Atlantic 10 Basketball: George Mason, Fordham rise in latest power rankings

#12. La Salle (5-5)

The Explorers have played essentially right on par with expectations, mainly taking care of business against the bad teams on the schedule and losing to the good ones. Their best win is over Penn (KenPom 148) and their worst loss is Drexel (197), which is about what one might expect from a well-coached team lacking in sure-fire A10 talent.

They take care of the ball and defend relatively well, but if they want to make it out of the play-in games in Brooklyn, they’ll have to find ways to put the ball in the hole. They are 249th in offensive efficiency on KenPom, and their 68.2 points per game are 275th in the nation. I expect them to play a lot of teams in this league tight, but right now it’s hard to see them putting too many games in the win column.

#11. Saint Bonaventure (6-4)

In the team’s first year post-Lofton, Osunniyi, Welch etc, the Bonnies have done a solid job of staying afloat while winning a surprise victory or two in the process. They were one of the tougher teams to project coming into the season, but this is ultimately right around where I envisioned them being. Inexperience plus a lack of superior star-power has been nearly canceled out by Mark Schmidt coaching and solid parity/depth.

One thing that needs to improve is the ability to put away inferior opponents. Beating Notre Dame and Middle Tennessee is good stuff… losing to Buffalo, Canisius, and South Dakota State is not. Great chance to right the ship coming up over the next five games.