About Mat Shelton

The big story coming into this season was the additions of Butler and VCU to the Atlantic 10 conference. Jumping out to hot starts that earned the two national rankings – Butler at No.9, VCU No.19 — the new kids on the block proved quite worthy of the attention.

This weekend the La Salle Explorers took that attention and used it to their benefit.

The Explorers pulled off wins against the two ranked A-10 newbies, first in a home win — although not an official upset, La Salle was favored to win the game — against Butler as Ramon Galloway drove the distance of the court for the game winner with just three seconds to play, followed by a road upset of double-digit favorite VCU, a game Galloway dominated from start to finish, posting a career high 31 points in the 69-61 victory.

But don’t call it an upset, at least not to the players and coaches in the blue and gold.

“We don’t want to be known as the new people on the block”, La Salle guard Tyreek Duran told media after the VCU win. “This isn’t an upset, this is a win for us.”

“We had a lot of succes last year”, Explores head coach Dr. John Giannini added after the VCU win.

The Explorers went 9-7 in conference last season before taking their 21 wins to the first round of the NIT where they fell to Minnesota in the first round.

La Salle lost starter Earl Pettis, but returned the bulk of an experienced team this season, yet were picked to finish seventh in the A-10, one spot behind Butler and four behind the VCU team they just upset in Richmond.

“Listen, we won 21 games last year…in the Atlantic 10″, Giannini said.

“Rankings are perception…VCU is a great team, Butler’s a great team, but so is St. Louis, so is Temple, so is St. Joe’s…so is Dayton, so is Richmond…If you’re new to this league, they’re all good, just so you know”.

And just so YOU know, La Salle is darn good as well.

Of their remaining ten conference games, six are against teams who are either sub .500 on the season, or one game above — the Explorers play George Washington (10-9) twice.

Two of the remaining four are either home or neutral games, the first coming this Wednseday against UMass in Philly, the second a  neutral site battle against St. Joseph’s at the storied Pelestra.

The Explorers have a long road ahead, but clearly possess the talent to discover some new territory come March: an Atlantic 10 title.

 

 

This was one ridiculous week of hoops, and one in which we learned a number of things:

1) You can’t take a night off in the A-10.

Saturday was a brutal night for home teams in A-10 conference games. Four of six home teams lost, one being an obvious mismatch (VCU v Duquesne), the other three relative stunners.

Getting the mismatch out of the way, VCU (16-3, 4-) rolled Duquesne (7-10, 0-4), outscoring the Dukes 44-18 in the first half before dumping their bench in the 90-63 win, the Rams’ 13th straight. The Rams got dominating performances from usual suspect Treveon Graham and Juvonte Reddic, and a huge night (22 points in 25 minutes) from a dangerous Rob Brandenberg. VCU used 19 forced turnovers and a 15 rebound advantage to attempt 20 more shots than the Dukes in the win.

Now on to the shockers…

I think the result that sticks out the most is what Dan Hurley’s squad was able to pull off at St. Louis.

Rhode Island (6-10, 1-2) picked up just their sixth win of the season, upsetting the St. Louis Billikens (12-5, 1-2) 82-80, scoring 17 points in overtime to send SLU to 1-2 in A-10 play.

SLU’s Kwamain Mitchell had his first big game since returning from injury, posting 29 points, seven assists and six steals in his 43 minutes on the floor.

What’s absolutely stunning is the Billikens hit 53.8% of their 26 threes (43.8% from the field), turned Rhodie over 18 times…and lost.

That’s because St. Louis was red hot, shooting 55% on the game and making 10-of-19 threes on the night. Huge road win for a Rhode Island team looking for some momentum.

Next there’s the curious case of the Temple Owls.

Temple has been one of the more hot and cold teams in the A-10, and this Saturday that came back to bite them against an experienced St. Bonaventure squad looking to get off the A-10 schneid.

Temple got their usual big game from star Khalif Wyatt (31 points in 30 minutes), but when the Senior guard fouled out late, St. Bonaventure took the big play advantage, getting consecutive threes from Demitrius Conger and Chris Johnson to essentially ice the game.

Like Rhode Island, the Bonnies couldn’t miss from deep, hitting 61% of their threes and shooting 49% as a team from the field.

Lastly, George Washington (8-9, 2-2) dropped UMass (12-5, 2-2) in another tightly contested contest.

The Colonials got 35 points off their bench in the 79-76 win.

2) Charlotte exposed?

Charlotte has been one of the nice surprises of this season, heading into this game 15-2 with a 3-0 start to A-10 play. But many have questioned if up to this point the Niners were paper tigers, having played the weakest schedule of any Atlantic 10 team, the 210th ranked SOS heading into this weekend.

