FanHouse Ahmad Nivins

There's been no doubt about which mid major conference has been the biggest surprise to this point of the season. The Atlantic 10 has played the eighth toughest non-conference slate in the country and has a sparkling 113-65 record to show for their efforts. They've beaten teams from just about every one of the power conferences, they've won on the road and at neutral sites and reclaimed the standard that they ceded to the Missouri Valley conference in recent years.

You have to go back to 2004 to find a year when the league landed more than two teams in the big dance and, entering this season, it didn't seem like things would be all that different. Everyone knew Xavier is a consistently strong program but it was hard to find too many bullish projections about a second team that should be making March plans. What a difference two months make.

As of right now, it's almost impossible to see the league landing fewer than four teams in the tournament. Seven teams are in the top 67 of the RPI, three teams in the Top 25 and they've compiled so many quality wins that, barring a complete collapse by two of the front-runners, anything less would be criminal.

Let's break it down:

Christmas week tournaments find teams in the strangest places. Rhode Island, for example, is celebrating their first Top 25 ranking in nearly a decade far from New England. They are in Corpus Christi for the Islander Classic and will meet Georgia Southern in the finals today after routing Eastern Michigan 92-75.

The Rams shot the lights out and even shot 19-of-21 from the line, a strong performance for sometimes charity stripe-challenged URI. Four Rams scored in double figures, led by Will Daniels and Jimmy Baron's 18 apiece. Daniels carved up the Eagles inside while Baron and his four threes took care of the perimeter. Baron also added three steals, the Rams had 13 overall, and it was an easy ride to 12-1 for the Rams.

Eastern has lost four of five games and looks like they'll be a bystander in the MAC-tion. They were hitting their threes early on and looked like they'd make a game of it, but fell to 9-of-25 from the floor in the second half. Today's URI opponent, Georgia Southern, has a 9-2 record but no win better than UAB on their record. Their best shot at an upset is if Louis Graham, their leading scorer, can outplay Daniels inside but even if he does, URI is deeper and should come back from Corpus Christi as champions.

Elsewhere on the mid major hardcourts: