With the calendar turning to January, the non-conference portion of the college basketball schedule has basically come to an end. Atlantic 10 Basketball had a mildly disappointing start to the season across the board with the conference ranking as the 10th best in the sport by both NET and Kenpom.
But amidst the chaos of cancellations in the final week of non-conference play, Davidson provided the perfect closing moment. The Wildcats beat a Top 25 Alabama team in a pseudo road game (played in Birmingham) after both teams lost their originally scheduled opponent.
That victory could be the centerpiece of a potential at-large resume for Davidson, but for now, they join a cavalcade of other A-10 teams on the outside looking in. The path to an NCAA Tournament bid (at-large or automatic) now runs through the next two months, in what may be college basketball’s most wide-open conference.
There are a lot of factors and important games that will lead to a champion and no one will be able to witness all of it. To help you sort out what to focus on, I present the A-10 Viewer’s Guide.