The Atlantic 10 Conference won’t begin league play until the calendar flips to 2024, but the first batch of matchups are as unpredictable as any.
The matchups to tip-off conference action on January 3 include Dayton visiting Davidson, VCU hosting St. Bonaventure and George Mason taking on La Salle.
We’ll take a look at all 15 squads in this Atlantic 10 betting report, break down how they've fared so far and what to look ahead to in January from a conference-play perspective.
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Dayton Flyers
The Dayton Flyers closed last season ranked 60th in the nation, according to KenPom, but they were the top-ranked team in the Atlantic 10.
This season, Anthony Grant’s team has moved up to 35th in the country after a strong 9-2 start.
The two losses suffered by the Flyers both came away from Dayton, falling to Northwestern (which is the only team to beat Purdue) and Houston (the top-ranked KenPom team in the country).
The Flyers are receiving balanced scoring, with four players averaging in double-figures, led by DaRon Holmes II at 16.8 points per game.
The key has been filling in the hole left at point guard after Malachi Smith sustained a season-ending knee injury in the opening game. Transfer Javon Bennett is making an impact by scoring nearly eight points and dishing out 3.7 assists per contest.
Dayton hasn’t won the regular-season A-10 crown since 2020, when it posted a perfect 18-0 conference mark. The Flyers tip off league play at Davidson on January 3.
St. Bonaventure Bonnies
St. Bonaventure finished with a losing record — both overall and in the Atlantic 10 — last season, but it's the second-highest-ranked team in league so far this season (75th in KenPom).
The Bonnies had an early toe-stubbing loss to Canisius, but the other two defeats were to extremely quality opponents (Auburn and FAU). Unfortunately, St. Bonaventure hasn’t beaten great teams in its eight victories, with its best win coming against Oklahoma State in Brooklyn.
St. Bonaventure has amassed solid offensive numbers by shooting 37% from 3-point range, 56.2% on 2-pointers and 77.4% from the free-throw line. Former Cincinnati guard Mika Adams-Woods (15.2 PPG) leads the Bonnies in scoring in his first season with the program.
Last season, the Bonnies began A-10 play at 7-4 before dropping six of their final seven games and losing immediately in the conference tournament to Davidson. St. Bonaventure begins conference action with a pair of road games at VCU and Richmond before hosting Fordham and Rhode Island.
Saint Joseph's Hawks
Saint Joseph’s is another team that didn’t own a winning record last season but has made an incredible jump this year. The Hawks are 9-3 with all three defeats coming by eight points or fewer, which includes an overtime setback at Kentucky.
However, Saint Joe’s also was upset by Texas A&M-Commerce at home and lost recently at Charleston, which is ranked third in the CAA.
The two quality victories in non-conference play for the Hawks came against Big 5 rival Villanova and Princeton, one of last season's tournament Cinderella's.
Saint Joseph’s has done a good job of covering numbers by going 9-3 against the spread, which includes a 7-2 ATS mark in the favorite role.
From an A-10 standpoint, the Hawks climbed out of an early 0-4 hole last season to go 7-6 at one point before losing four straight and finishing 8-10.
The Hawks travel to Rhode Island and Saint Louis out of the gate before returning to Philadelphia for three straight home contests against Loyola Chicago, La Salle and Duquesne. Last season, Saint Joe’s lost to both La Salle and Duquesne at home, but beat Loyola Chicago three times, including in the A-10 Tournament.
VCU Rams
Last season’s A-10 regular season and conference tournament champions have stumbled to a 7-5 start so far. Ryan Odom took over as head coach for Mike Rhoades, who exited to take the Penn State job.
VCU owns one top-100 win — which came against Samford — while also losing to the likes of McNeese State and Norfolk State at home. The other early losses are to Iowa State, Boise State and Memphis, all by five points or fewer.
The defensive numbers for the Rams are promising, as they rank in the top 60 in 2-point percentage and 3-point percentage.
Odom brought Max Shulga from Utah State to help with the scoring load. Shulga leads VCU in scoring so far at 15.7 points per game, which is a career high.
Another former Utah State standout — Sean Bairstow — made his season debut with 11 points in a 24-point blowout of UMES on December 22. Bairstow will help VCU’s depth going into conference play.
The Rams get two home games (St. Bonaventure and George Washington) out of the gate in conference play before traveling to George Mason and La Salle. Last season, VCU blew an early 11-point lead in a 61-58 home loss to St. Bonaventure, which should be a motivating factor in the A-10 opener.
Duquesne Dukes
Duquesne was one of the most improved teams in the country last season, going from six wins in 2021-22 to 20 wins in 2022-23. The Dukes are off to a solid 8-3 start this season with the losses coming to Princeton, Nebraska and Santa Clara.
Duquesne will travel to UMass and Loyola Chicago for its first two Atlantic 10 games, followed by home contests against Dayton and Richmond.
