My favorite place in the A-10 is probably St. Joseph’s. It’s a great place to watch a game, a great atmosphere. Everyone is close, the fans are noisy yet, I think, courteous. I’ve figured out where the media parking is and the back way into Memorial Fieldhouse. If you ever get the chance, go, and I hope they don’t spoil it when they do the renovation that starts next year.

St. Joe’s is probably SLU’s favorite place as well after their win there on Thursday night.  You can disregard my speculating on how the rest of the pack is gaining on SLU in the previous post. As long as SLU takes care of business against St. Bonaventure — and that’s a team that runs a lot of sets, so is hard to prepare for (but also isn’t very good right now) — it’s set for the conference tournament.

In fact, and I’m not going to figure it out, but SLU would appear, at least, to have a shot at a first-round bye. SLU is 1 1/2 games out of fourth with two to play, but has a decent shot at finishing 9-7. Temple plays St. Joe’s and La Salle, so somebody in that group is going to have six losses and Xavier plays Richmond and St. Joseph’s. So there’s a good chance at least one, and maybe two of those teams will be 9-7. (And of those four teams currently at 8-5, St.  Joe’s, La Salle, Richmond and Temple, SLU has beaten three of them, which will help for tiebreakers.)

I was talking with a Philadelphia writer today and we agreed - every game at the A-10 tournament is going to be like a coin toss. Anyone can beat anyone pretty much every time out. There would be a significant advantage to having a first-round bye in that would eliminate one chance for you to lose.

I didn’t talk to Majerus after the game. If you were watching on TV, you might have noticed that he coached this game sitting down, and afterwards, he was apparently laid up in the training room with a bad case of the flu. He looked a bit pale throughout the game. I’m sure the trip home for him was fun, not to mention for the assistant coaches, since they had to sit with him to start digging in to the St. Bonaventure game plan.

Past two games: Charlotte 81, SLU 64; SLU 64, St. Joe’s 55.

St. Joe’s points per possession was .96.

At 16-12, SLU has clinched a winning record, which should make help their NIT changes, especially if they win the next two and are 18-12 going into the conference tournament. SLU has turned in an NIT application, but not a CBI application. Not that they won’t.

When SLU went up seven, I turned to the guy next to me on press row to point out that SLU hadn’t lost a game this season when they led by more than five points. And they didn’t.

SLU won despite shooting 39.2 percent. They’ve won only once shooting worse: 38.5 against Long Beach State.

SLU missed just three free throws, but they came at bad times and could have cost them if St. Joe’s could have made shots at the end.

SLU outrebounded St. Joe’s by 13. They’ve only had one bigger game this season, outrebounding Richmond by 14.

SJU was 22 of 57 from the field, the exact same number as Fordham was against SLU.

Six players got 198 of SJU’s 200 minutes. Can’t say I noticed when Idris Hilliard got his two minutes.

Liddell made 10 of 12 free throws. Both numbers are career highs.

Lisch is shooting 46 percent on 3’s in the past seven games.

When I spoke to Majerus earlier in the week, he talked a lot about when you’re guarding someone on a mismatch, you have to front them, and SLU’s bigs did that constantly against Ahmad Nivins. He still had 16 points, but that’s a lot less than he might have had otherwise.

Bryce Husak had a pretty good game, with eight rebounds. He probably likes SJU more than anybody. Two of his best games have been here.

Adam Knollmeyer played six solid minutes. In the limited action he’s seeing, he’s giving a good effort on offense and defense.

The win snapped a three-game losing streak with Mike Kitts reffing the game. SLU is 3-2 with John Cahill.

The play where Kevin chases the ball down in the backcourt, flips it to Barry, who fires a no-look pass to Tommie, who passes to Danny for the dunk — I think that’s right, though it’s possible I’m missing somebody — was a quintessential moment for the team. That play got everyone in the gym’s attention.

I asked Joe Lunardi after the game if the loss would kill St. Joe’s at-large hopes. He said you would think it would, but that every bubble team right now seems to be losing, so every time you would think a loss would hurt someone’s chances, it doesn’t and everytime he puts together the field, the same teams are getting in. Amazingly, if Xavier wins the conference tournament and UMass doesn’t get hot, it could be hard to make a case for a second team  from the A-10, even though it will be the seventh-best league in the nation.

With St. Joe’s loss, Xavier clinches the No. 1 spot, so the first and last-place teams in the league are set. If the conference tournament began today (since Xavier has clinched its spots, I’ll put them in all caps): 1 XAVIER vs. winner of 8/9 Duquesne vs. 8/9 Charlotte (the teams are tied but haven’t played yet, so there’s no way to break the tie); 4 Richmond vs. winner of 5 Temple vs. 12 George Washington; 3 St. Joe’s vs. winner of UMass vs. Fordham; 2 La Salle (!) vs. winner of 7 SLU vs. 10 Rhode Island. Dayton is No. 13 and is out.