Saint Joe's and Stanford among surprises in start of ACC and Atlantic 10 play

Believe it or not, we are already a quarter of the way through conference play in all of the leagues with a standard New Year's start. #FridA10 starts the night of this article's release. Big Monday starts the week after Martin Luther King Day. Both the the A-10 and ACC are getting ready for their primetime standalone tv spots.

At this point in January, we are starting to see the separation of tiers of teams within their conferences, but a handful continue to confound. So, this week's Three will be the introduction to the Good, the Bad? and the Ugly, as we start to find everyone's place.

Atlantic Ten

The Good, The Bad? and The Ugly

-The Good - Dayton without their centers: After starting A-10 play with a pair of poor performances that still turned into wins, Dayton has hit their stride, thanks most notably to Jaiun Simon's terrific play amidst the continued absences of Amael L'Etang and Malcolm Thomas. In the signature defensive performance of his career, Simon, along some nifty trapping, held George Washington's Rafael Castro to just 8 points last week, despite Castro averaging 22.3 ppg across the rest of the Revolutionaries' conference contests.

The Flyers have gotten significant contributions from a host of role players throughout their 4-0 start, a necessary help with their star guards, Javon Bennett (30.2% fg) and De'Shayne Montgomery (14.3% 3pt), both in severe shooting slumps. Jordan Derkack had his best shooting game against GW and was a menace on the press that night. Jacob Conner recorded his first career triple nickel (7 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists) in the victory over Duquesne, and his quick tip offensive rebound that got Montgomery a wide open three to end the first half may have been the key play of the game. Even Damon Friery has shown promise in limited minutes. But the key to success has been the Dayton pressure defense that forced 22 George Washington turnovers and held Duquesne's Tarence Guinyard to 9 points. And every remaining healthy player has been a contributor to that effort.

-The Bad? - St. Joe's: The Hawks are on a surprising three game winning streak, and are playing their best basketball of the season in the absence of former leading scorer Deuce Jones (dismissed from team in December). The star of this run has been the unsung senior point guard Derek Simpson, who put up back-to-back double doubles (23 points, 11 assists vs Duquesne/ 19 points, 13 rebounds vs Richmond), before having a 7 assist triple nickel in the win over St. Bonaventure. The team's new leading scorer, Jaiden Glover-Toscano remains inconsistent, but has broken the 20 point mark in 3 of 5 A-10 games so far.

Meanwhile, freshman guard Austin Williford is now playing the best he has all season, and the once putrid St. Joe's defense is the now basically average (7th) in the A-10 since the calendar has turned to 2026. It's the Ewing Theory at its finest, the absence of the undersized Jones has predictably helped the defense, but we couldn't have foreseen the massive improvements from Glover-Toscano, Simpson and Williford in the larger roles created by his exit. And just like that, the Hawks may now find them themselves in the middle of the pack in the A-10.

-The Ugly - Home teams: With home teams at 12-21 so far, road teams have a higher winning percentage in the A-10 then any other conferences. Every team that has 1 win so far has gotten it on the road (Duquesne, Loyola Chicago, Rhode Island, La Salle and Fordham). Richmond is 2-0 on the road and 1-2 at the Robins Center. The away team has won every game that Davidson (3-0 away, 0-2 home) has played.

There's really no explanation to this phenomenon, considering that A-10 teams played well at home in non-conference, with Saint Louis, George Mason and St. Bonaventure going undefeated on their own courts (the Bonnies are 0-2 at the Reilly Center in A-10 play). If this abnormality is going to continue, we will probably get a sign this weekend, with Dayton, Saint Louis and VCU (Monday) all heavy favorites in their arenas, although Fordham and La Salle will likely be underdogs in their own haunts.

Game Of The Week: St. Joe's 67, Richmond 66

Every game in the Hawks winning streak has been entertaining, but this perfectly positioned (right before the NFL playoff games) Sunday matinee victory really took some extra grit. The Hawks took an 18 point lead right after halftime, then scored 2 points over the next 9:08. Richmond eventually got the deficit down to 1 on multiple occasions, but could simply never push through to take the lead themselves. A pair of final minute Mike Walz threes kept the Spiders hanging around, but he passed up a potential game winner for a possible game winning assist when Mikkel Tyne just couldn't find any magic.

Statline Of The Week: Dejour Reaves (Fordham): 31 points (9-17 fg), 4 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 steals in 81-77 win over Saint Bonaventure

Weekend Game To Watch: Richmond at Saint Louis, Saturday at 4:00 on CBSSN

The top of the conference Billikens will almost certainly be ranked in the AP top 25 next week if they can stomp the Spiders. It is a fascinating matchup for Saint Louis' pass happy offense, which has only faced a single opponent who forces teams into more isolations than Richmond, their only conquerer this season, Stanford. But the real fun will come on the perimeter of Richmond's offense, with snipers AJ Lopez and Will Johnston going up against the Billikens' top 10 three point defense.

Sickos Game To Watch: Dayton at La Salle, Wednesday at 6:30 on ESPN+

The Flyers have struggled mightily at the former Tom Gola Arena (now Glaser Arena), and are currently mired in a 2-5 stretch when facing the Explorers on the road. Dayton will be a hefty favorite, but that didn't matter as a ranked team in 2016 or a bubble team in 2022. An earlier start and the guarantee that Dayton fans will be mad about the home broadcast add to the aesthetics of a game where Dayton's injured frontline may not be able to prevent La Salle from rebounding that jawn.

