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

Tier 2

#10 Gibson Jimerson, St. Louis, 17.0 ppg, 42.0% 3 pt %

The undoubted most improved player in the A-10, Jimerson was benched for the closing stretch of last season and made the now rare decision to not only stick around at SLU but to come back this season as a significantly better player.  His three-point shooting basically mirrors what he did in his impressive ten-game debut in 2019 before an injury ended that year (42.9%, 5.6 attempts per game in 2019, 42.0%, 5.7 attempts this season).

Meanwhile, his work inside the arc started strong this year and continues to improve. Jimerson is shooting 48.3% on 7.2 two-pointers a game, mostly jumpers, and getting to the line four times a night, with an 88.0% hit rate. On a team filled with grit players, Jimerson can put his energy solely towards scoring and it has led to an A-10 best 20.1 ppg in January.

#9 Hyunjung Lee, Davidson – 16.0 ppg, 6.4 rpg

Lee has taken a small step back in the second half of the season (14.0 ppg, 34.0% 3 pt), mostly due to the fact that he has been forced to deal with the opponent’s best perimeter defender on a nightly basis.  That’s why Lee maintains his top 10 spot despite his shooting slump, he’s the only player in the A-10 with a gravity rating of 100 and even when he’s struggling, one shot can get him going again.

https://twitter.com/DavidsonMBB/status/1488681253821947907?s=20&t=NVx8zsmYtFpaZ9btAZnz5g

He found just a smidge of space and ended up with four made 3s in the half.

There have been a few games lately in which he still never caught fire but on those nights his mere presence helped open up space for Davidson’s other dangerous scorers.

#8 Osun Osunniyi, St. Bonaventure – 10.4 ppg, 7.7 rpg, 2.9 bpg

It’s been lost this year that Osunniyi has played a similarly excellent season to last season.  He is the key piece of the one section of St. Bonaventure’s defense that continues to be strong this season, as opponents are shooting just 48.0% from 2.  Meanwhile, Osunniyi is maximizing a limited offensive role with 56.6% shooting and has brought his rebounding back to its normal excellent levels since the start of conference play (9.3 rpg, 3rd in A-10).

#7 Jacob Gilyard, Richmond – 12.7 ppg, 6.0 apg, 3.4 spg

The NCAA’s all-time steals leader continues to do damage on the defensive end the same way he always has, with quick hands and a dash of sneakiness, and it has put him 1st nationally in steals.

But on the offensive end, Richmond’s changing strategy has forced Gilyard to adapt to a heavier scoring role and he has stepped up with 16.0 ppg in A-10 play, which is slightly below his 16.2 ppg career high on a bad 2018-19 team.

He has bailed out the Spiders with 31 points vs Fordham and a 9-9 free throw performance vs Rhode Island, all the while putting up a career-high in assists. The Spiders have been a disappointment this season but Gilyard has put them in a position to still salvage an A-10 Tournament or NIT run.

#6 DaRon Holmes II, Dayton – 12.0 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 2.6 bpg

Holmes is seemingly getting better with every passing week and put up his first two career twenty-point games in Dayton’s two biggest A-10 games so far, wins over St. Bonaventure and VCU.  Add in that Holmes is shooting 66.7% in the conference, and he is now becoming an elite low post threat.

Plus, in conference play, he’s blocking 3.0 shots a game, good for 2nd in the A-10, and has started to make a DPOY case as the anchor of the 33rd (per Kenpom) ranked defense nationally.  Holmes is quickly on the rise as he closes out his first season, and this is likely the final time he will be outside the top 5 on one of these lists.