Atlantic 10 Semifinals Preview

(W4) Xavier v. (W2) George Washington
After coming off of cloud-nine with an upset of number one St. Joseph’s, the Musketeers will need to buckle down and focus on a Colonials squad who is full of youth. Xavier will need their senior guard Lionel Chalmers to take over the game like he did against the Hawks in order for them to be successful. The Musketeers don’t need to shoot a stunning 70 percent as they did in the quarterfinals. GW will need good guard play out of junior T.J. Thompson in order to keep up with Xavier’s scoring.

(W3) Richmond v. (W1) Dayton
Once again, the Flyers will need to be an opponent a third time this season, in order to advance to the Atlantic-10 finals. The key for Dayton is to get it inside more often. Both Keith Waleskowski and Sean Finn makeup the best frontcourt in this league, and keep in mind Waleskowski is a first-team All A-10 selection. The Spiders don’t have too much inside that matches with Dayton’s big men, but that’s ok. Richmond is content to live and die behind the arc. Against Temple in the quarterfinals, they lived with it and will need to do so in order to beat Dayton on their home-court.