NEWPORT NEWS, Va.—Temple will be the top seed for the 2012 Atlantic 10 Men’s Basketball Championship, which begins Tuesday at campus sites before moving to Atlantic City, N.J.’s Boardwalk Hall. The seeds were set Saturday following the conclusion of the A-10 regular season.
The Owls secured the top seed, their second in the last three years, with a 13-3 Atlantic 10 record and a 24-6 overall mark. TU, which secured its first outright regular season title since 1989-90, has claimed one of four first-round byes and will open the 2012 championship in the quarterfinals on Friday at noon ET.
Saint Louis will be the second seed and also earns a first-round bye. The Billkens finished the regular season at 12-4 in conference play and 24-6 overall. SLU is slated to play in the third quarterfinal game on Friday, which tips at 6:30 p.m. ET
Xavier and St. Bonaventure tied with A-10 records of 10-6, but the Musketeers is awarded the third seed by virtue of their 77-64 regular-season win over Bona. XU finished with an overall record of 19-11 and will play the late quarterfinal game on Friday at Boardwalk Hall, tipping off at 9:00 p.m. ET. The Bonnies claim the final first-round bye and will play at 2:30 p.m. ET on Friday.
Dayton, La Salle Massachusetts and Saint Joseph’s all tied with a 9-7 conference record, but Saint Joseph’s wins the tiebreaker, which is determined by comparing the composite head-to-head records of all tied teams. The Hawks finished at 19-12 overall and will host a home game Tuesday, welcoming in 12th-seeded Charlotte. The 49ers were 5-11 in conference play and 13-16 overall. The SJU-Charlotte winner advances to face St. Bonaventure in the quarterfinals at 2:30 p.m. on Friday.
Dayton emerges from the 9-7 tiebreaker as the sixth seed and will host 11th-seeded George Washington Tuesday. The Flyers are 19-11 overall after beating GW in Saturday’s regular-season finale. The Colonials, at 5-11 in the A-10 and 10-20 overall, win a tiebreaker with Charlotte, to claim the 11th seed. The Dayton-GW winner will advance to face No. 3 Xavier Friday at 9:00 p.m. ET.
La Salle is the seventh seed with a 9-7 conference record and a 20-11 overall record and will host 10th-seeded Richmond Tuesday. The Spiders are the defending A-10 Champions and finished at 16-15 overall and 7-9 in the Atlantic 10. The Richmond-La Salle winner advances to play Saint Louis in Friday’s third quarterfinal at 6:30 p.m. ET.
Massachusetts, which finished at 9-7 in conference and 19-10 overall is the eighth seed by virtue of the multi-team tiebreaker and will host No. 9 Duquesne. The Dukes are 7-9 in the A-10 and 16-14 overall. The UMass-Duquesne winner gets top seed Temple on Friday at Noon.
The Atlantic 10 quarterfinals, semifinals and finals will be played at historic Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J. for the sixth straight year. The quarterfinal games will air on syndicated television throughout the A-10 television markets. Exact market clearances for each game will be released later in the week.
The semifinals will be played Saturday, March 10 at 1:00 and 3:30 p.m. ET. The finals for the single-elimination tournament will be played Sunday at 1:00 p.m. ET. The semifinals games will air on CBS Sports Network while Sunday’s final airs live on CBS as part of CBS Sports’ Selection Show Sunday coverage.
Tickets for the championship can be purchased at the Boardwalk Hall box office, at any Ticketmaster outlet or online at Atlantic10.com. Fans may also buy tickets by calling 800-736-1420.
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