Atlantic 10 Conference (conference rank: 8th)
March 9-12
All games at Pittsburgh, Pa.
kPOY: TJ Cline, Richmond
Regular season champ: Dayton (preseason #37 / 2nd American, current #34)
Overachiever: George Mason (preseason #171, current #115)
Underachiever: Saint Joseph’s (preseason #99, current #173)
Here are the national leaders in assist percentage for players listed at 6-8 or taller (minimum 40% of team’s minutes):
1. Cline, Richmond 39.2 2. Gettings, Cornell 24.7 3. Taylor, Toledo 24.5 4. Davenport, North Florida 24.3 5. Happ, Wisconsin 24.0
Richmond’s TJ Cline ranks 11th overall in assist rate and at 6-9 blows away the field for assist rate honors among very tall people. Such are the possibilities playing the post in the Chris Mooney’s Princeton-ish offense. Although it’s taken time for Cline to get here. His first season in Richmond, he assisted on just 18% of his teammates buckets which rose to 28% last season.
But TJ Cline is a footnote to the 2017 A-10 season. Dayton overcame a tragic offseason to win the regular season title and VCU looks like it will join them in the NCAA tournament regardless of what happens in Pittsburgh. Rhode Island could possibly play its way in without winning the conference tournament, but the Rams have good reason to believe they can get the auto-bid, too. Richmond is the fourth team with a bye to the quarterfinals and the Spiders have an outside shot at a title, too.
Rd1 Qtrs Semis Final Champ 1 Dayton 100 100 74.1 45.2 28.8 2 VCU 100 100 76.8 54.3 28.2 4 Rhode Island 100 100 71.1 36.0 20.9 3 Richmond 100 100 65.0 25.6 8.9 9 Davidson 100 64.1 19.2 7.9 3.5 5 St. Bonaventure 100 67.4 22.6 7.8 3.3 7 George Mason 100 66.4 17.9 8.4 2.5 6 George Washington 100 67.4 27.2 8.5 2.4 8 La Salle 100 35.9 6.7 1.9 0.6 10 Fordham 100 33.6 5.4 1.7 0.3 14 Duquesne 68.0 25.2 6.7 1.3 0.2 12 Massachusetts 54.3 18.3 3.6 0.7 0.2 13 Saint Joseph's 45.7 14.3 2.7 0.5 0.1 11 Saint Louis 32.0 7.4 1.1 0.1 0.009