The best of the rest: Mid-Major report

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The A-10 remains as confusing as ever

The A-10 was supposed to be fairly easy to predict this year, as Xavier was all but guaranteed to run away with the conference. But to be fair, no one really saw the Musketeers getting into a brawl with Cincinnati, which ended up throwing their entire season into a spiral.

Other teams around the conference have stepped up, some out of nowhere, including UMass and La Salle. As it stands now, Temple leads the conference with a 6-2 conference record, but is closely followed by Saint Louis, UMass, La Salle, and Xavier, all at 6-3. Even St. Bonaventure is still in the hunt at 5-3.

This week’s big matchup? X at Temple. While there are too many teams still in the hunt to count anyone out, these are arguably the two most talented teams in the conference. They also feature two of the best guards around in Temple’s Ramone Moore and Xavier’s Tu Holloway. If you’re looking for a great game, tune in to ESPN2 at 9 p.m. Saturday.

Is Murray State for real?

The Racers continue to do the only thing they can possibly do to gain national attention: win. Despite the Kentucky school’s top 10 ranking, college basketball fans still have no idea as to how good this team might be. They haven’t really played anyone significant, yet they continue to climb in the rankings.

Luckily for the Racers, ESPN’s Bracketology has pitted Murray State up against another mid-major power, St. Mary’s, on February 18^th. St. Mary’s has less to prove, as it’s already beaten accomplished teams such as BYU and Gonzaga, but this game is huge for Murray State. It certainly would look much better than beating up on teams like SE Missouri State and Eastern Illinois. If the Racers are able to pull out a win, it solidifies their spot in the national picture and could be a force to be reckoned with in March.

Can Gonzaga make a late push in the WCC?

Speaking of St. Mary’s, it ought to keep an eye out on conference foe Gonzaga.

St. Mary’s dealt a huge blow to BYU in the conference picture in a road win against the Cougars, and the Gaels look to continue the trend this Thursday in their match-up against Gonzaga. Although Gonzaga has recently dropped out of the AP rankings, the Zags still figure to be a tough match-up for St. Mary’s.

The two players to watch in this game are Gonzaga’s Elias Harris and St. Mary’s Matthew Dellavedova. In their contest in January, Dellavedova was able to put up 26 points along with six assists against Gonzaga. In order to pull off the same kind of victory, Dellavedova will need to step up again for the Gaels. For Gonzaga, Elias Harris is going to need a big game. The Bulldogs have the advantage of being at home this time around, but they’re going to need Harris to have a big game in order to avoid the type of loss they experienced back in January. With a win, Gonzaga can start thinking about the regular season conference title again.

Will Harvard make any noise in March?

So far this season, Harvard has looked every bit the part of a contending team. It’s tough to gauge an Ivy League team like Harvard, but the Crimson’s out-of-conference schedule actually featured some pretty nice teams. Harvard has been able to take down Florida State, UCF and UConn this season. More impressively, each of those wins has come on the road.

Unfortunately, Harvard still isn’t a lock to win the Ivy League, as both Yale and Penn remain in the hunt. The Crimson must go on the road to face Penn on Saturday, and a win would certainly help their cause in winning the conference title. The two teams have yet to play each other this season, but look for a good game from Penn. Penn has a nice player in guard Zack Rosen, who if hot, could play a key role in an upset over Harvard.

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