Thursday News and Notes

From a former rival- Dayton was having a solid year in the Atlantic 10 (7-2, 64th in KenPom) but that's about to come to an end. Devon Still and Jalen Robinson, the Flyers only players over 6-6, have been dismissed from the team for an incident involving trespass and theft.

The AAC is not an elite conference- This article was written before UC footballed their way over SDSU, but the point remains. The AAC is genuinely bad this year. An update after that SDSU game doesn't make for much better reading. Have no fear though, AAC fans, KenPom has you ranked just barely ahead of the MVC.

Alabama nearly knocks off Wichita St.- The Shockers had to come back at home to beat a Crimson Tide that Xavier put 97 on. I'll pass on bashing the Shockers for once and merely point out that this bodes well for the Musketeers. Rob Dauster has a better take on Wichita than the rest of the fawning media."This Shocker team is just another group trying to find a way to win a league title and play their way out of the NCAA tournament's opening weekend."

The Big East appears to be loaded- And St. John's is a large portion of why. Steve Lavin credits a lot of that to Chris Obekpa and D'Angelo Harrison. KenPom rankings make an appearance in this discussion as well, as does Obekpaa's penchant for wearing unnecessarily short shorts.

Our bracket machine was broken yesterday- But it's fixed today. Xavier currently stands as a seven seed and doesn't figure to move to much with only one game coming up before the next bracket is revealed.

Lauren Hill can't play anymore, will coach- Hill's battle with DIPG is coming to an end and she is no longer able to play. She will remain on at Mount St. Joseph's as a coach as long as she can, but she will not be returning to school for the next semester.