Needless to say, typical Blackburn Review - irreverant, politically incorrect, and, in some cases, just totally wrong! Still, it’s something. BR sees the A-10 stacking up this way in 2010-11:
1 Temple
2 Richmond
3 Xavier
4 Saint Louis
5 Duquesne
6 Dayton
7 URI
8 Charlotte
9 UMass
10 GW
11 St. Joe’s
12 Bona
13 La Salle
14 Fordham
Blackburnreview.com: Taking a Stab at the Face of the Future
Duquesne 5th? I thought they lost two of their better players.
[quote=“Run49er, post:1, topic:23456”]Needless to say, typical Blackburn Review - irreverant, politically incorrect, and, in some cases, just totally wrong! Still, it’s something. BR sees the A-10 stacking up this way in 2010-11:
1 Temple
2 Richmond
3 Xavier
4 Saint Louis
5 Duquesne
6 Dayton
7 URI
8 Charlotte
9 UMass
10 GW
11 St. Joe’s
12 Bona
13 La Salle
14 Fordham
Blackburnreview.com: Taking a Stab at the Face of the Future[/quote]
Looks about right. I’d say 4-9 is a toss up.
Top 4 looks good to me. After that who knows.
As far as Duquesne, Bolding and Duty are big losses, though the former was really hampered by the injury he sustained in the Dukes opening game and was the epitome of streaky once he came back during league play - 8 games in single digits countered by a high of 32 in the double digit ones. Anyway, Dukes have a (the?) favorite for A-10 POY in Damian Saunders (15 ppg, 11.3 rpg, 2.9 bpg, 2.8 spg, 2.4 apg) plus double-digit returnees in Eric Evans (10 ppg, 3.8 apg), Bill Clark (14.1 ppg, 6 rpg) , and BJ Monteiro (11.1 ppg, 4.4 rpg). A lot depends upon other returnees like Sean Johnson, who is probably capable to replacing Bolding’s scoring output, as well as the 4-man recruiting class that includes PG TJ McConnell. My understanding is that Everhart is still looking for another big man - something the Dukes really need. If he can land either of the still available 6-10 Kevin Noreen or 6-8 Remi Dibo, that would certainly help!
Thanks Run. I didn’t realize they were returning that much scoring. I’m surprised their season was so disappointing last season given that amount of scoring + Bolding.
I’m not surprised at where we fall. We all feel pretty good about the squad, I think thats a given, however just like last year there are a lot of unknowns. This year it includes our X’s and O’s. No one really knows what to expect out of Major and his staff, all we have is clues.
I figure this is a good placement due to the unknowns. I think we could be a top 4 team easily if things work out the way we think they will. We also have to hope that Major and the guys all mesh really well on the court, not just in pre-season dinners and workouts. That competitiveness will step up a notch in all of them, coach included, which can cause tempers to flair. I’ll be interested to see how that pans out.
We also have some unknowns at the pg position - we know briscoe was great at NCCU but until he hits the floor in the green and white we won’t truly know what kind of player he’ll be here. We’ve had harris running the show for the past 2 years and he leaves a huge hole in the flow of the offense (note: I didn’t say scoring).
Confidence is high though.
[quote=“Run49er, post:1, topic:23456”]Needless to say, typical Blackburn Review - irreverant, politically incorrect, and, in some cases, just totally wrong! Still, it’s something. BR sees the A-10 stacking up this way in 2010-11:
1 Temple
2 Richmond
3 Xavier
4 Saint Louis
5 Duquesne
6 Dayton
7 URI
8 Charlotte
9 UMass
10 GW
11 St. Joe’s
12 Bona
13 La Salle
14 Fordham
Blackburnreview.com: Taking a Stab at the Face of the Future[/quote]
La Salle’s feelings must be getting hurt. Weren’t they projected top 4 last year? now they’re second to last… yikes.
