Rhode Island DOA

[muskieman]

biggest wish is what Mike or was it Sean said to me about worrying about our conference, X just wants to dominat the conference until they(schools that fail to compete) figure out if they want to be in this conference.
The A-10 tried to follow the lead of the Big East...more teams then more teams in the tourney but they forgot one thing, quality.

[drudy23]

Mark it down (everyone's favorite phrase)...we get 4 teams in the tourney:

Xavier
St. Joe's
Umass
And A-10 Tourney winner....LaSalle....yep, I just said that out loud.

[bluegrass]

This is another blow to the A10's chancces of getting multiple bids.We might be back to 2 bids.From the league's standpoint it would be better if St.Joe's beats X next week and someone other than X wins the tourney.Usually the non conference schedule hurts this league.Now after a great non conference, the league schedule is killing it.

While it might be better for the A-10 I don't see why we would want X to lose any of those games. X should not worry what others are not doing and worry about their own situation. Xavier should have the objective to lay waste to the league and make the league raise themselves to Xavier's level.

I am not saying I want us to lose.Just saying from a league standpoint it would be better.I want to run the table , the league be damned!

[muskieman]

Mark it down (everyone's favorite phrase)...we get 4 teams in the tourney:

Xavier
St. Joe's
Umass
And A-10 Tourney winner....LaSalle....yep, I just said that out loud.

Thanks that made me throw up in my mouth.

[somebody]

I was afraid this would happen, that the A-10 bottom feeders in their high school gyms would hurt the league's overall status.

I have to chuckle. All season long some complained about the bottom feeders and how terrible they are and why we need to get rid of them. Then when they do better than expected and pull some upsets we complain because it is hurting the league's chances for multiple bids. Seems to me you can't have it both ways. Do we want the bottom feeders to be more respectable or not?

Maybe we should rather blame some of the "good" teams for taking so many "bad" losses at the hands of the "bottom feeders". Actually it just creates even more balance in the league this season and as many have pointed out the real problem is that the pollsters are not yet ready to deal with that with the A-10 as they are with other top leagues. And yes I too am disappointed that we probably won't get as many teams into the dance this year as earlier expected, but let's not once again blame everything on the so-called bottom feeders.

Today as I write this every team except two in the league has from 5-8 wins ... I would call that pretty balanced. The two that do not are at each end of the list ... Xavier with its 12 wins and the Bonnies with their 1 win (and yes I will grant that they are and have been a true bottom feeder )

P.S. And speaking of high school gyms, from what I understand The Hawks have one of the better ones of those and they clearly are not a bottom feeder. To their credit, from what I understand, they are planning an upgrade.

[bluegrass]

No arguing with you SOMEBODY.If these teams are so bad then don't lose to them.Beating them may not help your cause, but losing to them will kill it.So far so good for X.Our worst loss is probably Miami.

[Miche]

Somebody,

I don't think the problem with the bottom feeders is necessarily a double standard. I think the frustration with the bottom feeders come less from their overall performance as much as the drastic change in their performance from out-of-conference to in-conference.

It doesn't fare well for the league when GW posts losses to Binghamton, then turns around and then squabbles URI by 17 pts.

Do you think its a good thing for the league when LaSalle falls to Howard (5-23, RPI: 331) and Bucknell (11-17, RPI 209), then post back to back victories against St. Joes and Dayton?

Such indiscretions are terrible for league perception, RPI and obviously conference records. Parity is good, when parity is consistent.

I have less of a problem with St. Bona who won 6 total games OOC, but only posted a single victory in the conference.

If you're gonna' suck, you might as well do it consistently.

[somebody]

If you're gonna' suck, you might as well do it consistently.

And I will turn it around on you and say again that if you are supposed to be good you won't let those teams that had some bad non com losses beat you! Period! You will win consistently. It works both ways.

And as if to make the point I just finished watching St. Louis beat St. Joe's at Hawk Hill. If they expect to dance they don't let that happen.