A-10 as a Conference

49ers Basketball Forum 🏀
1

I apologize to all!!!

As you can tell by my name (A-10 bound) I was looking forward to the move to the A-10. Last year when everyone was bashing the conference I was praising it. The move was the most logical and best situation for Charlotte at the time!

After a year of basketball, I want to say that the A-10 was a huge disappointment, in all aspects. The officiating was horrible, the teams lacked star power, and the style/quality of play just sucked!

I went to Cincinnati for the conference tournament and was amazed of how poorly run that event was! It wasn’t even an event, it was just basketball! I went to Memphis last season for the CUSA tournament and the difference between the two was night and day. CUSA actually had the city of Memphis behind the tournament! It was like Cincinnati had no f’n idea that the A-10 tournament was in town! Not to mention that arena never had more than 3,000 people in it even when Xavier played! Every single game in that tournament sucked majorly. I found myself dosing off during the XU/UMASS game in the first round! I mean actually falling asleep it was so bad!

If I write too much more no one is going to read it so post away and I will follow up with more gripes and grievences.

2

Can’t really argue with the officiating comment… but Charlotte contributed more than enough in the “lack of star power” and “style/quality of play” categories :confused:

3

yeah it was really unorganized. the merchandise selection was HORRIBLE. they probably had 1/100th of the stuff as CUSA. i was really disappointed.

4

yes, that Memphis CUSA tournament was something, whole town behind it, great location, great arena etc…

I have been to a couple ACC tournaments, NCAA’s etc… and the Memphis CUSA was probably the best put together of them all.

5

Yeah, what did you expect seriously? This conference sucks, but get used to it, we will not be going anywhere for a long time. There will be no upgrade for us until we get football which won’t happen until Judy retires. She won’t resign and she won’t get fired, so I figure we have another 15+ years of her. Which means 15+ years of no football, which means 15+ years of a crappy conference. We missed the opportunity to upgrade conferences. It won’t come around for a long time. Get used to this crap.

6

[QUOTE=mineshaft;160855] We missed the opportunity to upgrade conferences. It won’t come around for a long time. Get used to this crap.[/QUOTE]

What opportunity did we miss? You don’t mean the Big East do you?

7

The tournament needs a title sponsor.

8

Moving to the A-10 is like dating the prettiest girl in fat camp. It is the best option but nothing to be excited about.

9
Moving to the A-10 is like dating the prettiest girl in fat camp. It is the best option but nothing to be excited about.

Very interesting way to put it…:lmao:

10

Valid points about the A-10 (officials, tournament crowd, etc)

Just wanted to say that the A-10 did nothing to hold us back this year. In fact, I’d say that this team was given opportunity after opportunity to go as far as they cared to go. We could have won the ‘Brokeback Mountain Tournament’ in Laramie, Wyoming. We lost. We could have given ourselves a respectable out of conference record against nothing-special competition. We didn’t.

In any other conference, we’d be up s***'s creek, but at least in the A-10 there was still hope for a tournament spot. We had 2 opportunities to beat GW. We lost both. The way the teams ended up at the end of the year - it went so much in our favor, it was almost out of the twilight zone. We had possession of 2nd place at one point with a miserable 5-3 record out of 14 teams. St. Louis let us keep 2nd place with a loss at the end of the year. Tournament seeding prevented us from facing the type of teams that give us problems. We were matched-up with a team that lost 2 opening day starters and were a sinking ship. The 3 other top seeds lost in the Tournament. We all know what happened.

To sum it up briefly, the season wasn’t about overcoming a s**t conference. The season was about squandering every single opportunity to make the most out of what we were given.

11
... Just wanted to say that the A-10 did nothing to hold us back this year. In fact, I'd say that this team was given opportunity after opportunity to go as far as they cared to go...In any other conference, we'd be up s***'s creek, but at least in the A-10 there was still hope for a tournament spot....

It is kind of a catch 22…do well and it’s a weak schedule…do bad, it really looks bad. But like you said, we still had plenty of shots to get in the tourney and blew every one of them.

