Atlantic 10 Men's Basketball Notebook

Freshman Rodney Green, who led La Salle to the Explorers' 79-63 win over the Dukes Wednesday, and UMass' Stephane Lasme are the Atlantic 10 Conference honorees in this week's A-10 Notebook.

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PLAYERS OF THE WEEK

Stephane Lasme - Massachusetts
Senior, Forward, 6-8
Libreville, Gabon/Leon MBA HS

Lasme averaged 22 points, 13 rebounds and 8.5 blocks per game while shooting 16-of-21 from the floor in a pair of A-10 victories...became just the 23rd player in NCAA history to post multiple triple-doubles in the same season as he had 23 points, 15 rebounds and a UMass record-tying 11 blocked shots in the Minutemen’s 91-84 win versus George Washington on Jan. 10...had 21 points, 11 rebounds and six blocks in Massachusetts’ 88-77 victory over Temple on Jan. 13...leads the league in rebounds (9.9 rpg.) and blocks (5.35 bpg.).

ROOKIE OF THE WEEK

Rodney Green - La Salle
Freshman, Guard, 6-5
Philadelphia, PA/Prep Charter HS

Green earns his second A-10 Rookie of the Week award after averaging 18 points and 6.5 rebounds while shooting .592 (16-of-27) from the field...had 19 points and eight rebounds on 9-of-14 shooting in La Salle’s 79-63 victory at Duquesne on Jan. 10...scored 17 points and added five boards on Jan. 13 in the Explorers’ 84-82 loss at Dayton...leads the team in scoring (13.8 ppg.) and ranks third in the Conference in field goal shooting (.551).

WEEKLY HONOR ROLL

• Charlotte senior De’Angelo Alexander averaged 26 points and five rebounds while shooting 17-of-31 from the field in a pair of contests
• Junior Brian Roberts of Dayton averaged 26.5 points in two games this week, including a career-high tying 34 points in the Flyers’ 84-82 win over La Salle on Jan. 13. UD freshman Kurt Huelsman averaged eight points and six rebounds in two contests, including his first double-digit scoring effort (10 points) at Rhode Island on Jan. 7
• Junior Kieron Achara had 15 points and nine rebounds in Duquesne’s 79-63 loss to La Salle on Jan. 10
• Fordham senior Bryant Dunston totaled 14 points, seven rebounds and three blocks in the Rams’ 71-56 loss to Xavier on Jan. 11
• Junior Maureece Rice of George Washington averaged 22 points and 5.5 boards in a pair of contests. Rice scored a career-high 30 points at Massachusetts on Jan. 10
• La Salle junior Darnell Harris averaged 17.5 points and three rebounds in two games while connecting on 7-of-14 three-point field goal attempts
• Massachusetts senior Rashaun Freeman averaged 21 points and 8.5 rebounds in a pair of A-10 victories. Freeman shot 18-for-25 in the two games
• Junior Will Daniels of Rhode Island averaged 18.3 points and seven rebounds over three games and was 20-of-25 from the foul line. Freshman teammate Keith Cothran scored a career-high 24 points at Saint Joseph’s on Jan. 13
• Richmond freshman Dan Geriot averaged 12.5 points in a pair of contests
• Freshman Jourdan Morris of St. Bonaventure averaged nine points and 4.5 rebounds while shooting 7-of-10 from the floor in two games
• Sophomore Ahmad Nivins of http://saintjosephs.scout.com/Saint Joseph’s averaged 22.3 points and 8.7 rebounds while shooting 67.7 percent (21-of-31) from the floor in three games
• Saint Louis sophomore Tommie Liddell averaged 22 points and five rebounds in a pair of wins for the Billikens
• Junior Mark Tyndale of Temple averaged 21 points, four rebounds and two assists as he made his first two starts of the season
• Drew Lavender of Xavier averaged 13.5 points and four assists in two games

