Raymond on front page of Rivals.com site

[Mr. Neutral]

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball

They're doing their preseason top 65, and X is today's school at #31.

St. Joe's is #52 and UMass #50.

They've got our starters as Holloway, BJ, CJ, Brown and Love (no real surprises, though you can argue about the BJ pick).

[brownlavender]

what a slight to stanley the continuously mentioned losing Drew and Josh but never mentioned our glue

[Mr. Neutral]

I see your point, brown, but it's hard not to look at the loss of our primary ballhandler and leading scorer first. Plus, many of us think that DJ will step in to the "defensive stopper" role. Who'll fill four-year starter Drew Lavender's shoes? Or that of our senior center who was our go-to guy down the stretch?

[muskieman]

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball

They're doing their preseason top 65, and X is today's school at #31.

St. Joe's is #52 and UMass #50.

They've got our starters as Holloway, BJ, CJ, Brown and Love (no real surprises, though you can argue about the BJ pick).

Is that article telling us that no other A-10 schools are in the top 65? They couldn't have someone above X could they?

[Mr. Neutral]

<<Is that article telling us that no other A-10 schools are in the top 65? They couldn't have someone above X could they?>>

You're jumping the gun, mm. To this point, the article is only saying that X, SJU and UMass are the only A10 teams between 31-65. I could see Temple being ranked above X. When you think about it, there's no way they should be below #65, so they'd have to be above us.

[suspectx]

Temple will not be ahead of Xavier. If you read the Season Outlook on the side for Xavier it says "they ought to win the A10". If you look at the Season Outlook for Umass and SJU, it says things like not enough power to top Xavier but should battle each other out for 2nd.

Where is Dayton? Didn't they know that Brian Roberts had the flu last year and Chris Wright got hurt?

[Mr. Neutral]

You might be right about Temple, but they did have the 2nd best record in the league, won the conf. tourney, return the top player in the league (according to CollegeChalkTalk.com), and waxed us by 19 in Philly.

So, while it would be a little surprise to see Temple ranked above us in the poll, I can't believe that they're lower than 65, either.

[suspectx]

Not saying I agree with it or that it is even my opinion, but by reading those Season Outlooks from Rivals, they mention X as the top team in each of the three as the team to beat and there is no mention of Temple. I would view it as a pretty big oversight to not mention Temple in any of those and then put them in the top 30.

[muskieman]

Actually, Gary, I know that it was 31+ and not all A-10 teams might not be ranked yet but it was a slight jab at someone that better not be ranked higher than X, or I will give little respect to this poll!

Temple might be up there and probably should be with what they have done last year but then that was last year.

I was thinking about the school up north.

[CarlosTheJackal]

If Temple is indeed left out of this list, I hope there are enough Owl fans to vent about it. Of further note, how could a school with such a history so suddenly lose national rep?

I was always amazed that they couldn't fill their arena when they had winning teams. Hope we never get that spoiled.