Atlantic 10

2009 Atlantic 10 Men's Basketball Championship
Boardwalk Hall - Atlantic City, N.J.

Wednesday, March 11
Game 1 - #8 La Salle vs. #9 Saint Louis - 12:00
Game 2 - #5 Saint Joseph's vs. #12 Charlotte - 2:30
Game 3 - #7 Duquesne vs. #10 Massachusetts - 6:30
Game 4 - #6 Richmond vs. #11 St. Bonaventure - 9:00

PITTSBURGH - Duquesne senior guard Aaron Jackson (Hartford, Conn./Worcester (Mass.) Academy) earned Atlantic 10 Player of the Week honors for a school record fourth time this season and freshman guard Eric Evans (Detroit, Mich./Northwestern) was named A-10 Rookie of the Week for the fourth time following wins at La Salle and at Massachusetts this past week.

Atlantic 10 (8th in RPI: Xavier, Dayton, Temple, Rhode Island, St. Joe's)

MWC (7th in RPI: Utah, BYU, UNLV, San Diego St, New Mexico)

Kevin McNeill's weekly 5 Things column breaks down what's important in the world of college basketball.

Five things we learned this week...

1) That Bill Self is not very happy with his freshmen right now. 

PLAYER OF THE WEEK: 

Tony Gaffney (Sr.), Massachusetts.  While others may have scored more points, no player helped his team any greater on both ends of the floor than did Gaffney.  For the week, Gaffney averaged a double-double (13 points, 13 rebounds per game), and also intimidated opponents by swatting away five shots per outing, including a nine block effort against Boston College.  A model of efficiency on the offensive end as well, the senior shot 67% in UMass’ two close defeats.

1.) Dayton is leading the conference in turnover margin.  An important development for the Flyers, who finished the 2007-08 campaign tenth in the A-10.  This season, UD is plus 4.83 in that department.

2.) The name Brian Conklin.  For those not dialed in on Billiken hoops, the 6-foot-6 freshman is getting better with each game (10.2 points, 5.2 rebounds) and has been a model of efficiency for a newcomer.  Conklin is averaging an incredible 1.96 points per shot; shooting better from the field (73%) than the stripe (72%).

 

After winning a program-record 30 contests and advancing to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament, Xavier has been tabbed as the team to beat in the Atlantic 10 men's basketball race, according to a poll of Atlantic 10's head coaches and media released Tuesday during Basketball Media Day.

Charlotte

Dayton

Saint Joseph's

Temple

UMASS

Xavier

Other (La Salle, Richmond, SLU, URI, etc)