Thursday, January 10, 2008

Rhode Island @ Dayton

The A-10 is back. Riding strong non-conference performances by Xavier, Massachusetts, St. Joe's and others, including these two teams, the Atlantic 10 has created quite a bit of buzz about potential at-large berths come March. And, generally, the style of play in the A-10 is different than it was just a few years back, when it was largely a grind-it-out and defend type of conference. This is not your father's A-10. This ain't even your older brother's A-10.

Dayton and Rhode Island displayed this quite clearly in their A-10 opener Wednesday night. Both teams got out to strong starts and played an entertaining brand of ball, highlighted by each team's main offensive weapons: Dayton's Brian Roberts and Rhode Island's Jimmy Baron. Roberts finished with 23 for the Flyers in their 92-83 victory, while Baron (the son of head coach Jim Baron) had 26 in a losing cause. Will Daniels also added an impressive 25 points, mostly coming along the baseline, for the Rams, while the Flyers got more balanced scoring from its 10-deep rotation.

Just the first of many A-10 games that promise to be highly entertaining.

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