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

#6. George Mason (6-4)

Mason got off to an atrocious start to the year, dropping games to the likes of BC and Buffalo, but in a season in which every A10 team has had some regrettable performances, I’ll take the teams that look like they’ve found some sense of consistency. The Patriots have won four in a row including a couple of solid W’s over Hofstra and Toledo.

As expected, Josh Oduro has been the team MVP, but there is solid A10 talent up and down this squad and Ronald Polite has filled the void at Point Guard respectably. Potential statement games coming up against Tulane and Old Dominion coming up.

#5. Richmond (4-5)

The Spiders have been the definition of “up and down” so far this season, but that’s to be expected in the first year post-Gilyard, Golden and Cayo. It’s also worth noting that outside of the atrocious loss to William & Mary, the worst team they’ve lost to is Toledo (104 on KenPom), and they’ve collected solid wins over Drake (91) and Temple (112) as well.

I trust them to keep getting better and more consistent as guys like Jason Nelson and Neal Quinn get more reps in Chris Mooney’s system. Tyler Burton has lived up to his potential Player of the Year hype by putting up 18.3 points and 8.2 boards per game.