Around the A-10

Through the first couple weeks of the season, here's how the Atlantic 10 has fared on the men's side:

Wins: Mount St. Mary's (GW), Boston University (GW), Columbia (Fordham), North Carolina A&T (Saint Louis), Detroit (Saint Louis), Cal Poly (Massachusetts), Northern Illinois (Massachusetts), Yale (Massachusetts), Florida Atlantic (Rhode Island), Brown (Rhode Island), High Point (Charlotte), Appalachian State (Charlotte), Howard (Duquesne), Winston Salem State (Duquesne), Binghamton (St. Bonaventure), Fairleigh Dickinson (St. Joseph's), Maine (Richmond), East Carolina (Richmond), East Tennessee State (Dayton), Southeast Missouri State (Xavier).

Losses: Missouri (Fordham), Pittsburgh (Saint Louis), Northern Iowa (Massachusetts), Boston University (St. Bonaventure), Maryland-Baltimore County (LaSalle), Syracuse (St. Joseph's), Memphis (Richmond), Norfolk State (Richmond), Miami (OH) (Xavier), Tennessee (Temple).

A few things that stand out:
-Xavier's loss at Miami (OH) is unacceptable. The overwhelming favorite to win the conference, the Musketeers even appeared at #19 in Sports Illustrated's preseason poll. How did they respond? By losing to a team picked to finish second in the East Division of the MAC. I'm not disrespecting the Redhawks; Miami (OH) isn't a bad team. It's just that if Xavier is going to exist on the national level this season, these are the games they have to win.
-The Atlantic 10 is 0-4 against teams from the six major conferences, plus Richmond's loss to Memphis. If there are going to be multiple NCAA Tournament bids for the A-10, this will have to change.
-20-10 is still pretty good, regardless of the competition. The best winning percentage for the A-10 over the last 10 years was .587 (84-59) in 2003-2004, when both Xavier and St. Joseph's reached the Elite Eight.

We'll keep an eye on this throughout the next month and a half.