2020 A10 Tournament Talk

[ramster]

VCU has a 3 page already thread about who would they rather face in the Semi Finals in the A10 Tournament - Dayton or URI

https://www.vcuramnation.com/forums/thr ... ton.18612/

[section(105)]

.......just get the double bye, go from there....

[Rhody15]

VCU has a 3 page already thread about who would they rather face in the Semi Finals in the A10 Tournament - Dayton or URI

https://www.vcuramnation.com/forums/thr ... ton.18612/

Saw one poster say “I never want to play Rhode Island again.”

[mjg13x]

VCU has a 3 page already thread about who would they rather face in the Semi Finals in the A10 Tournament - Dayton or URI

https://www.vcuramnation.com/forums/thr ... ton.18612/

Saw one poster say “I never want to play Rhode Island again.”

Another good line from there:

"Barring injury, suspension, mercy or a corona virus outbreak in the state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, Dayton is the better matchup until next year."

[Rhody74]

The pessimist in me says it’s very tough to win three games against a team in the same season.

[TrevlontRook3]

So hypothetically we finish off the season 7-2 (not saying who are loses are) what are people’s thoughts on how far we would have to go in the A10 tournament to start dancing? I know a lot depends on how we do in our two match ups with Dayton but I’m just looking to open this thread up and start the speculation

[rambone 78]

7-2 is fine as long as one of those losses isn't to Fordham or St. Joes.

Those would be resume killers, even with a win over Dayton.

[steviep123]

So hypothetically we finish off the season 7-2 (not saying who are loses are) what are people’s thoughts on how far we would have to go in the A10 tournament to start dancing? I know a lot depends on how we do in our two match ups with Dayton but I’m just looking to open this thread up and start the speculation

I think going 7-2 down the stretch means we'll be 15-3 in the A10, good for 2nd place or better, and 23-7 over all. In theory it should be enough regardless of the tournament. In my totally unexpert opinion, either the two losses will contain at least one loss to Dayton or they will not. Losing to Dayton would be considered a Q1 loss, so not awful to the selection committee. If at least one of the losses is to other than Dayton, then it means we have at least one win vs. Dayton - a Q1 win in the eyes of the committee, which is good. But it would be offset by a potential bad loss. What we can't do is have a bad loss that requires us to beat Dayton. We need margin for error. I guess my real point is if we are considered in now, then going 7-2 down the stretch shouldn't contain enough losses to derail us because either the losses are to Dayton or we have at least one win vs. Dayton in the mix. Of course, it's never that simple, so let's just win and let other teams worry.

[Rhody15]

I’d like to avoid the Bonnies and Davidson on Friday, and VCU on Saturday.

[rambone 78]

7-2 would mean a 15-3 conference record, not 16-2.

Otherwise all good.

[Rhodymob05]

I don't get the Davidson intimidation.

[ramster]

The pessimist in me says it’s very tough to win three games against a team in the same season.

What does the pessimist in you say about URI having won 8 of the last 9 games with VCU?

[Rhody15]

I don't get the Davidson intimidation.

They still have 2 all league players who can take over the game.

[Rhody74]

The pessimist in me says it’s very tough to win three games against a team in the same season.

What does the pessimist in you say about URI having won 8 of the last 9 games with VCU?

We’re due to lose??? Pessimists will always have something to worry about.

[steviep123]

7-2 would mean a 15-3 conference record, not 16-2.

Otherwise all good.

Sorry, that's what I meant and fixed it above. Thanks for pointing it out.

[ramster]

The pessimist in me says it’s very tough to win three games against a team in the same season.

What does the pessimist in you say about URI having won 8 of the last 9 games with VCU?

We’re due to lose??? Pessimists will always have something to worry about.

Read the VCU Thread regarding the 8 of the last 9. What does it tell you that many VCU Fans are saying they would prefer to play Dayton in the Semifinals of the A10 Tournament instead of URI. Enuff said

[Rhody15]

Let’s say We lose @ Dayton, winning the rest, then having a number 1 in the country ranked Dayton undefeated in conference play coming into Kingston...

[TruePoint]

Any of the top 8 or so teams could be dangerous in the A10 tournament. If I had my choice we’d play Duquesne and/or Richmond. I don’t think either are very good, but I especially want Richmond because I need to see URI flatten them this season. I have been killing Richmond all year and for that to be our one A10 loss to this point makes my blood boil. They stink.

