Phil Martelli paid attention to all the rumors, so he heard all the possibilities. He heard Hofstra. He heard Marquette. He heard St. Louis, for crying out loud.

Martelli, the coach of defending conference champion St. Joseph's, felt the Atlantic 10 needed the perfect fit to return to 12 teams after Virginia Tech's defection two years ago to the Big East. Otherwise, why bother? All along, through all the rumors, he kept hearing about one candidate that made perfect sense. Martelli hoped it wasn't a rumor.

It wasn't. Richmond joins the Atlantic 10 this season, making a good league better.

A-10 PROJECTIONS

Here is ESPN.com's Atlantic 10 projections and previews of each team: WEST DIVISION 1. Saint Joseph's 2. Temple 3. Massachusetts 4. Fordham 5. St. Bonaventure 6. Rhode Island EAST DIVISION 1. Xavier 2. Dayton 3. Richmond 4. George Washington 5. La Salle 6. Duquesne ALL-ATLANTIC TEN TEAM G: Jameer Nelson Saint Joseph's, Soph. G: Marvin O'Connor Saint Joseph's, Senior G: Lynn Greer Temple, Senior F: David West Xavier, Junior C: Kevin Lyde Temple, Senior MOST VALUABLE PLAYER Jameer Nelson, St. Joseph's NEWCOMER OF YEAR Smush Parker, Fordham

"This is a terrific move for the Atlantic 10," Martelli says. "I can think of three reasons specifically. One, they take us further south. As a league, we're going to have more exposure to fans and to a rich high school (recruiting) area.

"Second, they have one of the best coaches in this country that nobody knows about. (Richmond coach) John Beilein's X's and O's, the way he conducts himself with dignity and class -- it can only add to the league.

"Third, they have a wonderful facility in a league that has a lot of variances. From Xavier to our gym to Rose Hill Gym at Fordham, there's some great character, but older buildings. Richmond has a wonderful facility" -- the 9,171-capacity Robins Center.

The addition of the Spiders impacts the Atlantic 10 from top to bottom. For the teams at the top, like St. Joe's, Temple and Xavier, Richmond is one more potential heavyweight to contend with. For the teams at the bottom, it's one more unsavory spot on an increasingly difficult schedule. The Spiders have won at least 22 games twice in the last four seasons, and last season they won the Colonial Athletic Association regular-season title -- though their lame-duck status with the league cost them a spot in the CAA tournament.

"One more team to worry about," Temple coach John Chaney says. "I hate it. But I love it."

Indeed, Richmond should make the Atlantic 10 even more top heavy. While no one would suggest the Atlantic 10 can match the Big East in terms of depth at the bottom of the standings -- imagine Fordham trying to compete with Pittsburgh, or George Washington taking on Seton Hall -- at the top, the Atlantic 10 may have drawn even with the Big East for northeast supremacy.

St. Joseph's won 26 games last season and returns every key regular from that team, including one of the best two or three backcourts in the country in Marvin O'Connor and Jameer Nelson. Temple came within a game of reaching the 2001 Final Four and brings back four starters, most notably high-scoring point guard Lynn Greer and robo-rebounder Kevin Lyde. Xavier has averaged almost 23 victories the last five seasons, and its three returning starters include reigning A-10 Player of the Year David West.

That's three dominant teams. The Spiders could be a fourth, and last season may have been the equal of those teams. At 21-6 after the regular season, Richmond may have been the best team left out of the NCAA tournament. The Spiders went to the National Invitation Tournament, where they trampled a .500 Big East team, West Virginia, by 23 points, before losing in the second round at future A-10 brother Dayton.

Last season, the Spiders would have given the A-10 another potential giant. This season, Richmond is a team in transition -- moving to a new conference, and having to replace four graduated seniors, including its top two scorers.

"Last year was a great year and would have been a good time to (join) the Atlantic 10," Beilein says. "The league is tough, with four or five very strong teams. But the rest of the league is in transition, also, rather than us being the only new program."

