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

4. George Mason Patriots

The Patriots had an up-and-down season in Kim English’s first year running the show, but they are poised to really get the ball rolling here in year 2. The first elements worth noting with this team are the depth and experience of the roster. Josh Oduro, Davonte Gaines, and Devon Cooper, all tough and physical Seniors, make for one of the best-returning trios in the league, and they’ll be joined in the rotation by some electric incoming talent.

The most important new Patriot to know about is lefty scorer Victor Bailey Jr, a grad transfer from Tennessee. Bailey didn’t play much for the Vols last season behind an elite duo of Freshman guards, but when he did get some run in 2020-2021, he put up 10.9 points per game on very efficient shooting splits. After the four aforementioned guys, Freshman wing Justyn Fernandez should be a contender for A10 Rookie of the Year, and Blake Jones, Ronald Polite, and Devin Dinkins should all be plus role players to round out the rotation with.

There are definitely some questions surrounding this team, one of which is “who will be the primary ball handler in Xavier Johnson’s absence?” Perhaps the answer is Ronald Polite (he’s taken small steps thus far from 12 to 16 minutes per game in his first two seasons) or the highly-touted Freshman Devin Dinkins, or maybe Victor Bailey will be converted into a 1 after mainly playing at the 2 for Rick Barnes.

Another issue with this team, at least last season, was their ability to compete consistently for long stretches at a time. They seemed to run hot and cold but never quite found that middle ground of just playing high floor, at-least-solid basketball the majority of the time. The good thing for the Patriots is that that’s a normal problem to have in year 1 of a new regime, and this roster on paper looks more cohesive than last year’s did.

The parity of this league below the top three has been harped on thus far, but of all the teams in these past 5 or 6 slides, Mason should be viewed as the favorite to secure the last double-bye spot in Brooklyn.