A preview of the 2008-09 Atlantic 10 hoops season

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:23:54 EST

The past few years, the Atlantic 10 has been a conference of mixed results. Some have offered that it is the closest thing to a 7th major conference, while others refer to it as "The Big East minus good teams". Last season's runs of Xavier (Elite Eight of the NCAAs) and UMass (NIT finals) have this conference looking solid coming into this year. The Atlantic 10 also has it's share of solid coaches; Bobby Lutz, Brian Gregory, Phil Martelli, Rick Majerus, Fran Dunphy, and Sean Miller highlight the list.

The league has seen some of it's stars leave. Charlotte's Leemire Goldwire, Duquesne's Kojo Mensah, Fordham's Bryant Dunston and Marcus Stout, GW's Maureece Rice, LaSalle's Darnell Harris, RIU's Will Daniels and Parfait Bitee, and Temple's Mark Tyndale. But the bigger loses include Dayton's Brian Roberts, Duquesne's Shawn James, UMass's Gary Forbes, and Xavier's trio of Josh Duncan, Drew Lavender, and Stanley Burrell. But as I will highlight in the upcoming capsules, the conference's cupboards are far from bare. 2008-09 Atlantic 10 predictions:

Droppin a shui or two : CBSSports.com Blogs

A preview of the 2008-09 Atlantic 10 hoops season