The Atlantic 10 apparently isn't as bad as some media pundits (who, us?) projected this season. Don't call us wishy-washy. We prefer "elastic," which actually is what the "E" stands for in ESPN.com. We're not sure about the other three letters, and frankly, they're none of your business.

Back to the A-10 ...

Once thought to be a one-bid team come NCAA Tournament time, the A-10 still has one NCAA lock in Xavier. But the Musketeers should get some company from Saint Joseph's and Dayton.

	John Bryant and Saint Joseph's went into the Kennel and snapped Gonzaga's 29-game home winning streak.

"The (A-10's) West was supposed to be Xavier and everyone else, and Xavier is the real deal, don't get me wrong," says Dayton coach Oliver Purnell. "But everyone else is a lot better than people expected to see. I think as a whole, our league will have six postseason teams."

Don't count out Rhode Island or Richmond just yet, but the league's best bets to join Xavier in the NCAA Tournament are Saint Joseph's and Dayton.

The Hawks have the sexy RPI rating, reaching the No. 1 spot nationally before stumbling at Pacific, 62-50, on Dec. 28, and they've got a pair of eye-catching wins. One was a 27-point drubbing of Boston College to open the season, and the other came on New Year's Eve at Gonzaga, where the Hawks snapped the Zags' 29-game home winning streak. Hawks point guard Jameer Nelson showed why he is one of the best of the best, scoring 34 points -- including six of his team's final seven -- to lead the 79-78 overtime win.

"He leads by will as much as skill," says Hawks coach Phil Martelli.

Saint Joseph's is winning with great guard play (Nelson and Delonte West combine to average close to 34 points per game) and even better defense. The Hawks are among national leaders in scoring defense and field-goal defense.

As for Dayton, the Flyers don't have the win-loss record or RPI to match Saint Joseph's, but something tells us here at flexible ESPN.com that the Flyers might just be very good.

Well, it wasn't something that told us. It was someone. It was Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who might -- just might -- bear listening to.

"Dayton's a really good team," says Krzyzewski, whose No. 1 Blue Devils had to hold off the visiting Flyers 85-74 after Dayton trimmed a 23-point second-half deficit to six points in the final minutes. "When I scheduled them, I felt they were a team that could win their league. They're a veteran team, and they're extremely well-coached. I knew it would be a difficult situation for our guys to be in."

The Flyers go eight-deep and can get big offensive performances from Keith Waleskowski in the post, Ramod Marshall and D.J. Stelly on the perimeter, and Brooks Hall at both places and in between.

The Flyers' eight-man rotation includes just one freshman (eighth man Warren Williams) and one sophomore (starting guard Mark Jones). The other six players are seniors Hall, Stelly and powerful forward Nate Green, and juniors Waleskowski, Marshall and 6-foot-11 center Sean Finn.

"Dayton was everything I thought they would be and more," Krzyzewski says. "They maintained their composure. With all the pressure we had on them, they only turned it over 14 times ... That doesn't happen very often."

With victories against Cincinnati, Ball State and Villanova, the Flyers ought to have done enough to impress the NCAA Tournament selection committee -- assuming they win 10 or more conference games, as they have done three times in the past five years.

And there's also a very good loss to Duke to add to the résumé.

"I don't know if there's such a thing as a good loss," Purnell says. "But I do know this loss shouldn't hurt us."

Not if the selection committee was paying attention, it won't.

Games of the Week

Marquette at Dayton Saturday Another game for the Flyers to pad their RPI rating. Winning would be an added -- and conceivable -- bonus. North Carolina at Miami Saturday The Sean May-less Tar Heels could use another confidence boost entering ACC play, but Miami needs this win even worse as the 'Canes try to open their new on-campus Ryder Center in style. Seton Hall at St. John's Saturday Let's get this party started.

Big East Tilted West
Pity the East. All that tradition, and only one NCAA Tournament team in the bunch. Poor, poor East.

Not the Big East -- the East. The East Division of the Big East.

Not good.

If NCAA bids went out today, which of course they do not (and with good reason), Connecticut probably would be the only East Division team to get one. The Huskies are the only team in that half of the league to do what it needed in non-conference play to position itself for a bid. Now there is the little matter of navigating the Big East schedule and emerging with a record of .500 or better, but if the Huskies do that -- and they will do that -- Connecticut will be happy in March.

Not so at Boston College or St. John's, Miami or Villanova, or Providence. None of those five teams has distinguished itself in non-conference play, all of them mixing in -- as Boston College has -- a decent victory against someone like Iowa State with a damaging loss to someone like Holy Cross.