The Spiders had no problems with Charlotte, defeating the Niners by 20 without leading rebounder and second-leading scorer Derrick Williams.

The loss moves Charlotte to 1-3 against Kenpom top-100 teams, their lone win a 9-point home W against La Salle.

Seven of the 49ers next nine games come against top-100 teams. Needless to say, we’ll know soon enough whether Charlotte’s hot start was due to masterful scheduling or a team who actually is vastly improved.

3) Is Butler guided by a higher, possibly evil, power?

One of our favorite Atlantic 10 fan sites is Dayton Flyer blog BlackburnReview.com.

The folks over at the BR have proposed this idea, and after the Bulldogs miraculous win over No.8 Gonzaga, we think they may just be on to something.

Butler has been one of the hottest programs this past decade, dancing all the way to two national title games while providing  some of the most amazing and exciting endings in years.

The one time I’ve seen a Butler buzzer-beater not go there way? The 2010 national title game against the Duke Blue Devils. Coincidence?

Either way, for our purposes it’s nice to have whatever power is guarding them on the side of the A-10.

No doubt you’ve seen it by now, but incase you haven’t…behold:

Amazing isn’t it?

John Stockon’s son throws one of the worst passes we’ve ever seen and Roosevelt Jones makes him pay.

Easily the best ending in years and a huge bump to Butler and the A-10′s RPIs.

The Bulldogs will no doubt rise into the top 10 and are a legitimately fighting for a 1-2 seed in this year’s NCAA tournament.

Scary news for the rest of the A-10? Bulldog leading scorer, Rotnei Clarke, was forced to sit this one out.

Clarke returns for a tough three-game stretch that includes road games at La Salle and St. Louis with a home tilt against Temple in between.

 

Last Week’s results

Wednesday – 1/16
Richmond 47 @ No.14 Butler 62
Temple 55 @ George Washington 53
Dayton 70 @ La Salle 72
Fordham 68 @ Charlotte 74
Xavier 66 @ St. Bonaventure 64

Thursday – 1/17
Duquesne 66 @ UMass 79
St. Joseph’s 86 @ No.22 VCU 92 (OT)

Saturday – 1/19
St. Bonaventure 81 @ Temple 78
La Salle 63 @ Xavier 70
George Washington 79 @ UMass 76
Penn 59 @ St. Joseph’s 79
Charlotte 61 @ Richmond 81
No.22 VCU 90 @ Duquesne 63
Rhode Island 82 @ St. Louis 80
No. 8 Gonzaga 63 @ No.13 Butler 64

 

Top Players

Roosevelt Jones (Butler) – Averaged 15 points, 8.5 rebounds and 4 assists and made the play of the year, stealing (catching?) an inbound against Gonzaga and releasing  the game-winning shot with .1 left on the clock.

Treveon Graham (VCU) – Averaged 22.5 points and 5.5 rebounds and hit a clutch 4-point play in OT as VCU came back from certain death to defeat St. Joseph’s in Richmond.

Semaj Christon (Xavier) – Averaged 18.5 points, 7.5 assists and hit the game-winning jumper with 5.1 to play to lift Xavier over St. Bonaventure in Olean.

Khalif Wyatt (Temple) – Averaged 24.5 points including 31 in 30 minutes in a losing effort against St. Bonaventure.

 

We’re just two games into conference play and all signs point to even more of a league battle than we may have even expected.

For starters, things have gotten REAL physical, REAL early.

On Saturday, Dayton’s Matt Derenbecker welcomed Butler’s Rotnei Clarke to the A-10 with a hard foul on a fastbreak that sent Clarke head first into the basket stanchion, resulting an a stretcher-assisted trip to a local hospital where Clarke was scanned and eventually diagnosed with a sprained neck.

Clarke was back in the gym shooting a day later, but head coach Brad Stevens added that he would not play until “he’s 100 percent ready and cleared”.

The Bulldogs host Richmond Wednesday before taking on Gonzaga this Saturday in a nationally televised contest. ESPN’s College GameDay will be at Hinkle that day, but the Bulldogs may be without their leading scorer in that one.

Unfortunately for Dayton fans, the Flyers were unable to take advantage of Clarke’s absence with 8:13 left in the first half.

Dayton trailed 18-16 prior to the injury but saw a Clarke-less Bulldogs team extend the lead to as many as 14 points before eventually winning it 79-73.

The Bulldogs (14-2, 2-0) are just two of four teams that remain unbeaten in conference play, joining fellow newcomer VCU (14-3, 2-0), perennial A-10 power Xavier (9-6, 2-0), and the surprising Charlotte 49ers (14-2, 2-0).

