Although the conference got rocked with cancellations in the past couple of weeks, all of the teams of Atlantic 10 Basketball have completed their games before December 30th, the official start of league play. And overall, there was plenty of success, as well as some setbacks as well.
Only two teams (Duquesne and George Washington) ended the non-conference under .500 overall, while everyone took at least two losses. Only one team (more on them later) got to 10 wins and there’s a huge logjam of teams between 3-5 losses as well.
So which of them should be viewed as true contenders to win the A-10 Basketball title? Here’s an updated power ranking of all the teams before they face off against one another.
14. George Washington Colonials (4-8)
The Colonials had a brutal stretch of eight losses in nine games at one point, including at home to Massachusetts-Lowell and Boston University. They did get a couple of wins to end the non-conference against Coppin State and Radford, led by leading scorers, James Bishop (15.8 ppg) and Joseph Bamisile (13.1 ppg and 6.4 rpg).
With Arizona transfer Ira Lee out for the season, the lack of frontcourt depth has been apparent for George Washington. Ricky Lindo is the only impact forward (9.5 ppg and 8.2 rpg) on the roster and when the guards aren’t shooting well, they’ll struggle to win games.
13. La Salle Explorers (5-5)
The Explorers’ depth has been their calling card this season, with 10 players averaging between 5.3-12.8 ppg. Louisville transfer Josh Nickelberry leads the team, while Jhamir Brickus is at 10.0 ppg and 2.7 apg. The problem is that depth has taken a hit as of late, with guard Sherif Kenney electing to transfer out.
The former A-10 Sixth Man of the Year was averaging 8.4 ppg and 2.0 apg while shooting 33% from three-point range. This is a team that can’t afford to lose any kind of production and will need Brickus and Nickelberry to combine for at least 25 ppg in league play to stand a chance.