By Dustin Dow
The Cincinnati Enquirer

PHILADELPHIA - While No. 11 Xavier begins the final week of the regular season with today's game against Saint Joseph's and Saturday's finale against Temple at Cintas Center, the Musketeers' chief league rival will sit and watch.

That's because Dayton has no games left to play after St. Bonaventure players elected Tuesday to forfeit the remainder of their season.

The Dayton-SBU game in Olean, N.Y., Saturday will not happen, and the Flyers will be awarded a win, bringing their final A-10 record to 14-2. The Flyers' overall record remains at 21-5. Massachusetts, scheduled to play SBU today, also gets a conference win.

Xavier is in first place with a 13-1 record, 22-4 overall. The Musketeers need win only one of their two remaining games to earn the top seed in next week's A-10 Tournament, because Xavier gets the tiebreaker ahead of Dayton by virtue of two regular-season wins over UD. But if Xavier should lose both of its final games, Dayton would emerge as the regular-season champion.

"I think it's an unfortunate situation for the league," Xavier coach Thad Matta said.

St. Bonaventure decided it would forego the rest of its season after the A-10 barred SBU from the tournament for playing with an ineligible player, center Jamil Terrell.