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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DAYTON, OHIO – FEBRUARY 22: Jalen Crutcher #10 of the Dayton Flyers (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images) /

Tier 1: Dayton Flyers

Despite the losses of Obi Toppin, Trey Landers and Ryan Mikesell, I’m confident that the Flyers can still be a double-bye contender this season. Jalen Crutcher should be on the shortlist for Conference Player of the Year barring injury, and a backcourt consisting of him, Ibi Watson, and Rodney Chatman could very well be the best one in the A10. Neither of the latter two went off last season statistically, but the team was so good that they simply didn’t need to. They knew their roles and they played them well – Watson put up 10 points per game with a 50/39/85 shooting line, and Chatman was a tenacious perimeter defender who contributed 7.5 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 3.2 assists per game on the other end.

Outside of those three, Coach Grant has some other solid pieces returning in guys like Jordy Tshimanga and Dwayne Cohill, but there’s still some work to be done as far as figuring out what the full rotation will look like. Zimi Nwokeji, a 6’7” SF and top-200 recruit coming out of high school, and Moulaye Sissoko, a 6’10” rim-protector whose offer sheet included schools like Penn State and South Carolina, will both be available after red-shirting, so they should definitely go a long way towards helping out on that front.

As far as incoming true Freshmen, it’s hard to say which of the current three commits – Lukas Frazier, R.J. Blakney, and Kobi Brea – will see the most minutes, but my intuition is that Blakney will be a name that fans across the league are familiar with before long. He’s physically mature, quick off the bounce, and can score from all three levels. Whichever of the aforementioned five players end up seeing meaningful playing time, the main takeaway here is that while the Flyers’ depth won’t be elite, it should still be solid enough to let the backcourt carry the team to success.

The bottom line – the Flyers aren’t going 18-0, but they aren’t going to suddenly fade into irrelevance either. They have the momentum and confidence of #3 team in the country, possibly the best backcourt in the league, and depth that should be good enough to space the floor. Gun to my head, they’re still a double-bye team in Brooklyn.

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