We found something that will make you laugh, something written about Atlantic 10 basketball as it entered last season with big talk and bigger expectations:

"The Atlantic 10 may have drawn even with the Big East for northeast supremacy."

It wasn't hard to find, because alas, we wrote it on Nov. 24, 2001.

Our bad.

A-10 Projections

Here are ESPN.com's Atlantic Ten projections: EAST DIVISION 1. Massachusets 2. Temple 3. Saint Joseph's 4. St. Bonaventure 5. Rhode Island 6. Fordham WEST DIVISION 1. Xavier 2. Dayton 3. Richmond 4. LaSalle 5. George Washington 6. Duquesne All-Atlantic Ten Team G: Jameer Nelson Saint Joseph's, Junior G: Romain Sato Xavier, Senior G: Marques Green St. Bonaventure, Junior F: David West Xavier, Senior F: Mike Skrocki Richmond, Junior Most Valuable Player David West, Xavier Newcomer of the Year Marcus Cox, UMass Freshman of the Year Keith Butler, Temple

After spending the past few years creeping ever closer to Big (East) Brother, the Atlantic 10 this season creeps back down the college basketball family tree. The A-10 once was thought to be approaching equal footing with the Big East, a younger sibling who is all grown up, but this season the A-10 will be more like that league's third cousin -- related, but once (again) removed from the national scene.

"A lot of teams are going through transitions," says George Washington guard Chris Monroe, a preseason all-league pick. "Other than Xavier, the rest of the league is open for someone to step up."

Or down.

The league enters 2002-03 with just one potentially dominant team, but you can look at that two ways.

First, that's no joke -- Xavier could be dominant this season. The Musketeers have everything they need, from All-America candidates David West and Romain Sato to veteran point guard Lionel Chalmers to exquisite depth and 3-point shooting, to make a bid for the Final Four. Only one team, Massachusetts in 1996, has represented the Atlantic 10 in the Final Four, so getting Xavier there would be a league coup.

Forgive Xavier coach Thad Matta for not making reservations just yet for New Orleans, site of the Final Four. "None of this really means anything until you start playing games," Matta says.

The Atlantic 10 could make it easier than usual for Xavier to get there. Not one team -- not St. Joseph's, not even Temple -- looks prepared to mount a stiff challenge to the Musketeers, who received 32 of 34 first-place preseason votes to win the A-10's West (Dayton and Richmond picked up one vote each).

Massachusetts coach Steve Lappas expects the rest of the league to target Xavier as a potential line in its NCAA Tournament resume.

"It gives all of us a crack to get a quality win," Lappas says.

But only one crack. Only Xavier figures to represent a quality win in the A-10 this season.

What happened to a league that just last season (thanks for the reminder) was anointed by some as a challenger to the Big East? This is not an overnight humbling, a payment that becomes due this season. This started last year, when two projected heavies, St. Joseph's and Temple, fizzled. The Hawks were undone by premature inoculation, given the booster shot of a preseason Top 10 ranking before they were ready and stumbling from the start, perhaps bloated with unearned overconfidence. The Owls undid themselves with a typically tough non-conference schedule, opening the 2001-02 season with a 3-8 record to dig themselves too deep a hole; not even Temple's 12-4 record in league play could get it into the NCAA Tournament, although it did reach the NIT semifinals.

If the Hawks and Owls had gone where their talent level dictated they should go, both would have joined Xavier in the NCAA Tournament, and this is a discussion we might be having next season. Alas, while the Atlantic 10 put five teams into the NIT, it received just one berth in the NCAA Tournament. Blame it on Xavier, which was going to get an at-large invitation anyway but got greedy and doomed the league to a singular NCAA representative by winning the league's tournament. It was the first time in 12 years the Atlantic 10 failed to have multiple teams get into the NCAA Tournament, a stretch in which the league averaged 3.5 NCAA teams per year -- with a high of five NCAA entries in 1997 and '98. From 1999-2001, the league advanced three teams in the NCAA Tournament each season, so getting just one last year was a precipitous drop.

It was the kind of shaky NCAA showing that put the A-10 behind mid-majors such as the Missouri Valley Conference and the Mid-American Conference and on the same NCAA Tournament level as one-and-done's like the Ivy and Patriot leagues.

This season looks to be more of the same, maybe worse, because the A-10 probably won't be as competitive, top to bottom, as it was a year ago. Barring an underdog winning the league tournament and claiming the A-10's automatic NCAA berth to go along with an at-large bid for Xavier, the best bet for a second A-10 team to make it into the NCAA Tournament is Richmond.

The Spiders won 22 games last season and return four starters, but they will have to make two major transitions. First, former UNC-Wilmington coach Jerry Wainwright replaces John Beilein, who left for West Virginia. Second, unsung team leader Scott Ungerer is gone after averaging 8.6 points and leading the Spiders in assists and rebounds. Even so, Richmond has the kind of depth and offensive balance, to go along with a fierce defensive identity forged by Beilein, to make a run at the NCAA Tournament.

Some of Ungerer's minutes will go to transfer Jamaal Scott, the Big West Freshman of the Year two years ago after averaging 15.1 points as a freshman. He joins a group of returning wings led by Reggie Brown, Mike Skrocki and Tony Dobbins, plus a healthy Eric Zwayer in the post.

After Richmond, the A-10 pickings are slim. Dayton? It lost just one regular off last season's 21-11 team and plays a great non-conference schedule that should boost its RPI rating, but the missing piece was point guard and team MVP David Morris -- and there's no clear replacement.

"I think Dayton could challenge Xavier," says George Washington coach Karl Hobbs. "They have size and experience."

Temple? The Owls again have premium talent to go with premium coach John Chaney, but (as usual) they have precious little depth and a brutal non-conference schedule -- to go with an unusually big hole at point guard.

Still, someone had to be the preseason pick to win the East Division, and that pick was Temple, which received 27 of 34 votes.

"I just think people like to put my team up there every year," Chaney says. "I think they like me."

It's a beauty contest without a favorite.