Only a few weeks ago, we were talking about the possiblity of six Atlantic 10 teams making the NCAA tournament. Turns out a few didn't quite have the huevos to finish the season strong enough.
Dayton punched Terrell Holloway along with its ticket to the NIT. Rhode Island coach Jim Baron was pimping his wins against Fairfield and Akron today on the ESPN bracketology show -- problematic, at best. St. Louis couldn't win anywhere but their home court. Charlotte, well, who knows what happened in that epic collapse.
In the end, only three teams from the Atlantic 10 made it in. And, that was about right. Richmond as a 7, Xavier as a 6 and Temple as a 5.
For a conference that was supposed to be having its best year ever, the A-10 earned the same number of bids as last year (X, Temple, Dayton) and the year prior (X, Temple, St. Joe's).
"I think a couple teams kind of died down down the stretch," Dante Jackson said of whether or not the A-10 got the respect it deserved. "I thought Temple would get a 3 or 4, I am kind of shocked they got a five."
That appears to be the biggest surprise of the seeding was an Owls team that went 29-5, co-champs of the league and won the tournament pretty convincingly with an RPI of 15 were dropped into the dreaded 5-12 matchup.
And not even that, they drew maybe the most dangerous 12 seed in the tournament in the Cornell Big Red, who I having been telling you all year are going to make the Sweet 16.
Chris Mack thought Temple was certainly shorted.
"I was a little surprised on Temple's seed. For those gusy to go 27-5, one of the losses to
The justification to the diss for the Owls was the committee's re-emphasis this year on not judging by the final 10 games but by the total body of work.
Temple AD Bill Bradshaw called the Owls' fifth seed "disappointing" to the AP.
That said, outside of a jab at Temple the A-10 got what it deserved. And despite all the high expectations ended up being right around its average spot by season's end.
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