Jordan Crawford Dunks on Lebron James (from fansided.com)

Bracket:  Atlantic10.com

Temple, Xavier, Richmond and St. Louis all get byes into the second round as the top four seeds in the Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament, which gets underway on Tuesday at the University of Rhode Island.

Temple enters the tournament ranked 17th in the nation.  Their trio of Ryan Brooks, Juan Fernandez and Lavoy Allen make up most of their teams scoring punch.

Xavier’s two conference losses came courtesy of Temple and Dayton.  Jordan Crawford leads the team with better than 19 points-per game.  Xavier has a nice compliment of inside-outside game with Crawford, Jason Love and Terrell Holloway.

Richmond comes with losses to St. Louis, Xavier and Charlotte but is currently ranked 24th nationally.  Much like Temple, they are lead by three scorers in Kevin Anderson (17 ppg), David Gonzalvez (14.3) and Justin Harper (10.7).  If they are firing on all cylinders, they have a chance to make noise not only in the Atlantic 10 tournament, but also in the Big Dance.

The Teams: Temple (14-2-26-5), Xavier (14-2, 23-7), Richmond (13-3, 24-7), Saint Louis (11-5, 20-10), Rhode Island (9-7, 21-8), Charlotte (9-7, 19-11), Dayton (8-8, 19-11), Duquesne (7-9, 16-14), St. Bonaventure (7-9, 14-15),  George Washington (6-10, 16-13), Massachusetts (5-11, 11-19), Saint Joseph’s (5-11, 11-19), La Salle (4-12, 12-18), Fordham (0-16, 2-26)

Sleeper(s): The pressure is on Rhode Island.  The tournament is in Kingston and there is no doubt the Rams have figured out that a bad late-season loss to UMass means, as of now, they aren’t dancing.

Don’t look now, but Charlotte beat two of the top three teams in conference play this year.  Don’t be shocked if the 49ers make a run at the automatic bid.

Winner: Xavier.  The hot-shooting Jordan Crawford carries the Muskeeteers all the way to the automatic bid (even tough they are in whether they get the automatic bid or not).

Much to the disappointment of the current bubble teams, don’t be surprised to see a sleeper win this tournament (Charlotte or Rhode Island).

NCAA Tournament Outlook: Xavier – Sweet 16.  Temple – Win one and done.  Richmond – Sweet 16.  Any other team (Charlotte, RI, St. Louis) – First round exit.

Popularity: 10% [?]