Week #8 - Games of Interest

[Obadiah]

The first interesting result of the day is the Houston road win at Temple, 77-50. Game was fairly close for about the first 14 minutes and then Houston broke it open big time. The Cougars continued their furious offense in the second half on Rob Gray's shooting and turned the game into a rout. Gray ended game with 23 points and six assists. In the URI-Houston game, Gray came off the bench to score 14 points, but has now secured a starting role. Houston is now 12-2 with its two losses being URI and Grand Canyon U.

[Ramulous]

I grudgingly respect what providence has done.....they have one great player..Dunn...and two other excellent players who may turn out to be great also....

[Obadiah]

Overcoming a 9-point deficit early in the second half, Saint Joseph's on the strength of balanced scoring and putting eleven three point shots squeezed past Richmond, 77-73. DeAndre Bembry put in the basket to give the Hawks the lead with 27 seconds left and then hit two free throws to ice it. This is a big road win for the Hawks and will likely get them more consideration in next week's national polls.

[bigappleram]

You have to respect what PC is doing, we don't need to fawn over their attendance if we were a Top 10 team we would be sold out today.

[UCH21377]

The Houston win may end up being our best win.

[TruePoint]

[Seawrightspostgame]

I hope Houston wins their league.

Bonnies knocked off Davidson. Some things are going to happen in the league this year I can feel it.

The North Strikes Back! Personally I have been sick of the southern A10 teams thinking its all about them. Meeting people in Brooklyn that are like "oh yeah Rhode Island, they play basketball too."

Still on the fence if I will make it to Brooklyn.

[rambone 78]

The Bonnies weren't supposed to be very good this season.

Still, at their place they are tough. Davidson struggles on the road.

Right now, there are no standouts in our league.

St. Joes is making a case for top third of the league status.

Beat Richmond Tuesday, and maybe we won't be that far off after all.

Need Hassan to play at least 20 minutes, and KI to be back at full strength.

The former might be doubtful......

[ramster]

Overcoming a 9-point deficit early in the second half, Saint Joseph's on the strength of balanced scoring and putting eleven three point shots squeezed past Richmond, 77-73. DeAndre Bembry put in the basket to give the Hawks the lead with 27 seconds left and then hit two free throws to ice it. This is a big road win for the Hawks and will likely get them more consideration in next week's national polls.

The Hawks are now 11-2, same record as Dayton. SJU went into Richmond as 6 pt underdogs and came away with the win.
A big difference this year for SJU is the great play of 6'7" Senior Isaiah Miles. Here is a guy who was not picked for any of the 3 preseason All A10 teams and may make a case for POY in the A10 before the season is finished.
Consider his stats:
17.3 ppg
8.6 rpg
38% 3 pointers
91% FT
21 blocks to lead team

Consider 6'6" Bembry who many would consider POY candidate and still do
16.3 ppg
7.8 rpg
28% 3 pointers
63% FT
55 assists to lead team
19 steals to lead team

Bottom line is that SJU has a very powerful 1-2 punch. They have two big men who could challenge for 1st team A10
Yesterday against Richmond on the road Miles had a double - double with 17 points and 16 rebounds. Bembry had 16 pts, 6 rebounds and 6 assists to lead his team in that category as usual. The offense runs through Bembry as evidenced by his assist leading numbers.

St Bonaventure now 9-3 with an impressive home court win over Davidson.

Today we have:
UMASS (7-5) favored by 2.5 at LaSalle (4-6)
GW (11-2) Favored by 10 at home against Fordham (9-2)

[rambone 78]

As for Miles, what's impressive to me is the 38% 3 pt. percentage, and the 91% on FT's.

Of course, some of his pts. and rebound numbers have been put up against pretty weak competition, but 17 and 16 against Richmond is impressive even though they can be dominated inside.

We will have no picnic against them this season.

[RF1]

GW (11-2) Favored by 10 at home against Fordham (9-2)

Fordham has played just two games away from Rose Hill Gym thus far. They lost both - at UT-Arlington and vs a very bad Boston College at the Barclays in Brooklyn. GW will be by far the best team they have faced as their schedule has been very weak (only two of their opponents currently have records of .500 or better).

[bigappleram]

Davidson played without two starters yesterday - Sullivan and Barham. That said Jaylen Adams is VERY good for the Bonnies and they have 3-4 other very capable scorers. That will be a tough one for us in their gym.

[rambone 78]

Yep, aren't going to be very many easy wins in conference. For us and most every other team too.

Last night was a surprise, winning by that much. But that's probably the worst team in the conference also.

Need all hands on deck to have a chance to win every game we play from here on out.

Maybe we CAN do better than 12-6. But everything has to break right.......

[Obadiah]

Summing up Saturday action.

The A-10 went 5-5 on the day. Heh, heh.

Besides the URI convincing win over Saint Louis the other winners were St. Joseph's in a road win which establishes them as a bona fide title contender. Also, St Bonaventure's win over a short handed Davidson shows that the Wildcats' second year in the conference may not be as welcoming as the first. Dayton won at Duquesne, 66-58, but Dukes showed some mettle in the contest and, as expected, VCU won easily over GMU, 71-47.



URI OOC opponents went 6-5 on the day.

* Houston in a solid road win over Temple.

* Charlotte lost to Old Dominion, 74-65.

* Holy Cross fell at Navy, 65-60.

* Brown lost to Maine, 98-92.

* Iona beat Quinnipiac. 78-66.

* UIC lost to Valparaiso, 75-47.

* Cleveland State beaten by Oakland, 86-68.

* St. John's loses to PC

* TCU beaten badly at Oklahoma State, 69-48.

