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.

 

 

What I liked: Richmond wasn’t scared. This was their turn to show the city there’s more than just one basketball team in the capital and they delivered. It was clear from the start they weren’t threatened by “Havoc” and kept up with the Rams fast-paced style of play for the majority of the game. Neither team led by more than four points for the first 12 minutes of the game.

What set the Spiders apart from the Rams was their ability to get open quickly when needed and drain a three. It seemed whenever the momentum was in VCU’s favor, Richmond would sink a well-timed shot from behind the arc.

This game boasted two of the most threatening three-point shooters in the country and the two best three-point shooting teams in the A-10, and while VCU’s Troy Daniels was only able to come up with one basket, Richmond’s Darien Brothers, who ranks 12^th nationally, knocked down four. Not his strongest performance from behind the arc, but notable when compared to Daniels. Richmond ended up shooting 44 percent compared to VCU’s surprisingly low 17%.

And while we’re on the topic of 3-point shots…Spider fans will be watching YouTube videos of Brothers’ 28-foot three-pointer with 1.5 seconds left for days to come. Despite VCU’s well-timed comeback giving them a seven-point lead in the final minute, they made a major mistake leaving Brothers’ open from behind the arc. The memorable shot was set up by sophomore guard Kendall Anthony who had an incredible game in his own right, scoring 21 of his 26 points after halftime.

Also worth noting was the impressive performance by Richmond’s bench. Much is noted about VCU’s deep bench and seemingly endless rotation of substitutions, but it was the Spiders who capitalized and scored 35 of their points from off the bench players compared to VCU’s 15.

But let’s not discredit VCU. While most media was anticipating a stronger showing from the nationally-ranked (but probably not for much longer) squad, they didn’t give up. True to their second-half form, they snagged turnover after turnover and crawled back to a lead after trailing for much of the first half.

Junior forward Juvonte Reddic would’ve had a monster game till some ticky-tacky fouls got him in trouble in the first half. Despite the fouls, the junior led the team in points (20), and posted his fifth double-double of the year. He had six all of last year.

It was also refreshing to see freshman Melvin Johnson keeping the Rams close with nine points in the final five minutes of the half. It was certainly a promising showing from the Bronx, NY native.

What I didn’t like: VCU’s sloppy play early on. Senior guard Darius Theus, who just had his career-best performance in the Rams’ overtime win against St Joseph’s, had little impact as the Rams’ floor general. Theus, who normally has a knack for controlling the pace and calming his team down, made some questionable passes and couldn’t seem to find his rhythm at the start. With many tough conference games ahead, VCU needs their leader to lock it up.

I can’t pinpoint if VCU was overconfident riding a 13-game winning streak or just genuinely surprised at the way Richmond started so hot, but the Rams definitely did not perform at their usual level. While I had every expectation of a close game, I anticipated Richmond rising to VCU’s fast-paced offense, not VCU forcing shots and allowing 13 turnovers.

On a side note…I REALLY didn’t like the student halftime karaoke display. Your inner-city rival comes to your house and you can’t put on a little pomp and circumstance for a sold out crowd at halftime? Come on, Richmond. I would’ve gone to a dive bar if I wanted to hear Aerosmith sung in the wrong key.

Moment of the game: When VCU’s head coach Shaka Smart elected not to foul in the last 12 seconds of the game which led to Richmond sinking the shot to send the game into overtime.

“Obviously, in retrospect, we should have fouled,” he said in an article from the Associated Press.

While there’s no guarantee this could’ve sealed the game for VCU, the odds were ever in their favor. (Pardon the super lame Hunger Games reference…couldn’t resist.)

Fan moment of the game: When CBS panned to Smart firing up his squad on the sidelines after they took a late second-half lead. The 35-year-old head coach is notorious for moving up and down the sidelines with his team showing just as much energy as his players do, but this time it looked like he was about to jump on the floor himself.

Player of the Game:  Kendall Anthony. His impact in the second half helped keep the Spiders in the game when it looked like Havoc might get the best of them. While Brothers’ will be remembered as the hero for sinking the shot to send the game into overtime, Anthony was the glue.

What this means: The giants of the A-10 have all fallen and no team is undefeated in the conference any longer. This is shaping up to be one of the most competitive conferences in the nation. No.9 Butler lost a shocker to La Salle on Wednesday and Xavier fell to Charlotte on the same night. Charlotte, VCU and Xavier all sit atop the A-10 in a tie with four wins and one loss a piece with Butler right on their heels at 3-1, 16-3 overall.

What’s next: VCU will host La Salle this Saturday (Ram Nation should be nervous about this one. They took down Butler, arguably the best team in the A-10.), and Richmond travels to play Massachusetts.

Closing thought: Richmond has officially turned into a real-life West Side Story. If both teams stay in the Atlantic 10 for the long haul, this could end up being a classic basketball rivalry. The highly anticipated rematch will take place on March 6^th at the Siegel Center.

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.