UPDATE: Saint Joes moves from #8 to #9 spot and George Mason moves from #9 spot down to #10.
9. Saint Joseph's Hawks- Remember
when the Hawks received the most votes at the 2012-2013 media day to win
the A-10? The team from the city of brotherly love was the popular pre-season
pick to be crowned A-10 champs. Saint Joe's season looked promising due in part
to guard Carl Jones, guard Langston Galloway, forward C.J. Aiken, and 3rd team
all-conference forward Ronald Roberts Jr. all returning. Now, Galloway and
Roberts Jr. are back for their Senior years. The Hawks best player in Jones is
gone and Aiken leaves school to pursue a professional basketball career, but
Saint Joe's returns the majority of its roster from last years once promising
group. After last years sub-par season, I expect them to do better than last
years bunch. Yes, they will do better. I feel that this team is motivated to
win for coach Martelli after the brutal off-season he has experienced. Coach
Martelli sadly lost his sister because of heart failure and additionally lost
his sister-in-law from cancer. When tragedy strikes, teams can be brought
together and perform at unseen levels but, there needs to be talent as well.
The good news for Saint Joe's is that they do have the talent that is
necessary. The Hawks return two extremely solid and experienced players,
therefore I pick them to finish in the middle of the pack this season. If Saint
Joseph's has a 20 win season and makes the NCAA tournament...it wouldn't
surprise me one bit. Phil Martelli is an elite coach in college basketball and
his team is motivated more than ever. However, the NIT is a more realistic
landing spot for this 2013-2014 team.
10. George Mason Patriots- The addition of George
Mason into the Atlantic 10 is a great one. The powerhouse CAA program will have
to step up their play this season due to the A-10 being a much stronger and
talented conference. From my perspective, this team is very unpredictable. They
won 22 games in a weak CAA Conference and they went through lots of good
moments and lots of truly bad moments last year. They had extremely close games
with New Mexico, Maryland, Bucknell, and they beat a good Virginia squad and
beat a decent Richmond Spider team. Now, here are the bad moments of the
Patriots. GMU ended up losing twice to an okay Delaware squad, once to a below
average Drexel team at home, once to Georgia State at home, once to a 10-20 UNC
Wilmington team, and they struggled to beat a bottom feeding and now fellow
A-10 team in Rhode Island. George Mason could surprise some critics in the A-10
by coming up with some good out of conference victories and beating a top A-10
team once or twice. They are most likely to end up finishing anywhere from 5 to
8 in the conference but if Paul Hewitt gets this team on track, they could have
a nice season with the good defense and smart play that we are accustomed to
see by George Mason in years past. George Mason star and scoring machine
Sherrod Wright will need to be lights out for the Patriots to be a force this
year. Although George Mason returns most of its team from last season, those
role players around Wright will need to up their games in order for George
Mason to have another 20 win season. The Patriots will be comprised of Senior
student-athletes who can help this team be a good one, yet the biggest issue
with this team is that they will need to adjust to the competition of the
Atlantic 10. Like I mentioned before...from top to bottom the A-10 is
undoubtedly stronger than the CAA. George Mason's lone signature win last
season was against Virginia who didn't even make the NCAA Tournament. They
can't afford to lose once to Duquesne, Fordham, and URI in order to finish in a
decent position in the A-10. I truthfully believe that Mason will be a force to reckon with for years to come in the A-10, but I don't believe the Patriots can make the jump from the lesser CAA to the more powerful A-10 right away. Former CAA member VCU was able to make that jump last season, but VCU had the players to do so. All you George Mason fans out there should be excited for this season and for seasons to come. This might not be the Patriots year, but in time... moving to the A-10 will benefit every single aspect of their program.
My #11, #12, and #13 teams will be my next post. Thanks for reading.
You have the Patriots pretty low I think. I hate Mason but I think they might be a top 6 team next year in the A10.
ReplyDeleteNot a big fan of Hewitt and with same guys pretty much from last years team, I don't see Mason doing all that well. If they can start conference strong then maybe they can finish 6 or so, but the A-10 conference stretch will be more strenuous compared to the CAA of course
DeleteJacob, you wouldn't know this because you're not a Mason fan, but we were very close to having a MUCH better record than we did last season.
ReplyDeleteWe blew the New Mexico game by giving up two 30-foot 3s in the final 15 seconds, including a buzzer-beater.
We were in a one-possession game against Maryland with 5 minutes left and lost by 7.
We lost in OT to Northern Iowa even though they had a guy who averages 5 points go completely bananas and score 32.
And we led all but one conference game at the under-10 timeout or later, but somehow managed to finish just 10-8 in the CAA -- and that didn't include blowing a 31-7 lead against Northeastern in the tournament semifinals.
With four seniors and four juniors on the roster, our guys should be much better prepared to hold leads down the stretch.
And while last year's A-10 was brutal, the league as currently constituted isn't any better than the CAA was in 2010-11 when we dominated the league and won a game in the NCAAs.
All of this is to say, I think Mason is gonna do a lot better than 10th place. But we'll see who was right come March.
My rankings could change, you never know. Thanks for your perspective on Mason and I agree with you that Mason is an experience group yet, this years A-10 is STILL much tougher than the CAA from last year. It is promising and nice that Mason was leading most of its conference games from last season, but they couldn't pull some of those out against teams that they should have no problems beating. I am a little worried that they might have the same issues against the bottom feeding and middle of the pack opponents in the A-10. GM played solidly against New Mexico, Maryland, Bucknell, and Virginia last season and if they play like that...they can be much better than 10th in the rankings...we will see if they can play similarly when A-10 play comes around.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, it's not GM, it's GMU or Mason.
ReplyDeleteits a quick response in the comments sections "Anonymous".....but yes I know its GMU or Mason. If you read my article I say GMU and Mason, not GM. The article matters, not the comment section.
ReplyDeleteENJOYED READING YOUR BLOG , KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK . AND OLD TIMER .
ReplyDeleteThank You! Appreciate it!
ReplyDelete