Atlantic 10 Basketball: St. Bonaventure on top in latest power rankings

WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 10: The Atlantic 10 Logo on a basketball during the game between the St. Bonaventure Bonnies and the Davidson Wildcats during the Semifinals of the Atlantic 10 Basketball Tournament at Capital One Arena on March 10, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Photo by G Fiume/Getty Images) /

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Atlantic 10 Basketball Grant Golden Richmond Spiders (Photo by G Fiume/Getty Images) /

4. Richmond Spiders

2020-21 record: 9-4 overall, 3-2 A-10
Previous ranking: 4th

We have come a long way since the days of Richmond being the mid-major Cinderella – and now, they face being on the wrong side of the bubble after a deadly loss over the weekend. Richmond is still one of the best teams in the A-10, no doubt – their resume says as much – but they have now played themselves into the position of needing to win the A-10 Tournament in order to feel confident about reaching March Madness.

The Spiders cemented themselves as one of the premier teams in the A-10 from the get-go, toppling Davidson on the road, scraping by URI at home, and handling George Mason – all the while falling at home to St. Bonaventure. The nail in Richmond’s at-large coffin, however, is their most recent showing – an awful 84-78 home loss to La Salle on Saturday.

Richmond still features one of the best starting fives in the A-10 – but the issue is that they are all they have. To put this into context: in Richmond’s last three outings, they have scored 80, 77, and 78 points. In those games, their starters have combined for 79, 69, and 76 points, respectively. The greater issue arises when one of those five is unable to produce against a solid team – and that is exactly what happened when Jacob Gilyard scored just five points in the loss to La Salle.

Additionally, teams have begun utilizing Richmond’s weakness to physical play inside. In those last three games, the Spiders are allowing teams to shoot 57.5% (URI), 52.8% (GMU), and 59.4% (LAS) on two-pointers – while shooting at least 5% worse inside themselves. The Spiders rank 12th out of 14 in the A-10 in 2P% defense at 56.8% – ahead of La Salle and Saint Louis, and the latter has not even played a conference game yet.

If there are any consolation and optimism to take out of the La Salle game, it is that the Spiders received some of the best performances this season from Grant Golden and Blake Francis – the former pouring in 22 points, while the latter tallied 21. The Spiders should be able to rebound on Tuesday at Saint Joseph’s – but Friday’s showdown with Saint Louis looms large if the Spiders hope to keep their barely-alive at-large bid hopes alive.

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