Around the A-10: 2024–25 Edition

[SFspidur]

Figured we could use a thread separate from the betting one to follow how our conference mates are doing.

14 squads in action on opening day, with 13 of them playing D-I competition. Davidson was the exception, hosting D-III William Peace, and of course the Spiders were not in action. The A-10 went a respectable 11–3 on the day, with several squads recovering from early deficits to score wins.

Not a lot of surprises I guess. Mostly beating up on inferior competition, though Loyola only winning by 5 over Chicago State is a bit surprising to me even though Chicago State isn't quite the basement dweller they were a few years ago. SLU falling to Santa Clara was a missed opportunity for a decent win...gotta have those if you've hoping to be a contender. Hope Avila is okay.

I don't know whether to be surprised about Duquesne losing to Lipscomb...it's Duquesne. VCU rolled over Bellarmine with their guards doing a ton of damage. Not a lot of bench production and they really only went 8 deep. Billups only got 4 minutes but had 5 points, while Jennings was scoreless in 15 minutes.

Wins
Bona 70, CSUN 56
UMass 103, UNH 74
Dayton 87, St. Francis 57
Mason 75, NC Central 58
VCU 84, Bellarmine 65
St. Joe's 70, Navy 63
La Salle 65, American 52
URI 96, Fairfield 58
GW 76, Mercyhurst 59
Loyola 77, Chicago State 72
Davidson 88, William Peace 47 (D-III)

Losses
Santa Clara 85, SLU 78
St. John's 92, Fordham 60
Lipscomb 77, Duquesne 72

 

[SFspidur]

Ouch.

 

[MDspider8]

Tough break with Avila. That's going to put a major dent in SLU's chances to build an at-large resume.

 

[MDspider8]

Speaking of A10 teams with significnat injuries, VCU's Zeb Jackson is out 4-6 weeks with a hand injury.

 

[GKiller]

Tough break with Avila. That's going to put a major dent in SLU's chances to build an at-large resume.

Eh. Can u put a major dent in close to non existent chances. Like us their ooc schedule prevented it anyway & Santa Clara was 1 of their best ooc games which they lost.

 

[brooklyn brownstone]

Yup they were almost dead in the water for at large after yesterday.

No worries they'll just replace Avila with their 31m, zero points, zero assists, 5 fouls bench mob.

A10 off to another blazing OOC start!

 

[97spiderfan]

Eh. Can u put a major dent in close to non existent chances. Like us their ooc schedule prevented it anyway & Santa Clara was 1 of their best ooc games which they lost.

Exactly, like us, SLU pretty much as to run the table and losing one of their marqee games (if you can call it that) is game, set, match. It will dent their NET ranking though, which will impact the league going forward, as SLU was supposed to be one of the better teams in the league this year.

 

[dobbiethespider]

St Louis versus Avila on 11/10 looking to be an interesting matchup.

 

[SFspidur]

Avila will miss a couple of weeks, but we'll see if that timeline holds given his previous issue with the same ankle.

 

[SFspidur]

Loyola coasts over Detroit Mercy, 87–65.

 

[Spider Bob79]

Mason plays Marquette tonight.

 

[Section9.RowD]

Mason plays Marquette tonight.

yeah big night for the A10 at some level with UMass/WV and VCU playing BC picked 18th pre-conference in the ACC.

 

[MDspider8]

VCU is a 10.5 point favorite vs. BC, so a loss for them would be pretty brutal for the A10. Hoping they can win comfortably.

Another good game is Duquesne vs. Princeton on a "neutral" in Trenton, NJ. Princeton is a good team and would be a solid win for the Dukes if they could pull it off.

 

[SFspidur]

Well, VCU is beating the snot out of BC. UMass is unsurprisingly having a tough time hanging with WVU.

A-10 preseason #3 St. Joe's is currently trailing Central Connecticut late in the first half.

 

[brooklyn brownstone]

um 2nd straight game for St. Joe's where this has happened. If Reynolds doesn't save them every game, they're going to drop a couple.

 

[SFspidur]

Hawks down 10 at the break. Reynolds is 1-for-8 from deep for his only points of the game.

 

[SFspidur]

Down go the Hawks, 73–67. Joe’s was pressing hard and playing tough D at the end, but Central Connecticut hit several desperation threes as the shot clock wound down. Reynolds with only 5 points on 2–of–14 shooting.

 

[Section9.RowD]

Down go the Hawks, 73–67. Joe’s was pressing hard and playing tough D at the end, but Central Connecticut hit several desperation threes as the shot clock wound down. Reynolds with only 5 points on 2–of–14 shooting.

Lange is worse than Neptune

 

[spider23]

Lange is worse than Neptune

No no no 😁. One of the Philly guys on this board told us how great Lange was. And the nova guy that went to Quinnipiac. Jay Wright is going to be battling with Belichik for greatest developer of assistant coaches at this rate. Typical A10 suck factor so far. Other than VCU who will probably have an at large resume and then win the a10 tourney.

 

[spider23]

Interesting Fuchs not starting for URI so far this season and no numbers.

 

[whampas]

Interesting Fuchs not starting for URI so far this season and no numbers.

Now there's a name spell check could fuch with.

 

[brooklyn brownstone]

Yup, SJU at large hopes are now nil.

 

[urfan1]

Yup, SJU at large hopes are now nil.

nil is pretty strong, on life support likely.

 

[SFspidur]

Mason was down two to Marquette with 6:18 to go and then was outscored 21–4 the rest of the way. Duquesne was up 11 on Princeton with 13 minutes to go and then gave up a monster 44 points the rest of the way. WVU couldn't completely put UMass away but kept them at arm's length the whole way. VCU rolls. A-10 goes 4–4 on the night.

