Atlantic 10 Basketball: Way-too-early power rankings for 2020-21 season

Tier 4: Saint Joe’s Hawks

I don’t expect the Hawks to struggle quite as much as they did in Billy Lange’s first season at the controls, but they are probably still a few years away from being a real competitor in the league. As far as the makeup of the roster set to take the floor this November, Ryan Daly is obviously a gamer (though it’s not yet known what he will do after declaring for the NBA draft); he put up one of the best statistical lines in the league with 21 points, seven rebounds and four assists per game.

Cam Brown is a possible rising star, and there are some potentially nice incoming pieces as well in Greg Foster (transfer from Gonzaga) and Dhamir Bishop (transfer from Xavier). Taylor Funk’s return should also provide a huge boost to the Hawks’ offense and size down low. He had established himself as one of the purest shooters in the conference prior to getting hurt.

Unfortunately for the Hawks, even with the good news as far as returning and incoming talent (there are a couple of three-star Freshmen as well), the team will have likely continue to have issues with depth, rebounding, and defense. They were the 315th (Kenpom) in the nation as far as defensive efficiency last season and bottom-5 in the number of turnovers they generated. Those are more culture and effort issues than they are things that a Greg Foster or Jordan Hall (one of the incoming Freshman) will be able to step up and fix immediately. In other words, I think Hawks fans will need to continue to be patient.

This is a team that hasn’t had success under the current head coach, that won’t have superior talent when compared to the rest of the league, and that is still working on establishing a culture and team identity. If Daly comes back, that would obviously raise the ceiling a couple of spots, but I don’t see a scenario where this team finishes any higher than 8th or 9th in the standings.