At the beginning of the Atlantic 10 Men’s Basketball Championship, Xavier was the only team locked in for the NCAA Tournament. Many others appeared to be on the bubble, with only Massachusetts being favored to get an at-large bid.
But with Saint Joseph’s upsetting Xavier and UMass losing in the second round, it opened up opportunities for other schools. Temple, the No. 2 seed in the A-10 Tournament, took advantage of Xavier losing and grabbed the automatic bid for winning the conference.
No. 5 St. Joseph’s (21-13, 9-7 A-10) put the most impressive run together in the tournament with upsets over No. 4 Richmond and No. 1 Xavier before losing to Temple (21-13, 11-5 A-10) in the conference championship.
NCAA Tournament
With the A-10 conference being represented by three teams in this year’s NCAA Tournament, the conference was hoping to gain some respect on a national stage.
When the matchups were decided on Selection Sunday, the selection committee placed Xavier (29-6, 14-2 A-10) in the West Region as a No. 3 seed matched up against the Southeastern Conference Tournament champion and No. 14 seeded Georgia.
Georgia (17-17, 4-12 SEC) made its way into the NCAA Tournament by winning four SEC Tournament games in three days, despite only winning four SEC games all season. With the momentum, the Bulldogs looked to upset Xavier.
After one half, Georgia was more then Xavier could handle, leading by nine. Once the second half started, Georgia brought its lead to 11, but Xavier was resilient and came back with a 22-6 run to end Georgia’s season.
As for the second round, Xavier faced off against No. 6 Purdue. Despite being known as one of the best defensive teams in the Big 10, Purdue could not handle the balance that Xavier provided on offense. With four Musketeers scoring in double figures, it was too much for the Boilermakers to handle as they fell, 85-78.
Next up for Xavier is a tough No. 7 West Virginia team in the Sweet 16. The Mountaineers (26-10, 11-7 Big East) paved their way into the Sweet 16 with a win over No. 10 Arizona followed by an upset of No. 2 Duke. The two teams will play Thursday.
The other two teams from the A-10 that made the NCAA tournament have not shared Xavier’s success. Temple was given a No. 12 seed and St. Joseph’s was given a No. 11 seed despite losing to Temple in the A-10 Tournament.
Temple had a first-round matchup against No. 5 Michigan State in the South Region. Temple got ahead in the first few minutes of the game, only to lose its small lead as the Spartans (27-8, 12-6 Big Ten) went on to win with ease, 72-61.
As for St. Joseph’s, they were matched up against No. 6 Oklahoma. The Sooners (23-12, 9-7 Big 12) handed the Hawks a 72-64 loss. St. Joseph’s did make a run late in the game and brought the score to within four, but couldn’t complete the comeback.
Both Temple and St. Joseph’s were popular picks to upset in the first round, but didn’t make it on to the second round.
NIT
Dayton had been ranked as high as No. 14 this year in the Associated Press Poll but after struggling in conference play, the Flyers found themselves out of the NCAA Tournament and playing in the National Invitational Tournament.
After starting out the season 14-1 with wins over Pittsburgh and Louisville, Dayton (22-10, 8-8 A-10) lost three games in a row to drop them from the rankings. The Flyers couldn’t recover after the losing streak. They went 3-5 over the next month and never won back-to-back games in that span.
The mid-season collapse left Dayton out of the NCAA Tournament, despite having an RPI rating of 33. Dayton had the highest RPI rating of all teams left out of the tournament and still only got a No. 3 seed in the NIT.
Dayton won convincingly over an undersized Cleveland State team in the first round of the NIT, 66-57.
No. 2 Illinois State is next for the Flyers on Monday at 7 p.m. on ESPNU.
Jeff Larnard can be reached at [email protected].
