If there's a downside to the return to prominence for the Atlantic 10, it's nights like Wednesday night. It's not a downside for fans of good basketball, mind you, but for coaches and fans of favored teams like Dayton and Xavier. Rather than holding serve until their showdown next week, each found themselves upset on Wednesday night while Charlotte held serve at home and found themselves at the top of the heap after beating St. Joe's 70-66. They can thank Leemire Goldwire, who may not settle for a spot on the all-conference first team. He may have designs on player of the year and last night's 36 points will help him make his case. While Goldmire was doing the offensive lifting, his teammates took care of slowing down the league's best shooting team. The Hawks were making more than 50% of their shots in A-10 play entering the game but were held to 44% and continued to struggle from long range.
Charlotte remains a flawed team. They turn the ball over too much and shooting 43% last night actually represented a step up in the world. That's going to make it hard for them to hold onto the top spot but three straight wins are three straight wins and, as Wednesday showed, there won't be easy nights in the A-10.
Just ask Dayton. The Flyers can really shoot and rebound very well but they aren't blessed with the greatest speed in the world. That's why UMass ended their 13-game winning streak in a convincing 82-71 road win. They scored 14 points on the fast break and the Minutemen guards combined to shoot 26 free throws as Dayton struggled to keep up with their quickness. Chris Lowe, Ricky Harris and Gary Forbes combined for 57 points, which is about par for the course. Not so for their defense.
Dayton struggled from three, 4-of-25, and couldn't find anything inside to take the pressure off Brian Roberts and Marcus Johnson. They also turned the ball over 11 times, bad news when playing a team that thrives in transition. Many conferences have an overall identity, be it offensive or defensive, but the A-10 has a little bit of everything. UMass is a terrible matchup for Dayton because of their speed and shooting ability so it's a good thing they only play twice.
Temple, meanwhile, plays defense well enough to be a nightmare for anyone. They harassed Xavier into 38.6% shooting and ran away in the second half with a 78-59 victory. Dionte Christmas scored 15 of the Owls' first 20 points and helped hold the Musketeers to one basket in over six minutes. That turned a three-point halftime lead into a rout while the defense, three-point shooting and fevered crowd turned the game into a throwback to the John Chaney era.
Xavier and Dayton probably just had bad nights and next week's game shouldn't lose much of its luster unless the X-men lose at GW this weekend. That said, it's just going to be part of figuring out the eventual champion and not a coronation game. Wednesday made that official.
