Temple University Athletics
TEMPLE AND XAVIER PICKED AS DIVISION WINNERS BY ATLANTIC 10 HEAD COACHES
10.31.02 | Men's Basketball
Temple garnered 27 of the 34 first place votes cast to win the East. The Owls return two starters from last year's 19-15 squad which shared the East title with Saint Joseph's and placed third in the NIT.
Following Temple in the predicted East standings are St. Bonaventure, which advanced to the postseason for the third year in a row, Massachusetts, Saint Joseph's, Rhode Island, and Fordham. Xavier is followed in the West by Dayton,which also advanced to the postseason for the third straight year, Richmond,which advanced to the NIT quarterfinals in 2001-02, La Salle, George Washington,and Duquesne.
Xavier received 32 of the 34 first place votes cast by the panel of coaches and media to win the Atlantic 10 West division. The Musketeers return four starters from last year's 26-6 team which won the Atlantic 10 West division and Atlantic 10 Championship title and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
In that same poll, the coaches and media selected two-time Atlantic 10 Player of the Year David West of Xavier and first-team All-Conference pick Jameer Nelson of Saint Joseph's to this season's preseason first-team. They are joined by George Washington's Chris Monroe and Romain Sato of Xavier - both second-team picks a year ago - and St. Bonaventure's Marques Green, a third-team All-Conference selection in 2001-02.
The second-team consists of Temple's David Hawkins, Reggie Brown and Mike Skrocki of Richmond, Xavier's Lionel Chalmers and Brooks Hall of Dayton .
On the third-team are Alex Wesby of Temple, Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year Anthony Anderson of Massachusetts, Mike Cleaves of La Salle, Dayton's Ramod Marshall and Keith Waleskowksi.
The preseason All-Rookie team is comprised of Temple's Keith Butler,John Blackgrove of Fordham,
Mike Lasme of Massachusetts, La Salle's Jermaine Thomas,and Omar Williams of George Washington.
Green, Sato, and West were also named to the All-Defensive team, as were Tony Dobbins and Johnathan Collins of Richmond.
