The A-10 is nasty

Got back from the Dayton-Duquesne a bit ago, and what a way to start off the Atlantic 10 for Dayton. It was completely apropos for these guys to take a shot in the gut early and come roaring back with defense, and some of the best cheering from a crowd in a long time. UD Arena was absolutely rocking, and it was great to be a part of it.

For those of you who don't know, Dayton won in overtime. Duquesne probably should have won the game at the end, but missed free throws. It evens out though, cause UD missed a ton of free throws earlier on. At any rate, it was a gutsy, gritty performance by both teams. A loss would have really hurt UD, so I'm glad they won. Just got to keep it up. They have so much heart and toughness in games, they are never out of it.

The amazing thing is Duquesn is 0-2 in the Atlantic 10. That team is GOOD. They would have a shot being champions in a lesser conference. The MVC is a bit down this year, I guarantee the Dukes would be challenging for that title. Hopefully they can string some wins together and beat up on the weaker teams in the A-10 to get themselves into the discussion for the tournament or at least the NIT, cause they are deserving.

If a team like that is going to just be middle of the road in the A-10, then the conference is going to be amazing. I don't even want to think about how grueling the schedule is going to be. As awesome as the win was, it only makes me worry about how tough it will be to go 12-4 or better in the A-10, which is pretty much as bad as I was projecting at the beginning of the season. Five losses in the conference would mean eight losses on the season, and that is no sure thing for a tourney berth.

On the plus side, Chris Wright's jumper seems to be coming along, and Luke Fabrizius is back. His instant offense is going to be a big boost. Anybody who scores 10 or so points in 10 or so minutes is valuable, even if he needs some improvement on defense. The Flyers are back close to full strength for the first time this season, and that is encouraging.

Hopefully they can keep the wins coming, and hopefully the talking head recognize how strong this conference is, and not penalize teams for going 11-5 or 10-6. That would be more of an accomplishment than a disappointment in my opinion.