The cream of the crop of the A-10 conference rivals the top teams in any of the major conferences in college basketball today. The two newbie’s, Butler and Virginia Commonwealth have stolen the show as they have both been ranked inside the top 20 this season. The Bulldogs and the Rams still currently hold first and second place, respectively. Continue reading “A-10 Conference Power Rankings (Part 2)” →

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New writer Sam Blum is making his Big Apple Buckets debut with a mid-season A-10 Power Rankings. Sam is going to help us focus more on the Atlantic 10. Continue reading “A-10 Power Rankings (Part 1)” →

Don’t tell Fordham head coach Tom Pecora that Fordham’s 66-63 win over Rhode Island on Saturday at Rose Hill.

“I don’t believe in the term ‘ugly win’ and I’ve never had an ugly win,” Pecora said. “Every win I’ve ever had in the history of coaching has been beautiful because they’re always hard to come by, especially the last few years.”

Make no mistake though, this one was ugly. Both teams shot under 40 percent from the field. The atmosphere was chippy throughout. There were 46 personal fouls called and four technical fouls assessed. It could’ve been even more.

A lot was on the line as Fordham and Rhode Island know they’ll have to work hard to even get to the Barclays Center for the A-10 tournament in March. The conference is loaded with potential postseason teams. A field of land mines for young the URI and Fordham teams to have their confidence blown to bits. Fordham is now 6-14, 2-3 in the A-10, while Rhode Island fell to 6-12, 1-4.

The high stakes made the atmosphere intense. URI seemed over anxious and Fordham was in the bonus with 13:58 remaining in the game. It couldn’t take advantage. Fordham shot 19-33 (58%) from the free throw line during the game.

There was though some beauty to be found in Fordham’s awful shooting from both the field and the line. Pecora’s team grabbed 19 offensive rebounds, which led to 18 second-chance points. Going against URI’s four-guard lineup Pecora’s youngsters were just tougher on the glass.

“I thought we were chippy after they physically dominated us on the backboards,” said URI head coach Dan Hurley. “They were physical, we were soft.”

Playing once again without Chris Gaston, Travion Leonard scored the first basket of both the game and the second half. He had 13 points overall. Pounding it inside was all good (Ryan Canty had seven on a perfect 3-3 from the field as well), but Fordham needed its guards to step up. Pecora got a surprisingly big game from Mandell Thomas, who scored 17 points and grabbed seven rebounds in 40 minutes.

Thomas has his own URI connection, his father Chad played for the Rams. The 6’2″ freshman guard had the biggest game of his young career against his father’s former team. One of Thomas’ father’s teammates was current Rams assistant Preston Murphy, which had to make rooting interests even more divided.

“He texted me earlier and said he was rooting for me,” Thomas said about his father.

Thanks to Thomas and Branden Frazier’s 20 points, including 11-13 from the line, Fordham hung on for a big home win. The Rams are now 2-3 in the A-10.

Sometimes beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Atlantic 10 conference play is nearing and the league looks to be quite stacked once again. Virginia Commonwealth leads a legion of talented teams that have already taken down Indiana and Syracuse among many others. If you believe Ken Pomeroy’s ratings (and my simulator) then VCU is the team to beat. Continue reading “10,000 Sims: Atlantic 10 is VCU’s To Lose” →