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Post by stlexplorer on Jan 25, 2013 9:16:15 GMT -5
ESPN's A-10 Rankings:1. Butler 2. VCU 3. La Salle - This is where it gets insanely dicey. So let's welcome in the Explorers! Why the bump up to No. 3? For one, they just beat Butler, however narrowly, and that counts for something. For another, their A-10 losses have been on the road against at least decent teams, and this week we've seen a rash of top-half A-10 teams lose games of lesser quality, some even on their own floors. I don't want to damn the Explorers with faint praise, but this is something of a default move. 4. Charlotte 5. Temple 6. St. Louis 7. Xavier 8. Dayton 9. Richmond 10. St. Bonaventure 11. St. Joe's 12. UMass 13. URI 14. GW 15. Fordham 16. Duquesne espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/73955/conference-power-rankings-a-10-6 ESPN college bball chat:Q: Does Butler's style of play make them prone to losses like last night's at LaSalle? Their physical play makes the game a dogfight, where its almost always close. It seems like a recipe that gives them a chance to beat a team of Gonzaga's caliber and giving teams like LaSalle a chance to beat them too. A: That's fair to say. But I would also argue that their system, when it works well, or when they play obviously inferior teams, will yield double-digit wins every now and then as well. Last night's loss, in my opinion, had a lot more to do with La Salle being pretty good, the A-10 being tough, Butler having to go on the road a few days after Saturday's insanity, etc etc. by Eamonn Brennan espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/73684/live-chat-give-and-go-9- Prior to us beating Butler, Jay Bilas dropped us from his top 68 teams in an insider ESPN article insider.espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/8869493/jay-bilas-ranks-top-68-teams-nation-college-basketball
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Post by luhoopsfan on Jan 25, 2013 9:32:21 GMT -5
I would put us behind Charlotte simply because we lost to them.
BUT VCU CHAR LS SLU RICH XU TU SBU DAY UMASS SJU GW URI FOR DUQ
That's how I go for now. Good news is, the top 4 slots are WIDE OPEN in this leagu and all 4 top teams in the A10 should be dancing. 11-5 just might be enough to get spot #4. problem would be that you play the 5/12 winner which is going to be a very tough game to win to get to the Semi's, then again, being the 1 seed is no picnic playing the 8/9 winner either. The league is just so tough this year. So, so tough.
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Post by coachd on Jan 25, 2013 10:52:15 GMT -5
I would put us behind Charlotte simply because we lost to them. BUT VCU CHAR LS SLU RICH XU TU SBU DAY UMASS SJU GW URI FOR DUQ That's how I go for now. Good news is, the top 4 slots are WIDE OPEN in this leagu and all 4 top teams in the A10 should be dancing. 11-5 just might be enough to get spot #4. problem would be that you play the 5/12 winner which is going to be a very tough game to win to get to the Semi's, then again, being the 1 seed is no picnic playing the 8/9 winner either. The league is just so tough this year. So, so tough. With your logic it has to be: 1. Charlotte (beat both La Salle and X) 2. Xavier (beat La Salle) 3. La Salle (beat Butler but lost to Charlotte and Xavier) 4. Butler (lost to La Salle) But none of this really matters. You won't see separation of teams until mid February anyway.
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Post by luhoopsfan on Jan 25, 2013 11:09:06 GMT -5
Wait a second...how the hell did I put XU that far down?
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Post by Deleted on Jan 25, 2013 11:18:32 GMT -5
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Post by victoriouslasalle on Jan 25, 2013 11:41:39 GMT -5
KJ, thanks for posting. nice to see us get this kind of attention. We got up for the Butler game (defensively) and really showed what we can do. We won without our O clicking well. I see the O eventually finding its way. I somewhat subscribe to the O slump theory with the shooting as your stats seem to indicate. Our guys can turn this around. But, I have concerns about our lack of consistency on the D end so far this year. This in my mind could keep us high mid pack A10. I am smelling at least one V more in the Big 5.
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Post by mikesmd77 on Jan 25, 2013 12:31:46 GMT -5
I do think we are more 4-5, but I have to agree its a complete tossup, and we had the biggest A10 win so far, so that is essentially the tiebreaker.
I am smelling a clean Big 5 sweep. Its been way too long since we've added to the Big 5 champions banner.
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Post by explorerman on Jan 25, 2013 12:36:07 GMT -5
Since we are discussing ESPN, we should mention, ESPN's and St Joe's Joe Lunardi has updated his s-curve rankings and we are 2nd team out. Frankly, I can't disagree with his logic. The win over Butler gave us 6 spots but like he says 1 win over VCU, Temple or St Louis will help greatly.
I agree with the losses to Miami, Xavier, Bucknell and Charlotte other teams either in or just out of the NCAA bubble we need to separate ourselves from the latter. A loss to Xavier, that was fairly one-sided really hurt barring that 2 minute run at the end of the game to make it look better, really hurt and brings us back to the bubble. We need to separate ourselves from them.
Also it should be mentioned that Temple is falling fast. 41 on the s-curve puts them as a double digit seed with some tough games left. Their lack of quality on the top end is especially alarming. It almost seems that they are too reliant on Wyatt. Usually, Dunphy makes his adjustments already at this point in the season. Yet an ugly loss to St Bona at home showed how the offense struggles when you gear a defense towards Wyatt.
La Salle actually lines up very well with Temple. Mills on Wyatt on defense, dare I say a box and one. Offense, spread the floor and iso against DiLeo and take him off the dribble to finish at the hole or kick out for an open 3. You can make the argument with the large improvement of Zack that we have the advantage in the front court and back court. When in the recent history could you say that between depth charts of Temple and La Salle that we would have the advantage in both.
Duren will be huge. We just beat a top 10 largely due to Duren's offensive ability. He took Butler's guards off the dribble at will. He didn't finish in the paint that well, Butler's front court covered greatly. It did force Butler's guards to back off a little bit giving Duren the ability to shoot and when he is hitting his shot. This offense is at another gear. His range isn't his strength but isn't a weakness either. Frankly, when he is keeping his elbow in (it does still leak out often) he is the 2nd best shooter of the 4 guards. When he allows his elbow to leak out, it is Galloway and then the other 3 guards, who are average shooters. Garland and Mills rely on their legs too much and with the pace that we play.. to say they get inconsistent lift on their shots (leading to inconsistent release points) is an understatement.
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Post by mikesmd77 on Jan 25, 2013 12:39:41 GMT -5
From this point out I believe our move up in bracketology will be due more so to we winnging the games were supposed to without adding any major wins (VCU, maybe temple) and other teams simply playing themselves out. We'll have a high RPI, would benefit from Nova holding its own in the big east, and can probably stamp with a win over Temple because head to head our resume would be much better than theirs.
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Post by explorerman on Jan 25, 2013 12:50:08 GMT -5
From this point out I believe our move up in bracketology will be due more so to we winnging the games were supposed to without adding any major wins (VCU, maybe temple) and other teams simply playing themselves out. We'll have a high RPI, would benefit from Nova holding its own in the big east, and can probably stamp with a win over Temple because head to head our resume would be much better than theirs. And Miami.. that Duke win was nice and helped
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Post by mikesmd77 on Jan 25, 2013 12:56:07 GMT -5
Yeah it definitely helps our RPI, but nova winning allows us to list another 'quality win'. But it is in our interests to be Miami, Bucknell, and nova fans from here on out..
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