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