RTD A10 preseason ranking

[SpiderTrap]

Not sure if this was mentioned on here or not, but I just saw it. RTD did their little preview of where they think the A10 teams will finish this season. Not a lot of confidence in the Spiders or VCU (surprisingly). Here is their predicted order of finish.

1. Dayton
2. Davidson
3. URI
4. GW
5. UR
6. VCU
7. St. Josephs
8. Bonnies
9. Duquesne
10. UMASS
11. LaSalle
12. Fordham
13. Mason
14. St. Louis


I think Dayton is the easy pick, and I would throw URI up there with them. After that - I think the 3rd spot is up for grabs between UR, Davidson, GW, VCU. I could see St. Joseph's surprising some teams if Bembry gets any help. And my darkhorse team for the year is St. Louis. I don't see them sitting in the cellar long, especially with the type of defense they play. I don't think they make the NCAA year next year - but I could see them causing some upsets and finishing in the middle of the league around 7 or 8. Which would make them look very good for the following year considering they have so many underclassmen playing.

 

[Ulla1]

Not sure if this was mentioned on here or not, but I just saw it. RTD did their little preview of where they think the A10 teams will finish this season. Not a lot of confidence in the Spiders or VCU (surprisingly). Here is their predicted order of finish.

1. Dayton
2. Davidson
3. URI
4. GW
5. UR
6. VCU
7. St. Josephs
8. Bonnies
9. Duquesne
10. UMASS
11. LaSalle
12. Fordham
13. Mason
14. St. Louis


I think Dayton is the easy pick, and I would throw URI up there with them. After that - I think the 3rd spot is up for grabs between UR, Davidson, GW, VCU. I could see St. Joseph's surprising some teams if Bembry gets any help. And my darkhorse team for the year is St. Louis. I don't see them sitting in the cellar long, especially with the type of defense they play. I don't think they make the NCAA year next year - but I could see them causing some upsets and finishing in the middle of the league around 7 or 8. Which would make them look very good for the following year considering they have so many underclassmen playing.

Would not put much stock in article by RTD. I think that Dayton, URI and UR will contend for the championship.

 

[97spiderfan]

It was JOC rankings. I would have ranked us 3rd behind Dayton and Rhody, but I'm a bit biased. I'm sure it rankled some fans down on Broad St. to see "the program" ranked below us and for 6th in the league. Ha.

 

[MolivaManiac]

I think John took a reasonably good stab at it. GW is a real wild card to me. Do they end up like their NCAA squad of 2 years ago or the hapless, disinterested bunch from last year. The Wake transfer Cavanagh probably holds the key.

 

[SouthJerseySpiderFan]

Can't argue with this early ranking of the A10. Presently believe URI and Dayton are the top 2 with UR, GW, and Davidson the next 3 even though any of those 5 could win he regular season crown.
And the guys across town the best of the rest!

 

[SpiderTrap]

I can't argue too much with it either. I think Dayton and URI are battling for the title. The 3rd place is up for grabs and could be the final NCAA spot in the league. And I think its too close to call between Davidson, GW, VCU, and UR.

 

[coachfezz]

Would not put much stock in article by RTD. I think that Dayton, URI and UR will contend for the championship.

I think this will be best year for Coach. We win A10 and win tourney. Cline and Allen give us best scoring we will seen since Coach comes to Spiders. Inside Outside ,no one player guard to hold the ball, and too many options to score and in the close games Coach Jones into Coach Moooney ears. You will see best this year I think because I think too much guard to score always before this year.

 

[Ulla1]

I think this will be best year for Coach. We win A10 and win tourney. Cline and Allen give us best scoring we will seen since Coach comes to Spiders. Inside Outside ,no one player guard to hold the ball, and too many options to score and in the close games Coach Jones into Coach Moooney ears. You will see best this year I think because I think too much guard to score always before this year.

Coachfezz, good analysis. The Spiders will score both inside and outside. There will be no paucity of scoring with the plethora of shooters available. This group includes a number of talented freshmen and Marshall Wood is going to be a beast. Fasten your seatbelt and let the good times roll. Roll Spide!

 

[SpiderHoops32]

Marshall Wood is going to be a beast.

Calm down there, we are talking about a guy who averaged 3.8 ppg and almost gave up on basketball. I hope you're right but I wouldn't bet on it.

 

[urfan1]

32 you are right, but having watched him and spoken to him he seems happy and energized. Time will tell, he has the talent.

 

[spider fan]

When he follows in the footsteps of Tony Dobbins, another player who realized the grass was greener in Richmond and left the environs of Blacksburg, we will also be happy and energized.

 

[SpiderTrap]

Wood is a key piece of this team and a big question mark.

