A10 Tiers - 2/28

Favorites: 1) VCU, 2) George Mason

Upper Mushy Middle: 3) Loyola, 4) Dayton, 5) Saint Joe's, 6) SLU

Lower Mushy Middle: 7) GW, 8) Bona, 9) Duquesne, 10) Rhody, 11) Davidson, 12) UMass

Pillow: 13) Richmond, 14) La Salle, 15) Fordham

This was actually the easiest tiering exercise of the entire season, as they basically write themselves. Of course VCU overtakes George Mason for the top spot as the Rams obliterated the Patriots in the second half of saturday's de factor title fight. For now I am keeping George Mason in the same tier as VCU for a few reasons: the first half was closely fought, I still think George Mason is really good, and the Rams' homecourt advantage (which was electric) can not be disregarded. I think if these two teams met up again on a neutral court in the A10 Tournament, we'd get a lot more of the first half than we would the second half even if VCU is seemingly a notch better.

The Upper Mushy Middle changes only slightly as Loyola jumps Dayton in the tiers, powered by the fact that the Ramblers both beat the Flyers on the court and have passed them in the standings. Sometimes life does imitate art! The team here to watch is Saint Joseph's, which is red hot all of the sudden and has three very winnable games to end the season. In theory the Hawks should finish the season with three more wins and on a six game winning streak... but this is usually when Billy Lange's coaching usually comes back to bite Hawk Hill in the butt. Maybe this season will be different!

The Lower Mushy Middle again changes only slightly, as Rhode Island drops back a few spaces while Bona and Duquesne jump up a handful of slots. Rhode Island sort of looks cooked, getting swamped by SLU and then looking bad for most of the game against Dayton. They do have the schedule to turn it around in a blink of an eye though, especially if you are not a believer in Billy Lange. Duquesne's jump is less explanatory, yes I'm writing about my own decisions. They are 3-2 in their last five though, including a blowout win over Loyola, and are getting healthy at the right time. They have a very tough run-in before the A10 Tournament though and even finishing 1-2 would be a pretty big coup.

Davidson is especially tough to write about, as the Cats lost their fourth game just this season in which they had over a 90% win probability when they collapsed down the stretch and blew a double digit lead to SLU. In the past few weeks Davidson had GW, Loyola, and SLU all at home, an amazing opportunity to pick up their first win this season against a non-small major with a winning record and jump out of the pillow fight, but they lost all three. The Cats keep getting into position but haven't been able to actually get over the hump.. which ultimately is the story of the past two seasons and Matt McKillop's tenure at large. One thing is obvious, the coaching staff needs to look long and hard at making major changes this offseason or else they risk the same story continuing to repeat itself. Sigh

Finally, following a typical theme, the only changes in the lower pillow are slight, as Richmond jumps La Salle. None of these teams really have a pulse at this point, but the Spiders at least deserve some credit for beating La Salle a few games ago.