By Dustin Dow
The Cincinnati Enquirer

PHILADELPHIA - Thad Matta showed how much stock he puts into preseason all-conference predictions at Thursday's Atlantic 10 media day. He left David West at home.

Matta doesn't care much for media and coaches telling his players how good Xavier will be this season. So he told West he didn't have to attend Thursday's session despite West, along with Romain Sato, being named preseason first-team All-Atlantic 10.

PREDICTED ORDER OF FINISH

East West 1. Temple (27) 1 Xavier (32) 2. St. Bonaventure (3) 2. Dayton (1) 3. Massachusetts (2) 3. Richmond (1) 4. St. Joseph's (2) 4. LaSalle 5. Rhode Island 5. George Washington 6. Fordham 6. Duquesne First-place votes in parentheses.

Both players also were named to the Atlantic 10 preseason defensive team, and XU received 32 of 34 first-place votes to win the A-10 West Division.

"(West) wasn't feeling that well last night," Matta said. "So I told him that he didn't have to come."

Normally, coaches attend media day with one or two of their top returning players. In this case, West would be the top returning player in the league, having won the player of the year award the last two seasons.

"I'm feeling a little better now," West said when contacted by telephone Thursday afternoon. "I just didn't feel like traveling today."

Even without West there, Matta still got plenty of attention from Philadelphia media and national outlets, but it was hardly the swarm of reporters that would have been expected if West had made the trip.

"It wasn't too bad," said Matta, who said he sat practically by himself at last year's event because no one interviewed him. "I was able to sit here and talk and answer some questions."

Admittedly, talking about how his team will play isn't Matta's favorite thing to do.

"None of this really means anything until you start playing games," Matta said.

But plenty of other coaches had their own opinions on how West and Xavier could do this year in the league. Considering Xavier returns four starters from the team that won the regular season last year, going 14-2 in league play, and the conference tournament, the consensus was that the rest of the conference will be chasing the Musketeers.

"It's great for us to compete against (West)," Dayton coach Oliver Purnell said. "You want to compete with the tough players and the tough teams in your league."

George Washington's Chris Monroe, a preseason first-team All-Atlantic 10 selection, said Xavier is the only team that knows what to expect from its players.

"Except for Xavier, which has a great team coming back, a lot of teams are going through transition," Monroe said. "So the rest of the league is open for someone to step up and compete with (Xavier)."

Matta conceded that all of the predictions leave Xavier as a marked team for conference opponents, which Massachusetts coach Steve Lappas said was correct.

"They are an elite team," Lappas said. "And it gives all of us a crack to get a quality win."

VENUE CHANGE HOT TOPIC: The conference moved the postseason tournament to Dayton's UD Arena this season and next after at 14-year run in Philadelphia.

The move was made with potential higher attendance at Dayton in mind.

"The league tournament deserves a great atmosphere like Dayton," Purnell said. "And it's nice for us, because I don't have to jump on a plane."

The three Philadelphia schools, St.Joseph's, Temple and LaSalle, were used to driving across town for the tournament.

"We in Philadelphia dropped the ball," St.Joseph's coach Phil Martelli said. "We had a great event here, but it wasn't supported. Eventually, I would like to see us take a crack at getting (it) back here in the future."

E-mail ddow@enquirer.com