The 3 Bid League podcast was off this week, and will return early next week.

ACC

The Good, The Bad? and The Ugly

-The Good - Virginia: Ever since the triple overtime loss at Virginia Tech, the Cavaliers have been absolutely dominant in blowout wins over NC State, Cal and Stanford and pulled out an impressive top 25 road victory against Louisville. And Virginia is winning in different ways, with different leading men. The road win versus NC State came on the back of a 20 point halftime lead (which matched Sam Lewis' point total at that time). They absolutely pummeled Cal on the glass (45-26 rebounding edge) and fouled Milos Ilic out in just 13 minutes.

In the Stanford win, Virginia did what other ACC teams are finding impossible, stopping Ebuka Okorie. The Cardinal's young star shot 5-20 from field and had a season low 1 assist. Against Louisville, the Cavaliers' perimeter defense did similar damage to Ryan Conwell (5-21) as Virginia beat them at their own game (41.2% vs 26.3% from three). As others stumble, and Virginia continues to gain strength (and regain injured sniper Jacari White), the Cavaliers have clearly announced themselves as the biggest threat to unseat Duke atop the ACC.

-The Bad? - Stanford: The Cardinal really gave us a lot of reasons to believe they were a solidly below average ACC team, between the complete collapse loss to Seattle, an ever worse loss to UNLV and then only mustering 40 points versus Notre Dame. Even the ugly nature of the aforementioned Virginia loss took some shine off of a great week leading up to it. But Stanford's come from behind victory over North Carolina (see below) has shoved the Cardinal right into the thick of the NCAA Tournament bubble discussion, and enhanced what they've done in January.

That includes an upset win over Louisville and a legendary close to beat Virginia Tech on the road, a game in which Stanford was down 12 with 2:18 to go. From there on out, a 14-1 run ensued, with Ebuka Okorie scoring 11 points and assisting on the other 3, as he delivered a game winner in the closing seconds. Plus, their signature non-conference win (the wild comeback to beat Saint Louis) has become a fourth signature victory on the Stanford resume, one that will be discussed a lot over the remainder of the season.

-The Ugly - Georgia Tech: At the moment, there appears to be a clear bottom quartet in the ACC (Pitt, Georgia Tech, Florida State, Boston College), with Syracuse likely being the next team above that group. So while Georgia Tech dominated Boston College (a realistic bet to go winless at this point), the Yellow Jackets can't be happy about getting pummeled in their gym by Syracuse and Pitt in back-to-back weeks. Sure, they tend to hang tough with top competition (Georgia, Duke, Miami etc), but until Georgia Tech actually wins a few, they are an odds on favorite to miss the ACC Tournament.

There are a lot of similarities the last season's team, but everything just seems to be a bit worse. The fantastic interior defense the Yellow Jackets could always hang their hat on has slipped a bit, and the inconsistent but sometime excellent guards Lamar Washington and Kowacie Reeves just don't deliver the same noteworthy performances that Naithan George, Lance Terry and Duncan Powell used to have at their best. Georgia Tech may still shock a good team, but they just aren't the same threat as the prior year.

Game Of The Week: Stanford 95, #14 North Carolina 90

A legendary performance from Stanford freshman Ebuka Okorie led the way as Stanford charged back from a 12 point second half deficit. The turnaround in that final 15:19 (which Stanford won 44-27) was staggering on both ends. Okorie had 16 points and 3 assists over that time, and yet the star was Jeremy Dent-Smith, who has been the key to multiple comebacks this season, making 5 threes throughout the run. In the mean time, the Stanford defense took out every UNC role player, and only the star trio of Wilson, Veesaar and Trimble scored in the last 9 minutes.

Honorable mention this week to a game that was on at the same time, SMU 77, Virginia Tech 76. A terrific battle that would have won almost any other week, especially since Boopie Miller flipped the result from half court.

Statline Of The Week: Ebuka Okorie (Stanford): 36 points (12-20 fg), 9 assists in 95-90 win over #14 North Carolina

Weekend Game To Watch: #16 Virginia at SMU, Saturday at Noon on ESPN2

This is Virginia's chance to make a statement to Duke that the Blue Devils have a new challenger for the ACC crown, while the Mustangs look for a third signature win on their home floor in ACC play. Virginia doesn't have a great matchup for Boopie Miller in their starting lineup (although they will be happy to see him challenge their shot blockers), but Chance Mallory could be an absolutely pest for Miller to deal with, in what should be the best matchup within the game. Meanwhile, SMU will need to prove their mettle against an extremely physical frontcourt, after the hurting that Clemson put on them last week.

Sickos Game To Watch: #14 North Carolina at Cal, Saturday at 4:00 on ACCN

The Tar Heels have had a serious problem with slowing down star guards so far this season. Jeremy Fears (Michigan State), Boopie Miller (SMU), Juke Harris (Wake Forest) and Ebuka Okorie (Stanford) have all run wild on them this year, although Seth Trimble did a great job on Ohio State's Bruce Thornton. Cal's Dai Dai Ames is not quite at the level of those studs, but will present a real problem for UNC nonetheless. This game has a chance to raise serious alarm bells in Chapel Hill if Ames runs rampant, while Cal desperately needs a big ACC win to keep their own season from spinning out of control.

The Up The Coasts podcast returns on Saturday morning, with Rocco Miller of Bracketeer.org taking stock of how the best ACC teams stand up to the rest of the country.