[font=Arial]Alan Major takes over the head coaching duties for Charlotte, which means that Karl Hobbs [i]finally[/i] has someone he can talk to about the latest Tyler Perry movie.[/font]
That is hilarious
I doubt Dr. G is going to lose any sleep over the predictions from a Dayton fan blog, especially with his recently announced contract extension. Anyway, it’s been well documented that the injuries to senior starters Kimmani Barrett and Yves Mekongo and 6th man Ruben Guillandeaux, plus the spring semester-long suspension of junior Terrell Williams, all contributed greatly to the Explorers demise last season. In fact, only 3 players were healthy enough to have played in every game in 2009-10. Will be interesting to see what happens in 2010-11 when the offense will center on Aaric Murray (pun intended!), the return Guillandeaux (granted a medical hardship), and the arrival of touted guards Tyreek Dureen, Sam Mills, and Cole Stefan. Really doubt La Salle will finish that low as long as the injury-bug doesn’t strike again.
[quote=“Hooner49, post:8, topic:23456”]
[font=arial]Alan Major takes over the head coaching duties for Charlotte, which means that Karl Hobbs finally has someone he can talk to about the latest Tyler Perry movie.[/font]
That is racist.[/quote]
fixed.
[quote=“jfickett, post:10, topic:23456”][quote=“Hooner49, post:8, topic:23456”]
[font=arial]Alan Major takes over the head coaching duties for Charlotte, which means that Karl Hobbs finally has someone he can talk to about the latest Tyler Perry movie.[/font]
That is racist.[/quote]
fixed.[/quote]Well, I did preface that it was typical TBR… :
But don’t fret Charlotte fans; D1 college football [url=http://www.charlotte49erfootball.com/]is just around the corner[/url]. Mid-major basketball will soon become a tiresome distraction, just as God intended it to be.
Classic.
[quote=“Mullins Maniac, post:12, topic:23456”]
But don’t fret Charlotte fans; D1 college football is just around the corner. Mid-major basketball will soon become a tiresome distraction, just as God intended it to be.
Classic.[/quote]
[sniff sniff…] Do I smell the “Mid-Major” argument arising again in the near future?
[quote=“Niner National, post:5, topic:23456”]Thanks Run. I didn’t realize they were returning that much scoring. I’m surprised their season was so disappointing last season given that amount of scoring + Bolding.[/quote] Defense has been the Dukes downfall since Everhart took over (and before probably, though I don’t remember seeing those games). They tend to have a high scoring attack and a matador defense. It’s often a layup line for the other team.
chuckle… they’re funny but those standings are ridiculous for so many reasons. Richmond cannot pretend that losing Gonzalvez isn’t a big deal. SLU is underranked - they should finish no less than 3rd. Could go on for there.
And if we finish anything less than 4th, then we screwed the pooch. Big time. Our only real question is PG stability. As much as people bitched about Lutz’s lack of coaching, anything we get from Major should be an improvement. I expect our defense to be much improved by conference play.
Defense hasn’t been a strong suit since Everhart became head coach. [Also including Nee’s last season (2005-06) in italics.] Ironically, Saunders was 2010 A-10 Defensive POY, but definitely needs some help from his teammates.
Season: offense - defense (w/ A-10 rank):
2005-06: 66.1 ppg (7th) - 77.4 ppg (14th)
2006-07: 78.3 ppg (1st) - 84.5 ppg (14th)
2007-08: 82.3 ppg (1st) - 74.1 ppg (11th)
2008-09: 78.9 ppg (2nd) - 74.7 ppg (13th)
2009-10: 70.3 ppg (6th) - 71.4 ppg (10th)
FWIW, here are the Charlotte numbers since joining the A-10:
Season: offense - defense (w/ A-10 rank):
2005-06: 69.8 ppg (3rd) - 67.1 ppg (10th)
2006-07: 70.0 ppg (8th) - 71.7 ppg (9th)
2007-08: 69.6 ppg (8th) - 67.4 ppg (6th)
2008-09: 68.7 ppg (8th) - 70.4 ppg (9th)
2009-10: 73.4 ppg (3rd) - 71.1 ppg (9th)