Atlantic 10 Basketball: VCU on top, Bonnies drop in latest power rankings

RICHMOND, VA - DECEMBER 07: Nah"u2019Shon Hyland #5 of the VCU Rams drives past Jaylin Hunter #12 of the Old Dominion Monarchs in the first half during a game at Stuart C. Siegel Center on December 7, 2019 in Richmond, Virginia. (Photo by Ryan M. Kelly/Getty Images) /

9 of 15

Atlantic 10 Basketball Ibi Watson Dayton Flyers (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images) /

7. Dayton Flyers

2020-21 record: 11-6 overall, 7-5 A-10
Previous ranking: 9th

In a conference full of bizarre results and cannibalistic teams, the Flyers – alongside La Salle – may be at the very top. They own horrible losses to La Salle and Fordham, as well as one to Duquesne, but they own wins over Davidson, Saint Louis, and Ole Miss – the last of which has aged spectacularly well as of late.

When the last rankings were published, Dayton was coming off a 23-point loss at VCU, having put up just 43 on the scoreboard. Days later, the Flyers knocked off Saint Louis in the Billikens’ first game back from their lengthy pause and followed that up with a double-digit win against URI.

But since then, the Flyers have dropped a game at Duquesne, got past George Mason by single-digits, and fell again to VCU – albeit, by not nearly as sizeable of a margin. Dayton’s issues in their last five games are not necessarily tied to the offensive end – they have scored over 1.00 points per possession in four of those five games, after all – but their defense has been a bit lackluster in turn. Most notably, the Flyers allowed VCU to record 1.23 PPP while going 12-23 from long-range.

At the very least, Dayton has been seeing some production – even from outside of their starting five, which, initially, the lack of bench production was a major concern at the start of the season. Against VCU, the Flyers saw Ibi Watson (20), Jordy Tshimanga (14), and Elijah Weaver (10) – all starters – reach double-digits – but RJ Blakney off the bench contributed seven points, just a week after scoring 10 at Duquesne.

Dayton’s path does not get any easier, but they are the type of team to play spoiler to those at the top of the league. They’ll get a rematch with URI on Tuesday, before taking on the consensus top three teams in the conference – Saint Louis, St. Bonaventure, and VCU – all in a row to close out the season.

Home/Atlantic 10