Leggett had 20 points in Rhode Island’s tight loss at St. Louis PHOTO CREDIT: gorhody.com
The Atlantic 10 is still wide open as conference play is halfway complete, with teams discovering their true identities after more rivalries, upsets and big time wins. The collaboration of student-run newspapers between The Hawk, The Duquesne Duke, Loyola Phoenix, and The Good 5 Cent Cigar continued this week with an updated list of the 2022-23 A10 Men’s Basketball Power Rankings.
15th: Loyola Chicago (-)
Despite a 69-61 upset win over 7th-ranked George Mason to end the previous week, Loyola only picked up their second conference win of the season, keeping them at the bottom of the A-10 polls with a record of 2-8 midway through the season.
14th Place: Davidson (-2)
The Wildcats took a bit of a step down from last week, sinking two places in the power rankings after a two-game losing homestead to end the month of January. The team traveled to Umass where they picked up their most recent win, 93-78, and seem to only be stringing together wins on the road as of recent.
Tied for 12th Place: Rhode Island (+1) & La Salle (+2)
The season-long battle between the Rams and Explorers continues as both teams hold a 4-6 record in the conference. Dating back to Jan. 7th, the Explorers captured one of their first wins in A-10 play in overtime on their home grounds versus the Rams. Most recently however, Rhody came back with vengeance. La Salle would travel to Rhode Island just three weeks later in a back and forth brawl as the Rams came out on top by two to tie the season series 1-1.
11th Place: Umass (-4)
Ranking 7th last week, Umass is another team in the conference who is starting to plummet. The team is looking to regain confidence this week following two straight losses to George Mason and Davidson, as they’ll take on Fordham in their next matchup.
10th Place: St. Joseph’s (+1)
St. Joseph’s is looking to break a .500 record as they travel to Chicago this week for the second time this season. To start conference play this season, St Joe’s went 0-4, but it wasn’t until Loyola traveled to their home court back on January 14th that their fortunes changed. The team is 6-2 in the conference since then and coming off a two game win streak before losing to La Salle to start the week.
9th Place: Richmond (+1)
Sitting at 12-12 on the season and approaching the .500 mark in the conference at 5-6, Richmond looks to face up against George Washington this week after coming off of a 68-58 win over Fordham that snapped a four game losing streak. They dug themselves a deep hole last week because of the losing streak, but are creeping up in the middle of the conference with the 9th seed.
8th Place: George Washington (-3)
Sinking three spots from last week, George Washington was one of the top teams in the A-10 to start conference play. Being taken down by Fordham, La Salle, and Duquesne over the past couple weeks, the Colonials currently hold the largest losing streak in the conference.
7th Place: George Mason (+1)
After losing to lower seed Loyola Chicago 69-61, George Mason drops to 5-6 in conference play and have been playing inconsistently as of recently. They had one of the largest win streaks in the A-10 with five straight dating back to November, and have started the tread of winning one game, and losing the next over the past week.
Tied for 5th Place: St. Bonaventure (+4) & Duquesne (+1)
St. Bonaventure is currently a top four team in the A-10. As for Duquesne, they stand at 5-5 with the six seed, however, both teams have lost to similar opponents throughout their conference schedule. The Bonnies lead the season series 1-0 previously winning 65-56. Duqesne’s revenge tour is coming up next week as they welcome in St. Bonaventure to their home grounds in Pittsburgh.
4th Place: Fordham (-)
Fordham’s conference season didn’t get off to the start they were hoping for. They have lost to a few lower seeded teams, such as Rhode Island, Davidson, and Richmond, but have also had a few statement wins, defeating top two seeded St. Louis 75-65. Their true test is approaching next week as they face the top team in the A-10 in VCU.
3rd Place: Dayton (-)
The 7-4 Flyers are also in for a treat as they take on VCU this week to test their dominance. They lead the conference in their defensive rating, allowing the fewest points per game from their opponents over 24 appearances, and rebounds averaging 31 per game.
2nd Place: St. Louis (-1)
Despite averaging the most turnovers per game in the conference with 16.3, the Billikens rank second in field goal percentages at 40.5% and hold the second best record in the A-10 at 7-3. Before their recent two-game losing streak, St. Louis reached a season high six-game winning streak to start conference play, but have not seemed to pick up the slack since losing that momentum to VCU back on February 3rd 73-65.
1st Place: VCU (+1)
Leading the pack with a dominant 9-2 record, VCU has been cruising through their competition and winning games when it counts. They’ve come up huge in wins over top ranked opponents in St. Louis, Dayton, and St. Bonaventure. The fight for the one seed continues as they look to continue their hot streak against Dayton once more this week.