College Basketball State of the Atlantic 10 Betting Report: Saint Louis Rising & St. Bonaventure Falling

College Basketball State of the Atlantic 10 Betting Report: Saint Louis Rising & St. Bonaventure Falling article feature image
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Photo by Keith Gillett/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images. Pictured: Francis Okoro (Saint Louis)

After another win on Saturday, Davidson continues to look like the class of the Atlantic 10.

A few others contenders have emerged to join the Wildcats at the top of the conference, though.

Here's a look at that, and where the league stands in Bracketology in my latest State of the Atlantic 10.


Davidson in Excellent Position

If you are into live betting, Davidson may be the team for you.

Down eight at the half, Davidson stormed back to outscore George Washington to win 78-73. The Wildcats have trailed at the half in three of their last five games, and only lost to VCU by two points during that stretch.

They are 19-3 and 9-1 in the Atlantic 10. The Wildcats are currently -200 to win the league, so you are sitting in a comfortable position if you were able to grab +550 or better.

Davidson is currently projected as a nine seed in the Big Dance, according to the bracketmatrix.com.

At this stage, it looks like Davidson is in good position to claim an at-large NCAA Tournament berth if it does not win the A-10 conference tournament.

Will Davidson be the conference's only representation in the Big Dance, though?


Surging Saint Louis

On Saturday, Saint Louis picked up a big 72-61 win over Dayton to improve to 16-6 overall and 7-2 in the conference.

The Billikens may have the best player in the A-10 in point guard Yuri Collins. The sophomore is averaging 11.6 points and leads the country with 8.5 assists per game. He's also second in the conference with 2.2 steals per game.

On top of that, he's the engine behind the highest-scoring offense in the conference (79 PPG).

Saint Louis is currently out of the projected field and is 53rd in the NCAA NET Rankings. Saint Louis has just one bad loss (UMass), but it's just 1-3 in Quad 1 games.

The best thing on its resume is the four-point loss to Auburn.

The Billikens will not have many chances to boost their resume for the remainder of the season, but they do have a rare home-and-home with St. Bonaventure coming up, along with Davidson on the 19th.

The battle with Davidson is particularly important since the Billikens are currently 1.5 games back of first place in the league.

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Dayton Making Its Move

Despite the loss to Saint Louis, Dayton has won seven of its last nine games. The Flyers are 15-8 and tied for third place in the A-10 at 7-3.

Like Saint Louis, Dayton is currently not projected to make the NCAA Tournament. However, unlike Saint Louis, the Flyers have a win over Kansas, which could be the differentiator between them, SLU and other teams on the bubble.

Dayton has a favorable schedule to end February, with games against Duquesne, George Washington, Rhode Island, Saint Joseph's, UMass and La Salle. It closes out the regular season against Richmond and Davidson.

Winning out is unlikely, but 6-2 will give the Flyers a chance heading into the conference tournament.


Can St. Bonaventure Turn it Around?

St. Bonaventure has not lived up to the hype as the league's preseason favorite. It has particularly struggled as of late, losing three out of its last four to George Mason, Davidson and Richmond.

The Bonnies are now a disappointing 12-7 overall and 4-4 in the conference.

A turnaround on the defensive end would certainly help. The Bonnies are 170th in adjusted defensive efficiency and 248th in defensive rating. It's a far cry from last season when the Bonnies were top-30 in both categories.

Coming up, the Bonnies have the aforementioned set with Saint Louis, along with Fordham, UMass and Duquesne at home. The latter are must-haves, and a split with Saint Louis would put the Bonnies at 16-8 heading down the stretch.

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