The A-10 Rodeo
February 22, 2010 Harry Baujan 
After a week’s hiatus, I am happy to be back with The A-10 Rodeo. I know that you all were sitting on the edge of your chairs waiting for The Rodeo last Monday, only for it not to come (that’s what she said). I apologize for leaving you hanging as I took a page out of the Flyer’s book and came down with a mystery ailment. We are getting down to crunch time in the A10 and without further ado, let’s get it started:
News
Still riding the high of their overtime win over Dayton the previous week, the Billikens welcomed URI to the Lou for a showdown. The game resulted in a Billiken victory 62-57. SLU spread the love among all of their starters with 4 of the 5 scoring in double figures and the other finishing with 9. Just when you thought you could count out the Billikens as they dropped 3 of 4 conference games in late January, they have surged back to win their last 6 contests and sit alone in 4th place. The Billikens will need to continue to ride this wave of success that they’re on if they want to make a case for themselves come Selection Sunday. The next two weeks will be very telling for this squad as they host Xavier, Duquesne, and Temple and then finish off their regular season with a trip to UD Arena.
The collapse of Charlotte that everyone thought was coming, is here. The 49ers were making an improbable run through the A10 and it was only a matter of time until they were stopped. The skid started with the thwarting they took at UD and then continued as they dropped home contests against Duquesne and Xavier. The 49ers should be able to snap their losing streak as they welcome the dismal St. Joseph’s Hawks to Charlotte. The true tests for this Charlotte squad will come as they close out the regular season at URI and then face off against conference leader Richmond at home.
I don’t think I even have to get into it because if you’re here and reading this website then you’re most likely a UD fan. The Flyers shit the bed once again on the road. I knew “we” were in trouble in the first half when it was a tie game and Damian Saunders had yet to get on the board. Once Saunders removed his head from his ass and realized that if he stops chucking up threes and starts driving to the basket, he will score at will, the Flyers were in trouble. The difference between Duquesne and UD is that Duquesne, namely Saunders, adjusted their game and UD didn’t. Despite the fact that he played fairly well, Huelsman on Saunders was a match up from hell for the Flyers. BG should have made the adjustment to put Benson in on Saunders, once CW picked up his 4th foul with 12 minutes to go. For those of you who love moral victories: The Professional scored in double digits, P Dub made not one, not two, but FOUR shots. On the flip side, “we” had a dismal 9 points off the bench and turned the ball over 21 times. BG and the Flyers better figure out what went wrong in Pittsburgh as they travel to Philly on Wednesday and hope to right ship against the Temple Owls.
Top Performers
Damian Saunders, Duquesne vs. UD
- Saunders started the game by throwing up absurd threes and after missing 3 of them he realized that wasn’t working. That is when Saunders took the game over. He finished the contest with 20 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 steals, including a highway robbery of Rob Lowery in the backcourt that lead to an easy dunk. Saunders did most of his damage in the 2nd half as the Flyers encountered foul trouble and could not figure out a defense to contain him. Look for Saunders to be a vital piece as the Dukes look to derail the surging SLU Billikens this Saturday.
Chris Johnson, UD vs. Duquesne
- Unfortunately for the Flyers, Johnson regained consciousness with 4 seconds left in this contest as he spent most of the game unconscious from 3 point. CJ finished the game with 21 points on 6 of 13 from behind the arc. The Flyers will look for CJ to continue this shooting display as For-three-zius is still saddled with his knee injury. CJ will need to have a big game on Wednesday night if the Flyers hope to upset Temple on the road.
Kevin Anderson, Richmond vs. GW
- Anderson continues to make his personal case for A10 POY. The Spider guard had a great offensive output against GW as he scored 24 points while pulling down 5 boards and dishing out 7 assists. Anderson can be pointed to as the main reason why the Spiders are sitting atop the A10 and as of today, are the 24th ranked team in the nation. Watch out for Anderson to disappear though as he has scored in single digits in 3 of the Spiders last 7 victories.
Jordan Crawford, Xavier vs. St. Joseph’s/Charlotte
- It just wouldn’t be The Rodeo if I didn’t give a shout out to JC. Of course he had multiple top performances this week. In the two games combined JC went for 43 points (17 of 33 shooting), 10 assists, 8 rebounds, and 6 steals. That, ladies and gentlemen, is why Jordan Crawford IS the A10 Player of the Year. Lets see if JC can keep it going as the Muskies travel to SLU on Wednesday and host the conference leading Spiders on Sunday.
