Expectations broke down along two lines this season.

For those who thought the Atlantic 10 would belong to Temple in a walk, there was very little out of the ordinary. But many members of that group were also part of a larger contingent that looked for much more from the conference's second tier.

To wit, Xavier was supposed to be good, not just occasionally capable of knocking off a great team like Cincinnati, and then following it up with a loss to Duquesne. UMass, free of some talented but cumbersome personalities from the first Minuteman team in 10 years not to play in a post-season tournament, was supposed to be a lot fresher.

These things never happened. St. Bonaventure, thanks to a great start and finish, with unconvincing play in between, impressed enough to get an NCAA at-large berth.

Great news for the Bonnies, who hadn't qualified for the NCAA tournament since 1978. But they were also the third and last A-10 team to receive a bid -- and just barely at that. A No. 12 seed for a major conference team generally indicates that said team was one of the last to receive consideration.

And so the Atlantic 10, a conference that celebrated its arrival among the elite with five NCAA tournament teams two years ago, only received three -- Temple, sturdy Dayton and St. Bonaventure.

Xavier's Skip Prosser was enraged enough to refer to the result as "a disaster."

That was understandable, considering that for the second consecutive year Xavier had to settle for the NIT, where it lost in the first round. Ditto for UMass, which needed a strong showing in the conference tournament to earn its NIT bid.

Dayton and St. Bonaventure made great showings in the NCAA Tournament, despite both losing first round nailbiters -- the Flyers to Purdue and the Bonnies in double overtime to Kentucky.

That's OK. Everyone had Temple pegged as a Final Four team, right?

Wrong. Dreadfully wrong. The Owls never even got out of their East subregional in Buffalo, losing in the second round to Big East comer Seton Hall.

A disaster is right. Beyond the fact that in Xavier and Temple the A-10 had the only two teams to beat Cincinnati with Kenyon Martin on the floor, the 1999-2000 season closed out as one of the most forgettable the Atlantic 10 has recently produced.

Conference Champion

They lost twice inside the conference -- to St. Bonaventure and St. Joseph's. But there was never any question who was king. No team had more balance than Temple. None played better defense. None had a player who was more instrumental to making the chemistry work. That player, point guard Pepe Sanchez, combined with a rare collection of scorers, shooters and rebounders to produce a dominant conference team.

Biggest Disappointment

There was one from each division. UMass, considered by many the second best team in the East during the preseason, limped along for most of the schedule before narrowly saving coach Bruiser Flint's job with a late strong finish.

Xavier played well as long as its talented freshman center -- David West -- was on track. But West hit the wall, and so did a Musketeers team that was expected to be much better.

Biggest Surprise

Call it a surprise with an asterisk. The qualification is that St. Bonaventure coach Jim Baron had his most experienced and talented unit in eight years, with point guard Tim Winn, shooting guard David Messiah Capers and big men Caswell Cyrus and Peter VanPaassen forming a solid core.

That said, the Bonnies had never played as well as they did this season. For a while, anyway, the Bonnies were the darling of the nation thanks to their 12-2 start, which included a win at home over Temple.

Player Of The Year

Part of the debate over Pepe Sanchez' value concerns his individual physical ability -- he's relatively slow and without much lateral movement at either end of the floor.

But he's also the perfect extension of Temple coach John Chaney. In that respect, Sanchez executed every Chaney order to perfection. As a result, the Owls exploded on the offensive end like few Temple teams ever have. No player was more valuable to his team than Sanchez was for Temple this year.

Newcomer of the Year

At first it was only a name. SirValiant Brown, a kid from a family that had a thing for the Knights of the Round Table. But when George Washington coach Tom Penders gave his freshman guard complete freedom -- as in a license to hoist as many shots as Brown could -- the name led the nation in scoring for most of the season, before falling back into second at the very end.

Coach of the Year

Beyond his non-stop rants on just about every subject under the sun, John Chaney is actually easy to take for granted. His teams always defend better than anyone else, but they rarely look as good as they did offensively this season. The result was one of his best regular season units ever.

The Future

The best thing that can be said about the Atlantic 10 this season was that it was a young player's league. With that in mind, look for a shift in power next season with Temple, St. Bonaventure and Dayton losing much of what made them strong this season. Freshman Brooks Hall is a rare talent who should help Dayton dig in for some time to come, but George Washington, Fordham, Rhode Island and UMass all figure to make significant progress -- not only considering their youth, but also what have been pitched as strong recruiting classes.