A10 Chaos Leads to Two Bids

The A10 become a bid-stealer this season after we saw the 1-4 seeds go down on Thursday in the quarterfinals.

All eyes are going to be on the A10 today as the upset teams from Thursday battle it out in the semifinals:

• Saint Joseph’s vs VCU at 12pm CDT on CBS Sports Network

• St. Bonaventure vs Duquesne at 2:30pm CDT on CBS Sports Network

On Thursday, here’s how the bracket went down:

• No. 9 Saint Joseph’s 66 - No. 1 Richmond 61

• No. 5 VCU 73 - No. 4 UMass 59

• No. 7 St. Bonaventure 75 - No. 2 Loyola Chicago 74 (2OT)

• No. 6 Duquesne 65 - No. 3 Dayton 57

A brutal day for any fans of the top seeds in the A10 and fans of teams that are sitting on the bubble. Dayton losing started driving the wedge into the heart of Indiana State fans as that meant one more bid was stolen from out in front of them. For fans of the higher seeds in the tournament, what a beautiful day because now the finals and an auto-bid to the NCAA Tournament are wide open.

What’s at stake for each of these teams?

Duquesne:

• This is Duquesne’s first appearance in the A10 Semifinals since 2009.

• Duquesne hasn’t been to the NCAA Tournament since 1977.

• Despite starting 0-5 in the conference this season, the Dukes rallied to finish the year on a 10-3 run to finish 6th.

Saint Joseph’s:

• Saint Joseph’s hasn’t been to the NCAA Tournament since 2016, where they appeared as the 8 seed and advanced to the Round of 32 with a 78-76 victory over Cincinnati.

• This is the Hawk’s first 20 win season since 2016.

VCU:

• This would be VCU’s 11th NCAA Tournament appearance since 2011. The Rams have missed the tournament just 3 times during that span.

St. Bonaventure:

• This would be St. Bonaventure’s 3rd NCAA Tournament appearance since 2018.

• This is the Bonnies third A10 Conference Tournament Finals appearance since 2019.

You can definitely argue that Duquesne and Saint Joseph’s are both going to be the most hungry in this one. Duquesne is led by an elite combo in Dae Dae Grant and Jimmy Clark III who are averaging 16.5/3.5/2.5 and 15.2/3.2/3.8/2.3 each respectively. For the Hawks, they are led by Erik Reynolds II and Xzayvier Brown who are averaging 17/2.8/2.6/1.1 and 13/3.9/3.2/1.8 each respectively.

Make sure to tune into CBS Sports Network today to see who we will be seeing in the finals tomorrow ahead of Selection Sunday.