Atlantic 10 Misses 2009... Badly

Ten months ago reasonable people were speculating the Atlantic-10 would receive as many as six bids to the NCAA Tournament.  With seven teams playing in the postseason (3 NCAA, 3 NIT, 1 NCIT) 2009-2010 was widely considered a fantastic one for the conference.

This year?  Yikes...

Conference standard bearer Xavier is seriously in danger of missing the NCAA Tournament for the first time in five years, and only the second in the past eight seasons.  Tonight's loss to Miami-Ohio was only the Muskies second (Old Dominion), but needing overtime, at home, to beat both Wofford and IPFW portend some tough days ahead.

Their saving grace might be that the rest of the league stinks as well.  Charlotte fell to 3-5 after losing to East Carolina.  Dayton lost at home to East Tennessee State.  This weekend they got doubled up 68-34 by a less-than-stellar Cincinnati team.  Richmond, the conference's lone bright spot lost tonight to fellow mid-major darling Old Dominion (they'd be in first in the A-10 if you're scoring at home...).

George Washington got trounced by George Mason.  St Joe's dropped by Drexel.  UMass squeaked a 2-point win over Quinnipeac College, Rhode Island lost to Illinois-Chicago.  While the A-10 was hoping to fatten up on some preconference wins, they have instead turned into the buffet.

It's been a rocky start, both for Xavier and the A-10

There is still time to right the ship, but as of today, I only have Richmond and Temple in, with Xavier hovering and no one else in clear sight.  Unless some clear top-heaviness emerges inside conference play, it is looking less and less likely the A-10 can repeat the magic of last season.