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

DAYTON, OH - FEBRUARY 28: Trey Landers #3, head coach Anthony Grant and Ryan Mikesell #33 of the Dayton Flyers celebrate winning the Atlantic 10 regular season championship following their win over the Davidson Wildcats at UD Arena on February 28, 2020 in Dayton, Ohio. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images) /

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NEW YORK, NEW YORK – MARCH 13: A detail view of the Richmond Spiders (Photo by Mike Lawrie/Getty Images) /

Tier 1: Richmond Spiders

There seems to be a curse lately on teams being picked in the preseason to win the A10, as the Spiders mostly have been so far. Projected #1 Saint Louis went on to finish 6th two years ago and heavy favorite VCU finished 9th this past season – but even still, there’s just not much to dislike about this Spiders team on paper. They’re clearly the most talented team in the league on the offensive end; the ‘Big 4’ of Grant Golden, Nick Sherod, Jacob Gilyard, and Blake Francis combined for 56.5 points per game last season and will all be returning as Seniors this November.

As far as depth, Tyler Burton, Nathan Cayo, and Andre Gustavvson are all versatile defenders who can pick up the slack on offense whenever the stars are struggling to find a rhythm. Connor Crabtree is another solid bench option as well; the Tulane transfer had a promising freshman campaign in the AAC putting up 7.1 points per game while shooting 37% from deep.

It’s tempting to point to defense and rebounding as potential weaknesses for this finesse-driven Richmond squad, but they ended up leading the league in defensive efficiency during conference play this past season (Kenpom), and were second, behind only Saint Louis, in offensive rebounds allowed.

As I mentioned above, there just aren’t many weaknesses here. The #FireMooneyMafia might disagree, but if they are still out there in force, they were awfully quiet as the Spiders went 14-4 in conference play. If these rankings had been numerically ordered instead of tiered, these guys would have the strongest case for the #1 spot.

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