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Scouting St, Joe's at Xavier!!
By
Andy Mac Williams,
2/16/2010
They say "The Hawk never dies!!" but SJU mascot may be on life support this season. St. Joe's dearly misses their inside force Ahmad Nivins and the perimeter scoring of guard Tasheed Carr. They're being outrebounded by 7 boards a game and outscored 74-69. The overall record is 9-16 after Sunday's loss at UMass. The road has been brutal for the Hawks (1-9, 0-5 in the A-10). SJU may miss the conference tournament. Their 3-8 league record places them 13th - a half game back of GW, La Salle and St. Bonnies for the final Atlantic City play-in slot.
Enough of the pity party for St.Joe's!! Their coach Phil Martelli is one of the countries' most glib and resourceful bench bosses. His Hawks are getting better defensively and on the boards.
Their offense has gone away in recent close losses to UMass and St Louis though. SJU has a veteran core of three all-league caliber players. Guard Darrin Govens is the 3 point threat plus a strong on-the-ball defender. Garrett Williamson is strong across the board-on defense (He'll probably guard Jordan Crawford) plus in floor game and scoring. Idris Hilliard is carrying much of the inside load.
The Hawks beat Dayton 60-59 in Philly three weeks back. SJU is the last A-10 team to beat XU at Cintas (March 2006 on a Senior Night when the Muskies had no healthy senior players). Xavier has won 29 in a row at home in the conference since.
X will be heavily favored. The Muskies have an obvious advantage inside which they capitalized on fully at Florida. Love, McLean and Frease are hard to stop when all are playing aggressively. Guard Mark Lyons played 26 strong minutes against the ultra quick Florida guards. He can help Terrell Holloway give Govens of SJU a headache.
X could get into trouble in this game if they settle for jump shots against a normally stubborn Saint Joe's defense. Patience early should yield easy baskets later.
Around the Atlantic 10:
It's a giddy time for Richmond. The Spiders are rated 25th in the latest AP Poll-the first time they've been ranked since 1986. UR leads the league at 9-2 (a half game ahead of Xavier, Temple and Charlotte). They've won 6 straight and give up just 60 PPG. X lost at Richmond late last season. The Spiders come to Cintas a week from Sunday.
A log jam is developing atop the A-10. 7 teams are separated by 2 and a half games. The Top 4 get First Round A-10 Tournament byes and won't have to play an Opening Round Game Tuesday March 9th. Four teams go directly to Atlantic City and the quarterfinals Friday March 12th.
The first tie-breaker is head-to-head record whether a 2 team tie or multi-team tie. The next tie-breaker is overall record against the rest of the league starting with the best teams. X won't have to worry about any of this stuff if they win their final 6 games or go 5-1. That's a BIG ORDER in a competitive league.
I'll take 4-2 over the final 6. That should net a first round bye and maybe a tie for the regular season championship.
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