Atlantic 10 Notebook: Week 1 Review
By: Ian Nolan
Leading Off
After taking in the first full week of Atlantic 10 action, several match-ups, players and results pop out. Let's dive right into a few of the headlines that deserve to be mentioned here atop the Notebook in our 'Leading Off' section:
- Dayton jumped out to an impressive 2-0 start after downing Saint Louis and Temple. Give a ton of credit to the Flyers which reeled off the victories despite the loss of forward Josh Benson for the rest of the season (ACL). UD was handed a brutal schedule to start the season but has shown itself to be up to the task.
- Temple earned the league's biggest win of the year on Wednesday night beating third ranked Duke 78-73 in front of over 20,000 fans in Philly. Khalif Wyatt scored 22 points and had five assists in the win for the Owls who continue to build a potential NCAA "resume". Fran Dunphy's team continues to play up to its level of competition, and though the Owls have been less than dominant this year, their win over Duke shouldn't surprise many.
- Charlotte improved to 2-0 after a road win against Saint Joseph's. Credit the 49ers for holding the Hawks to 40% shooting from the field and just .095% shoot from three point land. Freshman Pierria Henry scored 11 points and had four steals in the impressive win.
- St. Bonaventure and Andrew Nicholson continue to flounder. Nicholson scored 15 points in a win against George Washington before getting in early foul trouble once again against Duquesne, limiting himself to just 24 minutes in the 66-52 loss. Nicholson is now averaging just 14.1 points per game to go along with 28 minutes of work.
- Speaking of Duquesne, Everhart's team is off to a 1-1 start without veteran scorer B.J. Monteiro. Duquesne nearly upset Saint Joe's in its opener, blowing a big lead before losing 84-82 in overtime on the road before easily handling the Bonnies on Saturday in a rather ugly display of basketball.
- Phil Martelli's Hawks are very lucky not to have started league play 0-2 despite their terrific non-conference play. SJU needed a big time comeback to down Duquesne before losing to Charlotte.
- How about the Fordham Rams? Although starting 0-2 in league play, the Rams knocked off 21st ranked Harvard at home last week in easily the biggest win for Fordham in the Tom Pecora era.
- Finally, George Washington continues to be one of its league's biggest disappointments. GW was essentially non-competitive in losses to St. Bonaventure and Saint Louis. Luckily for the Colonials, Rhode Island awaits on Wednesday (at home) in a game that some team has to win.
* * *
Required Reading
The city of Philadelphia has some of the hottest teams in the Atlantic 10 right now, and there's no better place to gain insights to those teams and keep tabs on them quite like the Philly Hoops Blog.
For insights into the 2-0 Charlotte 49ers, check out The Gold Mine, a blog run by Charlotte Observer writer David Scott. Most recently, Scott takes a look at the 49ers win against St. Joseph's.
If you're looking to catch-up on both the Xavier Musketeers and the Dayton Flyers, check out the Fox Sports Ohio Website which does a great job keeping tabs on both teams in the area.
Looking to keep up with the Duquesne Dukes? Check out the Post-Gazette.
* * *
Power Rankings
(Power rankings are a list of the top five teams in the league not solely according to record, but rather a combination of record, talent, momentum and other intangibles)
1. Dayton (12-4) (2-0) Dayton was faced
with a difficult early A10 schedule: Saint Louis and next on
the road against Temple, and the Flyers found ways to win
both games. UD has won seven of its last eight games and the
ability to knock off two of the league's top teams in the first
week of the season lands them atop the Power Rankings. La Salle
could easily have this spot but we hand it to Dayton because its
two wins this week were slightly better than the Explorers.
Next up: Wednesday @ St. Bonaventure.
2. La Salle (11-4) (2-0) The Explorers continued their
winning ways this week by downing preseason favorite Xavier and
UMass (a suddenly sexy team) by doing what they do best; scoring
the ball. The Explorers put up 80 on Xavier before scoring another
82 against the Minutemen on Sunday afternoon at home. The Explorers
have now won 10 of their last 11 games, and, with each win,
the confidence grows inside the La Salle locker room led by veteran
Earl Pettis (who we talked to after the game, check out Nolan's
take below). Next up: A non-conference tilt
Tuesday @ UPenn.
3. Saint Louis (13-3) (1-1) A loser of two of
its last three games, Saint Louis gives up its top spot in the
Power Rankings. The Billikens blew an eight point halftime lead
against Dayton before losing in overtime in a series that has seen
six of the last 13 match-ups ending in the extra session. Like any
good team, SLU followed up their road loss with an easy home
victory against a reeling George Washington team on Saturday.
Next up: Wednesday vs. Temple.
T4. UMass (12-3) (1-1) UMass completes a 1-1 week,
winning against Fordham before dropping its road game at La Salle,
a loss which these days has no shame in it. UMass really struggled
out of the gates at La Salle, but actually played well in the
second half (scoring 50 points to La Salle's 31), unfortunately,
its effort fell short in the seven point loss. Sunday aside, UMass
has still won six of its last seven games and deserves to be here
in our top five. Next up: Wednesday vs.
Charlotte.
T4. Temple (10-4) (0-1) Temple was poised to vault up the
power rankings after joining The Ohio State University as the only
two teams to defeat the Duke Blue Devils this season (No. 3 in the
nation last week), but after Khalif Wyatt made several huge shots
to help the Owls down Duke, Temple sputtered a few days later in
its 87-77 home loss to Archie Miller's Dayton Flyers. Still,
TU has won four of five - including the resume booster over
the Blue Devils, and readies to face Saint Louis on Wednesday in a
game that is bigger for the Billikens than it is the Owls.