The Flyers (10-6) dropped to 0-2 in conference but are one of nine Atlantic 10 teams with at least 10 wins.

Last Week’s Results

Wednesday – 1/9
No.14 Butler 72 @ St. Joseph’s 68
St. Bonaventure 59 @ George Washington 78
Rhode Island 61 @ Richmond 64
Duquesne 75 @ Fordham 82
Dayton 62 @ VCU 74
La Salle 65 @ Charlotte 74

Thursday – 1/10
Temple 52 @ Xavier 57
UMass 62 @ St. Louis 70

Saturday – 1/12
No.14 Butler 79 @ Dayton 73
Charlotte 58 @ Rhode Island 50
Richmond 59 @ La Salle 71
VCU 72 @ St. Bonaventure 65
George Washington 56 @ Xavier 71
St. Louis 54 @ Temple 64
St. Joseph’s 74 @ Duquesne 66

Sunday – 1/12
UMass 77 @ Fordham 73

 

Top Players

Andrew Smith (Butler) – Averaged 18.5 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1 block in Butler’s 2 wins.

Treveon Graham (VCU) – Averaged 20.5 points and 6 rebounds while shooting 59% from the field for VCU in their first weekend of A-10 play.

Semaj Christon (Xavier) – Averaged 18.5 points and 4.5 assists while shooting 57% from the field for Xavier in their undefeated start to A-10 play that included tough home win against Temple.

Chris Gaston (Fordham) – Averaged a double-double of 19 points and 11.5 rebounds with 3.5 blocks in Fordham’s 1-1 start that included a tough 4-point loss to UMass.

Branden Frazier (Fordham) – Fordham gets two for giving fans hope…and Frazier averaged a fan-friendly 18.5 points and 8 assists for the Rams this past week.

 

A quick thought on attendance/fans…

One of my favorite stats is home attendance average. It’s a nice way to put a finger on the pulse of your program. Winning is great. Winning at a place where people care…even better.

Below are the official home attendance averages according to Atlantic10.com, team record and percentage of capacity.

1. Dayton (10-6) 12,364 – 92% capacity
2. Xavier (9-6) 9,738 – 95%
3. VCU (14-3) 7,693 – 100%
4. Butler (14-2) 6,906 – 69%
5. St. Louis (12-4) 6,380 – 60%
6. Charlotte (14-2) 5,603 – 62%
7. Temple (11-4) 4,809 – 47%
8. UMass (11-4) 4,776 – 53%
9. Richmond (11-6) 4,770 – 52%
10. St. Joseph’s (9-5) 4,064 – 97%
11. Rhode Island (5-10) 4,013 – 52%
12. St. Bonaventure (7-8) 3,834 – 70%
13. Duquesne (7-9) 3,032 – 68%
14. La Salle (11-4) 2,463 – 72%
15. Fordham (5-12) 2,061 – 59%
16. George Washington (7-8) 2,021 – 46%

What can we take from that?

Well, for starters Dayton, Ohio is one of the best basketball towns of all the cities of all the worlds. The Flyers have been solid on the court, but have just three NCAA tournament appearances over the past decade (haven’t made it to a Sweet 16 or Elite 8 since 1984), yet rank in the top-30 in the country in home attendance and that’s without bringing the likes of Syracuse, UNC or Kentucky to their home arena. On top of that, Flyer fans pack UD Arena during the recently expanded NCAA tournament’s “First 4″ for games against bubble teams. That’s a serious love of college hoops. It’s perhaps not surprising that just 50 some miles away lives an almost equally enthusiastic fan base at Xavier University.

Somewhat on the other end of that spectrum you have to be a bit disappointed with the turnout from Butler and Temple fans (let the hate mail commence).

Starting with Temple, the Owls average under 5,000 fans despite appearing in the last FIVE NCAA tournaments. For a team that was set to enter the Big East before it’s implosion, Owl fans appear to be one of the more unimpressed (and unimpressive) groups we’ve seen this season.

Similarly, Butler went to back-to-back NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP games in 2010 and 2011 (not exactly ancient history), yet Bulldogs fans have managed to fill the historic Hinkle Fieldhouse to just 69% of it’s capacity, checking in just under 7,000 fans/contest. For comparative purposes, UNLV last went to back-to-back titles in 90-91, and a decade later more than doubled Butler’s home average following their consecutive appearances. We get it, the Bulldogs had a down year last year, but they are 14-2 with wins over the likes of Marquette, North Carolina, and previously top-ranked Indiana (a state rival)! If that, combined with the Bulldogs recent history can’t fire Butler fans up, I’d hate to see them during a string of bad seasons.

