The man - or in this case, the woman - in charge of the Atlantic 10 has changed this season, not much else has.
Xavier is still the class of the conference, while teams like Temple, Saint Joseph's, Dayton, Charlotte and Massachusetts are talented enough to potentially make a run and reach the NCAA Tournament.
But new A-10 Commissioner Bernadette McGlade, who spent the last 11 years in the Atlantic Coast Conference, is likely to see a virtual repeat from last season in the A-10, where the Musketeers steamroll the conference and a few other teams sneak into the NCAAs.
With the season barely underway, now is a good time to dissect all the teams in the A-10 - or the Atlantic 14 as I like to call it - and see how they rank in my opinion.
1. Xavier Musketeers
Lose three stars to graduation, add a few new ones; coach Sean Miller has a nice thing going on in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Losing studs Drew Lavender, Stanley Burrell and Josh Duncan will be felt, but Miller has returning starters Derrick Brown and C.J. Anderson, as well as veterans Jason Love and B.J. Raymond. He's got a talented sophomore (Dante Jackson), a solid transfer (Jamel McLean) and a host of highly-touted freshman.
This team will be just fine, but may be hard-pressed to repeat last season's Elite 8 appearance.
2. Temple Owls
After failing to reach the NCAA Tournament for seven-straight seasons, Temple returned last year.
Expect them to be back again this season.
The Owls return four starters, including two of the better players in the A-10 - Dionte Christmas (the best) and Lavoy Allen. Christmas is the leading returning scorer in the conference (19.7 last year) and Allen is underrated and has improved his game already this season.
The team is experienced, talented, well-coached and ready to step up and become even better this year.
3. Dayton Flyers
Dayton narrowly takes the third spot in my preseason rankings-expectations. Its best player is gone (Brian Roberts), but three of their four leading scorers are back and a healthy Chris Wright is nothing other teams in the conference want to contend with.
The Flyers are constantly getting better and return three starters, their three leading rebounders, the reigning A-10 Sixth Man of the Year (Charles Little) and a scary Wright down-low.
4. Saint Joseph's Hawks
This is a team that could have been ranked higher than Dayton. And with such a great coach, Phil Martelli, I'll probably regret putting them here.
Although they lose two very good players (Pat Calthes and Rob Ferguson) from last season, they still have Ahmad Nivins (A-10 First Team Preseason Selection) and starting guards from last year Tasheed Carr and Darrin Govens.
Martelli always has a talented team that plays the game hard and fundamentally well, so this team will be dangerous.
5. Massachusetts Minutemen
This will be one of the most interesting teams to watch in the conference: new coach, new offense, question marks inside, injury problems, young talent, etc.
Anything could happen with this team and I wouldn't be all that surprised. But if they want to be dangerous, the Minutemen need Tony Gaffney to continue to play this well, Chris Lowe to stop struggling, Anthony Gurley to meet expectations and one of the new kids to grow up fast.
6. Charlotte 49ers
They return four starters from last year's team that beat UMass in the A-10 Tournament and reached the NIT. I'm not completely sold on this team, but I could definitely see them finish ahead of UMass.
Lamont Mack is a good shooter, but losing leading scorer Leemire Goldwire and its lack of a strong presence in the paint worries me.
7. Saint Louis Billikens
The Billikens only return four players overall and two starters (Kevin Lisch and Tommie Liddell), but those were their two best players. They play tough defense and coach Rick Majerus is still a good coach.
8. Rhode Island Rams
The Rams could be better than I rank them. Three starters return, including elite shooter Jimmy Baron and solid rebounder and defensive presence Kahiem Seawright. But there's really not much else there.
9. Richmond Spiders
This was going to be an up-and-coming team in the conference. But with junior big-man Dan Geriot lost for the season with a knee injury, Richmond is left with virtually nothing inside.
But this team has some talent (Kevin Anderson and David Gonzalvez) and will scrap and play hard to make things unpleasant for other teams.
10. George Washington Colonials
Led by senior forward Rob Diggs, GW returns four of their five top scorers from last year. Talented point guard Maureece Rice is gone, and that's a great thing for team chemistry because he was a major distraction and headache during his career.
11. La Salle Explorers
The good news is they return four starters and six of their seven leading scorers from 2007-08. The bad news is their leading scorer - and most prolific 3-point shooter in A-10 history - Darnell Harris is gone. But the team has Rodney Green and Jerrell Williams as a good inside-outside combination.
12-14. Duquesne, Fordham and St. Bonaventure
That is in no particular order. I don't know how these three teams will finish, other than it being last, second-to-last and third-to-last in the conference.
Eli Rosenswaike is a Collegian columnist. He can be reached at erosensw@dailycollegian.com.
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