[bigappleram]

Richmond doesn't stink though you keep insisting they do. If they get Francis back they will be a tough out, and I think we match up better against the more physical/athletic teams (ie Duquesne, VCU) than we do against the finesse teams (Richmond, Davidson, Bonnies). I'd prefer avoiding all of those 3 and roll the dice with the rest.

[TruePoint]

No, they stink. I think if we show up for the game and are locked in, we would do the same thing to them that VCU did last week - maybe worse. They aren’t built for physicality. You can manhandle them.

[rambone 78]

No matter who we play, we might need a win in the A10 quarterfinals to lock up an at large, if we reach that point.

So until then, we're getting ahead of ourselves as usual.

Guilty as charged.

[Rhodymob05]

I don't get the Davidson intimidation.

They still have 2 all league players who can take over the game.

That is true. Honestly, the A10 tourney is pretty unpredictable. Cinderellas are born in conference tournaments.

[section(105)]

I don't get the Davidson intimidation.

They still have 2 all league players who can take over the game.

That is true. Honestly, the A10 tourney is pretty unpredictable. Cinderellas are born in conference tournaments.

.......exactly, aka bid-stealers......

[rambone 78]

Like St. Louis last year.

Get hot at the right time.

[Blue Man]

The Davidson factor is the same thing VCU is dealing with us. Davidson has dealt us some crushing blows over the years.

Every single top 8 team is dangerous.

Every single team is dangerous if you don't show up.

Personally as long as we're 1-3 I'm happy. Double bye and avoid any potential to see Dayton until the finals. JUST WIN THE NEXT GAME.

[steviep123]

Like St. Louis last year.

Get hot at the right time.

And Davidson the year before and us to a smaller extent (yes, we were in with a loss to VCU in the championship game, but probably out with a semifinal loss to Davidson or a quarterfinal loss to SBU).

[adam914]

I think I'm also just looking for the double bye and not too worried about matchups otherwise. As long as its us and Dayton at 1 and 2 so we'd matchup in the finals I will feel pretty good about our chances. I also wouldn't mind another shot at Richmond to.

[SmartyBarrett]

Personally as long as we're 1-3 I'm happy. Double bye and avoid any potential to see Dayton until the finals. JUST WIN THE NEXT GAME.

I don't wanna fall to 3.

[ramster]

1 - SEED is the Goal

Win the A10 Tournament is the Goal.

Nothing less. Win it for Jeff Dowtin and Cyril Langevine

[Blue Man]

Personally as long as we're 1-3 I'm happy. Double bye and avoid any potential to see Dayton until the finals. JUST WIN THE NEXT GAME.

I don't wanna fall to 3.

Oh me neither. I figured I'd talk about this thread in terms of the A10 tourney and not our NCAA chances.

NCAA chances I don't want to even think of what 3 losses would do to our NCAA hopes.

In terms of the A10 tournament the 3 seed is more or less the same as the 2 seed to me. If the tournament started today - 2 seed would play winner of Bonnies/GW and 3 seed would get VCU/UMass.

But yes - 1st or 2nd seed PLEASE.

[reef]

I think if we do go 15-3 then we are a lock even with a loss in Quarters

Our resume will be good enough

[luke]

Beat GW that is the goal right now .

[KevanBoyles]

https://www.thescore.com/ncaab/news/1941054

Dayton has got to get past Rhody first!

[ramster]

https://www.thescore.com/ncaab/news/1941054

Dayton has got to get past Rhody first!

Excellent article.
Nice to see Dayton reaching such a lofty ranking. Shows that a Team from the Atlantic 10 can aspire to be the National Champion.

Dayton will be a challenge for us defensively as they play very unselfish basketball

''We love sharing the ball,'' said forward Obi Toppin, whose alley-oop dunks are the punctuation mark to Dayton's pass-it-around style. ''We know giving up a good shot to get a better shot is always the right way to go.''

[reef]

Anthony Grant has done a great job there will a top P5 come calling or does he stay at his Alma mater ???