START ME UP

• Massachusetts' 88-77 win versus Temple on Jan. 13 improved the Minutemen to 3-0 in A-10 play for the first time since 1997-98, when they won their first eight Conference games.
• Rhode Island earned an 86-81 road victory over Saint Joseph's on Jan. 13 to record its second 3-1 start in Conference action in as many years.
• In its 76-65 win over Xavier on Jan. 13, Saint Louis started the game on a 10-0 run and opened a 15-2 lead at the 12:17 mark of the first half.
• Dayton has started the 2005-06 campaign with an 11-0 mark at home after edging La Salle on Jan. 13, 86-82.
• La Salle's three freshman starters and two freshman reserves accounted for 47 points in their 79-63 victory over Duquesne on Jan. 10 and 50 points in the team's 84-82 loss at Dayton on Jan. 13.
• After having its 18-game winning streak in A-10 play snapped at Massachusetts (91-84) on Jan. 10, George Washington started a new victory streak in league contests after turning aside St. Bonaventure on Jan. 13, 80-63, its 22nd straight home win. That is the fifth-longest home winning streak in the nation.

EYE 75 ON THE SCOREBOARD

Dayton is 17-2 under head coach Brian Gregory when it scores at least 75 points. Both of the losses were in double overtime. The Flyers’ lone setback in Conference play this season came in a 75-74 loss at Rhode Island on Jan. 7.

TWENTY SOMETHING TOMMY

If the past four games are any indication, Saint Louis sophomore guard Tommie Liddell can be penciled in the scorebook for 20 points before the game even starts and you wouldn't be far off. Liddell scored a game-high 21 points on Jan. 13 in the Billikens' 76-65 win versus Xavier on Jan. 13, his fourth consecutive game with 20 or more points. He poured in a season-high 28 points in the team's 73-63 loss to Duquesne on Jan. 6 and added 23 points versus both St. Bonaventure (Jan. 3) and Rhode Island (Jan. 10). In his last four games, the East St. Louis, IL, native is shooting 61.1 percent (33-of-54) from the field and has connected on 16-of-27 attempts from beyond the arc. On the season, Liddell is averaging a team-high 15.8 ppg., good for tenth in the league and up from 10.3 ppg. a year ago when he earned Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year honors. He also leads the Conference in three-point percentage (.536) and is second in minutes played (35.41 mpg.).

LIVIN' IN THE 80'S

While many current student-athletes in the A-10 are too young to remember when The Cosby Show and Family Ties made Thursday nights the most popular on television, Bon Jovi and Def Leopard ruled the music airwaves and basketball shorts above the knee were the norm. However, during the week of Jan. 7-13, seven of the league's 14 teams scored 80 points or more at least once, with George Washington and Massachusetts each cranking up their offense to the tune of 80 points or more in two contests. UMass averaged 89.5 points in a pair of A-10 victories on the week, while Rhode Island, the league's highest scoring team at 76.7 ppg., scored 86 points in its five-point win at Saint Joseph's on Jan. 13.

NO BREATHER NEEDED

Aaron Jackson, the lone Duquesne player to start all 14 games this season, is averaging a league-high 36.5 mpg. The sophomore guard has played 40 or more minutes in three of the Dukes’ last five games. Jackson is shooting 53.8 percent from the field on the year and ranks fourth in the A-10 in steals (1.79 spg) and fifth in assists (3.79 apg.).

THREE MUSKETEERS

Junior Stanley Burrell, who scored 18 points in Xavier’s 71-56 win at Fordham on Jan. 11, now has 1,039 career points and joins senior teammate Justin Doellman in the XU 1,000-point club. Doellman, who also scored 20 points versus the Rams, has 1,132 points and is 30th on the Musketeers’ all-time scoring list. Senior Justin Cage is just 14 points shy of reaching the 1,000-point milestone. The last time Xavier had three 1,000-point scorers on the same team was in 1997-98 (Lenny Brown, Darnell Williams and Gary Lumpkin). For the record, Xavier won its first-ever Atlantic 10 Championship in 1998.

LEADER OF THE PACK

Senior guard De’Angelo Alexander of Charlotte has scored at least 20 points in five of his last six games, including a 25-point effort in the 49ers’ 66-51 victory at Richmond on Jan. 13. Alexander leads the A-10 in scoring, averaging 19.7 ppg. The last Charlotte player to lead a league in scoring was DeMarco Johnson, who averaged 21.2 ppg. in 1997-97 in Conference USA. Alexander is vying to become just the sixth player in program history to lead a league in scoring.

