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

Tier 3: George Mason Patriots

I view Mason as a classic example of a high floor, low ceiling type of team. It’s tough to foresee them being elite, but they should also be good enough – on paper, at least – to avoid playing on Wednesday again come next year’s A10 Tourney.

The star-power at the top of the Patriots’ rotation isn’t spectacular, but it’s very solid; AJ Wilson is a player that many are expecting to blossom into a first or second-team all-A10 type of talent, and Javon Greene and Jordan Miller are serviceable as the 2nd and 3rd best players on a top-half A10 team. The problem is, after that “Big 3,” the rest of the rotation is mostly nothing to write home about. The word “mediocre” is a little bit harsh – there are some decent role players like Xavier Johnson and Jamal Hartwell – but when compared to the teams that will likely be projected to finish top 7, the Patriots just don’t look like they’ll have as much help off the bench.

It’s possible that a few players among the team’s large incoming Freshman class will be able to step up and make immediate impacts, but none of them are Tre Mitchell/Bones Hyland-level recruits that can be definitely counted on in that regard. I’m ready to be proven wrong, and if I had to pick one candidate to make me eat those words its Otis Frazier – a big lefty with the physicality to drive and draw fouls at the A10 level – but I can’t base my conference projections on that happening.

The bottom line here is that I expect the Patriots to improve on their 12th place finish from last year, and I wouldn’t be absolutely stunned if they ended up in the top 7, but I see no reason to expect that at this point. I feel pretty safe giving them a range of ~8-10 in the standings.