Big Night in the A-10

Tonight is a huge night of hoops for the nation's sixth best conference.  No, we're not talking about the Pac-10, or even the Mountain West, but none other than the Atlantic-10.  Depending on whom you believe, if the season ended today the A-10 would have four or even five teams in the Field of 65.  Tonight's games gives us a good glimpse at some of the best, and also some of the middle of the pack slugging it out for position.

The marquee matchup takes place in Phily, where the 4-0 Xavier Musketeers visit the similarly unbeaten Temple Owls.  Both teams seem likely tourney teams though Temple is much more of a lock than X at this point.  Xavier has taken some losses, but none of them "bad" losses; double-OT at Wake Forest, at Kansas State (who just beat Texas), Baylor and Marquette on a neutral floor, Butler on the road on a controversial ending.  Their overall profile, RPI (16th) and momentum (and pedigree, though it isn't supposed to matter) scream tourney team.

Tonight's game is huge for Temple, who can take control of the conference and legitimately start thinking Top 4 seed with a win tonight.  The game is equally big for the Muskies, who have had a lot of close calls, but aside from the double-OT win over Cincinnati, lack a real marquee win.  A quality road win against a ranked opponent does wonders for the RPI and national profile, as does taking control of the league.

Temple will look to wrestle control of the A-10 tonight hosting Xavier

Dayton also looks like as solid tourney team to me, but faces a tricky visit from GW tonight.  The Flyers should win and keep pace in the A-10, but a game like tonight, against the 7th or 8th best team in the league, shows how good and deep the A-10 is in 2010.

It is a similar situation for Rhode Island when they host dissapointing Duquesne tonight.  The Dukes were just a few minutes away from earning the league's NCAA bid last year, before falling to Temple in the closing minutes.  With a lot of key cogs back, expectations were high in Pittsburgh.  Suffice it to say they haven't been met.  Since gagging up a win in double-OT against Pitt, the Dukes have gone 4-6, 0-3 in conference.  Still, they have some talent and are much more of a threat than most league's cellar dwellers.  It will be interesting to see how routinely the Rams handle their business.

Xavier v. Temple is the best game.   The most intriguing game is Charlotte at Richmond.  If a fifth team does sneak in from the A-10, it is likely one of these two.  Richmond has the conference's best out of league glamour win collection, with wins over Florida, Old Dominion, Missouri and Mississippi State.  However they have already lost to St. Louis in conference and had tougher-than-expected tussles with UMass and Lasalle.

Charlotte opened some eyes with the beatdown they laid on Louisville in Freedom Hall, but

also boasts a 42-point loss to Duke to go with 33'er to Old Dominion and a 18-spot to Tennessee.  If the committee looks at margin, this screams of a team that might embarass you if you select them.  However, a win tonight brings them to 4-1 in the A-10, and probably slots them slightly ahead of the Spiders on the Big Board pecking order.

A great night of hoops for fans of the Atlanic-10 - enjoy!

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