SWATING AWAY AT THE RECORD BOOKS

Massachusetts' Stephane Lasme has been rejecting shots at a frantic pace in 2006-07 and is quickly approaching the program's all-time and single-season records for blocked shots. The senior forward has rejected 91 shots this season, more than 12 teams in the A-10, and is 38 blocks shy of surpassing Marcus Camby's school record of 128, set in 1995-96. Lasme's 322 career rejections leave him 14 away from tying Camby's program record of 336. On Jan. 10, Lasme became the 23rd player in NCAA history to post multiple triple-double performances in one season as he scored 23 points, hauled in 15 rebounds and blocked 11 shots to lead UMass to a 91-84 win over George Washington. He is is the lone player in UMass history to accomplish the feat twice.

CAREER YEAR

Temple senior Dion Dacons is not just having a career year, he is having a career in a year. Dacons, a role player throughout his first three seasons, compiled just 110 points and 178 rebounds over his first three seasons for career averages of 1.4 ppg. and 2.2 rpg., respectively. Dacons is playing a prominent role in his senior season, however, and is already on the verge of surpassing those numbers. The 6-6 forward has scored 108 points, placing fourth on the team with a 7.2 average. He has also gathered in 110 rebounds to lead the team and rank ninth in the A-10 (7.3 rpg). Dacons also leads the Owls in field goal percentage (.592).

ON FIRE

Phil Martelli has been pleasantly surprised with the way Saint Joseph’s has been shooting the ball as of late, with the team hitting 52.6 percent from the field and 42.6 from three-point range in its last three games. Martelli sees the shooting percentages as a direct correlation to the Hawks taking better care of the ball, limiting themselves to 11 turnovers per game. This is a decrease from the 16.6 tpg. they were averaging before Conference play started.

STILL COMING OF AGE

Fourteen of the top 20 scoring leaders in the Atlantic 10 this season are non-seniors, including Temple sophomore Dionte Christmas, who ranks second in the Conference with a 19.3 ppg. average. In addition, 50 of the league's 70 starters (71.4 percent) are non-seniors, with Duquesne, Fordham and Saint Joseph's utilizing entire non-senior starting lineups. Below is a team-by-team breakdown of the starting lineups in the A-10 and the number of non-senior starters:

Charlotte - 2/5	Rhode Island - 4/5
Dayton - 4/5	Richmond - 4/5
Duquesne - 5/5	St. Bonaventure - 3/5
Fordham - 5/5	Saint Joseph’s - 5/5
George Washington - 2/5	Saint Louis - 4/5
La Salle - 4/5	Temple - 3/5
Massachusetts - 2/5	Xavier - 3/5

NOT IN A GIVING MOOD

Richmond has committed just 10 turnovers in each of its last two games. The Spiders, who have had 10 or fewer turnovers five times in 16 games this season, had 12 or less turnovers in eight of their contests.

SHARING THE LOAD

Rhode Island has featured at least one 20-point scorer in 11 of the Rams' first 18 games this season. Boasting a team-leading 17.7 ppg. average, junior forward Will Daniels leads the team with six 20-point outings, including a 21-point effort in Rhody's 86-81 win at Saint Joseph’s on Jan. 13. Sophomore Jimmy Baron has scored 20 or more points three times this season, while Joe Mbang and Kahiem Seawright each have recorded one 20-point outing this season.

FISH IN A BARREL

Rashaun Freeman (.649) of Massachusetts and Saint Joseph's Ahmad Nivins (.640) are ranked first and second, respectively, in the A-10 in field goal shooting. If their past two games are any indication, the league leader at the end of the season may have to shoot an amazing to 70 percent from the field. Freeman has knocked down 18-of-25 attempts from the floor in his last two games, while Nivins has nailed 16-of-22 attempts. La Salle’s Rodney Green ranks third in the Conference in field goal percentage at .551, tops among A-10 freshmen.