The great Atlantic Ten has its tournament in America’s Favorite Playground – Atlantic City. But, you have to get there. Two teams (Rhode Island and Fordham) are eliminated by the regular season. Four more won’t make it after the First Round is completed on various conference campuses tonight. The Temple Owls won the outright A-10 regular season title this year. Not a big deal, right? I mean it seems like they win this conference just about every year. Ya, I thought so, too. The Owls haven’t won an outright regular season A-10 title since…get this…1989-90. Wow!
Championship Picks
14 for #1 Temple
2 for #2 St. Louis (Gersh, Teddy)
2 for #3 Xavier (Dave, KA)
0 for #4 St. Bonaventure
0 for #5 St. Joe’s
1 for #6 Dayton (Lynch)
Biggest Upsets
R1 – #12 Charlotte (Bry, Gross)
QF – #10 Richmond (Waters)
SF – #10 Richmond (Waters)
Previous CTC Champions
2011 – Waters
2010 – Doogan
2009 – Ina
2008 – Waters
#5 St. Joe’s vs. #12 Charlotte
The Most Overrated Coach in College Basketball had his team in great position to earn a bye to Atlantic City, but gave it away down the stretch and now has to play an Opening Round game tonight against an undermanned, but feisty Charlotte team. The winner of this game will have to deal with the future NBA draft pick Andrew Nicholson and the Bonnies in AC. Bry and Gross went for the big upset points here with Charlotte on the road (both have them losing to St. Bon next round). A shocking number of entries (15) have St. Joe’s beating St. Bonaventure next round. Teddy even has the Hawks making the finals (maybe he’s as high on Phil Martelli as Phil is on himself…if that’s possible). Primm and Mac are the only two that have St. Joe’s winning tonight, but losing to the Bonnies.
#6 Dayton vs. #11 George Washington
The one thing that people don’t realize about the A-10 is just how tough some of these homecourt advantages are in this conference. Dayton is one of them. Those fans always show up and they are great. Well, GW has to face Dayton’s 6th man tonight in the Opening Round. The enigmatic Xavier team awaits the winner of this game, which would be great if it turns out to be X’s cross-state rival, Dayton. KA and Waters are the only two with GW winning here, and neither of them have the Colonials beating X. 7 people have Dayton going to the semis (Doogan, Gersh, Gross, Lil Lohse, Lynch, RDoc, Scoot). Gross and Scoot have them in the finals; Lynch has them winning it all.
#7 LaSalle vs. #10 Richmond
This is a very deep A-10 this year, as LaSalle was a title contender for pretty much the entire season, yet ended up in 7th place, which gets them an Opening Round game with the Spiders. The winner of this game will take on Rick Majerus’s 2nd-seeded St. Louis Bilikens. 5 people have the Spiders in an upset here (Dave, J, Primm, RSmith, Waters). Waters is the only one that has them beating St. Louis…he has them going to the finals. Surprisingly, no one took the 20-win Explorers to reach the semis.
#8 Massachusetts vs. #9 Duquesne
Another example of that depth is the Minutemen. UMass was in first or second place for almost the entire season, before losing a couple games down the stretch, relegating them to 8th place and a date with a tough Duquesne team. The winner of this will get those Temple Owls on Thursday. J and RDoc are the only two that went with the minor upset of Duquesne here. Teddy is the only one that has either of these teams going any further, as he has UMass in the semis.
