Atlantic 10 Basketball: Breaking down each program’s 2018 recruiting class

Who are the freshman entering Atlantic 10 Basketball this season, and what kind of roles will they play for their respective teams?

There was an abundance of freshman talent in last year’s A10. Jacob Gilyard and Grant Golden emerged as two of Richmond’s best players. Taylor Funk of St. Joe’s and Carl Pierre of UMass established themselves as two of the deadliest shooters in the conference. Davidson’s Kellan Grady turned enough heads to be talked about as a potential lottery pick in next year’s draft. Eric Williams (Duquesne), Hasahn French (Saint Louis), and Jalen Crutcher (Dayton) are just a few more examples of players that played pivotal roles for their teams.

With so many talented seniors from last season lost to graduation (and some to the NBA), there will be plenty of room for freshmen to again have a serious impact. This article takes an in-depth look at each team’s incoming freshman and what they’ll bring to the table. Some of them will be long-term projects, and some will be expected to play major roles from the opening tip. Most importantly, some may be currently under-appreciated and could surprisingly end up on the conference’s All-Rookie team come March. Let’s discuss who falls into which category.

To avoid any confusion with preseason conference rankings, the teams in this article are presented in alphabetical order. To see preseason rankings, check out this article by BustingBrackets’ own Tristan Freeman. All player-rankings used are taken from 247Sports (unless otherwise noted).