2021 Atlantic 10 Conference Preview

The 2021-2022 college basketball season will involve a number of riveting conference races. One of them figures to emerge in the Atlantic 10, where several schools are under immense pressure to get to the NCAA Tournament. When you look deeper into these A-10 contenders, you will quickly realize why there is so much pressure surrounding these teams.

Team Likely To Surprise

The Richmond Spiders have been expected to make the NCAA Tournament in recent years, but they haven’t been able to do it. Richmond still hasn’t been back to March Madness since 2011. That is how 10 years and counting for head coach Chris Mooney, who has led the program for 17 years and is coaching for his job this season. Richmond has the talent to make the NCAAs, but the Spiders’ continuous failures have made a lot of analysts skeptical of their ability to actually deliver the goods. One thing to realize about the pandemic is that it has given an extra year of eligibility for college athletes. This extra year of eligibility might give Richmond the cohesion it needed to cross the threshold and finally put all the pieces together. Mooney will save his job and the Spiders will finally do what so many people have expected them to do the past three years.

Team Likely To Disappoint

There are many competitors in this particular category. VCU has been hit by injuries after being the one team to not play an NCAA Tournament game due to COVID-19 protocols last March in Indiana. VCU was set to face Oregon in a first-round game but had to forfeit when COVID-19 hit the team just before the game. The Ducks advanced to the second round without actually playing a game. VCU will desperately want to get back to the NCAA Tournament so that it can play a game this time and prove itself on the big stage. VCU not making the 2022 edition of March Madness would be very disappointing.

Yet, the Rams aren’t going to be the most disappointing team in the Atlantic 10 this season.

Dayton made the Elite Eight in 2014 under former coach Archie Miller. Dayton had a team in 2020 which was going to get a No. 2 seed at worst, possibly a No. 1 seed, with Obi Toppin on the roster. Dayton really cherishes college basketball excellence. Not making the NCAAs is a disaster for the Flyers. Yet, with Jalen Crutcher and Ibi Watson gone, Dayton will in fact have a very tough time making March Madness.

Dayton is a better candidate for disappointing team than VCU, but another team is first in this category.

Saint Louis has made the NCAAs only once in six seasons under coach Travis Ford. The Billikens have scuffled in the Atlantic 10 and have not been able to gain traction. People will question (rightly) whether Ford is the man for the program if the Billikens don’t make March Madness this season.

They won’t. They will be the big disappointment in the conference.

Conference Champion

The Saint Bonaventure Bonnies, under head coach Mark Schmidt, have cracked the top 25 in the preseason rankings. They did not lose many players to the transfer portal, and they – like Richmond – have a number of players returning to use their extra year of pandemic eligibility. They have the seasoned, tested roster in place to win the league and go back to the NCAA Tournament.