Chris Gaston, Fordham vs. URI
- I feel bad for this guy, I really do. There is not much more that the A10 Freshman of the Year can do than what he is for the god awful Fordham Rams. Fordham traveled to URI this week only to get their asses handed to them, but not before Gaston could put up 32 points and 10 rebounds. There is no way that this kid sticks around in NYC, I mean is there?
Looking Forward to This Week
If the Hexagon has taught us anything, it is that matchups between the top six are crucial wins, and losses against the bottom 8 are UD’s specialty. We have 3 Hexagon matchups this week:
UD @ Temple 2/24
After the Flyers shit the bed @ Duquesne, they have set themselves up for an essential must win against the Owls. Temple posts an 11-1 record at home this season, while the Flyers come in with a 4-6 road record. If the UD team that showed up for Xavier and Charlotte comes to Philly then the Flyers can expect a victory. But if the UD team that traveled to St. Louis and Pittsburgh shows up in Philly, send your RSVP to Blackburn for the NIT party at Marion’s.
Xavier @ SLU 2/24
- While the Muskies have a pretty good resume for the committee, this is a game they are going to want to win to continue their momentum going into their weekend tilt with the Spiders. SLU boasts a 14-1 home record, as the Muskies are an average 5-5 on the road. I think JC goes for 30 in this game as the Muskies snap the Billiken’s win streak at 6.
Richmond @ Xavier 2/28
- If the Muskies can win at SLU, they will enter this matchup with at least a share of the conference lead with Richmond, and possible Temple. With the conference lead on the line, this matchup is sure to be a good one. I am excited to see JC and Anderson go head to head in a shootout. Xavier is undefeated at the Cintas this year going 13-0, while Richmond is 6-5 on the road. I’m calling a Jordan Crawford fade away for the win, much like the one he hit in London Warren’s eye at the end of the UD game in Cincy.
Reader Comments (19)
"But if they UD team that traveled to St. Louis and Pittsburgh shows up in Philly, send your RSVP to Blackburn for the NIT party at Marion’s."
Lets not wait until Wednesday when we are all crying even more. Send out the NIT invites now. My votes for for either the one on Patterson/Shoyer or Far Hills/Stroop.
Have you guys seen the DDN's web site today? First, Archdeacon wrote the closest thing to a criticism of UD/BG that you'll ever see in his 5 questions thingy ..... BUT Doog chimes in with one titled "UD's close losses might pay off." Awesome.
Also, read the one about Duquesne scrapping its final play and just giving the rock to Saunders.
“We were surprised (Chris) Wright wasn’t at the 5,” Everhart said. “When we saw Huelsman was on Damian, we said not to run the play at all. Find Damian in the middle of the floor and get out of his way.”
“If you take a look, I’d say out of those 16 points he scored, 10 of them were in transition. It has nothing to do with the match-up,” Gregory said."
Gregory is either that bad or has giant brass balls. Probably a little of both.
I nominate the Marion's in Beavercreek.
1. Game Room
2. We can easily move it to the pizza hut buffett next door if the CBI is the post season landing spot.
@Secaur: as i said in my last post, I think BG has HUGE BALLS. He is the king of deflection, incapable of accepting the blame for anything.
Simply put, Everhart (probably shocked) changed things on the fly and took advantage of the obvious mismatch. Gregory stubbornly choses to live and die by his system, results be damned.
Actually, the last play was originally drawn to go to Duty in the corner off a double screen for a 3. If that didn't work, Saunders would feed to Clark and cut the the basket for the give and go. While breaking the huddle, Everhart said `If you see (Kurt) Huelsman on, you just take it'.
"Once (Duty) gave it to me I heard Coach yelling `take him,' because I had been doing it all night," Saunders said. "Eventually I took him and got the bucket. "
How does Wright score the first 11 points and make it look routine, and then get only 4 more the rest of the day? He better hope the scouts left with a woodie at 15:00 of the first half.
I vote the North Dayton location. First person to stop eating has to buy the hookers. One North Main St. hooker per person should run about $37 dollars total.
