Atlantic 10 Basketball: Preseason power rankings for 2022-23 season

7. Davidson Wildcats

Putting the Wildcats even as high as 7th in their first season without Bob McKillop is a difficult thing to do, but with his son taking over and the mixture of culture and talent that we are long familiar with seemingly still in place, this team should find a way to remain relevant in the upper-middle of the pack.

New HC Matt McKillop (yes, Bob’s son) will have some nice pieces to work with in his first year at the helm. The most notable player to be aware of is Foster Loyer, a potential all-conference first-teamer at the Point – not a flashy player by any means, but he averaged right around 16, 3 & 3 in an efficient way last season.

The post for the Wildcats will have a new look without A10 Player of the Year Luka Brajkovic around, but versatile forward Sam Mennenga has shown the potential to thrive with a heavier workload. The 6’9” Junior averaged 8.4 points and 5.3 rebounds last season and is a threat from deep (46.7% from three last year, but expect that to come back to earth a little bit) as well as a rock on the defensive end.

As far as role players go, Buffalo transfer big David Skogman averaged 8.0 points and 6.3 boards in the MAC last season, and 6’5” wing Connor Kochera put up 10.9 points in his last campaign for William & Mary. Then of course there are solid rotational pieces like Grant Huffman and Des Watson to round things out. The deeper end of the bench for the Cats is sub-par compared to league average, but unless the injury bug hits this team hard they should be just fine sticking to a 7 or 8-man rotation (in typical Davidson fashion).

Overall there are definitely some lingering questions here, but the culture, identity, and play style are worth believing in for the time being.