To sum it up briefly, the season wasn't about overcoming a s**t conference. The season was about squandering every single opportunity to make the most out of what we were given.

Quoted for truth.

12

I like the A-10, there is a lot of Basketball history from the schools in this league.
I will say the officiating was needs to be upgraded. I am not one who likes to camplain about the refs, but the officiating was subpar

13

A-10- 1 Bid
C-USA- 2 Bids locked
Big East- 7 bids locked- may end up being 8

Wow. A-10 was the best option?

Yes, I do mean we missed out on an opportunity for the Big East. USF did not.

14

It SUCKS

15
Yes, I do mean we missed out on an opportunity for the Big East. USF did not.

USF is going to finish in last place in the Big East for the next 10 years. Do you think UConn or any other Big East team is afraid that a blue chip high school kid will pass up the opportunity to play for them so they can play basketball at USF? They can keep their opportunity.

If we were in the Big East, I’m sure we’d finish behind Louisville - who finished 11th and isn’t going to the NCAA tournament. I want the school to progress, and right now the best way is to be recognized as the best team in the A-10, which we are not.

I’m not sure how becoming the ‘Duquensne of the Big East’ would be a step in the right direction for our basketball program. The whole idea of ‘the honor of being in a conference with prestige’ is just something dreamed up by fans of bad teams in the ACC.

16

Survivor- Taking on LaSalle, Richmond, Duequesne and St. Bonnie’s is a better way for us to progress than picking up UConn, Nova, Georgetown and Syracuse and continuing games with Marquette, Cincy, Louisville and DePaul?So you would much rather have low attendance in Halton, low national TV coverage, a one bid conference, no rivalries (or any developing unless you want to count GW), and a conference that the average guy has no clue who is in it?

Not to mention the city will never get behind us playing these guys. At least we attracted some great attention with Cincy games. I could see big crowds coming out to see us play UConn and the big boys of the Big East. Our players would be up for these games and we would probably snag a few from them. THAT is good for the program.

Every time I tell someone we play in the A-10, they ask who is in that conference?
Wake up, this is not good for our program! We are not progressing.

17
Every time I tell someone we play in the A-10, they ask who is in that conference? Wake up, this is not good for our programl. We are not progressing.

I couldn’t agree more.

18

How many people know which conference Gonzaga is in and can name most of the teams? Consistently winning big and often solves everything.

19

Did Charlotte turn down the Big East? Am i missing something.USF got in because of football

20

[QUOTE=mineshaft;160900]Survivor- Taking on LaSalle, Richmond, Duequesne and St. Bonnie’s is a better way for us to progress than picking up UConn, Nova, Georgetown and Syracuse and continuing games with Marquette, Cincy, Louisville and DePaul?So you would much rather have low attendance in Halton, low national TV coverage, a one bid conference, no rivalries (or any developing unless you want to count GW), and a conference that the average guy has no clue who is in it?

Not to mention the city will never get behind us playing these guys. At least we attracted some great attention with Cincy games. I could see big crowds coming out to see us play UConn and the big boys of the Big East. Our players would be up for these games and we would probably snag a few from them. THAT is good for the program.

Every time I tell someone we play in the A-10, they ask who is in that conference?
Wake up, this is not good for our program! We are not progressing.[/QUOTE]

Rereading this thread, I have to admit that you made a good argument and I made a pretty bad argument.

You are correct - we were every bit as good as Cincy, Louisville, Marquette and DePaul in C-USA and its a shame we can’t continue to beat them in the Big East. It’s just frustrating that it’s now Richmond that is giving us problems - but I shouldn’t have implied that we’re an inferior program. Believe me, I’d love to join you in saying that the A-10 is not worthy of a team of our caliber but it’s hard for me to say that right now.

The A-10 [I]should[/I] be among the top 7 or 8 conferences in the country, just as C-USA was. The conference will allow a team to be ranked in the Top10 in the country, just as C-USA did. Charlotte needs to learn to beat the teams it’s supposed to beat.

If the goal of the program is to be a Sweet 16-type team, it can certainly happen in the A-10. It could happen in the Big East too, no doubt.