The Dukes went from 1-16 in the league two seasons ago to 10 conference wins last season, although only three victories came on the road.
Dae Dae Grant is one of the leading scorers in the A-10, averaging 20 points per game, which is nearly a five-point improvement from last season.
The one area Duquesne needs to improve on when conference play starts is limiting opponents from long distance. The Dukes rank 13th among A-10 teams in defensive 3-point percentage by allowing foes to shoot nearly 36%. They've allowed their opponent to shoot 40% or better from long range in the last three games.
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Richmond Spiders
Richmond has been one of the most competitive programs in the Atlantic 10 under head coach Chris Mooney until posting a 15-18 record last season. Mooney missed the final month of the 2022-23 campaign while dealing with a heart issue, but he’s back on the sidelines this season.
The Spiders have started 7-5, which isn’t an inspired beginning to the season. Richmond has lost to solid competition so far (Colorado, Florida, Boston College, Northern Iowa, Wichita State). Besides blowing out UNLV in a neutral-site game, the other six wins aren’t over resounding opponents.
One thing Richmond does extremely well is not turn the ball over much. The Spiders rank first in the country in turnover percentage at 11.5%. Richmond has finished two of the last three seasons in the top 10 in the nation in that category.
Richmond has covered in five of its first six opportunities as a favorite this season, but the Spiders were 3-10 ATS last season against conference foes when laying points.
The opener takes place against St. Bonaventure — which Richmond lost to twice last season — followed by a trip to Loyola Chicago. The Spiders visit Duquesne and Davidson in January before hosting Dayton on January 27.
George Mason Patriots
One of the top non-conference records among A-10 teams belongs to George Mason, which has started 10-2 and hosts North Carolina A&T on Saturday, which is ranked 352nd in the country, according to KenPom.
Under new head coach Tony Skinn, the Patriots are halfway to last season’s win total of 20, although there aren’t many wins against substantial teams. GMU went into New Orleans and beat Tulane, but its eight other victories were over teams ranked 120th or lower, with another win coming against a non-D-I team.
George Mason has done two things extremely well under Skinn: shoot 3-pointers and defend 2-pointers. The Patriots are 22nd in the nation in 3-point percentage by converting 38.4% of their attempts. Meanwhile, they allow opponents to shoot 40.9% on 2-pointers, which is second in the country.
Keyshawn Hall averaged 5.9 points per game at UNLV last season, but he's exploded at GMU, scoring 16 points per game this season while hitting 35% of his 3-point attempts.
The Patriots won their final six regular season games last season to finish 11-7 in the A-10.
GMU starts conference play at La Salle.
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Massachusetts Minutemen
For the second consecutive season, Frank Martin’s UMass squad has jumped out to a good start in non-conference play. The Minutemen were 9-3 in Martin’s first season on the sidelines in Amherst and are 8-3 this season, capped off by a pair of wins in Hawaii prior to Christmas.
UMass did fatten up on subpar competition to get its confidence up, with its best win coming against West Virginia, which is by far the worst team in the Big 12. The three losses came to Harvard in overtime, Towson by 10 points and Georgia Tech by three in Hawaii.
Free-throw shooting has been an issue for UMass, as it ranks 296th in the country at nearly 67%, a few ticks down from the 71% ledger of last season.
The Minutemen rank 58th in the country in 2-point field goal percentage at 54.6%, as Josh Cohen and Matt Cross are each converting 63% of their attempts from inside 3-point range.
UMass looks to improve on its 6-12 conference mark last season, and the Minutemen will be tested out of the gate by hosting Duquesne before taking on Dayton.
If UMass can gain a split there, the schedule is favorable over the next four games, as it takes on La Salle, Rhode Island, Loyola Chicago and George Mason.
Davidson Wildcats
Davidson is one of the hotter teams in the Atlantic 10 heading into conference play. The Wildcats started 3-3, but they've won six straight games going into Saturday’s showdown with Ohio.
The most impressive victory for Davidson came against Maryland in its second game of the season in Charlotte. The Wildcats have jumped 46 spots in the KenPom rankings (153rd to 107th) since that win, but six of their victories came at home.
Davidson went through ups and downs in A-10 play last season, starting 3-7 before winning five of its final eight games.
The Wildcats start this campaign by hosting A-10 favorite Dayton before facing Rhode Island at home.
Only three Wildcats are averaging double-figures in scoring, paced by senior David Skogman, who's putting up a career-high 13 points per game.
Keep an eye on Davidson in the underdog role during conference play as the Wildcats own a 3-1 ATS mark when receiving points so far this season.
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Loyola Chicago Ramblers
Hopefully the second time around in the Atlantic 10 is better than the first for Loyola Chicago, which finished at the bottom of the conference in its inaugural season.
