Atlantic 10

2008 CollegeHoops.net Program & Conference of the Year

Shawn Siegel — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 14:18:53 -0700

After a lengthy run of individual awards, we finally reach CHN's program and conference awards. As always, CHN writers voted for the best of the best:

CollegeHoops.net Program of the Year: Drake

By now, Drake’s surprise success has been discussed many times over. The 28-5 record, the MVC Championship, the Top 25 Ranking. The unknown players like Adam Emmenecker turning in all-star seasons, and a first year coach earning National Coach of the Year plaudits. But every time you read about the success of Keno Davis’s squad, the more shocking it truly seems.

Here at CHN, we pride ourselves on our top quality season preview and preseason rankings. Yet when it came to Drake, like everyone else, we were completely wrong. 165^th place was our prediction.. and we were only about 140 places off. In fact, Drake was projected to be 85 places worse than the 2^nd lowest team (Western Kentucky) that ended up in our Final Top 40. For shocking CHN’s experts and college basketball nation, Drake is a worthy program of the year.

Runner Up: Texas

After losing NBA All-Rookie performer Kevin Durant to the Draft, many thought that the Longhorns would regress. But instead, Rick Barnes led Texas to a record 31 win season as well as their 3^rd Elite Eight trip of the last six years. Amazingly, not one major contributor from the co-Big 12 champion is a senior, and the program’s continued success seems like a lock.

CollegeHoops.net Mid-Major Program of the Year: Davidson

Davidson was arguably the national Program of the Year due to their amazing Elite Eight tournament run, but their success wasn’t nearly as surprising as Drake’s. After losing some close games to major Top 10 powers like UNC and UCLA, the Wildcats bounced back to utterly dominate the Southern Conference. They won all 20 league games, and swept the conference tournament with an average margin of victory of 26 points. Their overall 25-game winning streak was the best in the nation, and helped Coach Bob McKillop and star guard Stephen Curry amass some impressive hardware. More impressive than their 29-7 record or any individual’s numbers is the way they captivated the country by letting it all out during the NCAA Tournament.

Runner Up: South Alabama

The Jaguars had an impressive season this culminated in at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. This was the first time in 14 years that a Sun Belt team had received at-large consideration. Their 26-7 overall record included two wins over Sweet Sixteen team (and conference rival) Western Kentucky, as well as tournament squads Mississippi State and San Diego. Coach Ronnie Arrow won Sun Belt Coach of the Year honors, returning to a position he once held 13 years ago.

CollegeHoops.net Conference of the Year: Pac-10

Simply put, no league offered more exciting individual and team matchups than the Pac-10 on a weekly basis. With the exception of Oregon State, every team in the league was capable of beating every other team.. and this overall depth of talent lead to an amazing 9 postseason bids for the 10 team league.

At the team level, UCLA was the true class of the league leading the way with a 16-2 record. The Bruins were led by Kevin Love, just one of many potential NBA lottery picks scattered throughout league rosters. Brook Lopez, OJ Mayo, Jerryd Bayless, Ryan Anderson and others lit up the scoreboards on a nightly basis.

Overall, the Pac-10 ended up 2^nd in RPI to the ACC, but the league members led the country with an amazing .798 out-of-conference winning %. This is even more impressive when you consider that as recently as 2004, the Pac-10 was 9^th in overall RPI. With big time coaches and big time programs, there’s no reason not to expect another great Pac-10 run next year.

Runner Up: Atlantic 10

This was somewhat of a renaissance season for the A10, as the league finished 7^th in overall RPI, easily its best season in a decade. Conference leader Xavier made an impressive run to the NCAA Tournament's Elite Eight, and they were joined in the Big Dance by conference tournament winner Temple and St. Joseph’s. Even more impressively, the league had great depth as teams like Dayton, UMASS, and URI all made strong claims to Top 25 consideration at one point or another.

Check out all the: CHN 2007-08 Postseason Awards

All-Americans, All-Rookie, Top Coaches & more

Poll: Can a Sub-.500 Atlantic 10 Team Make the Tournament?

