Atlantic 10 Basketball: Top 30 players midway through 2021-22 season

Tier 5

#30: Primo Spears, Duquesne – 11.6 ppg, 2.8 apg

Spears is an adventure as a scorer, from his ability to blow past most defenders to his love of spinning midrange jumpers (sometimes with a leg kick), but his shot selection continues to improve, leading him to becoming Duquesne’s leading scorer in conference play as a freshman.

But his most important contribution has been putting up 3.3 apg in conference play. While it may not seem like a huge number, the Duke’s offense is an abomination when it comes to ball movement (8th worst in the nation in % of made fg assisted on) and basically survives off of having five decent isolation players. Spears is not only the best of those iso players but he has kept Duquesne from being an all-time bad passing team.

#29 Taylor Funk, St. Joe’s – 14.5 ppg, 6.9 rpg, 41.7% 3 pt %

#28 Joe Bamisile, GW – 14.9 ppg, 5.5 rpg

Funk and Bamisile play similar roles for their team, providing necessary volume scoring on decent efficiency numbers without a significant impact on other facets of the game.

Funk leads St. Joe’s in scoring in A-10 play despite a dip in shot attempts from last year but has seen his shooting percentages dip in the conference season (40.8% fg, 37.5% 3 pt).  However, his 2.7 three-point makes per game over that time is crucial for a Hawks team that lives and dies from beyond the arc (43.8% of fg attempts come from three).  Add in a career-best rebounding season and improved defense year (now that Ejike Obinna keeps him from having to play the 5) for what has been Funk’s best full season.

After looking like a moderate role player early in the season, Bamisile has been an excellent scorer in conference play (17.5 ppg, 47.4% fg, 41.2% 3 pt).  He’s still plagued by a lot of inconsistency (11 pts or less in three of eight A-10 games) but played his best in the upset win over George Mason (26 pts) and the shootout victory over La Salle (24 pts, 8-14 fg).  It may look ugly at times but Bamisile’s pure scoring ability has already pulled out a few wins for GW.

#27 Clifton Moore, La Salle – 12.5 ppg, 6.7 rpg

Moore has been the ultimate good stats, bad team guy over a 1-8 start to A-10 play for La Salle, where he has had 16.7 ppg, 8.2 rpg, and 2.2 bpg. This career-best month has finally shown us how Moore ended up at Indiana to start his career.  He’s the first reliable scorer that the Explorers have had since Pookie Powell and while it’s an interesting hypothetical how he would be performing on a better team, we know that he can at least give Ashley Howard a big man who can hold his own against the best.

#26 Davonte Gaines, George Mason – 11.2 ppg, 8.6 rpg

It’s a testament to the depth of stars in the A-10 this season that Gaines, the conference’s 2nd best glue guy, doesn’t even crack the top 25. He’s 2nd in the A-10 in rebounding since conference play began (9.8 rpg) and has been the perfect fourth option offensively all year (54.5% fg, 46.7% 3 pt).  Gaines will likely take on a larger offensive role next season for the Patriots but for now, he will have to continue to make big plays defensively and on the glass.

#25 James Bishop, GW – 17.3 ppg

Bishop basically makes all of his impact as a scorer but it’s his scoring (along with Bamisile’s) that has led a poor GW roster to a 4-4 start in A-10 play.  Bishop has averaged 22.5 ppg across those four wins (highlighted by a 23 point 2nd half vs La Salle) and shot 49.1% from the field.  So why isn’t he higher?

As great as Bishop has been in the wins, he often struggles in the losses as seen in his season-long shooting (40.8% fg, 33.3% 3 pt) and huge drop in assists (5.1 apg last year to 2.1 apg this year).  Bishop is the guy in a pickup game who always takes a ton of crazy shots, and when they don’t go in, you hate playing with him, but right now, he’s making them late in games and keeping his squad on the court.

#24 Chuba Ohams, Fordham – 13.8 ppg, 11.4 rpg

Ohams is 5th in the nation in rebounding but that’s not all he provides for the Rams, also serving as the anchor for a strong Fordham defense (#73 in Kenpom defensive efficiency) that struggled mightily in the paint when he missed the losses to Davidson and Dayton.  He’s not a focal point of Fordham’s guard-oriented offense but he has scored double-digits in all but two games this season and even has 1.9 apg this year.