Atlantic 10 Basketball: In-depth look at George Mason transfer Devon Cooper
By Bryan Mauro
The Atlantic 10 has always been one of the premier mid-major conferences in the country and they have always had great teams and fantastic individual talent. The league has been a multi-bid league into the NCAA tournament for quite some time and it likely will be so again this year. Atlantic 10 basketball is always good for exciting and well-played basketball games.
The one thing about the league is that it has so many good players, that those players either transfer to another power school or leave early for the NBA. Obi Toppin who won the National Player of the year at Dayton left early to join the NBA. Bones Hyland the star from VCU decided to leave and join the NBA. Fatts Russell the star at Rhode Island and Tre Mitchell a likely future All American from UMass decided to transfer and take their talents to a bigger power school.
The league continues to reload every year because they are also a popular destination for star transfers from low major schools trying to get more exposure. The George Mason Patriots landed a huge transfer this offseason and he is going to step in right away and be expected to lead head coach Kim English’s offense.
The Patriots are desperately looking for a spark as they have not made the NCAA tournament since the Jim Larranaga days. This is a new era for Patriot basketball with a new upstart coach and a great roster returning. Graduate transfer Devon Cooper is going to be at the center of it all.