@Adam: It'll only be $15 if you use the same hooker.
We're 5-5 in our last 10 games... and need to win at least 6 in a row to dance.
Kurt's Season Minutes: 550
Dog's Season Minutes: 388
Kurt's Pts/Rebounds/Blocks/Fouls: 105 / 98 / 17 / 47
Dog's Pts/Rebounds/Blocks/Fouls: 114 / 81 / 11 / 41
Per Minute Played, Kurt: 0.19 pts, 0.18 boards, 0.03 Blocks, 0.09 fouls
Per Minute Played, Dog: 0.29 pts, 0.21 boards, 0.03 Blocks, 0.11 fouls
Explain again why Searcy played 8 min to Kurt's 31 in that game? I get that Kurt's a better defender but he wasn't stopping Saunders anyway. With all the 1-2 pt loses this year Searcy's +2.06 pts/20 min played over Kurt looks pretty fucking good. I can't wait till next year when Kav starts ahead of Searcy...
If you look at where Dayton is according to the experts (either barely in or barely out), Dayton really only needs a 3-1 finish with a win in the A10 home game to dance. A win at Temple or Richmond would help fill the only real void on the resume, the lack of a quality road win. The RPI and SOS great, they have two really good wins (X and GT), and people around the country generally think UD is NCAA worthy if they just barely show it. I was following Secaur talking to The Big Lead guy on twitter, and McIntyre wanted to put UD in. Granted he has no say, but from what I read most people still like UD. There's no reason to think the committee members aren't thinking along the same lines. The Flyers just need to give them the slightest reason to justify themselves. I think Charlotte and URI have to do quite a bit more than UD at this point.
3-1 and a quarterfinal A10 game against, say, Rhode Island, and Dayton may need to win that one, but maybe not.
The problem is winning at Temple or Richmond. There is no logic in thinking they will do so. When game time rolls around we'll all have a glimmer of delusional hope, but I think even John, the most optimistic one of us thinks we'll crash and burn in these games. However, just winning one of them along with the two home games would probably do the trick. The bubble sucks and UD is already right on the thin line. One loss took them from a 9 to a 12 accoring to Lunadri, why wouldn't a big, unexpected win put them back to the 9 seed line? It works both ways, IMO.
I don't know guys. The "new" Marion's at the Dayton Mall is pretty nice.
I'm right there with you Adam. While I'm not as optimistic as John nor am I as pessimistic as Donoher, I am realistic. If we can take one of those games then we'll be in alright shape come SS. Unlike 2 years ago when UD won 20 games and had a top 35 RPI and got snubbed, the bubble this year is weak. The keys in the upcoming games will be holding on to the fucking ball and scoring more points than the opposition (talk about dropping some real knowledge on ya).
So just to sum up: The only person in the arena who didn't think it was a mismatch is BG?
I am just in absolute shock that we are still a 12 seed to Lunardi. Last 4 in... Did BG and Lunardi hang out in Philly after that game he watched us lose to a great St. Joes team??
@Secaur - Yup. We're supposed to believe Kurt was fine except on transition. I guess Saunders getting the ball at halfcourt and being able to dribble drive from there to the hoop because Kurt didn't pick him up until the foul line isn't "transition".
UConn about to get a quality win against WVU. They were in the "last four out" by Lunardi, but I've got to imagine barring us winning in Philly Wednesday, we'd switch places with them.
Forget to mention a great point a buddy mentioned to me today. Worst nightmare for the rest of the season: Go to the NIT where Wright explodes and leads us to the NIT title. CW turns pro and Dayton thinks the season ended in a rousing success.
My prediction for the outcome of this season: We get a 1 seed in the NIT, so we play every game (and win) at home until we have to go to the Garden for the final four where we play Notre Dame. In that game Harangody goes off for 40 and our season is ended.
Winning the NIT just means we are the best losers in the country.
Lowery is one of the worst players i have never seen. He choked down the stretch in the Duq game he couldn't handle the ball let alone bring the ball up the court. He shoots you out of the game and can't dribble. Marcus needs to step up or we will not beat Rich or Temple. So bye bye tourney hello Not invited Tournament. What an under achieving team. BG has some coaching issues that he needs to address this off-season.