FanHouse John Chaney

It would figure David Thompson and George Gervin are together again.

They had an epic final-day duel for the 1977-78 NBA scoring title, won by Gervin. They were both inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1996. And now they both will be presenters at Friday's Basketball Hall of Fame induction in Springfield, Mass.

Thompson will present Michael Jordan and Gervin will be one of two presenters for David Robinson.

With the fall beginning and college basketball just around the corner, it's time to look back at what our favorite teams did during their summer vacations. Some did some good things; some had a bad time. So let's look back at who did what in our How I Spent My Summer Vacation series.

Today's look is the Atlantic 10.

The A-10 is routinely one of the better non-football conferences. They finished 7th in the conference RPI rankings last year and sent Xavier to the Elite Eight.

Still, there is a lot to be done for a league that struggles to find its niche among viewers in Big East, ACC and Big Ten markets. A lot was done this offseason.

Bernadette McGlade Becomes Commissioner

McGlade was an associate commissioner in the ACC and brings a ton of experience with her to the A-10. Her biggest task will be exposure for the conference. As I said, the A-10 is a wide-ranging conference filled with several small schools but also in some major U.S. cities. Even if you live in one of these cities, it is tough to find an Atlantic-10 game on anywhere.

Flipping through this week's Sports Illustrated, something caught my eye in the article wrapping up last weekend's NCAA Tournament action. Grant Wahl referred to Kansas head coach Bill Self as the Best Coach Never to Have Reached the Final Four. It makes a certain amount of sense. Four trips to the Elite Eight at three different schools and a .716 winning percentage over his career are laudable accomplishments. Why, then, did it seem like hyperbole in the extreme?

The first thing that came to my mind was the two first-round losses in 2005 and 2006. Kansas got bounced by Bucknell and Bradley, respectively, which is pretty shocking for a school that had last lost their first tourney game in 1978. They'd gone to six Final Fours and won a championship in the interim, which makes it all the more shocking to see such flameouts. Kansas is supposed to go deep in the tournament, that's their history, so those two losses stick out more, to me anyway, than the two Elite Eight trips.

If Kansas wins tonight, it will be Self's fifth time in the final eight, the same number as John Chaney.

If there's a downside to the return to prominence for the Atlantic 10, it's nights like Wednesday night. It's not a downside for fans of good basketball, mind you, but for coaches and fans of favored teams like Dayton and Xavier. Rather than holding serve until their showdown next week, each found themselves upset on Wednesday night while Charlotte held serve at home and found themselves at the top of the heap after beating St. Joe's 70-66.

They can thank Leemire Goldwire, who may not settle for a spot on the all-conference first team. He may have designs on player of the year and last night's 36 points will help him make his case. While Goldmire was doing the offensive lifting, his teammates took care of slowing down the league's best shooting team. The Hawks were making more than 50% of their shots in A-10 play entering the game but were held to 44% and continued to struggle from long range.

Charlotte remains a flawed team. They turn the ball over too much and shooting 43% last night actually represented a step up in the world. That's going to make it hard for them to hold onto the top spot but three straight wins are three straight wins and, as Wednesday showed, there won't be easy nights in the A-10.