[ramster]

With 1/3 of A10 left before Tournament, the contenders for byes:

Dayton (11-0)
UMASS A
VCU A
Duquesne H
George Mason A
Davidson H
URI A
George Washington H

URI (10-2)
St Josephs H
Davidson A
Fordham A
St Louis H
Dayton H
UMASS A

St Bonaventure (9-3)
Davidson H
Richmond H
Duquesne H
LaSalle A
St Josephs H
St Louis A

Richmond (7-3)
LaSalle A
VCU H
George Mason H
St Bonaventure A
George Washington A
UMASS H
Davidson H
Duquesne A

VCU (7-3)
George Mason H
Richmond A
Dayton H
St Louis A
UMASS A
George Washington H
Duquesne H
Davidson A

Duquesne (7-4)
Fordham A
George Washington H
Dayton A
St Bonaventure A
George Mason H
VCU A
Richmond H

Davidson and St Louis are both (6-5) and not out of the Bye picture yet

St Bonaventure could surprise since there are (0-3) playing without Osun Osunniyi with losses @Dayton, @VCU and URI-H. Bonnie’s are (9-0) with Osunniyi. Overall Bonnie’s are (17-8) but (1-6) without Osunniyi and (16-2) with Osunniyi. Osun is healthy now playing 35 minutes per game again.

[rhodyruckus]

We really need to hold serve, the Bonnies have a path to running the table and getting squarely on the bubble.

I think we need to be 15-3 to be comfortably dancing. Either run the next 5 and not need the Dayton game as a "must win", or if we stumble in one of the next 5 then Dayton becomes a must. Our Q1 alone won't have the opportunities or wins that the Power 5 bubble teams get, so just pile up the wins and run up our Q1 + Q2 record. Otherwise we'll be sweating out that the Rams need to get to the conference final, hope for X team to lose, etc. I don't want to do math during the A10 tourney.

[bigappleram]

We really need to hold serve, the Bonnies have a path to running the table and getting squarely on the bubble.

I think we need to be 15-3 to be comfortably dancing. Either run the next 5 and not need the Dayton game as a "must win", or if we stumble in one of the next 5 then Dayton becomes a must. Our Q1 alone won't have the opportunities or wins that the Power 5 bubble teams get, so just pile up the wins and run up our Q1 + Q2 record. Otherwise we'll be sweating out that the Rams need to get to the conference final, hope for X team to lose, etc. I don't want to do math during the A10 tourney.

Bonnies could run 8 tables and they won’t be anywhere near the bubble. Lost all 3 to us, VCU and Dayton and don’t have anymore games left that will significantly move the needle for them. Their only tourney chance is win it all in Brooklyn. Us, VCU and Richmond are the only teams with at large chances - in that order.

[Rhody15]

The Bonnies are tough every damn year. Want nothing to do with them in the tournament.

[Rhody15]

Also, just for reference sake.

1 seed plays at 12:00, 2 seed plays at 6:00, 3 seed plays at 8:30, 4 seed plays at 2:30.

[rhodyruckus]

We really need to hold serve, the Bonnies have a path to running the table and getting squarely on the bubble.

I think we need to be 15-3 to be comfortably dancing. Either run the next 5 and not need the Dayton game as a "must win", or if we stumble in one of the next 5 then Dayton becomes a must. Our Q1 alone won't have the opportunities or wins that the Power 5 bubble teams get, so just pile up the wins and run up our Q1 + Q2 record. Otherwise we'll be sweating out that the Rams need to get to the conference final, hope for X team to lose, etc. I don't want to do math during the A10 tourney.

Bonnies could run 8 tables and they won’t be anywhere near the bubble. Lost all 3 to us, VCU and Dayton and don’t have anymore games left that will significantly move the needle for them. Their only tourney chance is win it all in Brooklyn. Us, VCU and Richmond are the only teams with at large chances - in that order.

Whoa, I stand corrected. Don't know why but thought I saw SBU had a NET in the 60s but now I see the NET and Ken Pom are both above 100. You're right, not gonna happen...

[SmartyBarrett]

For fun, here's KenPom's projected seeding as of right now:

1. Dayton
2. Rhode Island
3. St. Bonaventure
4. VCU
5. Richmond
6. Duquesne
7. Saint Louis
8. Davidson
9. George Washington
10. UMass
11. La Salle
12. George Mason
13. Fordham
14. Saint Joseph's

[TruePoint]

We really need to hold serve, the Bonnies have a path to running the table and getting squarely on the bubble.