Shawn Siegel — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 07:43:42 -0800

Daily Dribble: Friday Report Card

Shawn Siegel — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 08:52:03 -0800

The Report Card

A - Tony Lee

Despite winning 10 in a row and 15 of 16, Robert Morris is still in a tight battle for the NEC title. Senior guard Tony Lee is the Colonials best and most consistent player.. and quietly putting up some of the best numbers in the country. Averaging 7.0 rpg and 6.6 apg, Lee is one of the game's few true triple double threats. He's already had two this season and came close last night with 12 points, 11 rebounds, and 8 assists. Amazingly, he grabs all those rebounds despite being 6-1, and despite not even playing 30 minutes per game. Lee averages 29.8 mpg and if you prorate his numbers to 40 mpg, you get monster totals of 19 ppg, 9.6 rpg and 9.0 apg.

B - Bracket Busters

Granted, most of the Bracket Busters event is rather useless.. but there are some worthwhile games on tap. Perhaps more intriguing than even Drake/Butler, is Davidson at Winthrop tonight. Davidson's been on a tear and Winthrop is in the midst of the Big South title race. Winthrop is better than their RPI of 107 suggests. They've beaten quality teams like Miami, Georgia Tech, Akron, and Old Dominion. Such wins are much more than Davidson can claim, despite the Wildcats 17-game winning streak. Should be a fun game, especially compared to the usual Friday night slop.

C - Atlantic 10

This conference is a mess right now. Outside of Xavier at the top and Saint Bonaventure on the bottom, the other 12 teams in the middle are good enough to beat each other on any given night. This had led to a muddled ledger in which 10 teams are within 2 wins of each other. There's nothing wrong with parity and depth.. but for NCAA Tournament consideration.. too much quality might be a bad thing. If more teams were automatic losses, it would make the records of the better teams look better.. and the selection committee is easily fooled by looks. UMASS, for example, has as many Top 50 wins in league play as Arizona.. but the committee will be fooled by the letters PAC.

D - Arizona

Because of the name on their jersey, Arizona's considered a virtual lock to make the NCAA Tournament. But at 6-7 and with an upcoming game at Washington State.. the Wildcats could easily be in second to last place in the Pac-10 by the end of the weekend. And after that you have home games against USC and UCLA.. by no means easy wins. Someone not named Jerryd Bayless better step up soon.. or Kevin O'Neill's mini-reign in Tucson could be disastrous.

F - Oregon State

It's nothing new to note the Beavers struggles.. so that's not why they're on the list. What kills me about Oregon State is that it's just a free win for the rest of the Pac-10 and makes mediocre Pac-10 teams look good. Washington's 6-8 record doesn't look bad.. and gives a false sense that they have NCAA possibilities. Take away Oregon State, and 4-8 looks hideous. The same thing can be said for Cal.

The Daily Report Card tells you all you need to know about the day in college hoops. From good to bad and bad to worse, I'll be laying down the law.

Previous Best / Worst

February 20th - Hasheem Thabeet / Aaron Bruce

February 19th - Josh Duncan / Tim Welsh

February 18th - Wake Forest / NJIT

February 15th - Oral Roberts / Big Ten Predictions

February 13th - Mike Green / Ed Donato

February 11th - Charron Fisher / Tim Morris

February 8th - Big West / Virginia

February 6th - Chris Lofton / Dick Vitale

February 5th - Bob Knight / Josh Heytvelt

February 4th - New York Giants / Washington State

February 1st - Nevada / Penn

January 31st - Kansas State / St. John's

January 29th - Winthrop / Dyson & Wiggins

January 28th - Rutgers / Doris Burke

January 25th - Ron Hunter / Princeton Offense

January 23rd - Kentucky / Archbishop Burke

January 22nd - DJ Augustin / Scott Sutton

January 21st - New York Giants / Marquette

January 20th - Maryland / ESPN.com editors

January 18th - Cleveland State / Marquette

January 17th - Drake / HP Laptops

January 14th - Roy Hibbert / Michigan State

January 10th - Tony Bennett / Saint Louis

January 9th - DJ White / CSTV

January 8th - Robert Morris / Schedule Makers

January 7th - Wayne Ellington / Illinois

January 6th - Herb Sendek / Kentucky

Welser Wonders: ACC Bids, BracketBuster, A10 vs B10

Joel Welser — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 09:25:26 -0800

There is a reason February is the shortest month of the year. It makes March come quicker than we expect and that means BracketBusters is coming soon and the bubble watch is in full swing. This week, those topics dominate what “Welser Wonders…”

…who will step up in the ACC?