La Salle is another fan base that could use a bit of a wakeup call. The Explorers are coming off a solid 21-12 NIT season and so far are off to a solid start at 11-4 (1-1). Sure, they’ve had just five winning seasons the past 20 years, so we understand the rust, but when you can’t sellout your 3,400-seat home gym against a visiting Big East state rival (Villanova), I have to question weather that fanbase belongs in a league trying to pass itself off as one of the best in basketball.

One fan base that certainly belongs in that type of league can be found in VCU. The Rams have sold out 28-consecutive home games, a streak that actually predates their appearance in the Final 4. With a season ticket wait list and an ever-improving national profile, that streak may go on for some time. Before joining the A-10 this past summer the Rams played their conference tournaments in the 11,200-seat Richmond Coliseum (their former home court). Appearing in the championship game every year since March of 2009, the Rams were a major part of four straight sellout title games there in CAA play.

 

 

With less than three minutes to play, Khalif Wyatt and the Temple Owls looked to add the cherry on top of a solid non-conference season for this year’s Atlantic 10, holding a one-point lead over the sixth-ranked Kansas Jayhawks at Allen Fieldhouse.

The Owls weren’t able to bring it home, eventually falling 62-69, but sent a message as the A-10′s preseason No.4 gave the nation’s No.6 a scare after Temple had upset No.3 Syracuse just days prior.

As a conference the A-10 finished OOC play seventh in the RPI, with nine teams finishing in the top 100, a number that should come in handy come March (unless Fordham, GW and Rhodie go on massive win streaks).

The conference won six games against ranked teams, including upsets over three top-10 squads.

OOC records (RPI)
Butler 12-2 (18)
Charlotte 12-2 (84)
VCU 12-3 (31)
St. Louis 11-3 (58)
La Salle 10-3 (51)
UMass 10-3 (47)
Temple 10-3 (28)
Dayton 10-4 (82)
Richmond 10-5 (119)
St. Joseph’s 8-4 (61)
Xavier 7-6 (117)
St. Bonaventure 7-6 (161)
Duquesne 7-7 (150)
George Washington 6-7 (200)
Rhode Island 5-8 (179)
Fordham 4-11 (254)

Based on non-conference performance, Ken Pomeroy’s computers have VCU winning the Atlantic 10 regular season with a 14-2 Atlantic 10 record followed by St. Louis at 11-5 with four teams behind them at 10-6 each. For full rankings do yourself a favor and pay for the full rankings and plethora of stats available at KenPom.com.

This week’s slate:

Wednesday
No. 17 Butler @ St. Joseph’s, 7PM
St. Bonaventure @ George Washington, 7PM
Rhode Island @ Richmond, 7PM
Duquesne @ Fordham, 7PM
Dayton @ VCU, 7PM
La Salle @ Charlotte, 7:30PM

Thursday
Temple @ Xavier, 7PM
UMass @ St. Louis, 9PM

Saturday
No.17 Butler @ Dayton, 2PM
Charlotte @ Rhode Island, 2PM
Richmond @ La Salle, 2PM
VCU @ St. Bonavenute, 4PM
George Washington @ Xavier, 4PM
St. Louis @ Temple, 6PM
St. Joseph’s @ Duquesne, 7PM

Sunday
Umass @ Fordham, 1PM

Bad news for the rest of the Atlantic 10: St. Louis is getting hot, and is doing so without Kwamain Mitchell.

Mitchell is slowly shaking the rust off, posting a 4.5 ppg average in his two games back this season. But the Billikens reeled off five straight before his return and knocked off the 20th-ranked Lobos of New Mexico in his second game back.

If and when Mitchell returns to form, SLU becomes one of the most dangerous teams in what has been an incredibly strong Atlantic 10 this season…and just in time for conference play.

HOT

St. Louis – See above. SLU has won their last seven and are 10-3 (with no bad losses) and have done so with a total of 9 points from star Kwamain Mitchell. They also have had to deal with a tragedy that no player hopes to ever deal with having recently lost Hall of Fame coach Rick Majerus. SLU is flying way under the radar but may not be for much longer.

VCU - Also on a seven-game streak, the Rams have played out of their minds since returning from the Bahamas, averaging a margin of victory of 23.7 points per game and forcing a ridiculous amount of turnovers, including two recent 30+ turnover performances. The Rams are known for their havoc style of defense (highest steals percentage in the country), but also lead the A-10 in scoring offense at 77.7 per contest. Riding a 26-game home sellout streak, VCU will be a brutal place to play for Atlantic 10 opponents getting ready to travel to their new conference mate.

