RS Posted October 2, 2003 Share Posted October 2, 2003 As a GW grad an A-10 follower I am obviously closely following the likely plans for expansion. I think adding SLU and Charlotte would be great for the league. Boston U has been mentioned in the mix as well, and while they are upgrading their program (e.g. new arena) I think SLU has a much better national recognition, at least for basketball. A few comments about the league and GW. Basically the league has been top heavy for some time with a couple or three weaker teams consistently hurting the overall RPI of the league. However, with significant coaching turnover a couple of years ago that has led to improvement in recruiting by many teams, and the league is now on the verge of getting stronger overall. Unfortunately last year's late season scandal at St Bona. could hurt their recruiting for years to come, and Fordham will need time to recover from the Bob Hill coaching disaster. Temple should be back to their usual strong team, possibly even this year, after having been out of the limelight the past couple of seasons. Rhode Island, Temple, Xavier and UMass have built new arenas in the past few years. Fordham and St. Joe's play in dumps though some of St Joe's bigger games are at the Palestra (the so-called "Mecca" of college basketball). If Fordham ever got good again they would likely play more games at Madison Sq Garden. GW's arena is not large, holds 5,454, but is a great place to watch a college game with great atmosphere, particularly when GW is fielding a good team. Though the students' side has bleachers (which is across from the TV cameras) the rest of the place is seats. So on TV it looks sort of like a high school gym but it is not really like that. Because of the close proximity of the fans to the floor it can be very loud and intimidating. Due to neighborhood issues, GW likely can't expand the Smith Center. GW does play two games each year in the BB&T tournament in early December as co-hosts with Univ of Maryland at the MCI center in DC. Georgetown, who was at one time GW's biggest rival, has refused to play them or other DC area teams for several years (blame it on John Thompson). For more indepth info on each team, check out WH's write-up at the A-10 messageboard:http://www.basketballboards.net/forum/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=79 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thetorch Posted October 2, 2003 Share Posted October 2, 2003 The geographis mismatch has been raised here in St. Louis. Are other A-10 schools concerned about SLU being so far away, or does adding better quality to the conference supersede the geography concerns? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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