On now....two upper tier A-10 teams..(Friday 6:30)....on ESPN2 ....Nice crowd at VCU

Good suggestion Nate, was watching and wondering if any fellow ramblers were as well. VCU is always tough defensively, showing it again tonight. One thing you notice right away is the step up in athleticism, very athletic teams playing tonight. Curious how our recruiting goes with the move, we can definitely play with these teams but wonder if Coach V is going to try and target bigger more athletic guys than we are previously used to. Sure seemed like it from last years recruiting, sealing the deal with Klintman would be a great get for moving to the new conference.

Here is an interesting article from a St. Louis point of view.....basically saying the A-10 is on the way down, specifically the bottom portion
https://www.stltoday.com/sports/columns ... cc2ea.html

It's behind a paywall so not able to read the article, but I've been following the A-10 this year and don't really believe that to be the case, unless he is just talking about this year's performance alone. Fordham hired a long-time Villanova assistant this year and has gone from perennial bottom-dweller to middle of the pack. Duquesne is the worst team by NET but has a brand new arena and is 50 spots above Evansville. LaSalle is the one program that seems to be on the decline with financial issues.

At the top, Dayton is basically a Big East team and SLU and VCU are close in terms of facilities and support. All three programs are way ahead of any Valley program out there. We will need to step up recruiting to compete. Davidson, St. Bona, Richmond, and George Mason form a nice 2nd tier and are on par with top Valley programs. Mason in particular has a coach considered a top young coach in the game. URI and UMass are big state schools with big potential if they hire the right coach.

The A-10 did badly underperform in the non-conference at the top, which is why it is looking like a 2-bid league. Dayton's two star players are freshmen, and they had 3 bad losses to start the year before beating Kansas. VCU is a similarly young and talented squad. St. Bona had an injury to their top player and PG that seemed to derail their season.

If we're comparing which conference makes it easier to make the tournament, I will always prefer a conference with higher ranked top teams and then some easy wins over the Valley slog where anyone can beat you even though their NET rankings are terrible.

Another random fact I learned watching the A-10 is that Davidson does not have a grad school...so they can't take advantage of any 5th year players. The immediate eligibility transfer rule is hugely beneficial for them.

where do the two conferences stand in terms of Conference Rankings this year?
You can get by the firewall by copying the title and googling it...usually shows up in another feed.
The article basically said that the bottom of the Conference was pulling everyone down and SLU was worried about not getting a bid this year

Got it. The A-10 does have a lot of teams and some clear have-nots, so I see the point. However, I still think Dayton losing 3 pathetic games to start the year and St. Bona not playing anywhere near as well as they did last year is having a much bigger impact on SLU's tourney chances. Without those 3 losses, Dayton is probably Top 20-25, and Bona was ranked in the preseason AP poll. If those two teams perform the way they should've in the non-conference, then the A-10 is likely a 3-4 bid league.

Dayton is the youngest team in the country per KenPom. Basically play all freshmen. And still will be a 20 win team, near the top of the A10 and have a win over Kansas. They are going to be a force for a couple years if they can hold the core together.

Honestly with the bottom of the A10 being bad the overall structure might be better. The MVC is full of plausible Q2 and Q3 losses with a lot of decent teams (Bradley, Valpo, SIU) that have quality teams but not enough to get you a Q1. I think for at large, getting a bunch more Q1 opportunities as long as you beat the bottom of the barrel is better than all these Q2/Q3 games in the MVC