St. John's hasn't beaten anyone, but has lost to both someones on its schedule -- Wake Forest and North Carolina, sandwiched around a yucky loss to Manhattan.

Villanova? Beat Michigan State ... lost to Penn.

Miami? Beat, um, Texas A&M ... lost to Florida Atlantic.

Providence? Beat Richmond ... lost to South Florida.

And now for the good news.

The West is wondrous. All six teams on that side of the league have given themselves a chance at an NCAA bid. The worst record in the West Division? It belongs to Rutgers, which is 8-3, including wins against Temple and Princeton, and has lost only to power-conference teams (North Carolina, Virginia, Auburn).

The best of the West looks to be Pittsburgh, which pounded the weaklings on its weak schedule but also pounded Ohio State by 20 points before being humbled by Georgia. The Panthers (9-1) are deep and balanced on offense (six players average between 8.8 and 13.6 points per game) and they rebound with ferocity (average edge: 11.4 boards per game), but they shoot free throws like blind people. They are hitting just 63.7 percent from the line, repeating a weakness from last season, and most troublesome is the 51.7-percent foul shooting of All-American guard Brandin Knight, who will have the ball in his hands in close games.

Rhode Island coach Jim Baron doesn't care.

"Knight doesn't lose his cool. He makes everybody better. He's a step above everybody," Baron said.

Notre Dame has shown few weakness in amassing an 11-1 record, with victories against Maryland, Marquette, Texas and DePaul. Georgetown has lost to the only decent team it played, Virginia, but the Hoyas can score inside and out, and they rebound almost as well as Pittsburgh.

Syracuse (8-1) has been better than most people expected, and they will add another dimension Jan. 18 when freshman point guard Billy Edelin becomes eligible. That will allow Gerry McNamara to take his sweet shot to the wing, where he can join Carmelo Anthony and Kueth Duany in a ridiculously quick lineup revolving around Hakim Warrick in the post.

And then there is once-woeful West Virginia, which has lost to Duquesne but beaten Florida and Tennessee. The Mountaineers are 8-2 in coach John Beilein's first season.

"It's a long way from being turned around," Beilein told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. "But we've got some good kids who've worked very hard."

ACC Loaded Again
The ACC enters the brunt of its conference schedule with the No. 1 team in the country, three of of the remaining four unbeaten teams in the country (Duke, Wake Forest and Clemson), another (Maryland) that is the reigning national champion, and yet another (North Carolina) that won the Preseason NIT.

Pretty good start for a down year.

"The ACC will be fine," N.C. State coach Herb Sendek had said earlier this year, and he was right.

How fine remains to be seen. Like the Big East, the ACC hasn't exactly distinguished itself with the quality of its non-conference opposition. But the ACC does appear to have (gulp) nine teams capable of reaching the postseason.

The ACC only has nine teams, you know.

At the top, Duke has demonstrated it can and will get quality production from a handful of freshmen, most notably J.J. Redick, among conference leaders in scoring and 3-point percentage. Also helping out, but in more limited roles, are forward Shavlik Randolph and guard Sean Dockery. Shelden Williams, a former starter who was thought to be the most game-ready of all the freshmen, has slid toward the end of the bench.

Wake Forest and Clemson have been two of the league's bigger surprises. The Deacons and Tigers are a combined 17-0, though neither coach is fooled into thinking his team is a national contender, or even an ACC contender, just yet.

"I'm pleased with a lot of things, but I don't want us to get giddy," Clemson coach Larry Shyatt said. "We've got some holes."

Senior point guard Edward Scott can spackle a lot of those holes with an all-around game that could produce a triple-double before the season is out. At Wake Forest, the Josh Howard-led Deacons have been bolstered by the improvement of sophomore power forward Vytas Danelius and the arrival of freshmen Justin Gray at guard and Eric Williams at center.

Still ...

"We're scoring a lot of points without really executing well," said Wake Forest coach Skip Prosser. "Some of the things we've gotten away with recently, you don't get away with when you get into the league. We're just going to tighten up everything we're doing."

The time is now, because the depth of the ACC looks good. Georgia Tech isn't all the way there yet, but it has played a tough schedule and took Maryland down to the wire on the road. North Carolina, playing one game after losing center Sean May (foot) for two months, beat St. John's at Madison Square Garden. N.C. State has lost just once and is as deep as anyone. Maryland isn't what it was, but it's not all that bad, either. And Virginia and Florida State won't be easy wins for anyone.

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