Where SLU and the A-10 stand with one game left
OK, I think I’ve got this right.
SLU can finish 5th, 6th, 7th or 9th. There might be a scenario where they finish 8th, but I haven’t seen it and in any event, it would likely be irrelevant since they would still be facing Richmond in the first round. The most likely finishes are SLU to be fifth, sixth or ninth. Any scenario that has them finishing seventh would require St. Joe’s to lose to Fordham.
Here’s a quick breakdown:
If SLU wins, they would be, in most cases, fifth or sixth. The most likely scenario has a three-way tie for fifth — SLU beating La Salle, Duquesne losing at Dayton, St. Joe’s beating Fordham — in which SLU takes the tiebreaker for fifth, St. Joe’s is sixth and Duquesne falls to seventh. If Richmond were to beat Xavier and make it a four-way tie at 9-7, St. Joe’s takes that tiebreaker and SLU falls to sixth. The only way SLU wins and gets seventh is if St. Joe’s loses and Richmond and Duquesne win. I’ll rate that trifecta a longshot.
If Duquesne wins, the best SLU can do is sixth.
If SLU loses to La Salle, the best it can do is seventh, but that happens only if St. Joe’s loses to Fordham. If SLU loses, the most likely scenario is an 8-8 tie with Richmond. Richmond wins that tiebreaker because it beat Rhode Island, but the only net effect is the Spiders would wear home jerseys for the tournament opener. Then again, anything that keeps SLU out of blue is a plus. (Though they did beat Dayton wearing blue.)
As to who SLU would play, if they finish 5th, they get No. 12, which is GW if it beats Temple or the loser of the Charlotte-St. Bonaventure game.
If SLU finishes sixth, it gets No. 11, which would be UMass if it loses to Rhode Island or, with a UMass win, the winner of the Charlotte-SBU game.
If SLU finishes seventh, it gets No. 10, which is UMass if it wins or the winner of the Charlotte-SBU game.
So SLU’s first round opponent is from the pool: GW, Charlotte, St. Bonaventure, UMass, Richmond. SLU went 4-2 against those teams.
Xavier clinched the No. 1 spot last night and as best as I can tell, Rhode Island will be the No. 2. Temple and Dayton will have the other first round byes, but the order is up for grabs. If both win or lose, Dayton takes third. Temple a win and a Dayton loss to finish third. The best Duquesne can do is fifth. And GW, Charlotte or St. Bonaventure will join Fordham on the outside looking in.
On Saturday, St. Joe’s plays Fordham at noon, UMass plays Rhode Island at 1 and Charlotte plays St. Bonaventure at 3, so by the time SLU tips, the situation won’t be that much clearer. In any case, the big linchpin game in the whole works is SLU-La Salle.
And finally, for those planning to go to Atlantic City, if SLU is fifth they would play at 2:30 AC time, if they’re sixth they would the last game at 9 p.m. and the 8-9 game starts things at noon.
I’m confused by what Dan Caesar says regarding the A-10 TV status in his article today …
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/sports/columnists.nsf/dancaesar/story/E76E52A73D94E09C862575710014DF0B?OpenDocument
A major irony is that the A-10 quarterfinal and semifinal
telecasts are being produced for local syndication by CBS
College Sports, …
… the A-10 tourney isn’t appearing on that station — the games
are syndicated only to local markets.
If it’s for “local markets” does that mean that it won’t be available on the main CBS College Sports channel and a local station (like KPLR) would have to pick it up?
If so, why is this even an issue? SLU needs to get its house in order and get these games on TV.
CBS College Sports has the television rights to the Atlantic 10. There are two kinds of games: Games that are broadcast on CBSCS and those that are produced by CBSCS for syndication and airing on local stations and which don’t appear on the network. The quarterfinals and semifinals of the A-10 tournament are of the second kind. They are produced by CBSCS for local markets to pick up. There is no television of the first day’s games, and the costs of an independent production of them would be prohibitive.
So now SLU has to get someone to televise them. There are really only three local outlets that could do it: Charter, Fox Sports Midwest and KPLR. It’s not much of an issue for Charter, but there are potential conflicts on the other stations depending on when SLU plays. For instance, KPLR couldn’t do the game if SLU was in either of the two late games on March 12 because they have a Blues game. And if the Blues are on KPLR on a week night, FSN must have something that bumped them. But SLU would want to keep the KPLR option open if SLU is in either of the early games because the game would have wider viewership than being on Charter.
SLU wants to get the games televised. The challenge is to get a station to pick the game up.