Posted on 3/11/2008 7:36:04 PM

NCAA March Madness Betting - PREVIEWING THE ATLANTIC 10 TOURNAMENT

By Charles Jay

The Atlantic Ten Conference tournament takes place from March 12-15 in Atlantic City.  Here is a look at the field, as it is listed at BetUS Sportsbook:

BetUS March Madness Betting Odds

Team to win the Atlantic 10 Conference

Charlotte +1500 

Dayton +1000 

Duquesne +1600 

Fordham +4000 

La Salle +3000 

Massachusetts +400 

Rhode Island +1500 

Richmond +800 

Saint Josephs +800 

St Louis +2500 

Temple +500 

Xavier +150

Xavier is into the NCAA tournament, as XU has been in the national rankings almost the entire year. There will be one or two more bids out of this conference, but those have yet to be decided.

Let's examine some of the teams:

DAYTON (+1000) pulled off a few early upsets, but the Flyers suffered injury problems during the season, losing big forward Charles Little and small forward Chris Wright. Little came back, but Wright didn't, and the absence of the prize freshman turned Dayton from a formidable A-10 contender to another team in the pack. Wright will dress for the tourney, but will he be able to play or be of any use if he does? Brian Roberts might be the best shooter in the conference, but he's not enough to get the Flyers to the finish line..........DUQUESNE (+1600) can cause some trouble when its offense is on its game, but the Dukes have at times been shut down by capable defensive units. But this team makes things interesting if Shawn James, a center who blocked four shots per game, can come back from injury to be effective..........CHARLOTTE (+1500) carries some momentum into the post-season, and the 49ers have a talented guard in Leemire Goldwire, who scored 34 points against Rhode Island in the regular season finale. But the Rams were a fading bunch, and we're not convinced Charlotte has the goods to take things deep into this tourney.......TEMPLE (+500) lost eight of its first 14 games, but closed fast to win 12 of their last 16 and finish 18-12. The Owls scored a 19-point upset win over Xavier back on January 16. Temple is strong in the backcourt, where Mark Tyndale and Dionte Christmas average 36 points a game between them.........

MASSACHUSETTS (+400) has the conference player of the year in Gary Forbes (20.3 ppg, 7.9 rpg), but Forbes isn't exactly a dead shot (just 41.6%). And though the Minutemen won their last six regular season games, none of them were against Xavier, St. Joe's, Dayton or Temple. U-Mass has to go a long way to prove it's not a pretender...............One pretender for sure is RHODE ISLAND (+1500) , which closed with a whimper, losing seven of its last nine games, but the truth of the matter is that the Rams did not beat many capable teams when they were getting out to a 14-1 start. Will Daniels is an all-conference caliber player, but he and his teammates have come up short when confronted by the league's upper tier..........ST. JOSEPH'S (+800) has a shot because it always seems to play Xavier tough, and indeed beat the Musketeers to revive at-large hopes before falling to Dayton. The Hawks have two of the conference's most effective players in Pat Calathes and Ahmad Nivins (65% FG's), and have five starters averaging in double figures. But inconsistency plagued them; if they can regain some form, they are the clear second choice.........

XAVIER (+150) is clearly the class of the conference, and will have some incentive to win this tournament in a quest to get a "protected" seed in the NCAA's. The big question mark has been Drew Lavender, the point guard who has scored just 31 points in his last six games and has been nursing a bad ankle. Lavender sat out the regular season finale against Richmond, but that was by design, as he is resting the ankle. The coaching staff thinks he'll be strong for the tournament. The Musketeers have enough balance anyway, as six players average between 9.9 and 11.6 points a game. Stanley "NOT the Hammer" Burrell was voted the A-10's defensive player of the year. With or without Lavender, no team is as solid as Xavier and in a conference which might not get more than two NCAA bids. They feel they don't get enough respect (no one made the A-10 first team), and they want to squash the painful memory of last year's tourney defeat to Rhode Island. This is a team that offers excellent value at this price.

Go to the BetUS.com online sportsbook today to bet on NCAA basketball. We have the most current NCAA basketball odds and lines, as well as player and game props. Join BetUS.com to experience the best in online sports betting action!

(Charles Jay of http://www.eBookies.com gives it the old college try as a regular contributor to the BetUS Locker Room)