Atlantic 10 Basketball: Top 5 rising juniors in 2018-19

1. Luwane Pipkins, UMass

UMass Minutemen point guard Luwane Pipkins may be the Atlantic 10’s best player in 2018-19 before it’s all said and done. He ranked second in the conference last season in points per game (21.2) and finished as co-Most Improved Player of the Year. He increased his points per game by 11 points while also producing 4.0 assists, 3.6 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game.

Pipkins is a player with preseason Atlantic 10 Conference Player of the Year candidate written all over him. He registered a career-high 44 points on 15-of-27 (55.6 percent) shooting from the floor and 6-of-10 (60 percent) shooting from 3-point land against the La Salle Explorers back on Jan. 10. It was one of many 40-point performances to come in Pipkins’ college career.

Next: Top 5 Rising A-10 seniors for 2018-19

Even better, Pipkins showed his ability to shoot from behind the arc all season long, going 42.6 percent (107-for-251) from 3-point range in 2017-18. Pipkins put up 30 points or more in five contests and 20 points or more in 10 contests last season. He’ll enter as the leader for UMass in 2018-19.