* Indiana in a close win at Nebraska, 79-69.

* #4 Maryland batters Northwestern, 72-59

[Obadiah]

In Sunday A-10 action:

* UMass at LaSalle. 5 PM. On NBC Sports.

* Fordham at George Washington. 7 PM. On NBC Sports.


In games involving URI OOC Opponents:

* Colgate at American. 2 PM.

Other game of interest. #8 Arizona at Arizona State. 2PM. On FS1

[twisted3829]

well at least Dan hasn't done this

[ATPTourFan]

Awesome.

[adam914]

Haha, and Bobby is the calm one!

[Seawrightspostgame]

Yea that is one chair toss short of taking the cake.

[Joe]

Watched it live. Refs were making one sided calls, same kind that our Hurley gets pissed about too. It was great!

[ramster]

As for Miles, what's impressive to me is the 38% 3 pt. percentage, and the 91% on FT's.

Of course, some of his pts. and rebound numbers have been put up against pretty weak competition, but 17 and 16 against Richmond is impressive even though they can be dominated inside.

We will have no picnic against them this season.

As were Bembry's numbers. Point is Miles' performance exceeds Bembry's and all know Bembry's has been in preseason discussion for POY and for the NBA draft.

[ramster]

GW (11-2) Favored by 10 at home against Fordham (9-2)

Fordham has played just two games away from Rose Hill Gym thus far. They lost both - at UT-Arlington and vs a very bad Boston College at the Barclays in Brooklyn. GW will be by far the best team they have faced as their schedule has been very weak (only two of their opponents currently have records of .500 or better).

Fordham down 3 with under 2 minutes to go

[TruePoint]

well at least Dan hasn't done this

I wish he had. That was awesome.

[ramster]

GW (11-2) Favored by 10 at home against Fordham (9-2)

Fordham has played just two games away from Rose Hill Gym thus far. They lost both - at UT-Arlington and vs a very bad Boston College at the Barclays in Brooklyn. GW will be by far the best team they have faced as their schedule has been very weak (only two of their opponents currently have records of .500 or better).

Fordham down 3 with under 2 minutes to go

GW holds off Fordham 69-63 on their home court in a hard fought battle

[rambone 78]

Fordham is no longer the league doormat.

Their new coach has them playing a lot smarter.

They aren't a guaranteed win. For us, or most other teams in the league now.

Of course, they usually give us fits anyway, especially at their place.

[RF1]

12-2 GW drew just 2,813 for their home game vs Fordham at the Smith Center.
4-7 LaSalle drew 1,525 for their home game vs UMass at Gola.

[ATPTourFan]

Bad for GW. LaSalle attendance is always poor.

[ramster]

School is out. My guess is these numbers are in line with past Years during the holiday period.

[RF1]

School is out. My guess is these numbers are in line with past Years during the holiday period.

12-2 GW drew just 2,813 for their home game vs Fordham at the Smith Center.
4-7 LaSalle drew 1,525 for their home game vs UMass at Gola.


I just posted the attendance numbers as a comparison to URI which got 4,517 for its first league home game vs St. Louis while its students were on holiday break. As ATPTourFan, the number for LaSalle was expected. The Explorers historically do not draw well and they are off to a dreadful season. The GW number is more interesting. I was surprised watching their game yesterday that there were so many empty seats in a 5,000 person venue. The upper sideline areas as well as behind the baskets had few people. This despite the fact that GW is in one of the nation's largest cities and is off to a great start at 12-2 having been ranked just a few weeks ago.

[RF1]

After looking at the attendance for GW, their game with Fordham that drew 2,813 was not really out of the norm. They have averaged just 3,236 with four of their nine games in the 2,000 range.

GW HOME ATTENDANCE
OPPONENT | ATTENDANCE | YTD | YTD AVG
LAFAYETTE | 3,118 | 3,118 | 3,118
VIRGINIA | 5,025 | 8,143 | 4,072
ARMY | 2,775 | 10,918 | 3,639
GARDNER-WEBB | 3,796 | 14,714 | 3,679
SETON HALL | 2,280 | 16,994 | 3,399
PENN STATE | 3,262 | 20,256 | 3,376
RUTGERS | 3,172 | 23,428 | 3,347
SAINT PETER'S | 2,880 | 26,308 | 3,289
FORDHAM | 2,813 | 29,121 | 3,236

[ace]

Haha, and Bobby is the calm one!

Untrue!

[bigappleram]

GW is an international heavy school, with alumni spread all over the world and with no students on campus their attendance will suffer. Though they are in DC i am sure they have more alumni in Dubai than they do in DC. They routinely dont show well in Brooklyn/A10 tourney either, i remember us outnumbering their fans by a large amount last season.

[eli#10]

How about the performance by Wake Forest at the free throw line yesterday vs Louisville. They lost 65-57 but the game was a lot closer in the last few minutes and Wake was 3 for 12 on free throws.

[NYGFan_Section208]

How about the performance by Wake Forest at the free throw line yesterday vs Louisville. They lost 65-57 but the game was a lot closer in the last few minutes and Wake was 3 for 12 on free throws.

Hmmm...I wonder if they practice them? Someone should suggest that....

[theblueram]

How about the performance by Wake Forest at the free throw line yesterday vs Louisville. They lost 65-57 but the game was a lot closer in the last few minutes and Wake was 3 for 12 on free throws.

Hmmm...I wonder if they practice them? Someone should suggest that....

From Four McGlynn's interview:

On team's improved free throw shooting: We did a couple of drills today where we have to win them before practice ends. Being able to lock in and make free throws when it matters, I think has really translated well to the games.