If we can get major contributions - as expected - from Cline, Allen, and ShawnDre to carry our offensive load. And continue to get the all around game of Davis in terms of hustle, defense, rebounds, etc - then we don't need a whole lot out of Wood. But we def need some sort of contribution. We need a guy who can stretch the defense with his shooting and someone who can hold their own on the glass. I would say if he could give us about 20-25 minutes a night, get about 8 points a game with 5 rebounds, and shoot about 35% from deep - that would be all we need out of him. We could also need him to step up on certain nights if there is foul trouble or injuries, but for the most part - we just need him to fill his role behind Allen, Cline, and ShawnDre.

I am thinking of being more like a Geriot type player during Geriot senior season. At that time - Geriot was behind Harper and Anderson and we didn't need him to do much, but rather just be solid night in and night out. He put up 9 points a game with 4 rebounds and 3 assists that season and shot 41% from deep. He showed some flashes of scoring in some games, but for the most part, was just someone you could count on to hit an open shot, make a good pass, and not make many mistakes defensively. Thats what we need from Wood next year.

 

[MrTbone]

Terry and TJ have the ability to be as good as any frontcourt we've had at UR that I can recall, and I think Shawndre is going to be among the very good point guards we've had here, he's on pace to easily pass the 1000pt threshold. I'm pretty encouraged by what those three guys can do for us.

We really just need some decent production out of the guard and small forward spot, and hopefully we will see that out of the remaining guys.

 

[97spiderfan]

Marshall is an important cog, no doubt. I feel that the development of Julius/Jesse is most critical for this year's team. 2 guard is where we have our most glaring need. If Marshall can steal time from Deion that is a bonus, but if Jesse or Julius can play minutes at the 2 guard, that bumps Trey to the 3 anyway.

 

[MrTbone]

100% concur. I have previously said that I never expect much from freshmen, but I think something will have to happen at the 2 guard this year. I don't think that Trey being that role is right for us offensively, and the book is kind of out on Josh still. I still see Trey as our 3 (barring a big change from Deion or Marshall stretching down to 3) and then either Jesse or Julius seeing a lot of minutes at 2.

Will be interesting to see what happens.

 

[Spider B]

Another option at guard is Kwan stepping up and showing the ability early on to play point guard. Then we can slide SDJ to 2 guard and allow him to focus on getting open shots. The younger guards will have the opportunity to establish themeslves early in the season.

 

[MrTbone]

i think that's a likely reality but not a great situation for us. I think going small(er) at both guards has been a problem the last two years, so getting back to a state where one of the two guards has some decent size would help out on both ends.

Our style isn't predicated on real rigid prototypes of size and skill per position, but I think it's been an issue that we've played a smaller brand of bball.

 

[NattyMat]

I have a big problem with GW at No.4 over both RVA teams.

For starters, the Colonials went 10-8 last season, two games behind both Richmond and VCU. Their results against those teams...

GW v Richmond
73-70 2OT home win (pre-ANO injury)
56-48 road loss (no ANO)

GW v VCU
72-48 road loss
79-66 home loss (without Weber)

GW record: 1-3
Avg margin of victory: -10.5

Yes, they return a lot of players, but like VCU and Richmond lose arguably their best with the transfer of Kethan Savage, who was probably the only guy on their team with any bit of toughness. I get that they have a Wake Forest transfer in Cavanaugh but he didn't exactly set the ACC on fire with his 43% career fg% and 27.8% 3p%.

Give me VCU and Richmond over GW all day and my guess is that O'Connor either did this to fire up the local readers or he genuinely hasn't been really paying attention to A-10 basketball. Think about it, Davidson (Kalinoski), Richmond (Anthony) and VCU (Graham) all basically lose one player (VCU lost Weber early into A-10 play and then won the tournament without him and crushed Davidson in the process) yet O'Connor has Davidson at No.2 and drops the other two teams behind GW. Just doesn't make a whole heck of a lot of sense if you're really paying attention.

 

[97spiderfan]

Natty, I agree about GW and to a degree Davidson as well. I was not impressed with GW at all the two times we played them. Yes, they beat us up there in Double OT, but that game was ugly and before we learned that we could actually win on the road. And you guys absolutely destroyed them both times. I think I said I would have ranked UR, 3rd, Davidson 4th, VCU 5th and GW 6th. VCU also has the wildcard of key player losses to graduation but also a coaching change. Davidson is getting some love for being league champs the next year, which I think is pretty common.

 

[urfan1]

I never have felt the RTD does a great deal of homework before making predictions. I think both local teams could surprise based upon early predictions.

 

[97spiderfan]

Well, hey if Michael Phillips was picking them I'm sure he have Virginia Tech winning the league.

 

[Not-A-Homer]

Be surprised to see GW do as well as predicted. With that said, there are a lot of ?????? in the A-10.