The Ramblers are the most recent A-10 team to be in the Final Four, albeit when they were a member of the MVC in 2018.
The Ramblers are 7-5 heading into Saturday’s final non-conference game against Central Michigan.
The Ramblers rallied past Boston College in Kansas City on Thanksgiving, but Loyola Chicago doesn’t own many other quality wins. Two of its five losses are to quality opponents, falling to FAU in the season opener and to Creighton.
The ATS numbers aren’t great for the Ramblers, who have covered the spread in three of 11 lined contests. Granted, four of those ATS losses came as a double-digit favorite, a range they won't be in when conference play begins.
The good news for Loyola Chicago is last season’s leading scorer Philip Alston is back and is averaging 15.2 points per game. Meanwhile, former Davidson guard Des Watson is putting up a career-high 11.5 points a contest.
The early schedule is not forgiving for the Ramblers, who open at Saint Louis before facing Duquesne, Richmond and Saint Joe's.
George Washington Revolutionaries
George Washington began the season ranked 217th at KenPom and moved all the way up to 161st by Christmas. However, the former Colonials and now Revolutionaries (offseason name change) bulked up their 10-2 record against a weak schedule.
Five teams that GW beat are currently ranked 280th or lower, as the best victory came against Hofstra, which is the top team in the CAA.
The Revolutionaries' two losses came away from D.C., falling to Illinois-Chicago in the Bahamas and getting blown out at South Carolina.
Chris Caputo’s team will push the pace, owning the 16th-fastest Adjusted Tempo in the nation and first in the A-10. The Revs currently have four players averaging at least 13 points per game, led by James Bishop IV at 17.2 points a contest.
Three of the first four conference games for GW are at home, including matchups with Fordham, Davidson and George Mason.
Last season, the Revolutionaries won 10 conference games, although four of those victories came in overtime.
La Salle Explorers
La Salle has started better in Fran Dunphy’s second season as head coach, going 9-3 through its first 12 games as opposed to a 6-7 beginning last season.
The Explorers have lost to a pair of ACC squads (Duke and Miami) and fell in a triple-overtime thriller to Temple in late November.
Unfortunately, five wins are against teams sitting at 300th or lower, according to KenPom. Meanwhile, their best victory is against city-rival Drexel.
Saint Louis Billikens
Saint Louis has suffered the biggest drop from the start of the season; the Billikens ranked 115th at KenPom to open the campaign, but they've fell to 200th heading into conference play.
The Billikens began the season 4-0 before losing six of their last nine games. The correlation between guard Sincere Parker’s foot injury and SLU struggling is no coincidence, as he averaged 17.3 points per game before getting hurt four games in.
Since Parker’s injury, the Billikens have lost to Vermont, Wichita State, Utah State, Southern Illinois, Drake and NC State, all teams ranked in KenPom’s top 120. However, only one of those losses came at home.
The good news for the Billikens is they're getting help from transfer center Bradley Ezewiro, who was reinstated prior to the Louisiana Tech game on December 16. Ezewiro scored 17 points in a 75-74 victory over Tech before posting an 18-point, nine-rebound effort in a 12-point defeat at NC State.
If SLU can get Parker back in time for A-10 play — or at least a few games in — the Billikens could salvage their season.
Fordham Rams
Fordham turned a lot of heads in the A-10 last season after posting a 12-6 conference mark and 25 wins overall. However, the Rams are only 5-7 out of the gate this season, which includes getting held to under 55 points in losses to St. John’s and Abilene Christian.
Fordham’s best victory came against last season’s NIT champion North Texas, as the Rams erased a 12-point deficit for a 60-59 win. Two losses do sting for the Rams, though, as they were upset by the likes of NJIT and Central Connecticut State, both as double-digit favorites.
Japhet Medor leads the Rams with 11.8 points per game. He transferred in from UTSA, where he put up 13.4 points a contest last season.
Another transfer, Joshua Rivera, scored 10 points a game for Lafayette in 2022-23 and is second on Fordham with 11.2 points per game.
Fordham doesn’t draw Dayton or VCU until the backend of A-10 play, as the Rams start with George Washington and La Salle.
Rhode Island Rams
Archie Miller’s first season at Rhode Island didn’t go as planned, as the Rams only won only nine games. They started this season at 5-2, with their best victory coming against Yale. However, URI has dropped five straight games, including losses to Brown and New Hampshire.
Free-throw shooting is a major issue for the Rams, who rank 359th in the country at below 60%. In the three-point loss to Brown, Rhode Island shot 15-of-31 from the foul line. They also missed a total of 24 free throws in two early wins over Central Connecticut and Fairfield.
The Rams are also in the midst of an 0-5 ATS run, while owning a 15-25 ATS record since Miller arrived in Kingston.
Rhode Island begins A-10 play by hosting Saint Joe’s.
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