At the moment the nation’s best conference has only three NCAA worthy teams. No surprise that North Carolina and Duke are locks, but Clemson is the other team who would be dancing if Selection Sunday were today. At this time last year Clemson was all but a lock too, only to blow it in February and March so we won’t put it past them to do it again.

Of course the ACC will get more than three teams into the tournament, but the other nine teams are simply a mess right now. Coming off a loss to Wake Forest, Miami has taken a step back towards the pack after a solid start. Boston College is actually third in the conference standings at 3-2 and has a decent overall record (12-6), but their RPI is 11^th in the conference. Maryland has a nice signature win over UNC, but they also lost to American University. Even Virginia, with a 1-4 conference record, is not out of the running quite yet. A couple home losses to the Tech schools has hindered the Cavaliers conference campaign, but there are plenty of opportunities for big wins.

The ACC should have at least five or six bids to work with, so it will all come down to who can pull it together right now and make a run. If everybody continues to just beat up each other and nobody besides Duke and North Carolina can separate themselves from the pack, the league could end up with fewer teams dancing than they deserve.

…what will come of the most over-hyped event in college basketball this year?

Sure, it is fun to go out and play somebody out of conference in February, but there are more important games going on right now…which nobody cares about. The showcase BracketBusters game this year should be matching up the top two current teams in the field, Saint Mary’s and Drake. Yet, those two teams already played earlier this year. The Gaels won 72-66 and handed Drake their only loss of the year if you don’t remember that November 10^th match-up.

Since that game won’t happen again, we are likely looking at Kent State traveling to Saint Mary’s and Drake heading to Butler. There are some other teams who have at-large hopes like Illinois State and George Mason, but really those are the big four at the moment. Unfortunately, it is the visiting teams that need the victory the most for at-large purposes. Barring huge collapses, Saint Mary’s and Butler should be in the tournament with a win or loss on BracketBusters Saturday. So Kent State and Drake can really boost their hopes with a win, but they won’t be devastated with a loss either. Losing on the road to the Gaels or Bulldogs certainly will not be a big blow to the RPI. In fact, even a loss is resume booster compared to beating Evansville or Ball State.

What’s that all mean? It means the BracketBusters probably won’t really bust any brackets at all. Saint Mary’s (unless they keep losing to teams like San Diego) and Butler are in either way, Drake is likely in with a win or a loss and it is more important for Kent State to keep beating who they should beat in conference play. That’s not to say it wouldn’t help if the Flashes win, but it certainly won’t knock them out of contention. Looking ahead to traveling to the west coast and losing on February 19^th to Buffalo would knock them out of contention.

…whether the A-10 will get more teams into the big dance than the Big Ten?

Top to bottom the A-10 is not better than the Big Ten, but on the top it is very close. In the A-10, Xavier, Dayton, Rhode Island and Massachusetts are all deserving of an at-large bid at the moment. The Big Ten has Michigan State, Wisconsin, Ohio State and Indiana that fit into that category. Where it gets interesting is comparing the fifth teams in each conference…St. Joseph’s and Purdue. Both teams have five losses, but it is the Hawks who are more deserving of a bid right now thanks to a healthy dose of non-conference road games. Usually at this time of the year we figure the Big Ten team will get an RPI boost since they play in the Big Ten. But that is not the case this year since the A-10 is hanging with the Big Ten blow for blow as far as the RPI is concerned.

Luckily there is a long way left to go and St. Joe’s has their big games ahead of them and plenty of opportunities to get a signature win or two. The Hawks have yet to play Xavier and also take on Villanova, Rhode Island and Dayton before all is said and done. The Boilermakers just got their big win against Wisconsin and can follow that up with another win over Wisconsin, Michigan State or Indiana in February. If the committee had to pick a team now they should pick the Hawks over Purdue, but who knows if that would really happen.