It's an excellent point. At the top, the league is stable and strong. St. Joe's, Temple and Xavier are clearly NCAA tournament material, and Dayton has a shot. Below those four, though, the Atlantic 10 is a league in flux. Of the league's other seven teams -- not counting Richmond -- six have new coaches: Duquesne (Danny Nee replaces Darelle Porter), La Salle (Billy Hahn for Speedy Morris), Massachusetts (Steve Lappas for Bruiser Flint), Rhode Island (Jim Baron for Jerry DeGregorio), St. Bonaventure (Jan van Breda Kolff for Baron) and George Washington (Karl Hobbs for Tom Penders). Xavier, too, has a new coach, though Thad Matta inherits from Wake Forest-bound Skip Prosser a healthy base led by West, Kevin Frey and Romain Sato.

So, while Richmond can't expect to push around the rest of the A-10 as it did the CAA, there clearly is room in the middle with which to work. And the Spiders have some decent material. Three starters are back, led by 6-foot-4 guard Reggie Brown, and 6-4 Virginia Tech transfer Tony Dobbins -- a former national top-100 recruit according to analyst Bob Gibbons -- becomes eligible after sitting out this season.

"They'll be a middle-tier team initially," Martelli says. "I haven't studied them yet, but I know they lost a lot from last season, and our league is top heavy at the moment. But they'll fit in that middle tier and add depth to a league that is pretty darned good."

Pretty good? Try this fact on for size, courtesy of proud A-10 commissioner Linda Bruno: The Atlantic 10 is the only conference without Division I football that has an extensive basketball contract with ESPN. The league and network announced a five-year deal in October that runs through the 2005-06 season.

	Lynn Greer led Temple to the brink of the Final Four last season.

"Our schools have a made a very big commitment to men's basketball," Bruno says. "The way we schedule non-conference games, hiring coaches who know how to coach good players, all of it. Adding Richmond, we were very excited to have that chance. They've been a very good member (in football), but now having their basketball program makes our league that much stronger."

It might not do anything for the league's misnomer of a name -- "Atlantic 12," anyone? -- but the addition of Richmond does return the league to an even number of teams, meaning a return to East and West divisions. The top two teams in each division get a first-round bye in the league tournament, a consolation of sorts for St. Joseph's and Temple, which must co-exist the East.

Adding Richmond also further solidifies what the Atlantic 10 is all about. While there are some exceptions when it comes to student population (Massachusetts and George Washington have enrollments of more than 20,000), the Atlantic 10 primarily is made up of schools that look a lot like Richmond -- small, private, and with high academic standards.

Richmond is getting plenty from this marriage, too, starting with recruiting benefits Beilein already has begun to reap. Richmond made a name for itself as an NCAA Tournament giant-killer without the benefit of being able to recruit under the banner of a league as recognized as the Atlantic 10. Now, Beilein says, "We're talking to kids we haven't been able to talk to before. They know the A-10 and are interested in being a part of that."

The RPI factor will help both sides. Having another team like Richmond in the 20-victory range will be good for the rest of the Atlantic 10's RPI. As for Richmond, last season the Spiders might win a game against a CAA foe -- say, William & Mary -- and then find its RPI number had gone down. This season, the opposite could happen.

"In this league, depending on who we're playing, we might lose a game and have our RPI go up," Beilein says.

So the Atlantic 10, one of the country's fastest-rising conferences, adds Richmond, one of the country's better mid-major schools. For years, the Atlantic 10 has crept closer and closer to the Big East in terms of stature and competitiveness. Does the addition of Richmond pull the Atlantic 10 even? Or ahead?

"To me, that's all wasted energy," Martelli says. "Where we stand with regard to the Big East has little impact on how many teams we're going to get in (the NCAA tournament) or the national rankings or really anything. We used to waste a lot of energy measuring ourself to the Big East. Look, we're the Atlantic 10, one of the five or six best conferences in America, and you know what? That's good enough."

And with Richmond, it just got a little better.

Gregg Doyel covers college basketball for The Charlotte Observer and is a regular contributor for ESPN.com. He can be reached at gdoyel@charlotteobserver.com.