5. Charlotte (9-5) (2-0) Charlotte may only have
nine wins to date but with two of those being inside A10 play, the
49ers have earned a spot here in the Power Rankings. Charlotte
downed Richmond by five in its opener before earning a surprising
road victory in Philadelphia against Saint Joseph's. In the victory
Charlotte held SJU to just 2-21 shooting from behind the arch and
used a 9-0 run inside the last 4:31 to erase a five point deficit.
Next Up: Wednesday @ UMass.
----------------
What I Should Have Known...
I should have known that Temple would be in for a letdown type loss after its terrific win over third ranked Duke on Wednesday night. On Wednesday, the Owls showed flashes of brilliance and gave reason to believe they were finding their stride entering league play. That was not the case. Temple could not harness the same energy against Dayton on Saturday. Despite shooting the ball well (46% from the field, 44% from three), the Owls were outrebounded by a short-handed Dayton team 37-22. Temple still has the talent, coaching and experience to make a run down in Atlantic City, but its inability to play consistent basketball is a new topic of conversation this year on Broad Street.
What I knew...
I knew that on Wednesday night Xavier was going to be in for a tough contest at Tom Gola Arena when it traveled to Philadelphia to play La Salle. Xavier came out of the gates flat and played uninspired on both ends of the floor. The red hot Explorers led by as many as 18 points before eventually earning a 80-70 win using nine trifectas to fuel the victory. With La Salle having won eight of its last nine heading into their mid-week tilt, all the writing was on the wall for a so called "upset" win. However, anyone who has the pulse of the Xavier basketball program right now knows that no win is guaranteed. Xavier permitted the Explorers to knock down seven three pointers in the opening frame, and when its defense did improve in the second half (holding La Salle to just a pair of deep balls), X was failed offensively largely by point guard Tu Holloway who took poor shots early during possessions late in the game. When I asked coach Chris Mack if he was happy with Tu's handling of the offense and their possessions in the last five minutes Mack simply said, "No." Xavier did down Fordham on Saturday but Holloway failed to score a single point.
Stat of the Week
Fordham and forward Chris Gaston has found it hard to earn ink because of team struggles over the past few seasons but, in looking through some Atlantic 10 notes, a stat jumps off the page at any reader: Gaston's 46 career double-doubles. That figure leads the league by a margin the size of the Grand Canyon. The second placed double-double man is St. Bonaventure's Andrew Nicholson, an All-American candidate, who only has 19. Gaston has already tallied a dozen double-double efforts this season, making it reasonable to assume he could match Nicholson's career total of 19 in just a single season. If you haven't been able to watch a Fordham game this season, make sure you find time to catch one, if for no other reason than to watch Chris Gaston work down low. The young man deserves your attention.
Heat Check: Who's Hot and Who's Not
Hot: The Dayton Flyers, now 2-0 in the league and winners of seven of their last eight games. Equally hot are the La Salle Explorers which have won nine of the last 10 and have also started league play 2-0 with wins over Xavier and UMass. For those respective teams how about Kevin Dillard for UD who scored 34 points this week and dished out 16 helpers in the Flyers' two wins. For La Salle, Ramon Galloway has been easily the league's biggest impact transfer. The former SEC sharp-shooter scored 16 points against Xavier and another 18 against UMass. He is making a case for himself as a first or second team all-league player without question.
Not: By this time all A10 fans know of the struggles of the Xavier Musketeers, but how about the struggles of point guard Tu Holloway? Holloway scored 15 points in X's loss at La Salle but shot just 2-12 from the field in that game and 0-6 from three; he did connect on 11-12 from the line. In X's weekend affair, the All-American candidate failed to score a single point and attempted just three shots from the floor.
Nolan's Take- Bright days in Philadelphia
La Salle has been getting plenty of run here on the Notebook and for good reason; the Explorers are 2-0 in the league and riding a terrific hot streak into league play making it as dangerous a team as any.
However, it hasn't always been sunny in Philadelphia, at least not for the La Salle Explorers.
After suffering through several seasons of turmoil and a mounting loss total, things are changing this season.
Senior guard and Rutgers transfer Earl Pettis left one program in dire straights for another one in order to be closer to home, and as he watched his former club knock off a top 10 team in the Florida Gators a few weeks ago, he may have been wondering when his La Salle Explorers would earn their signature win.
Pettis and La Salle got it this past Wednesday when they beat former top 10 Xavier by an even 10 points in the league opener.
"Yeah, this has been our biggest win for us, no question. We had some nice wins last year but not like this. This is really a special win for our program. Before their fight with UC they were ranked top 10 in the country, so we wanted to show people we could play with anyone. We showed tonight if we keep playing defense and keep playing unselfish basketball we can beat anyone and the sky is the limit for this club."
Asked about the differences in this year's team under Dr. John
Giannini when compared to the one that struggled so badly a year
ago, Pettis was quick with an answer, and it wasn't about the new
offensive fire power.
"Yeah, there are some differences from last season to be sure. This team is committed to defense, this year. We know even if we have nights where we are shooting in the 30s, if we keep playing defense we can beat any team in the county. It's not all about our offense."
On that night, Pettis' play was a prime example of his own quotation.
The senior shot just 2-11 from three point land but was never afraid to take a big shot against X. His leadership and defense never wavered, and his younger teammates clearly have taken notice. La Salle went cold in the second half, but the defense and intensity never let up; the difference in the win.
The answer to what motivates La Salle is probably best found inside its locker room. But whether or not it is the fact that four of their five starters hail from the city of Philadelphia or that they are playing to gain the respect of the league, something is working.
Pettis knows this.
"We talk about people predicting us to finish at the bottom of the league, but we're doing our best to prove people wrong. We know we can finish at the top the league. It's not about what others think. We know what we can do. We try to focus on our team, not what other people say about us."
* * *
Dr. John Giannini photo courtesy of La Salle Athletics
Media Relations