…when Davidson will be noticed (again) as a team that can do damage in March?

The Wildcats failed to prove they could beat any NCAA Tournament caliber team when they lost to North Carolina, Western Michigan, Duke, Charlotte, UCLA and NC State in November and December. But since then Davidson has found its groove by beating up on fellow SoCon opponents. Bob McKillop’s squad has won the last seven games by an average of over 17 points. The most impressive part is that six of those games were on the road. With the bulk of the remaining schedule in their friendly confines, the Wildcats could very well finally find their comfort zone after spending the first three months of the season playing most of their games on the road.

There is no doubt that the team is very talented. They have already begun to play how we all expected to them in November and it could get even better. Yet, this is not a team that needed time to develop. Everybody from last year is back and virtually playing the same minutes. That is why a big win or two in the non-conference schedule would not have been surprising. What better time to beat NC State when they are still adjusting to life without Engin Atsur?

Davidson may have overscheduled a bit during non-conference play, but it seems like we have completely stopped talking about them since there is not a quality win to be found on the schedule. This is still a deep team with a ton of dangerous weapons who will most likely be in the NCAA Tournament after winning the Southern Conference Tournament. I certainly wouldn’t want to be a three or four seed and see Stephen Curry and Jason Richards on my bracket in the first round.

Daily Poll: How Good is the Atlantic 10?

Shawn Siegel — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 07:58:37 -0800

Forbes is A10 Player of the Week

Press Release — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 15:11:05 -0800

PHILADELPHIA - UMass senior Gary Forbes (Brooklyn, N.Y.) was named the Atlantic 10 Player of the Week for the second time this season, on Sunday. Forbes led UMass to a 2-0 week with a 23.5 scoring average along with 6.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists. Forbes scored 22 points, including 17 in the second half, in UMass' 83-80 win at Boston College. He had a game-high 25 points in the win over Toledo.

In the win at BC, Forbes also pulled down seven rebounds. For the week, he shot 15-of-28 from the field and 18-for-19 from the line on the week. He was also named A-10 Player of the Week after the second week of the season on Nov. 18.

Poll: What Conference Is Off to the Best Start?

Shawn Siegel — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 00:43:21 -0800

Daily Dribble: High-Major Power Ranking

Shawn Siegel — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 11:04:25 -0800

Last year, I started doing monthly power rankings divided by the BCS, High-Major, and Mid-Major monikers. I’m continuing that trend once again, starting with the “High-Majors”, which I define to include the A10, CAA, CUSA, MVC, MWC, and WAC. I’m not suggesting that the A10 might not be better than the Big Ten this year, or that a league like the Horizon isn’t better than the WAC (which is real bad right now), or anything like that.. I use these grouping simply for ease and consistency.

