How far can Saint Joseph's go?(College Basketball)

Take a quick look at last week's Associated Press top five: Duke, Stanford, Saint Joseph's, Connecticut, Louisville. Which team jumps out at you?

You'd be pressed to find many people who thought Saint Joe's would be a top five team at the beginning of the year. But the Hawks are right up there with the big boys halfway through a potentially magical season.

Any team that still is undefeated at this point deserves a high ranking. But would the Hawks have a perfect record playing in one of the power conferences? Saint Joe's had only one or two tough nonconference games, and in last week's RPI, the Atlantic 10 was rated as the ninth best conference. So it's hard to say just how good the Hawks are because they haven't been tested much.

Of Saint Joe's remaining games, the toughest team on the schedule is Dayton, which was No. 39 in the RPI. Most of the A-10 wasn't in the top 70. In contrast, Clemson is the last-place team in the ACC but was 46th in the RPI.

Hey, I like Saint Joe's. The backcourt is terrific. Coach Phil Martelli does a great job. It won't surprise me if the Hawks make a Final Four run. But we'll have to wait until March to see just how strong this team is.

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