Butler - The Bulldogs are also riding a seven-game win streak, but their’s just so happens to include a win over the then No.1 Indiana Hoosiers (think that one meant a lot to Butler fans?). Brad Stevens’ squad currently ranks fourth in the RPI with the fourth best strength of schedule and currently sit at 4-2 against top-100 RPI teams.

Honorable mention: Temple – HUGE win over Syracuse after falling to a surprisingly good Canisius team.

COLD

Richmond: The Spiders appear to be one of the easiest teams to read based off their 9-5 start to the season. They have won the games they should have won, but are 0-4 against top-100 RPI teams, 0-5 against teams that fall within Kenpom’s top 150. If UofR wants to do any damage in the newly strengthened A-10, they’ll have to find a way to win the games they aren’t expected to.

St. Joseph’s: Unfortunately for Hawk fans, this year’s team hasn’t taken the step they were expected to take when chosen as the preseason favorite. After an early-season upset of Notre Dame, St. Joseph’s, like Richmond, has fallen flat when challenged by decent teams. The Hawks were blasted by 29 points at Creighton, fell apart late against a very mediocre Villanova squad, then followed that up with a home letdown against Fairfield.

Xavier: X may officially be in a rebuilding period. After a promising 6-1 start that included a blowout of hot A-10 newcomer Butler, the Musketeers have really stumbled, losing four of their last five including a home head-scratcher against Wofford. The good news is — excluding their 15-point hammering by rival Cincinnati — Xavier has four losses by an average of 2.5 points, so they could just as easily be 11-1. But they aren’t, so until Chris Mack’s young squad can learn how to win the close ones, they will continue to struggle.

Dishonorable mention: Charlotte – Niners are 11-2 but have struggled against non-cupcakes, recently losing to a mediocre Florida State team after a 31-point blasting by Miami.

 

Hot Players:

Khalif Wyatte (Temple) – Ok, so he struggled to shoot Monday against Bowling Green (1-7)…but he did add eight assists and that was following a 33-point clinic against then No.3 Syracuse in the Garden. A monster win for the A-10, those are the kinds of performances that get you on ESPN…which means they are also good enough for us.

Rotnei Clarke (Butler) – Like Wyatte, Clarke was huge in a big game the A-10 needed, posting 19 points against the top ranked Hoosiers. Clarke is averaging 20.3 over his last three games and is shooting a scorching 53.8% from deep over that span.

Ramon Galloway (La Salle) – It’s been almost a month sense Galloway posted less than 20 points in a game — Dec. 5th in a blowout of Penn State that saw just 23 minutes from the Explorers star. Over that span Galloway is averaging 22 points, 4.6 assists, 5.6 rebounds and is shooting 52% from the field, 55.8% from deep. There’s probably no player more valuable to his team than Galloway right now.

Troy Daniels (VCU) – Daniels hit a VCU single-game record nine three pointers in the Rams blowout of Fairleigh Dickinson. That 27-point performance followed a 25-point output in VCU’s previous game. Daniels is VCU’s third leading scorer but has posted a 20+ point performance in three of his last five games and hit 6 threes per game over that stretch.

 

Two week’s after the Big East’s back-breaking addition of Tulane as an all-sports conference member, the seven Catholic basketball only schools remaining in the former hoops power may have had enough.

Earlier today ESPN’s Andy Katz reported Marquette, DePaul, St. John’s, Georgetown, Providence, Seton Hall and Villanova met with Big East commissioner Mike Aresco to express concerns with the direction of the conference.

“The basketball schools are not thrilled with Tulane and what they will do to the league’s RPI,” a league source from a football-playing member told ESPN. “They were not all that excited with that addition.”

The source added that “the basketball schools would have fallen off the ledge if we would have added East Carolina as a full member and what that would have done to the basketball league.”

It’s still a big if whether or not the basketball schools would, and perhaps more importantly could afford to split from the Big East conference that would own the rights the schools earned NCAA payouts.

Several A-10 schools have been mentioned as possible candidates to join the C7 in forming a new hoops conference, but today Katz later reported the A-10 has expressed an interest in adding all seven of the schools, forming a 21-team basketball super conference that could leverage it’s new members and media markets into a more lucrative television deal after having recently signed a new rights deal with NBC, CBS and ESPN. The A-10 has yet to finish all of its rights fees, and has room to increase its digital platform.

ESPN reports that the A-10 has been monitoring the Big East situation and have been figuring out how a 21-team conference would work.

