Lunardi's First Bracketology

[spiderstudent17]

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology/_/iteration/36

Lunardi posted his first bracket predictions of the upcoming season. Not that it really matters, but it was kind of interesting to see he only has two Atlantic 10 teams making the tournament, and VCU is not one of them. Even last year, which most would consider a down year for A10 standards, had us send 3 teams. Also 9 ACC teams seems pretty ridiculous. It is nice to see that ODU, WVU, SDU, and Cal are all considered NCAA teams and Florida is first four out. Only confirms that we will have a strong OOC!

 

[Ulla1]

Both A10 teams are seeded quite low: Rhode Island an 11 seed and Dayton a 10 seed. Five Big East teams were selected.

 

[fan2011]

Lunardi is a St. Joe's guy and tries his best to not seem biased by being a little harsh to the A10. I think the A10 will see 4 teams in the NCAAs this year, and we will be one of them.

 

[97spiderfan]

Might as well throw darts at a dart board. Would love to see a comparison between the actual tournament field and his predictions in August. I would guess that they are not even close.

 

[urmite]

I agree this is way too early but no third A-10 team in the first eight out?

 

[Ulla1]

I agree this is way too early but no third A-10 team in the first eight out?

Moreover, one of the two A10 teams, Rhode Island, was among last four in.

 

[spiderstudent17]

If anything I like the fact that this gives the team (and the league) extra motivation to perform harder. If Richmond wins the games we're suppose to win, beats 1-2 of the "bigger name schools" and finishes top 4 in the regular season, I think we're in. Of course we can compete with any team on our schedule so there is no reason not to win them all!

 

[SpiderTrap]

I think the A10 is looking at 3 teams this year. Dayton and URI on the favorites by far, but that 3rd spot - that is up for grabs between us, VCU, GW, and Davidson.

I would say St. Joes and St. Louis have the best chance of surprising people this year. St. Louis was a total rebuild last year, but with so many underclassmen playing last year, I think they will improve a lot this year. And St. Joes - when you have the best player in the league in Bembry, they just need 1 or 2 other guys to step up and they could be a dangerous team. I don't see either of these two being NCAA teams - but I could see them causing some upsets in the league and ruining some teams NCAA hopes.

 

[TBSpyder]

It's early August. Who knows? The difference between a mediocre season and a great season, often comes down, to the last few seconds of a hand full of games. Who finishes games strong? Every team has talent, sometimes you need more than talent.

 

[keefusb]

Grit and luck are two things our teams have not really had much of since the KA/JH/DG years. Those are two things a team must have to win more close games than not.

 

[gcarter52]

Trap, don't underestimate the power of UR, we were very close to making the Tourney last year with all the negatives many believed were against us. I would add us as one a possible 3rd team as well.

 

[97spiderfan]

St. Louis could improve significantly and still be a pretty crappy team. When you are as bad as they were last year, there is only 1 direction you can go.

 

[SpiderTrap]

I did have us (UR) in the group for that 3rd spot. I think if we did not lose ANO, we would be getting more pre-season preview headlines, but when you lose your leading scorer and ultimate leader and one of the best shot blockers in the conference - I think people are willing to be more cautious given our recent history.

Yes - we were close last year, but I think outside of the selection committee, no one thought we were a first four out team. BUT - with that being said, our schedule has been upgraded this year, so if anything - we should be better equipped in that regard to make a run at a bid should we win the key games.

St. Louis - yes, they were the bottom team last year at 3-15 and 11-21 overall. I could see them making a jump this year to 9 wins this year in the league, which puts them right in the middle of the pack and maybe even in NIT territory. That would be a significant jump.

 

[sdspider]

Gosh I hope we get more than three, my $ is on 4-5 teams. Rhody, Dayton, and two or three of Richmond, VCU, GW, Davidson, maybe even St. Joe is they can get it going.

 

[97spiderfan]

This is going to make me sound like a homer, but I think we are easily Top 3 in the league. Terry, TJ, and SDJ, who has a better top 3 than that? Terry and TJ, could be first team all A-10 players. And than we have 2 seniors as our other starters. The loss of Kendall and ANO is great in some perspectives but in other ways, I see "the team" being better without them.

 

[gcarter52]

In addition, our newcomers will be better than advertise. Addition by subtraction will make us a much better team.

 

[spiderstudent17]

I agree with spiderfan. We could have very well been an NCAA tournament had we beaten JMU, @GMU, and hadn't lost the heartbreaker to Wake Forest and Northeastern. Then there were many other "quality win" games which we lost by less than 6! And even with all that said, I think the committee would have snuck us in had we beaten VCU (for the third time) in the A10 tournament. The pieces are definitely there. As long as we win the games we're supposed to, and be on the other end of most of those close games against good teams, we'll be fine.

 

[fan2011]

The reason we were first four out was because we had something no other team below us had, multiple top 25 wins (both home and away). We were 3-6 vs top 50, not great but we had wins. Compare that to other bubble teams like URI who went 0-6 against the top 50 or Temple who went 2-8 vs top 50 or UCLA who got in but only went 2-8 vs top 50 and you can see that we were actually better than a lot of the competition. If we had just 1 or 2 more wins we would have been in. What is really frustrating is we had 6 loses that were by just 1 possession.

 

[sdspider]

2011 agreed very frustrating when you think about how close we were. The number of close losses we had was crazy. To me quite a tough year being so close. Even the way we lost to Miami left a bad taste being so close to the semi finals at MSG. We got some payback coming this year I hope the players are hungry to prove it. Go spiders!

 

[VCUPal]

In addition, our newcomers will be better than advertise. Addition by subtraction will make us a much better team.

 

[spiderman]

funny clip.
you can have addition by subtraction if you're subtracting a negative, but neither K0 or ANO were. If we're better it's because returning guys keep getting better and the new guys are good.