Busting Brackets
Fansided

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

By Stu Luddecke

Mar 12, 2022; Washington, D.C., USA; Dayton Flyers forward DaRon Holmes II (15) celebrates after scoring while being fouled against the Richmond Spiders in the first half at Capital One Arena. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 12, 2022; Washington, D.C., USA; Dayton Flyers forward DaRon Holmes II (15) celebrates after scoring while being fouled against the Richmond Spiders in the first half at Capital One Arena. Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports /
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Atlantic 10 Basketball Richmond Spiders head coach Chris Mooney Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
Atlantic 10 Basketball Richmond Spiders head coach Chris Mooney Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports /

8. Richmond Spiders

It’s tough to feel great about putting the reigning A10 champ at the 8 spot, but that’s more out of praise for the depth in the league than it is an indictment on the Spiders. With the parity that exists from about 4-8 (or even 9, as some are higher on Fordham than myself), any one of those teams could end up finishing with a double-bye in the A10 Tourney.

In any case, the logic here is that the Spiders do still have talent on their roster, but after losing about as many rotational minutes as any team in the country (outside of Bona), they’ll have much to figure out from the standpoints of their rotation and overall identity.

As far as the attributes that do make the Spiders tantalizing and give them the potential to make this 8th-place prediction embarrassing on my end; Tyler Burton is an NBA prospect and early candidate for A10 Player of the Year, and there are some genuinely exciting transfers here worth keeping an eye on. Jason Roche scored 13.2 points per game on just about 40% 3-point shooting as a Freshman for The Citadel, and Isaiah Bigelow was a solid glue guy for Wofford with 8.3 points and 5.5 rebounds per game in his last season there.

The real X-factor for the Spiders, though, and the guy who could propel them to a Top 5 finish if he plays to his ceiling, is Lafayette-transfer big man Neal Quinn. Quinn was an absolute force down low for the Leopards last season with averages of 14.7 points, 7.4 rebounds, and 4.0 assists per game. One of the questions surrounding this roster is the lack of an experienced Point Guard in lieu of Jacob Gilyard’s departure, but it could be the case that Quinn ends up playing point-forward and initiates the offense from the block. That would take a lot of responsibility off of Jason Nelson or Malcolm Dread, whichever of those young guards ends up starting at the 1.

The bottom line for the Spiders is that they might have the most variance in their possible outcomes of any team in the league because of how unfamiliar they’ll look. I’m choosing to see it before I believe it, but I certainly won’t be surprised if this is a top 4 or 5 A10 team by March.

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