In anticipation of my 2024-2025 A10 team preview series, please read this before indulging in the previews.
As strenuous as writing the previews for last season was, amidst some questionable takes, I enjoyed putting them together for you all. Everyone seemed to engage with them well on my Twitter page, so we’re returning them for another season of A10 basketball discourse.
A lot is happening per usual in the A10: the hiring of Josh Schertz at Saint Louis, Keith Dambrot retiring after the PERFECT ending at Duquesne, Fran Dunphy announcing his return for season three at La Salle, and Washington DC hosting the 2025 A10 tournament—the A10 has had no shortage of headlines to keep us entertained throughout the offseason.
Before indulging in the rest of the precursor, I would like to tip my cap to Keith Dambrot and DaRon Holmes.
Dambrot breaking Duquesne’s 50-year curse of not winning the conference tournament and upsetting BYU in the first round of the NCAA tournament had all the aura you could’ve asked for. Duquesne should build a statue for LeBron’s high school coach. Enjoy retirement!
Holmes deserves a shoutout for achieving a similar fate in the NCAA tournament—solidifying himself as one of the greatest players ever to enter the conference. His Consensus All-American pick only confirmed his stardom among the A10’s greatest. Unfortunately, Holmes is going to miss the entire NBA season after tearing his achilles, so we’ll be waiting about a year before Holmes suits up for the Nuggets.
Of course, no news will be as captivating as UMass’ final season in the Atlantic 10. The school announced earlier this year that it would be transitioning to the MAC to pursue its dream of building up the football program following the conclusion of the 2024-2025 academic year. George Washington and Duquesne stand alone as the only A10 teams that remain from the conference’s beginnings as the Eastern Collegiate Basketball League.
A young John Calipari carried UMass’ hoops history: from 1991-1996, UMass completed the ‘five-peat’ with five straight conference tournament titles led by Jim McCoy, Lou Roe, and Marcus Camby—one of the finest A10 hoopers ever. Camby took UMass to a national level when they reached the 1996 Final Four, losing to Rick Pitino and the eventual champion Kentucky Wildcats.
The A10 loses a fair amount of conference history from a basketball perspective with UMass. We’ve already lost so much of this once mighty conference and its history: the entire Temple program not only housed John Chaney (the greatest A10 coach ever) but put this conference on the map with national dominance. Xavier leaving took away the legacy of the conference’s most outstanding player, David West. I could go on to how much more history has left the conference—this would be an entire book if I did—but we’re here to focus on the task at hand: the 2024-2025 Atlantic 10 Men’s basketball season.
Several teams in this league, particularly those that earned double byes in the conference tournament, collapsed hilariously last season: Richmond, UMass, Loyola, and Dayton had accidents during tournament time, making for great parity as viewers.
As much as I will be making fun of those four teams in my previews (nobody is safe), three of the teams I just mentioned have the chance to make some real noise this season. We’re going to have a very tight race for the top four this season, with my forecast seeing as many as seven teams who could seriously challenge for the double-bye in the A10 tournament.
Regarding the NCAA tournament, there is no reason the A10 can’t be a three-bid league this year (shoutout to Tyler Cronin). The seven teams I’m hinting at have serious potential to compete with a handful of high-major schools to create a solid resume to receive an at-large bid. Will this league go back to 2014 and send six teams? No, we’re not there just yet. But getting three teams into March Madness this season is a step in the right direction.
There are some changes to the previews this season that I feel will give some more insight into roster construction, and I will include indicators for this year’s previews to help distinguish the kind of personnel on a roster. I have included the element legend here:
T= transferred out
*= graduate students
F= freshman
(J)= Junior College transfers
The “x-factor” section, which will be new to the previews this season, will identify an individual (player, coach, and, in some cases, administrator) who could change the course of the team’s season. Transfer movement in the A10 is always fascinating—as Keith Urgo once summed it up on a podcast, the A10 is the perfect silver-lining conference for transfers of all levels to showcase their strengths in a conference with a balanced competition level.
As my final agenda item, I’ve included my award predictions and all-conference picks for the 2024-2025 season below.
All-A10 Predictions:
First Team
Max Shulga-VCU
Robbie Avila- Saint Louis
Erik Reynolds- St. Joseph’s
Posh Alexander- Dayton
Desmond Watson- Loyola
Darren Buchanan Jr- GW
Second Team
Jahsean Corbett- Duquesne
Nate Santos- Dayton
Xzayvier Brown- St. Joseph’s
Gibson Jimerson- Saint Louis
Melvin Council- St. Bonaventure
KD Johnson- George Mason
Third Team
Dusan Neskovic- Richmond
Bobby Durkin- Davidson
Dasheon Shepherd- La Salle
Reed Bailey- Davidson
David Green- Rhode Island
Jackie Johnson III- Fordham
A10 Player of the Year– Erik Reynolds
A10 Defensive Player of the Year– Rasheer Fleming
A10 Most improved– David Dixon
A10 Rookie of the Year– Danlil Glazkov
A10 Sixth Man of the Year– Cam Estevez
As always, ensure that the discourse between people isn’t hostile on the internet. I am writing these because I enjoy conferences and college basketball. Try to speak positively about the players; remember that even if you’re critical, they’re still kids at heart.
Onward to the 2024-2025 season.
-Thomas Aiello