One idea is to have an expanded 20-game conference schedule where all teams play each other once per season.

The current Atlantic 10 plays a 16-game conference schedule with teams facing each other once per season with geographic rival home-and-away partners (for example: VCU and Richmond, Xavier and Dayton, etc) playing twice.

In an era of conference realignment and rumored “super conferences”, the A-10 would strike an unlikely first blow becoming the first league to reach 20+ and doing so in a basketball-centered league.

 

It was a solid weekend for the Atlantic 10 after suffering two Thursday night Ls, but a weekend that saw no real needle moving victories.

Temple saw their first real test of the season in East Rutherford, NJ against the No.2 Duke Blue Devils, a test they’d like a retake on after falling by 23 in their first loss of the season. That L left just one undefeated team in the Atlantic 10, the red hot Charlotte 49ers.

The Niners might need a few months on the South Beach diet after downing so many cupcakes in their first nine games, but they remain 9-0 none the less, and sit at 30th in the RPI as of this writing. Charlotte travels to Miami (5-1) this Friday.

The Butler Bulldogs knocked off another BCS squad in perhaps the biggest A-10 win this past weekend, taking down Northwestern on the road 74-65. Center Andrew Smith showed the dawgs are more than just a bunch of deep threats, posting 24 points to go with 10 rebounds in his first double-double of the season.

A-10 weekend record: 8-4

Friday
VCU 83 @ ODU 70

Saturday
Central Michigan 66 @ Charlotte 78
Kansas St 65 @ George Washington 62
St. Bonaventure 70 @ Arkansas State 73
Temple 67 @ Duke 90
LaSalle 66 @ Northeastern 64
Richmond 83 @ JMU 82
New Orleans 70 @ Duquesne 88
Fordham 47 @ St. John’s 58
Butler 74 @ Northwestern 65
Miami (OH) 61 @ Dayton 83

Sunday
Kent State 55 @ Xavier 62

Top performers:
Devin Oliver (Dayton) – 15 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists
Cedrick Lindsey (Richmond) – 13 points, 11 assists and 6-8 free throw mark including two to send the game to OT after trailing by two with three seconds left in regulation.
Tyreek Duren (La Salle) – 12 points, 4 steals and 3 assists including a game winning jump shot with two seconds to play.
Andrew Smith (Butler) – 24 points and 10 rebounds including eight on offense at Northwestern.
Troy Daniels (VCU) – 24 points on eight made three-pointers at rival Old Dominion.

This week’s marquee matchups:

Tuesday:
St. Joseph’s @ Villanova (7PM ESPNU)
Duquesne v West Virginia

Friday:
Charlotte @ Miami (7PM ESPN3)

Saturday: 
Butler v #1 Indiana (2PM CBS)
VCU v Alabama (4PM CCS)
La Salle @ Bucknell (7PM)

One of the joys of college hoops: numbers. Let’s look at some basic stats early into this college hoop season.

RPI/(Strength of Schedule)
8. Butler (3)
30. St. Louis (7)
32. VCU (13)
40. Xavier (101)
54. Charlotte (254)
64. St. Joseph’s (49)
69. La Salle (105)
75. Temple (290)
101. Richmond (206)
106. St. Bonaventure (218)
112. UMass (55)
152. Rhode Island (25)
165. Duquense (195)
202. Dayton (288)
204. George Washington (256)
331. Fordham (322)

Top 5s…

Scoring Offense
1. VCU 73.6
2. Xavier 73.3
3. Temple 72.2
4. St. Bonaventure 72
5. Butler 71.4

Scoring Defense
1. Charlotte 57.9
2. St. Louis 60.1
3. VCU 60.6
4. Dayton 60.7
5. Temple 61

Average Home Attendance
1. Dayton 12,140
2. Xavier 9767
3. VCU 7693
4. Butler 6713
5. St. Louis 6,178

Scoring
1. Xavier Munford (Rhode Island) 18.9
2. Rotnei Clarke (Butler) 18
3. Branden Frazier (Fordham) 16.6
4. Tyreek Duren (La Salle) 16.4
5. Chris Johnson (St. Bonaventure) 16.2

Rebounding
1. Ronald Roberts (St. Joseph’s) 9.8
2. Juvonte Reddic (VCU) 8.6
3. Isaiah Armwood (GW) 8.57
4. Devin Oliver (Dayton) 8
5. Derrick Williams (Richmond) 7.5

Assists
1. Chaz Williams (UMass) 7.5
2. Semaj Christian (Xavier) 6.2
3. Khalif Wyatt (Temple) 5
4(tie). Darius Theus (VCU) 4.6
4(tie). Derrick Colter (Duqesne) 4.6

