uz2b-len

I think the relevant clause is, "When his shot isn't going in, he ain't taking 12 of them."

bdance

Dan has been a fine addition to the board. I don't think I can say the same about you at the moment. You do have potential, but we gotta get those dosage levels where they need to be. Not there yet.

z8-Minutemen

If I'm such a plague then why is my rep power infinitely higher than yours?

And don't worry, I'm not obsessed. I'm just mildly annoyed. If I were obsessed I would post 5 a day about you. You aren't worth the time though.

__________________
Dallas Cowboys- 5 super bowls and counting...

UMass Minutemen- 8 tournament appearances, 1 final four. Alumni: Julius 'Dr. J' Erving, Marcus Camby

Northeastern Huskies- 7 tournament appearances. Alumni: Reggie Lewis, Jose Juan 'JJ' Barea

Bona Wolf for Pope

Rep power: accurate barometer of worth :: 1954 NCAA Championship : La Salle's current program.



*Note to La Salle fans: I'd rather have the 54 championship than not, and you have a very nice team this year.

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"Careful reading comprehension is crucial to an online forum discussion."

Knobby

HA HA- that's a good one!

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

Knobby

I think any one of the top 3 could be easily interchanged as of right now. I really like St Joe's (not literally - I hate them actually) but I like their chances of winning the regular season.

I do think that VCU and Butler will have a bit a problem in their first year in this conference. I think VCU is still plenty good enough for a top 4 finish in the conference, but I would be shocked if they don't have a loss or two at one of the bottom 6 teams - it really is amazing how tough every team is regardless of where they are in the standings, and you have to live it to understand it. More power to them if they get through those games, but even the "regulars" get beated up in those games more often than you would think.

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

DukesDan

How do I annoy you exactly?

Oh, and your reputation is 122,834 points better than mine. Infinitely higher it is not.

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Duquesne Dukes: 2012 A10 tournament qualifier!!

2012-2013 Locks of the Day TBA
2011-2012 Locks of the Day NIT participant 29-26-0...... .527
2010-2011 Locks of the Day Regular Season Champion 31-20-4 ..... .600

#15 Cooper #11 Green #10 Nixon #12 Ricketts #24 Somerset

WH

A-10 fans here are quite familiar with Blue Ribbon, but the truth is most of us on this board know the league better than the Blue Ribbon writers who do the team profiles.

The A-10 used to get excellent profiles in BR, but that was when Joe Lunardi was doing them. Lunardi may be known as the brackets guru now, but he's been the SJU Hawks radio announcer for years and was co-founder of Blue Ribbon.

BR started in 1981 and I have every issue since 1982 (I just read the last five seasons worth of profiles on VCU and Butler). After Lunardi stopped doing the A-10, the league has had a succession of writers. None have been nearly as good.

This year Blue Ribbon has four writers for the A-10. One of them is Chris DiSano of College Chalktalk, who knows the league exceptionally well. Yet he only did Rhody.

Another writer, Michale Litos, is know for his CAA coverage and VCU was one of his profiles. Third writer is Josh Carpenter. He only did Charlotte.

Fourth and most used writer is Brendan Quinn. SJU grad who's written for Basketball Times and freelanced for Philly papers. He knows the Philly teams and East Coast teams well, though he just took at job in Tennessee to cover the Vols and SEC.

To me it's a problem having four guys cover a league. You miss something not knowing a lot about every team. Subtle things.

That said, BR still does a very good job overall. I just started reading the team profiles and they seem generally well done.

tman

1. St. Joe's
2. Temple
3. Saint Louis
4. Dayton
5. Umass
6. VCU
7. Lasalle
8. St Bonaventure
9. Richmond
10. Butler
11. Xavier
12. Charlotte
13. Rhode Island
14. George Washington
15. Fordham
16. Duquesne

And now the list nobody is waiting for.

Butler and VCU, welcome to the league. We will now hand you your ass.
St Louis had the best team but lost their coach. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt by placing them third.

