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

3. VCU Rams

The Rams are going to have a different look from last year’s squad that finished 14-4 in A10 play, but there’s a bevy of incoming talent on the roster and Mike Rhoades’ brand of basketball should continue to win a lot of games in the A10.

As far as returning pieces, Ace Baldwin is still around and he’ll be the leader of this group; he’s one of the better perimeter defenders in the conference (in line with the expectations of a VCU star) and on the other side of the ball he averaged 11.4 points and 5.5 assists per game last season. Jayden Nunn is also worth mentioning as a rising Sophomore that put up 8.6 points per game last season and should thrive given increased responsibility. Add in Jamir Watkins as another breakout candidate who had a promising Freshman season but missed all of last year due to injury, and that’s a solid top three to rely on.

Beyond those three (and a couple of others like Jalen DeLoach) it will really come down to the transfers and Freshmen on the roster to dictate this team’s overall success. Losing players like Vince Williams (who would have been a justifiable pick for A10 Player of the Year last season) and interior defender Hason Ward is never easy, but Coach Rhoades and his staff did a great job plugging in the roster gaps this offseason.

The most notable new weapons that Rhoades will have in his arsenal are the four-star Freshmen duo of Christian Fermin, a big man listed #111 in the class on 247Sports; and Alphonso “Fats” Billups (the A10 needed another Fats), a wing listed as #99. A couple of Michigan transfers, wing Zeb Jackson and big man Brandon Johns, will help bolster the team’s depth, as will shooter David Shriver, a double-digit scoring transfer from Hartford.

This team is undoubtedly going to be stout defensively – the Rams have finished, on average, 18th in the Nation in defensive efficiency (KenPom) over the past four seasons – but there might be some inconsistency as far as scoring the ball. While the offensive firepower of the next two teams puts them above the Rams in my estimation, the latter are still a team that can look like the best team in the league on any given night. That will make them terrifying as March comes around.