Steals
1. Briante Weber (VCU) 3
2. Ramon Galloway (La Salle) 2.8
3. Pierria Henry (Charlotte) 2.6
4. Rhalir Hollis-Jefferson (Temple) 2.4
5(tie). Jess Morgan (UMass) 2.3
5(tie). Cedrick Lindsay (Richmond) 2.3

Blocked Shots
1. Isaiah Armwood (GW) 3
2. Jordan Hare (Rhode Island) 2.6
3. CJ Aiken (St. Josephs) 2.3
4. Andre Marhold (Duquesne) 1.9
5(tie). Youssou Ndoye (St. Bonaventure) 1.8
5(tie). Cady LaLanne (UMass) 1.8

I hate to start out a post by praising a team with one foot already out of the conference, but for the sake of the league’s RPI…hey, you gotta give it up to the Charlotte 49ers.

Team of the week:

Charlotte - The Niners have played the second weakest schedule (251st) in non-conference play this season, but unlike Fordham who ranks 314th in the SOS and sit at 1-6 on the season, have won all seven of their matchups, their best start in the history of Charlotte basketball. The difference? Charlotte ranks 54th in the RPI after winning the games they should win, while Fordham sits near the bottom of all D1 teams at 330th. The 49ers will get into the meat of their schedule this Tuesday with a tough matchup at Davidson, then add December games at Miami and against Florida State.

Team that disappointed: 

UMass – The Minutemen came into the season with some hype, but so far have yet to impress. Derek Kellogg and company have had a relatively tough schedule to start the season, with four of their six games thus far coming against BCS conference teams, the other two against respectable mids in Harvard and Sienna. So far their wins (Harvard, Providence and Sienna) have come by a total of six points, their losses (NC State, Tennessee and Miami), an average of 15 points per game. It’s early, but that’s a bad sign for a team that returned so much talent including arguably the best point guard in the league in Chaz Williams (15.3 ppg, 7.5 asts). If UMass is to be a true contender in the A-10, they’ll need to start winning some of the tough ones.

 

Saturdays Results:

Fordham (1-6) 64
Harvard (3-3) 73

Miami (FL) (5-1) 75
UMass (3-3) 62

Wagner (2-4) 62
Temple (5-0) 70

Vermont (4-2) 66
Rhode Island (2-6) 76

Ball St (2-4) 53
Butler (5-2) 67

Maine (2-5) 73
Duquesne (4-3) 87

Xavier (6-1) 63
Purdue (3-4) 57

St. Joseoph’s (4-2) 51
#11 Creighton (7-1) 80

Wake Forest (3-4) 60
Richmond (6-2) 62

Buffalo (2-7) 79
St. Bonaventure (4-2) 82

East Carolina (5-1) 64
Charlotte (7-0) 76

Belmont (5-2) 65
VCU (5-3) 75

N Illinois (1-5) 43
Dayton (5-2) 60

 

Saturday’s Top Performers:

Xavier Munford (Rhode Island) – 25 points (7-11), 5 assists against Vermont.
Semaj Christians (Xavier) – 25 points (8-12), 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals at Purdue.
Derrick Williams (Richmond) – 26 points (6-8, 13-15 free throws), 10 rebounds versus Wake Forest.
Kendall Anthony (Richmond) – With the game tied at 54 and just 1:11 left to play, Anthony scored 7 of his 11 points on the night, including a three-pointer to give the Spiders a three-point cushion and hitting every free throw he took down the stretch.
Treveon Graham (VCU) – 19 points (7-11), 8 rebounds (6 on offense), 4 assists and 3 steals against Belmont.

 

 

It’s early, but you’ve got to be impressed with the non-conference resume the Atlantic 10 is building right now.

Sure, there have been some early bumps on the road  – losses to the likes of Centeral Connecticut State, Canisius, North Dakota State and anyone on Forham or Rhode Island’s schedules — but consider the list heads mounted on the walls of the 2012-13 A-10 hunt club: Auburn, Boston College, Villanova, Marquette, Memphis, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Providence and Texas A&M to name a few. Not a bad bounty for November and there’s still a load of opportunities left for more wins like those.

It’s also a bit premature to start talking RPI, but with 10 teams currently ranked in the RPI top-100 (more than any other conference), the A-10 is certainly off to a nice start out of the gate.

The sledding appears to get somewhat easier this week as several teams return from brutal exempt tournaments in a number of tropical locations, but there are a handful of nice resume builders on the docket.

The action gets interesting Wednesday with 11 league members at work.

