Official A-10 preseason picks - Niners 7th; Spears and Braswell All A-10

C-USA News & Notes
1

[font=verdana]Niners picked 7th. First place votes in parantheses, followed by total votes.

1 – Temple (19), 350
2 – Xavier (3), 325
3 – Richmond (3), 311
4 – Dayton (1), 310
5 – Rhode Island, 233
6 – Saint Louis, 223
7 – Charlotte, 218
8 – Duquesne, 172
9 – La Salle, 133
10 – George Washington, 130
11 – Massachusetts, 126
12 – Saint Joseph’s, 91
13 – St. Bonaventure, 80
14 – Fordham, 28

Shamari Spears picked 2nd team, while Chris Braswell makes 3rd team.

First Team
Lavoy Allen, Temple
Kevin Anderson, Richmond
Andrew Nicholson, St. Bonaventure
Damian Saunders, Duquesne
Chris Wright, Dayton

[/font][font=verdana]Second Team
Juan Fernandez, Temple
Chris Gaston, Fordham
Tu Holloway, Xavier
Delroy James, Rhode Island
Shamari Spears, Charlotte

[/font][font=verdana]Third Team
Chris Braswell, Charlotte
Cody Ellis, Saint Louis
Chris Johnson, Dayton
Lasan Kromah, George Washington
Aaric Murray, La Salle

All-Defensive Team
Lavoy Allen, Temple
Kevin Anderson, Richmond
Dante Jackson, Xavier
Andrew Nicholson, St. Bonaventure
Damian Saunders, Duquesne

All-Rookie Team
C.J. Aiken, Saint Joseph’s
Langston Galloway, Saint Joseph’s
Jordan Latham, Xavier
Rob Loe, Saint Louis
Juwan Staten, Dayton

Atlantic10.com: Temple Tabbed A-10 Favorites; League Announces Preseason Accolades[/font]

2

Surprised that Saint Louis picked that high without the services of Kwamain Mitchell and Willie Reed. Can’t argue with any of the all-conference picks, though I suspect the Billikens would have had more (2-3) if not for the loss of the aforementioned Mitchell and Reed.

3

Temple ranked #22 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Top 25 poll. Richmond, Xavier, and Dayton make the ORV category.

USAToday.com: Preseason Top 25: Defending champion Duke opens at No. 1

4

Agree with the early prediciton of us right in the middle. I think we can finish higher but seems like a fair pick with a new coach in place.

5

Commish McGlade on the July recruiting period:

FOXSports.com: A-10 Commish: “I am against eliminating July recruiting”

6

Nice seeing our coach being quoted by other sportswriters (as in not in Charlotte) within the conference. Here’s what Major had to say about the proposal to eliminate the July recruiting period, which appeared in today’s Cincinnati Enquirer:

Charlotte coach Alan Major said the absence of a July recruiting period would affect all kinds of prospective college players, from late bloomers to those flying below the radar.

“It affects a kid that may be 6-foot-1 as a freshman in high school and all of a sudden if they eliminate July, that kid sprouts to 6-foot-5, and now no one can see him,” Major said.

Cincinnati.com: Atlantic 10 Conference coaches question recruiting proposal

Funny that the Big O ran a story about the subject that quoted Phil Martelli and Rick Pitino, but not Major. Hmmm…

7

Pretty nice digs for this year’s A-10 Media Day, which took place at the CBS College Sports studios at Chelsea Piers in NYC.


8

Don’t you know bashing the O is not allowed anymore? In another thread Wake Niner pointed out the coverage improved after the Raleigh paper started calling the shots.