Philly papers X-SJU game stories

[Mr. Neutral]

The Daily News story has a little more "meat" to it.

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/sports/2 ... Hawks.html

http://www.philly.com/dailynews/sports/ ... worth.html

[bourbonman]

Excellent article. I agree that this game was one for late March rather than early February. St Joe's should be dancing when invitations are extended.

[Filthy Chilean]

Will St Joes make the dance? Their best win at BU, maybe? They are a very good team with a weak schedule and seven losses. I'm just not sold on them getting an at large bid.

And who else gets in? Assuming X loses the A10 tournament, will Charlotte need to win it to get in? Losses to Monmouth, Hofstra and Tulsa. Quality wins vs Clempson, Davidson and Wake.

It will all depend on if X wins the A10 tournament. X wins, 2 A10 teams dance. X loses, 3 A10 teams.

[REF]

Who is the second team if X wins? URI, UD, SJU, UMass and Charlotte all can make good cases. Arguably the Dukes too.

[bourbonman]

Who is the second team if X wins? URI, UD, SJU, UMass and Charlotte all can make good cases. Arguably the Dukes too.

From the teams I've seen play to date, St Joe's without a doubt. They're heads and shoulders above ud or UMass. BUT, I haven't seen the others so they may be just as good.

[Filthy Chilean]

How is St Joes head and shoulders above Charlotte? Charlotte has better ooc wins.

X and URI are all we get as it stands right now. If neither win the A10 tournament, 3 go but I don't see anyone else with a good case.

ud will be attending the first and second round games hosted at the dump.

[bluegrass]

X and URI are the strongest candidates now.Everyone else has work to do.I think the A10 will be fortunate to get 4 teams in.I just don't see 5.UD has completely fallen apart despite their RPI still being in the top 20.Just proof of how unreliable the RPI is.

[Mr. Neutral]

Going by RPI, the A-10 has Xavier (#12, lock), Dayton (#16, but falling), URI (#23, lock), Umass (#26, but falling), and SJU (#41, iffy). After that, we've got Temple (#69), Charlotte (#89) and Duquesne (#93).

On the SOS side, we've got Umass (#11), UD (#24), Temple (#27), and X (#34).

RPIforecast.com has X (#9), URI (#33), UMass (#40) and UD (#43) getting bids. At #53, SJU would miss out.

These last few weeks of the season, and the A10 tourney, will be very interesting.

[XU 87]

UD and UMass are both 4-5 in the league. I don't see them getting in the tourney if they finish in the lower half of the conference, despite their RPI's. And UD's RPI is probably going to drop, even if they win some games, because they still play the likes of Fordham, St. Bonny and LaSalle. I think X's RPI dropped around 4-5 spots after beating LaSalle. If UD gets back Wright or Little, the committee may take that into consideration, but only so far. And if UD loses to one more of the bottom feeders, that may put them into the NIT.

Right now, I think the A-10 has two locks (Xavier and RI) with a chance at 2 more getting in. Because of their league record, I would think that SJU has a better chance of getting in over UD and UMass.