Muddy Waters

Massachusetts checks in at # 58.


Joel Welser's Predictions to date:

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bprichard

What!? I've been told by a reliable source that they have a 99% chance of winning the A10 and will without a doubt be hanging around for the second weekend of the tournament.

bdance

5th seems to be the consensus among these early prognasticators. Sounds about right. I wasn't that impressed with their NIT run. They went 3-1. The big scalps, Mississipi State and Seton Hall, were both uninterested in playing in the NIT. State didn't show up until midway through the 2nd half, their stud center never showed up at all. That's all it took to take it to OT. Seton Hall was marginally more up for the second round. They squeaked by Drexel, the only truly motivated opponent that they beat.

It was nice enough as a stepping stone. In a league as stacked as this one this season, fifth sounds pretty good.

Muddy Waters

bdance - I also picked the Minutemen to finish in 5th place.

I suspect that Welser's Top 4 A10 teams will be Virginia Commonwealth, Saint Louis, Xavier, and St. Joseph's, but not necessarily in that order.

I can't see Xavier finishing ahead of Richmond this season, but the Spiders didn't even make Welser's Top 144.

The Flyers should be much-improved from the 2011-12 season, but Welser dropped them a place, so his credibility is pretty well shot at this point.

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SpiderDave19

Umass should be tough this year. In games when their threes are falling, they are nearly impossible to outscore. Next year could be their year, though. They have a couple studs waiting in the wings.

Knobby

I am a little dissapointed with this spot but not surprised. He does not understand th eimpact of Cady's return, and he IMO will be the difference maker. I liked Sean Carter a lot, but Cady is a better all around player. I really think if he stayed healthy last year, they beat LaSalle at least one time and win the second St Joe's game and Umass is in the big tourney.... But who knows for sure.

With Xavier clearly not what they were supposed to be, I hope Umass fills in the 4th NCAA team void from the conference that they will leave - although I am a little surprised he does not have 5 A-10 teams projected..

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Well, we were smaller, but at least we were slower!

bdance

That was a decent writeup. It acknowledged that Sampson is a starter, for one. And it also reminded me of another that's getting overlooked a bit, Maxie Escho. If he makes the next step, folks are going to notice. They probably had plenty of time to fix the status of Farrell, but otherwise a pretty good capsule review.

vcurams05

uh oh this should be fun...

SpiderDave19

It will be fine if people just ignore the morons. For the life of me, I can't understand the point of a post like bprichards above. It just begs for more garbage.

Muddy Waters

The converse is also true:


UMass Falls To Dayton In A-10 First Round, 78-50 (University of Massachusetts - March 8, 2011)

AMHERST, Mass. - Led by a 31-7 run between the 6:43 mark of the first half and 16:46 in the second half, Dayton defeated UMass, 78-50 on the Atlantic 10 Championship first round on Tuesday night at the Mullins Center.

The Flyers shot 13-of-23 from 3-point range and had four scorers in double figures.

Dayton advances to face top-seeded Xavier on Friday at noon at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.

The Flyers shot 53.1 percent overall from the field, including a 52 percent mark from behind the mark.

The Minutemen shot 28.1 percent for the game and were 6-of-30 (20 %) from long range.

UMass Falls to Dayton, 76-43 (University of Massachusetts - February 25, 2012)

DAYTON, Ohio - The Massachusetts basketball team endured one of its toughest shooting games and dropped a 76-43 decision to Dayton at UD Arena on Saturday night.

UMass (19-9, 8-6 Atlantic 10) shot a season-low 25 percent and committed 15 turnovers in dropping its second-consecutive contest to the Flyers.

The Minutemen made only 4 of 17 (23.5 %) of their 3-point attempts.

Muddy's Observations:

(1) In their last two meetings, the Flyers have outscored the Minutemen by total of 61 points (154 to 93).

(2) Next meeting: Dayton @ Massachusetts (Mullins Center) on February 23, 2013.

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bdance

There isn't any defense of either of those eggs. The home playoff game is particularly embarrassing. But it's a new season, Dayton has lost alot of it's outside firepower, and maybe the Minutemen -most of the culprits are back - have been fitted for new eye glasses and can find the side of a barn this February.

ExplorerSteve

This is truly Madness to have Saint Joe's in the top 55! Of course he will also rank Saint Louis high.

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Bona Wolf for Pope

It was probably easier to visualize a couple of months ago when this was written and Dez Wells was going to play, along with the two freshmen (who may or may not be eligible).

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UMass87

no complaint with the review but I'll bet money that the fifth place A10 team is better than 58th. I'd put the over/under on the A10 fifth place team at about 45th place and the bubble for the NCAA.

Muddy Waters

bdance - FYI, I predicted a Flyers loss at Amherst in February (click on "Predictions" in my signature line below).


Bona Wolf - Welser can certainly change his Predicted Order before his preview of any given team is published.

As soon as Xavier and Dez parted ways, Joel Welser should have published his Xavier Preview as soon as possible, giving the Musketeers the next available ranking number. Joel chose not to.

The Dez Wells news broke on Tuesday August 21st, 2012.

On Wednesday August 22nd, Joel Welser published # 80 La Salle Explorers, who should finish ahead of Xavier this season.


BTW, Xavier freshman Myles Davis has already been ruled academically ineligible for the 2012-13 season, while the academic status of Jalen Reynolds for the upcoming season is still unknown/unpublished.


I agree.

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