Atlantic 10 Basketball: UMass, Duquesne surprises in latest power rankings

8. George Mason Patriots (4-3)

The Patriots have been one of the more confusing teams in all of Atlantic 10 Basketball, at times looking like a top-4 team and others, in the bottom 4. Recent wins over Toledo and Hofstra are highly impressive, helping offset earlier losses to Buffalo and Belmont.

Part of the inconsistency has been the lack of point guard production, as well as star forward Josh Oduro having a rough start to the season. He still leads George Mason with 12.7 ppg and 6.0 rpg but it’s a far cry from his All-Atlantic 10 production a year ago. Devon Cooper and Victor Bailey are double-digit scorers shooting 40% combined from deep and need to continue scoring in order for them to be good.

A neutral site matchup with Tulane is coming but on paper, George Mason should win its final four non-con games. They’ll need to show some consistency before folks will get back on board but the talent and overall potential are still there.

7. Fordham Rams (8-1)

Despite losing Kyle Neptune to Villanova, the new culture that was built a year ago seems to have remained, with the Rams currently with the best record in the league. While most of the victories don’t mean much, they did score 95 points in a road win at Tulane. And with the next four games against the inferior competition on paper, they could easily be 12-1 entering league play.

Darius Quisenberry is playing at an all-league level, averaging 17.7 ppg and 3.4 apg. Khalid Moore has been one of the top transfers in all of the A-10, putting up 15.3 ppg and 5.6 rpg in the frontcourt. Abdou Tsimbila is a shot-blocking presence inside, while juniors Kyle Rose and Antrell Charlton have been effective in the backcourt. We’ll have to wait and see them against legit competition before knowing how “for real” they are right now, they should be given credit for handling business.