1. Memphis 7-0 (CUSA)

2. Xavier 6-1 (A10)

3. Rhode Island 9-1 (A10)

4. BYU 6-1 (MWC)

5. San Diego State 8-1 (MWC)

6. Southern Illinois 3-2 (MVC)

7. George Mason 6-2 (CAA)

8. Dayton 5-1 (A10)

9. Houston 8-1 (CUSA)

10. UNLV 5-2 (MWC)

11. Creighton 5-0 (MVC)

12. UMASS 5-2 (A10)

13. VCU 4-3 (CAA)

14. Duquesne 6-1 (A10)

15. St Joseph’s 4-3 (A10)

16. James Madison 5-1 (CAA)

17. Northern Iowa 6-1 (MVC)

18. Drake 5-1 (MVC)

19. Bradley 6-3 (MVC)

20. New Mexico 7-2 (MWC)

21. UAB 7-3 (CUSA)

22. Drexel 5-3 (CAA)

23. Wichita St 5-2 (MVC)

24. Charlotte 4-2 (A10)

25. UNCW 5-2 (CAA)

26. Temple 3-4 (A10)

27. Utah 4-2 (MWC)

28. Missouri State 4-2 (MVC)

29. Boise State 5-2 (WAC)

30. Old Dominion 4-4 (CAA)

31. Northeastern 3-4 (CAA)

32. Fresno State 4-3 (WAC)

33. Illinois State 5-3 (MVC)

34. Nevada 2-4 (WAC)

35. George Washington 2-3 (A10)

36. Utah State 4-4 (WAC)

37. Colorado State 4-3 (MWC)

38. New Mexico State 4-6 (WAC)

39. Saint Louis 6-4 (A10)

40. Central Florida 4-3 (CUSA)

41. Fordham 3-4 (A10)

42. UTEP 4-2 (CUSA)

43. Hofstra 1-3 (CAA)

44. Air Force 5-4 (MWC)

45. Indiana State 3-4 (MVC)

46. San Jose State 3-1 (WAC)

47. Southern Miss 2-2 (CUSA)

48. Marshall 4-2 (CUSA)

49. Tulane 3-3 (CUSA)

50. TCU 4-2 (MWC)

51. Richmond 4-4 (A10)

52. East Carolina 3-4 (CUSA)

53. La Salle 3-3 (A10)

54. Wyoming 3-3 (MWC)

55. St Bonaventure 4-4 (A10)

56. Tulsa 2-3 (CUSA)

57. SMU 2-4 (CUSA)

58. Hawaii 2-4 (WAC)

59. Georgia State 2-4 (CAA)

60. Towson 3-4 (CAA)

61. Louisiana Tech 1-4

62. Evansville 1-4 (MVC)

63. Rice 1-5 (CUSA)

64. Idaho 1-5 (WAC)

65. Delaware 1-4 (CAA)

66. William & Mary 1-4 (CAA)

Next up will be the “mid-majors”, which will consist of the Big West, Horizon, MAC, Southern, Sun Belt, and West Coast, followed by the BCS leagues.

Poll: Who Will Win the Atlantic 10?

Shawn Siegel — Sun, 04 Nov 2007 16:58:26 -0800

Daily Dribble: Top 20 Players in the A-10

Shawn Siegel — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 07:26:14 -0700

One thing is clear from this list.. the talent level in the A-10 is far superior to any other non-BCS league. So much so that I expanded the ranking from the Top 10 to Top 20 just because there were so many guys to consider. 15 to 20 in the A-10 would arguably be top 5 or 6 in the CAA or MVC right now.

1. Brian Roberts, G, Dayton - Flyers best player is the league's most efficient scorer
2. Ahmad Nivins, F, Saint Joseph's - One of the A-10's only powerful inside forces
3. Bryant Dunston, F, Fordham - Numbers dipped last year, but Rams win total continued to rise
4. Drew Lavender, G, Xavier - The A-10's most dynamic point guard
5. Tommie Liddell, G, Saint Louis - With Majerus aboard, could explode as a junior
6. Will Daniels, F, Rhode Island - Underrated senior joins Baron to form dynamic pair
7. Dionte Christmas, G, Temple - 20 ppg scorer must expand his game in junior season
8. CJ Anderson, F, Xavier - Manhattan transfer just adds to Xavier's league-best talent
9. Stanley Burrell, G, Xavier - Senior has been core of lineup for four seasons
10. Pat Calathes, F, Saint Joseph's - Despite height, can step out and hit three or pass the ball
11. Kieron Achara, F/C, Duquesne
12. Jimmy Baron, G, Rhode Island
13. Mark Tyndale, G, Temple
14. Maureece Rice, G, George Washington
15. Gary Forbes, G/F, UMASS
16. Leemire Goldwire, G, Charlotte
17. Marcus Stout, G, Fordham
18. Kojo Mensah, G, Duquesne
19. Kevin Lisch, G, Saint Louis
20. Michael Lee, F, St. Bonaventure

Next In Line

Rob Diggs, F, George Washington
Dan Geriot, F, Richmond
Michael Gerrity, G, Charlotte
Darnell Harris, G, La Salle
Shawn James, F/C, Duquesne

Up next will be the Top 10 in the CAA..