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

10. Rhode Island Rams

The Rams have a promising long-term outlook with Archie Miller taking over the program, but it’s tough to see them making too much of a splash in his debut season with the way this roster is currently constructed.

Miller largely blew it up after the team finished 11th in the conference (5-12 record) in David Cox’s final year, but he did retain a couple of difference-makers – most notably Ish Leggett, a combo guard who averaged 8.3 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.6 rebounds per game; as well as Malik Martin, a wing who contributed 7.6 points and 5.4 boards per outing. Beyond those two, Rhody’s season is largely going to come down to how well the transfers play, and there are a few of them who should be considered X-factors at this point.

Brayon Freeman is not an X-factor – he’s an established quality A10 guard at this point after putting up 10.3 points and 3.7 assists last year as a rookie for GW. There are certain guys, though, like Anthony Harris, a transfer guard from UNC; and Alex Tchikou, a highly-touted big man who spent one year at Alabama, who could thrive with more opportunity than they were given at the Power 5 level. Josephat Bilau is another player worth mentioning as a big man who was promising at the JUCO level but didn’t get much run in his last stop at Wichita State.

It’s possible that one or a couple of the aforementioned “transfer-downs” breaks out in a big way and allows the team to have three or four bona fide go-to options, but the overall depth doesn’t quite seem to be there across the board. There’s also the possibility that the transfers disappoint so that the star-power at the top isn’t there either.

It seems most safe at this point to wait and see how the rotation plays out and what identity this Rhody team takes on before considering them a top-half team. That said, they should still be good enough to improve on last season’s finish and avoid the pillow fight games in Brooklyn.