Wins
VCU 80, BC 55
Davidson 91, Bowling Green 85
Rhode Island 91, Holy Cross 77
GW 82, Hampton 54

Losses
Marquette 82, Mason 63
WVU 75, UMass 69
Central Connecticut 73, St. Joe's 67
Princeton 75, Duquesne 68

 

[brooklyn brownstone]

nil is pretty strong, on life support likely.

Maybe they're okay, but losing at home to CCSU is a giant blemish. Last year they were NET 249, 0-2 Q1, 0-2 Q2, 2-4 Q3, 16-5 Q4. Beating SJU is likely a Q2 win for them but is likely a Q4 loss for SJU.

CCSU also plays UMass, URI and two non-D1 games. A10 comes out a loser here no matter how it all shakes down.

 

[Section9.RowD]

Holy Fordham - beats Seton Hall on buzzer beater

 

[SFspidur]

The A-10 goes 4–1 on the day, including Dayton beating Northwestern and Fordham taking down Seton Hall.

And then there's us.

Wins
Fordham 57, Seton Hall 56
La Salle 81, Lafayette 60
Bona 87, Canisius 78
Dayton 71, Northwestern 66

Loss
Marist 79, Richmond 72

 

[ManiBenton]

The A-10 goes 4–1 on the day, including Dayton beating Northwestern and Fordham taking down Seton Hall.

And then there's us.

Wins
Fordham 57, Seton Hall 56
La Salle 81, Lafayette 60
Bona 87, Canisius 78
Dayton 71, Northwestern 66

Loss
Marist 79, Richmond 72

Comical at this point

 

[MrTbone]

The A-10 goes 4–1 on the day, including Dayton beating Northwestern and Fordham taking down Seton Hall.

And then there's us.

Wins
Fordham 57, Seton Hall 56
La Salle 81, Lafayette 60
Bona 87, Canisius 78
Dayton 71, Northwestern 66

Loss
Marist 79, Richmond 72

Sad trombone

 

[SFspidur]

Loyola blitzes D-III Eureka College 105–53, while an Avila-less SLU takes down Avila 95–44.

 

[SFspidur]

Mason destroys Stony Brook, 94–56. Maddox with 20 in only 19 minutes.

 

[spiderman]

A10 losses to date:

Probably bad losses:
Marist @ Richmond (though Marist is picked 2nd in MAAC)
Central Connecticut @ St Joe's (though CCSU only lost by 4 @ Providence and they're picked to win the NEC)
Lipscomb at Duquesne (though Lipscomb is picked to win the ASUN)

Other losses, Probably not bad:
GMU @ Marquette
Fordham @ St John's
UMass @ WVU
Santa Clara @ SLU
Princeton @ Duquesne

 

[VT4700]

A10 losses to date:

Probably bad losses:
Marist @ Richmond (though Marist is picked 2nd in MAAC)
Central Connecticut @ St Joe's (though CCSU only lost by 4 @ Providence and they're picked to win the NEC)
Lipscomb at Duquesne (though Lipscomb is picked to win the ASUN)

Other losses, Probably not bad:
GMU @ Marquette
Fordham @ St John's
UMass @ WVU
Santa Clara @ SLU
Princeton @ Duquesne

There is no probably about it. The Marist loss was a bad loss, and bad might be underselling it. The MAAC was around the 24th best conference last year. If Marist finishes 2nd, that does nothing for this loss.

 

[RichmondNative]

The Marist loss is a bad look for the A10, but does it really matter? UR had no at large chance with its OOC schedule so it didn’t hurt the Spiders chances and the A10 preseason rankings had UR in the lower half, so it really doesn’t impact any other team’s at large possibility either. Dayton and VCU I think were the only teams that were given any kind of good ranking on their OOC slate (I can’t find the graphic, but know Dayton was highest rated).

It was a good year for such a loss…../s

 

[spiderman]

sure it matters. say we do well in the A10 again and actually win the conference tourney this time. seeding matters. losing to Marist hurts.

 

[fan2011]

It definitely matters long term for the health of the conference. We want to be getting 3+ bids per year like we were a decade ago. Having bad losses OOC makes us a bad loss in conference and drags down the conferences overall chance at multiple bids.

A strong A10 is good for Richmond

 

[SFspidur]

Hawks up 9 on Villanova with 12 minutes to go even with another quiet night from Reynolds. Can they finish?

 

[RichmondNative]

It definitely matters long term for the health of the conference. We want to be getting 3+ bids per year like we were a decade ago. Having bad losses OOC makes us a bad loss in conference and drags down the conferences overall chance at multiple bids.

A strong A10 is good for Richmond.

Of course a strong A10 is good for UR. But this year, there was no perception of such strength and again UR is bottom half projected team this year. I think they will be better than that, but this one loss doesn’t mean any sort of doomsday scenario. Pride is the only thing hurt in this situation to me.

If anything the rest of the conference can be upset at Richmond, but again they aren’t carrying the torch for the A10 so the damage is minimal.

Last, made this comment before but this year looks exactly like last year to me. All the crazy substitution patterns happened then too and the OOC record was 8-5. Still managed to win the A10 regular season for the first time ever. Relax Spider fans.

 

[gospidersgo]

Hawks up 9 on Villanova with 12 minutes to go even with another quiet night from Reynolds. Can they finish?

Didn't realize Brickus is playing for Villanova now, he's been around forever.

 

[SFspidur]

Villanova went through Brickus down the stretch trying to close the gap, but couldn’t do it. 83–76 Hawks win.