Key games to watch will be St. Bonaventure (3-1) at Ohio (5-0), a tough squad that just hammered the Richmond Spiders, an hour later Rhode Island (1-5) will look to get back on track against a solid George Mason (4-2) squad while St. Louis (3-2) prepares to battle the Pac-12′s Washington Huskies (2-3) in a 12AM EST tip.

Saturday things get even more challenging.

Fordham kicks off the action with a tough road slate at an underrated Harvard program (probably the only time you’ll hear “underrated” and “Harvard” used in the same sentence). An hour later UMass hosts the ACC’s Miami Hurricanes while Rhode Island welcomes a 3-1 Vermont Catamounts squad. Just 15 minutes after those games tip, Xavier will look to pull off a road win against Matt Painter’s Purdue Boilermakers on the Big Ten Network. Shortly after that, the A-10′s preseason favorite, St. Joseph’s, will travel to the Missouri Valley’s preseason No.1, the Jays of No.11 Creighton. Richmond hosts an unpredictable Wake Forest club at 6PM. And the evening concludes with two under the radar matchups, as two undefeated Carolina squads, 4-0 East Carolina and 6-0 Charlotte, potentially look to stay undefeated in Charlotte, while VCU hosts the one good Bruins team in college basketball… the Belmont Bruins (5-1 with a road win at Stanford).

With four teams receiving votes this week (Butler, St. Joseph’s, Temple and VCU), A-10 teams will need to stack some more of these marquee wins while building on the leagues RPI as a whole. That means more of the Butler over UNC type action and less of the CCSU over La Salle type of letdowns that can torpedo a league.

 

Some weekly awards…

Team of the week: Butler
Honorable mention: VCU, Charlotte

Butler - A lot of A-10 fans might have VERY prematurely written off the Bulldogs as a league contender after their 62-47 drubbing at Xavier. The Bulldogs responded like a Brad Stevens coached team would, by first knocking off Marquette with a last second buzzer-beater in the first round of the Maui Invitational, a shot Roy Williams and the Tarheels wish had never gone in as Butler hammered the Tarheels 82-71 in the following round, leading by as many as 29 points in the second half. The Bulldogs eventually fell to Illinois in the Maui Invitational final, but not before reminding a national audience that Butler is a team to once again to be taken very seriously.

VCU - Usually a 1-2 week is a rough one, and make no mistake, Shaka Smart is probably less excited than we are about that trip, but VCU’s 1-2 showing in the stacked Battle 4 Atlantis earned the Rams some serious respect as a national contender. The Rams kicked off the tournament by controlling the No.19 Memphis Tigers (currently unranked), forcing 22 turnovers en route to a 13-point win. They followed that up by taking the No.5 Duke Blue Devils (currently No.2) to the edge, staying within six points despite not being able to turn Duke over (just eight turnovers) and shooting abysmal percentages from basically everywhere on the court — 33.3 fg%, 22.2% from three and 12-19 from the free throw line. ”They’re really good, not good, really good,” Coach Mike Krzyzewski said about VCU. The Rams followed that with another hard fought, but ultimately disappointing loss to No.13 Missouri (currently No.16). VCU once again struggled on offense, but had the lead with just 1:32 left on the clock. VCU moved to .500 on the season, but in an impressive enough fashion to still pick up some top-25 votes.

Charlotte - The Niners didn’t exactly face murderers row, but you have to give credit to a team who is doing what they are supposed to do: win games you are supposed to win (not always as easy as it sounds). Picked to finish 12th in the A-10, Charlotte has jumped out to a 6-0 start, the most wins by any A-10 team currently, and almost half as many wins as they won all of last season. December sees a significantly large jump in competition for the 49ers with games against the likes of Davidson, Miami and Florida State, but after a confidence building start to the season, Charlotte should be better equipped for some upsets.

 

Players of the week: Rotnei Clarke (Butler), Treveon Graham (VCU)

Both players shined for their teams and the A-10 against some of the toughest non-conference competition. Clarke averaged an impressive 21.3 points against Marquette, UNC and Illinois while hitting 42.4% of his threes in the tournament (and boy does he like to shoot the three…11 per game in Maui), including one of the top plays so far this hoops season with the desperation buzzer-beating winner over Marquette. Graham — who just recently turned 19 — averaged 18 points against three ranked teams while hitting 52.7% of his attempts on the weekend. Graham was expected to fill the shoes of the recently graduated Bradford Burgess. At 14.3 points and five rebounds per night (0.9 more points and the same amount of rebounds as Burgess averaged last season but in 5.3 less minutes/game), it may be safe to assume that Graham is more than capable of satisfying those expectations.