ESPN.com’s Dana O’Neil has written a summer A-10 notebook, and it’s good reading for those of us (ahem) eager to get our fill of where La Salle, Temple and Saint Joe’s stand in the league. After the jump, we offer our thoughts.

O’Neil thinks La Salle (with five returning starters, plus incoming freshman Aaric Murray) has a chance to be among the league’s elite — a popular summertime sentiment, it seems. But the Explorers have had just two winning seasons since entering the A-10 in 1995-96, and they still lack a solid shooter.

Temple, which loses Dionte Christmas, still has a solid core coming back, but O’Neil sees the North Broad Street boys hovering somewhere around the middle of the A-10 pack. Christmas’ having been a 20-point scorer for the past three seasons undoubtedly is a big reason why.

Saint Joe’s? The Hawks, plain and simple, are going to be looking for scoring after having relied so heavily on Ahmad Nivins, who is taking his act to a pro league in Spain. O’Neil picks Saint Joe’s to finish 12th in the 14-team league. Yikes.

With the A-10’s marquee talents from recent years — Nivins, Christmas, Derrick Brown, Jimmy Baron — having graduated, Dayton’s Chris Wright and La Salle’s Rodney Green now have the opportunity to fill the void. And while Xavier has stood atop the standings for some time, the Muskies lost a lot (including head coach Sean Miller, who bolted for Arizona) but will still likely battle Dayton as the A-10’s best team.

Two other teams to watch will be Duquesne, which, despite losing Aaron Jackson, could really be the league’s most dangerous team; and Richmond, which gets big man Dan Geriot (a Springfield, Delaware County, alum) back from an ACL injury.

OK. Is it still August? Shoot. Really?

Link: Dana O’Neil is thinking A-10 in August [ESPN.com]