A-10 Basketball: VCU gets another Quad 4 win heading into holidays

VCU topped the century mark for the third time this season in a 105-83 win over American on Thursday at the Siegel Center.

The Rams (8-4, NET: 60) got double-digits from five players, led by VCU sophomore guard Terrence Hill Jr., who had 17, and first-year coach Phil Martelli Jr. was able to get a lot of guys minutes – seven got 20+, and nine got 10+.

American (7-5, NET: 247) was led by Wyatt Nausadis with 17 points.

VCU wraps up its nonconference slate at home on Monday with Rider (1-9, NET: 359).

A-10 at a glance

---

With the beginning of conference play looming, Saint Louis (10-1, NET: 22) is the highest-rated team, though I can’t figure out why.

The Billikens have yet to play a Quad 1 opponent, and are 1-1 in Quad 2 games – the win coming over Santa Clara (9-3, NET: 70), the loss coming to Stanford (9-2, NET: 97) in a neutral-site game last month.

I don’t get it.

They’re 3-0 in Quad 3 and 6-0 in Quad 4.

VCU is second in terms of the NET at 60, with George Mason (10-1, NET: 66) third, and Dayton (9-3, NET: 73) fourth.

VCU is 0-3 in Quad 1 games (Utah State, NC State, Vanderbilt) and 2-1 in Quad 2 games (W: Virginia Tech, South Florida; L: New Mexico).

Mason is 0-1 in Quad 1 (at Virginia Tech), no record in Quad 2, 4-0 in Quad 3, 5-0 in Quad 4, and has one non-D1 win (Catawba).

Dayton is 0-2 in Quad 1 (Virginia, BYU) and 0-1 in Quad 2 (Cincinnati).

It doesn’t help Dayton that they scheduled games against Marquette (5-7, NET: 170) and FSU (5-6, NET: 149), and that both of those are having down years.

George Washington (8-4, NET: 82) is 0-2 in Quad 1 (Florida, McNeese State) and 1-1 in Quad 2 (W: South Florida; L: Murray State).

Richmond (9-2, NET: 91) is the only A-10 team with a Quad 1 win (at Belmont).

The dings: two Quad 3 losses (Elon, Furman), and one non-D1 win (Southern Virginia).

Seriously, why schedule a non-D1 game in this day and age?

Analysis

---

As much as I don’t get Saint Louis being at 22 in the NET, it’s good for the rest of the A-10 that they’re there.

That VCU is next in line at 60 isn’t good, though.

The A-10, again, is a one-bid league in March.