A 10 Preview on ESPN

[belfieldhappyhour]

The A10 preview was released this morning on ESPN.com - espn.go.com/blog/collegebasketballnation/post/_/id/65340/espn-coms-atlantic-10-preview-3

Some of the links are old, some are new. Dana, who has crushed us in the past, calls La Salle a rising program.

For those with Insider, you can read the Blue Ribbon preview which was pretty good. I'm sure we can't legally copy the whole thing into a thread so here is part of their ending analysis

BLUE RIBBON ANALYSIS

BACKCOURT: A-
BENCH/DEPTH: C-
FRONTCOURT: B-
INTANGIBLES: B+

It's been a long, strange road, but Giannini has things going in the right direction at La Salle. The Explorers have finished in the top half of the Atlantic 10 in four of his eight seasons, but the program was rarely considered a threat. That's not exactly the case in 2012-13.

[calsufan]

Pretty fair marks except for the depth \ bench grade.

[explorer88]

Explorers thought of as a legit sleeper accroding to A-10 coaches. Both Chris Mack and Archie Miller had nice things to say about La Salle.

espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/blog/_/name/katz_andy/id/8508345/atlantic-10-race-run-philadelphia-men-college-basketball

[goexplorers]

A lot of us commented that 7th was kind of low for our preseason picks, hoping that it might a) serve as motivation for the guys, or b) allow us to sneak up on some teams. Coaches are well aware of how dangerous we are. We aren't sneaking up on anyone.

[vasalos]

That intangible rating has everything to do with Ramon Galloway. If he has a big year, watch out. He sure did finish last year with a bang and I'm expecting him to be our leader this year along with Duren.

We are getting respect out there by the way. I was talking to some A10 fans and they agreed La Salle is legit. It's an exciting time to be an alumnus.

[ltrain38]

I'm really not worried about how we get rated before the season anymore. The difference between us and UMass coming into the year was basically the draw in the NIT. But they won those games and made a run. The league is deep and we don't have name recognition, but I expect a good season, probably better than last year.