Early Thursday Observations

Well, early on it doesn't look so good for the A-10. Xavier is struggling and MSU is giving Temple fits with their defensive pressure.

Temple has some big athletic guards but they just seem to want to stand around the 3 point line and jack up shots. It's obvious the Spartans are making the Owls uncomfortable by getting up and guarding them and making them do something off the dribble.

Temple needs to get aggressive and get to the basket, then the 3's will start to open up. If they don't this game could get ugly. A couple buckets by Ryan Brooks as I write this gets Temple off the schnide.

In the other game, Xavier came out looking confident. They jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead and then CJ Anderson missed a wide open layup and got elbowed in the face afterward. It was extremely EARLY but that missed layup and the loss of Anderson to the bench seemed to kill Xavier's rhythm. The whole first half after that was a struggle. Credit goes to Georgia for extending their defense and making Xavier beat them off going to the basket and not out on the 3 point line.

Temple-MSU just went to half with the Spartans up 9....same exact score as the Xavier-UGA game.

Temple really needs Dionte Christmas and Tyndale to do something on offense. The two combine to average 34 points a game.....right now at half they have 2....

These poor early showings by these A-10 schools doesn't bode well for anyone who picked a St. Joe's upset in their bracket. The A-10 doesn't look very good right now...