Davidson rolls into the Barclays Center having won nine in a row, earning sole possession of the regular-season crown in one of the biggest surprises this season. They were picked to finish 12th in the league in the preseason. In their first year in the Atlantic 10, the Wildcats were expected to struggle, but maybe the idea needs to die that there’s some additional challenge of moving to a better conference.

Creighton successfully moved to the Big East last season and even Butler has quickly rebounded to Brad Stevens-era levels after a rough first season in the same conference. This isn’t to say that anybody should have seen Davidson coming. Even the computers had the Wildcats 11th.

Looking back on those preseason projections, both the humans and computers were convinced that VCU was the clear favorite in the league. I realize the Rams haven’t played as well since they lost Briante Weber for the season, but I wouldn’t count them out. They’re the third choice here, and given the strong preseason love, they might be a little underrated.

One other A-10 note: Last season Saint Louis was the top seed in the A-10 tourney and this season the Billikens are the last seed. That has to be a rare feat, especially in a league as big as this one.

Atlantic-10

All-kenpom.com: Tyler Kalinoski, Davidson (kPOY); Treveon Graham, VCU; Dyshawn Pierre, Dayton; Jordan Sibert, Dayton; E.C. Matthews, Rhode Island.

March 11-15 at Brooklyn.

                Rd1  Qtrs Semis Final Champ
 1 Davidson     100   100  80.5  49.3  32.0
 2 Dayton       100   100  75.8  45.5  21.6
 5 VCU          100  85.0  47.2  23.0  13.3
 3 Rhode Island 100   100  60.0  29.5  11.9
 4 Richmond     100   100  50.1  21.8  11.5
 6 Geo. Wash.   100  80.8  36.6  16.4   5.9
 7 St. Bona.    100  59.3  16.0   5.7   1.5
 9 La Salle     100  55.7  11.7   3.5   1.2
 8 UMass        100  44.3   7.8   2.0   0.6
10 St. Joseph's 100  40.7   8.2   2.3   0.4
11 Duquesne    71.2  16.1   3.2   0.6   0.09
12 Fordham     57.1   9.5   1.9   0.3   0.07
13 Geo. Mason  42.9   5.6   0.9   0.1   0.02
14 St. Louis   28.8   3.1   0.3   0.03  0.002