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

15. Saint Joseph’s Hawks

The Hawks’ placement of last in these rankings has less to do with their roster (though that’s certainly a large part of it) than it does with Billy Lange being yet to prove that he can coach a successful team at the A10 level. The Hawks went 5-13 last season, and that was with real A10 difference-makers like Jordan Hall and Taylor Funk running the show. Neither of those two is still with the team, and while the Hawks do have a very strong recruiting class set to come in next season, this year it will be up to players like Erik Reynolds and Cameron Brown to lead the way.

Reynolds could be a stud in this league by the time he’s finished – he put up 12.1 points as well as a couple of assists and rebounds per game as a Freshman – but having him and Brown as the marquis guys on the roster just fails to get the juices flowing. Combine that lack of star-power with the unproven coaching and mediocre depth, and all signs are pointing towards this season being a long one on Hawk Hill.

Guys like Charles Coleman, Lynn Greer, Louis Bleechmore, and Christ Essandoko could all end up being serviceable role players, but again, it’s just not a rotation overall that strikes fear at any position outside of the Point Guard spot.

Reynolds has been speculated about as a Sophomore that could potentially go insane and end up as an all-conference player despite being hamstrung by a bad team, but the amount of work he’d have to put in to get this team out of the very bottom couple of spots is hard to fathom.