have very little depth. 

[almaman]

1 hour ago, MichaelC said:

They announced it as 250.

paid or there?

[Littlebill]

1 hour ago, MichaelC said:

Dayton loses by 2 on a last second shot. Crutcher was not good today, 10 points and 5 turnovers. 

Someone on Twitter, I think it was 3BidLeague complained they got “nothing from their bench”. Dayton has a bench????????

[MichaelC]

18 minutes ago, almaman said:

paid or there?

LOL They said 250 actually in the arena, looked like some of them were students.