With less than a month to go in the regular season, six Atlantic 10 teams are very much in contention for NCAA Tournament bids.

Both ESPN's Bracketology and CBSSports.com's Projecting the Field have picked six Atlantic 10 teams earning bids to the NCAA Tournament.

And while all are candidates for at-large bids, the automatic bid and conference title is still very much up for grabs.

Charlotte is currently in first place at 8-1, but the 49ers have one of the toughest schedules left among the teams in NCAA contention.

Following is a look at each team and their road to the finish line sorted from the easiest path to the hardest:

1. Temple(7-2) - The Owls only have two games left against the top six teams - Rhode Island on Saturday and Dayton on Feb. 24 - and both are at home.

Temple already beat Xavier and would have the tiebreaker if the teams finish with the same record. The Owls also won the first of their two games against URI.

2. Xavier (8-2) - The Musketeers also have just two games left against other contenders - Feb. 20 at Charlotte and Feb. 28 vs. Richmond. They hold the tiebreaker over Rhode Island and split games with Dayton.

3. Rhode Island (7-2) - This is a big week for the Rams with two of their remaining three games against top-six teams - Wednesday vs. Richmond and Saturday at Temple. The third game is March 3 vs. Charlotte. Rhode Island holds the tiebreaker over the Flyers.

4. Charlotte (8-1) - The 49ers are in first place, but they have four more games against teams in the league's top six. Two are on the road - Wednesday at Dayton and March 3 at Rhode Island - and two are at home against Xavier (Feb. 20) and Richmond (March 6). Charlotte already has beaten the Spiders once and Xavier once.

5. Richmond (7-2) - The Spiders and Charlotte have similar schedules with four games against the top six. Despite holding a tiebreaker over Temple thanks to Saturday's 71-54 upset win, Richmond's path is slightly tougher because three of those games are on the road - at Rhode Island (Wednesday), Xavier (Feb. 28) and Charlotte (March 6). The Spiders host Dayton on March.4.

6. Dayton (5-3) - The Flyers have an easier schedule than the 49ers or Spiders, but with more losses than the other two Dayton has a smaller margin for error. The Flyers' only win over a fellow top-six team is over Xavier for a season split. Dayton plays Wednesday vs. Charlotte at home and travels to Temple (Feb. 24) and Richmond (March 4).

GAMES OF THE WEEK: Xavier at Florida, Saturday, 6 p.m., ESPN - In addition to the games included above, this one gives the Atlantic 10 a chance to add to its list of upsets of teams from more prominent leagues.

PLAYERS OF THE WEEK - Saint Louis sophomore guard Kwamain Mitchell hit a game-winner with 1.4 seconds left in the Billikens' 67-65 win over St. Bonaventure on Wednesday and then scored the last four points in their 68-65 victory over La Salle on Saturday.

Those heroics combined with 21 points and 3.5 assists per game in the two wins gave Mitchell the Atlantic 10 co-player of the week award.

He shared the honor with Charlotte forward Shamari Spears who averaged 23 points and 9.5 rebounds in the 49ers' two wins.

Chris Gaston of Fordham continues to solidify his case for rookie of the year with his fourth rookie-of-the-week honor. He averaged 27.5 points, 10.5 rebounds and four assists in the Rams' two losses. He's the national leader among freshmen with 18.4 points and 10.6 rebounds per game.

NONPLAYER OF THE WEEK - Temple was without sophomore guard Juan Fernandez in Saturday's loss to Richmond. He was suffering lingering effects of a blow to the head he suffered against Fordham on Jan. 23. Temple doesn't play again until Saturday, at which point the 6-foot-4 Argentine could return.

"He's been playing a little bit, but he's not 100 percent, so the medical staff said it would be better if we could just rest him another week or so," Temple coach Fran Dunphy told the Philadelphia Inquirer. "We hope to have him back soon."

BOXING INSPIRATION - While Derek Kellogg had his team run up the "Rocky steps" to inspire his team before a win at Saint Joseph's, Dayton coach Brian Gregory took the pugilistic motivation to another level.

According to the Dayton Daily News, before his team defeated Xavier 90-65 on Saturday, Gregory came into the locker room dressed in a long, hooded robe, wearing boxing gloves and firing punches into the air as LL Cool J's "Mama Said Knock You Out" played over the locker room speakers.

"He really surprised me," Dayton star forward Chris Wright told the Daily News. "I mean, you usually see him in a suit buttoned head to toe. He's not missing a button. There's not a piece of lint on it.

"But he came in fired up ... and he's got a couple of moves. Well, at least with his arms. If he had to move his feet, he might be off the beat. But it sure worked - we all went crazy."

POLL POSITIONING - Temple's loss to Richmond dropped the Owls to No. 21 in both polls. Rhode Island and Charlotte are getting closer to the top 25. The 49ers are fifth among teams also receiving votes in the Associated Press poll, while URI is eighth. Charlotte didn't get a vote in the coaches poll, while the Rams are fourth.

BREAKING THE MOLD - According to the New York Times, not one of the last 12 coaches hired as interim head coaches in Division I during the season was given the job permanently.

Fordham interim head coach Jared Grasso is hoping to reverse the trend.

"I'm planning on changing that," Grasso said. "The administration has been great. We've been able to move forward with our recruiting and have been able to get three commitments and we basically finished our schedule for next year. I'm moving forward like it's going to be my job. I'm doing things full speed ahead, 100 miles per hour."

Information from personal interviews, newspaper articles and sports information releases was used in this report.

Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Follow UMass coverage on Twitter at twitter.com/GazetteUMass. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage.