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URI one is the biggest, well because I know most about them...and its my squadron Oh and Billy Baron has committed to URI

St. Bonaventure: (6-10) (15-15)

Third year coach Mark Scmidt is giving hope to Olean, NY. The Bonnies are returning a top level player in big man SOPH Andrew Nicholson. Nicholson is a prize in the making after a great freshman campaign. He won frosh of the year last year and was very impressive inside. A Canadian resident, Nicholson wasnt quite playing the talent of the lower 48, but he fell into place nicely. Putting on some musle was important for him, and supposedly he has done so, 15 lbs in factr. Developing further a low post game, continuing his medium range J's and dominanting the inside will continue this year. Other returnies include Jonathan Hall, a guy who has the ability to rebound, score and penetrate. Thomas is gone, a solid player who was a good rebounder and solid scorer (9ppg). Ray Blackburn is gone, a backup PG, but nothing major there in terms of losses from him. He had some turnover issues. Eleby is back, and is still looking to find his PG nitch. Adegboye is a JUCO transfer who could challenge Eleby for the PG spot. Chris Matthews returns as well. A VERY STREAKY 3pt shooter who had Jimmy Baron range, but he also had the "Im going to chuck disease". He forced too many shots and tried to do too much from 3, despite being lethal at times. He shot in the low 30's% last year, which is WAY too low for a guy with his 3pt ability. He should be 40+. This team struggled from 3 last year. Eleby, Matthews and the rest of the gang need to improve from the outside. Teams will key on Nicholson, and it would be beneficial for the team to work on kickouts and swing passes to improve and gain open shots. Soph Michael Davenport could be a piece of the puzzle to some Bonnie success, due to this athleticism and grit. Leonard Lewis looks to get some playing time as well. This Bonnies team is going to be fun. The team will supposedly run a little more when Adegboye runs the point, and teammates in Hall and Nicholson will provide some solid to strong low post games going forward. Nicholson will alter shots and shot selections inside. Anytime you have a talented big man like this, you have the potential to make noise. This team will rebound offensively (2nd in A-10 last year), score fairly well, but need to improve on the 3, defensive rebounding (bottom half of A-10 last year, and without Thomas someone needs to step up), turnovers, which plagued the team last year as well as FT percentage (bottom few last year). Things look bright in western NY, but they certainly have some things they need to fix. I do believe the Bonnies are better than what most sites are stating, as most have them in the id to high 100's out of 347 teams. Hold onto the ball, few smarter shot selections and we could be talking about a 6-7 seed in A-10...yep...6-7...otherwise...9-11...

St. Josephs: (9-7) (17-15)

Talented big man Ahmad Nivins will be SORELY missed. I loved to watch him play. Such a knack for the ball inside, great paint game, good FT shooter, took smart shots...he really could do everything inside they needed. Scored over 20 ppg, averaged 11 boards a game and smart shooter (61%) makes him a necessity like no other player this past year. IMO no other team had a player this important to his team as Nivins was. He was the major answer on offense, and when he was on so was the team, when he was off, they were off. There is no answer to replace him this year, and that has everyone wondering if this will be one of the worst years for the Joe's in quite some time. Tasheed Carr and Lashley are also gone. Carr provided scoring (14ppg) and was over 4 assists per game. Top 2 scorers are gone, pretty much half their scoring and rebounding is gone. Govens and Hilliard will be asked to pick up the scoring slack, as well and Williamson. Govens showed some signs last year, but I wonder how these guys will transition from role players to the go to guys. Hilliard can hit from beyond the arch at times, but he must get inside more. Without the change to be the typical swingman, he will be forced inside more. No Nivins to release the tension on him makes this year for Hilliard very important. So what does a Hawks fan have to look foward to this year? Well the new arena is in, no more Palestra home games, well not every single one of them. Carl Jones looks to be a potential bright spot at the 1. Kid isnt overly tall, under 6 feet, but can score. Word has it he is more of a 2, but they need a PG to run the show. Its going to be tough for him IMO. I have not seen him play yet, but he wont have many options to pass to or to rely on. Crosgile is another freshman who might log a few minutes, but the jury is still out. Talent is present however. Baptiste and transfer from Bucknell Obrien look to log some minutes inplace of Nivins. Last year his bench was so thin, and ran his starters more than anyone. His bench seems to be thinner...at first look at least, and you wonder if he has the ability to let these kids play and see what they are made of, instead of just running with his favorite 6 or 7 for 30 a piece. Prescott and Irwin (who looked good) will provide some viable minutes for the team, and seemingly start. Some sites have this team ranked sub 100!?!? Im sorry, I like Martelli, and I know he is a good coach. He finds the best out of players year in and year out. He maximizes their potential and gets them to believe. But, please tell me how this year, he gets them to believe? My guess is he is going to tell them to go game by game and play within themselves, and deep down knows he is trying to build for future. Just how this team is projected higher than some teams like URI, Bonnies and Charlotte baffles me. So what does this mean for betting? Well, Williamson can defend, thats for sure. I just dont know what their interior is going to look like. That remains to be seen. I do believe they will have serious troubles in scoring, unless they imploy a different style, which I am sure wont be the case. I do think St. Joes garners some Vegas respect, hence these rankings, so lets see if they are fade material early, until the books figure them out. This bench is UBER thin again so it seems, and I dont know how they can handle the long season ahead. While I think St. Joes will make an A-10 tourney appearance, they will probably be playing on the road in round 1, and should be bounced there.

Xavier: (12-4) (27-8)

I dont have a ton of time. At least Xavier is nationally known so I am sure people will have more ready info for this team than say St. Bona or something. I will condense this a bit...

Derrick Brown is gone for the NBA (bad move IMO, took mid 2nd round)..cost himself possibly a lottery next year, although I think he was advised poorly and mislead as to his draft status. BJ Raymond is gone, a good shooter and all around clutch guy. CJ Anderson leaves as well, another solid player who was third on the team in many categories.Brown played outside a lot and was quite athletic and posed a problem for teams trying to guard him as he was very tall, but much more athletic than the guy who guarded him. Coach Miller has departed and hire in Mack comes from within the system to help. Everyone likes him and X loves to hire from in house, see Miller. Team returns some promising talent in Frease, who i believe will have a VERY GOOD YEAR is a much needed body for Xavier. His FT shooting was below 50% last year, which needs to improve, otherwise teams will hack him more..., Redford (top tier shooter in country), Holloway (solid pg who looks to improve), Mr Dunk Jordan Crawford who has the ability to be a 1st team A-10 with ease if things go right. Dante Jackson returns, a good leader and all around. He is defensive minded and knows how to pressure. McLean a big man inside doing the dirty work and the like, as well as guard Mark Lyons look to garner some solid minutes. People were upset at times with Holloways PG play last year. They need to improve on the distribution of the ball as they were not particularly good in the assist category last year. X should rebound well again this year and Frease's low post game should continue to develop. They certainly can defend their title, and a rather young team, their inside bodies of Frease, Love and McLean will be very hard to handle for any team, especially the teams who lack size and rebounding skills. This team prides itself off defense and I dont see them missing a beat this year. Brian Walsh (red shirt transfer) as well as PF Jeff Robinson (freshman) look to add some depth to the roster. I predict good things for X...they go as far as Frease and Holloway take them, yes not Crawford. Crawford will be a solid player...Holloway if he can improve his PG skills takes X's biggest on the floor weakness to another level. Guard play wins titles in Cbb...

Massachusetts at Central Florida 7:00