St Joe's, believe it or not, still has the best coach in this league(experience counts)he knows the ins and outs of every coach and every program in the conference.
Temple is Temple.

People are underestimating Dayton. Point guard still counts in this league.
Dillard is a beast. He is strong contender for POY.
Matt Derenbecker.Wiil surprise people with his ability. He will give the Flyers a huge lift.

Umass and VCU will tie for fifth place.
The Bonnies and Lasalle are neck and neck. Each one of them are capable of beating people.
Followed by Richmond and Butler.

Everyone else should concentrate on not being humiliated.

vcurams05

Tman, VCU will certainly take its share of lumps but I think a lot of fans will be surprised when they play us at how tough we are. We play a style that is hard to practice for and in the current format only Richmond gets to see twice. Watching tape can't help simulate the speed and athleticism we come at teams with. Sure they beat us, but ask Indiana what it was like when they turned it over 22 times and got a gratuitous bounce with 10 seconds left for the game winner.

Butler, I can't say anything about because I don't know them as well and they have a lot of questions coming in. Primarily can Rotnei Clark, an excellent SG, become an all-league caliber point guard.

tman

VCU is a great get for the a-10.
They have, if not the best, one of the best coaches in the nation.
They are loaded with talent. However playing on the road in the a-10 without any past experience in places you've never played in, is not an easy task.

The a-10 is different.
One minute you're in a 13,000 seat arena in some corn field, followed by three thousand screaming fans in the middle of New York City.
And all points in between.
Some of these places are not just tough places to play, they can be a little weird.

I am thrilled the a-10 added Butler and VCU.
Good luck--you'll need it.

Flyer75

I still think VCU has the most talent out there at the end of the day, and a great coach added in the mix. It will be interesting to see how VCU plays on the road. I'm not real familiar with the CAA or the distance in travel but it's not easy to travel to SLU, Dayton, Olean, Xavier....those aren't close for VCU. Of course, I know they don't go to Dayton this year. I think VCU will drop a couple of games that will surprise them but will still compete for a 1-4 finish.

Same with Butler, minus the talent. I don't see them finishing higher then 6th at best.

DistrictBaller

Well we do travel to Boston and Atlanta in the CAA, so we're not unaccustomed to long road trips. The A-10 will be tougher though in my opinion as we had 4 other in-state teams which were short road trips in the CAA.

We'll see. I think there is something to the 'VCU will have to adjust to the A-10' sentiment, at the same time I think people will be a little surprised how much adjustment the A-10 will have to make to VCU and our style of play, especially seeing it for the first time. Nobody plays like us in the A-10. UMass has modeled theirs after ours, but it's still not the same.

It should be interesting to see how it all balances out and where that will put VCU when the dust settles. I think we will be very good and a NCAA tournament caliber squad. I have no idea how that translates to a regular season placing. We haven't placed great over a regular season, but Shaka has always had VCU playing great basketball when it counts in March. Regardless of where we finish, VCU will be a big threat to win the conference tournament. Our style of play is very advantageous is a single-game elimination tournament scenario.

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"We will wreak havoc on our opponent's psyche and plan of attack."
- VCU Head Coach Shaka Smart

Flyer75

Ya, I with that. I would be a bit surprised if VCU finished less then 4th, just based on the talent your team has this season.

Gormin71

This is something I've been wondering. The Flyers start the year off at VCU before hosting Butler. I can only assume the coaching staff has already been watching video, but is this good or bad that we have the new teams right off the bat? Do we not know enough about them to game-plan them well? Is it good because they don't know us well? Can we give VCU their first A10 home loss? Can Butler survive the Decibel Dungeon? Can we go 1-1, and be done with the newcomers and not have to worry about how to game-plan them for the rest of the conference season?

Just like how after Saint Louis figured out how to break the Flyers fast break offense, by shooting and retreating, other teams started doing it too. Therefore, we won't get any of that knowledge on either team to assist our game planning if we had them later in the year.

Let the games begin!