Atlantic 10 Basketball: Preseason power rankings for 2021-22 season

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MARCH 12: A general view of the Barclay Center prior to the start of the 2020 Atlantic 10 Men's Basketball Tournament - Second Round on March 12, 2020 in the Brooklyn Borough of New York City. Tournament games will be played without fans amid growing concerns of the spread of COVID-19 (Coronavirus). (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images) /

7 of 8

Atlantic 10 Basketball Richmond Spiders guard Jacob Gilyard Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports /

No. 4 – Dayton Flyers

Coach Anthony Grant will have his work cut out for him with one of the youngest teams in the conference and the country. The Flyers roster displays twelve freshmen and just one senior, which shows you how good their recruiting is. Dayton ranks 21st nationally in recruiting class.

It all starts with DaRon Holmes II, who comes into the program as a top 50 prospect this season. He is also the highest-ranked recruit to sign with Flyers. Holmes is a four-star player out of AZ Compass Prep. The 6-foot-10 forward averaged 15.2 points, 9.3 rebounds, and 3.0 blocks last season.

The player that will be the star for the Flyers this season has to be Mustapha Amzil. Amzil enters his official freshman season; however, he did play last year. He averaged 9.9 points, 5.6 rebounds while shooting nearly 50 percent from the field. The 6-foot-9 guard out of Finland was named to the Atlantic 10 All-Rookie team.

The ceiling is very high, and the future is exceptionally bright for the Flyers, who look to be contenders again in a competitive Atlantic 10 conference.

No. 3 – Richmond Spiders

The Richmond Spiders arguably have the most experience of any other team in the conference. The Spiders have six graduate students: Jacob Gilyard, Nathan Cayo, Nick Sherod, Sullivan Kulju, Jordan Gaitley, and Grant Golden.

The Spiders will look to the duo of Gilyard and Golden to get the job done and succeed during conference play. Gilyard added to his already loaded resume quite a bit last season. The 5-foot-9 guard was named to the Second Team All-Atlantic 10, Atlantic 10 All-Defensive Team, and became Richmond’s all-time career assists leader with 584. Golden enters his sixth season with the Spiders as he took advantage of the extra year of eligibility due to COVID-19 given by the NCAA. The big man was named to the Third Team All-Atlantic 10 and ranked in the top 20 in scoring last season.

The return of Nathan Cayo and Nick Sherod will only help the Spiders down the stretch; however, with the loss of Blake Francis, they will be looking for help elsewhere.

I believe Isaiah Wilson can be the guy to step up for the Spiders. He had an impressive freshman year and will look to break out with many leaders to learn.

Home/Atlantic 10