I think we need to be 15-3 to be comfortably dancing. Either run the next 5 and not need the Dayton game as a "must win", or if we stumble in one of the next 5 then Dayton becomes a must. Our Q1 alone won't have the opportunities or wins that the Power 5 bubble teams get, so just pile up the wins and run up our Q1 + Q2 record. Otherwise we'll be sweating out that the Rams need to get to the conference final, hope for X team to lose, etc. I don't want to do math during the A10 tourney.

Bonnies could run 8 tables and they won’t be anywhere near the bubble. Lost all 3 to us, VCU and Dayton and don’t have anymore games left that will significantly move the needle for them. Their only tourney chance is win it all in Brooklyn. Us, VCU and Richmond are the only teams with at large chances - in that order.

Whoa, I stand corrected. Don't know why but thought I saw SBU had a NET in the 60s but now I see the NET and Ken Pom are both above 100. You're right, not gonna happen...

They aren’t going to get near the bubble but they could very easily make up a lot of ground with a strong finish in terms of metrics. They play four winnable games against top-100 NET teams in their last 6. It’s hard to tell exactly how far ahead or behind teams are in NET since the raw score isn’t public, but Bonnies is now #100 in Kenpom and about 3 AdjEM away from the magic 75th spot. They probably won’t get there in KenPom or NET (where they’re 107 now), but it seems pretty plausible that they move into the NET top-100. That doesn’t do much for us just looking at the quadrant system, but if I were writing our resume for the committee I think I’d have as the first line 10(+) top-100 wins and only 1 loss outside of the top-100. Bonnies getting into the top-100 helps that.

Also look out for them as a potential bid-stealer. They are playing the part of Davidson this year perfectly: OOC such that they could never play onto the bubble during conference play but an absolute threat to win the autobid.

[Rhodyram]

Also, just for reference sake.

1 seed plays at 12:00, 2 seed plays at 6:00, 3 seed plays at 8:30, 4 seed plays at 2:30.

Are these the times for the Friday games? Have the seeds always played in these time slots? My plan is to be heading down to Brooklyn Fri am.

[RF1]

St Bonaventure, much like last year, is very much benefiting from playing a weak league schedule. It is a consequence of unbalanced scheduling. They have just eight games versus the A-10 top seven NET teams playing only Duquesne twice. They play ten games versus the other six teams in the bottom half of the league. Their H&H partners are Duquesne, GW, GMU, Fordham, and St. Joe's.

The Bonnies may well get a good seed from this and secure a bye much like last season. This schedule along with their also weak OOC schedule will however not much help their NET ranking or odds of getting to the NCAA or even NIT.

[Rhody15]

Also, just for reference sake.

1 seed plays at 12:00, 2 seed plays at 6:00, 3 seed plays at 8:30, 4 seed plays at 2:30.

Are these the times for the Friday games? Have the seeds always played in these time slots? My plan is to be heading down to Brooklyn Fri am.

Yes those are for the Friday games.

Saturday Semifinals are 1:00 and 3:30.

The 1 seed semifinals would be played at 1:00, and the 2/3 seed semifinals would be 3:30.

[PeterRamTime]

We hold serve we are in all likelihood guaranteed another Q2 opportunity in the quarterfinals.

[rhodylaw]

St Bonaventure, much like last year, is very much benefiting from playing a weak league schedule. It is a consequence of unbalanced scheduling. They have just eight games versus the A-10 top seven NET teams playing only Duquesne twice. They play ten games versus the other six teams in the bottom half of the league. Their H&H partners are Duquesne, GW, GMU, Fordham, and St. Joe's.

The Bonnies may well get a good seed from this and secure a bye much like last season. This schedule along with their also weak OOC schedule will however not much help their NET ranking or odds of getting to the NCAA or even NIT.

I think they will fade some in the next stretch - only 1 win vs Duquesne so far, all wins have otherwise came against the bottom teams. Their games against the middle teams in conference are coming up.

[TruePoint]

I could see them winning out. Good to have the tie-breaker.

[Rhody83]

Rhody needs Richmond to lose a game because Richmond has the tiebreaker. Maybe VCU can beat them Saturday.