Four Atlantic 10 teams remain undefeated early in this 2025-26 season. The Saint Louis Billikens came into the year with high expectations and sit atop the conference with a A-10 best No.51 Kenpom rating and a perfect 5-0 record. Last year’s conference runner-up, George Mason, has a rebuilt roster but a blemish free 6-0 start to the season as another kenpom top-100 squad. Just behind them, state rival (?) Richmond, has matched half of last season’s 10-win total at 5-0 and are knocking on the Pomeroy top-100 at No.101 and St. Bonaventure rounds out the group of undefeateds at 5-0 heading into what appears to be a challenging matchup against a team that goes by the initials “UNC”.
But are they for real? Does any team in that group have the talent to stay atop the conference or are several destined to be last year’s Rhode Island Rams, a group that won all of their first nine games before finishing 7-11 in conference play before making a Wednesday afternoon exit with a conference tourney loss to No.15 Fordham.
Let’s take a look at the tea leaves…
SAINT LOUIS BILLIKENS
Josh Schertz was a splash hire for the Bills this past year after leading Indiana State to a 32-7 finish the previous season. Despite bringing national star, Robbie Avila, with him to Saint Louis, the Billikens had an overall mediocre year, finishing 18-13 in the regular season, 11-7 in conference games, then falling in the A-10 quarterfinals before a season-ending first round NIT loss. Avila returns and hopes this year can be his first in the NCAA tournament in his last go as a senior and so far, so good. The Billikens have played some of the most efficient basketball in the country through five, but that comes with a bit of an asterisk, having played the 357th-ranked schedule in the country to date. Four of the Billiken’s contests have been against teams ranked 250th or worst (two against sub-300 teams), but to their credit, Saint Louis has absolutely annihilated those opponents, winning by an average margin of 30.3 points. The Billikens have played one top-100 opponent, defeating Grand Canyon 78-64 at Chaifetz Arena.
FOR REAL OR FRAUD?: Inconclusive. I’m confident SLU will be a GOOD team, but knowing if they are an NCAA tourney team or not and worthy of hype is incredibly murky. A decent margin (14 points) home win against an ok team is just too little to get excited about, but I do love their top-10 effective field goal percentage offense AND defense and margins of victory against the teams you expect good teams to absolutely hammer. A Thanksgiving Day matchup against a game Santa Clara squad should tell us a bit more, but I lean “this is the year” for the Billikens.
GEORGE MASON PATRIOTS
Tony Skinn has done nothing but coach his alma mater into top-100 finishes since returning to Fairfax two seasons ago and despite having to rebuild his roster, appears to be off to another good start. Mason has won their first six games, a league best, but like Saint Louis that has been against a schedule that has offered little in terms of a challenge. Only one Mason opponent has been in the kenpom top-125, that game ending in a 96-90 victory over No.108 Winthrop. That win looks a little better after the Eagles nearly knocked off Arkansas on the road, falling 84-83 in Fayetteville, but that’s a Winthrop squad that owns a bad loss to Coastal Carolina as well. Still, it’s a better start than last year’s that included losses to the likes of Central Michigan and East Carolina with no wins within the top-300 over their first seven… and we know how that season turned out. Mason has an extremely winnable remaining OOC schedule outside of perhaps a road contest at Virginia Tech, then start conference play against the likes of La Salle, Rhode Island and Fordham, so it may take some time for us to figure out how good this team is unless the slip-ups hit them first. Either way, the Tony Skinn era appears far more enjoyable for Mason fans than what they had gotten used to almost since he graduated from the school himself.
FOR REAL OR FRAUD? Inconclusive. I don’t see a dominant player on this Mason team like Jalen Haynes from last season’s roster, but so far they are starting to really play some great team ball behind red hot Presbyterian transfer, Kory Mincy.
RICHMOND SPIDERS
It has been a roller coaster couple of seasons for Mooney & Co. in Richmond, finishing atop the A-10 two seasons ago, only to see themselves two games above last place this past year. With that, the 5-0 start to the season with a kenpom No.101 rating and climbing has to be a breath of fresh air for Spider fans. Richmond though, like the teams above, has built that record largely by beating up on cupcakes. Richmond started their season with a win outside of Division I, a 28-point win against Southern Virginia, then handled ECU with relative ease and blew out sub-300s VMI and Gardner Webb by an average margin of 34 points per contest. While those were great to see, the narrow home win over William & Mary and exhibition 5-point survival over James Madison give me pause.
FOR REAL OR FRAUD? I fear the Spiders are likely frauds. This group features A LOT of returning players from last season’s troubled squad in pretty big roles and I just don’t see a Jordan King level transfer on the roster and that does not make a Spider optimist out of me. I LOVE local freshman, Aiden Argabright, but he’s still a freshman and we know how even the best freshmen can look at times. Richmond has a pretty winnable OOC schedule, but one that does ramp up a bit in difficulty soon, which I think might shine some light on who this team really is.
ST. BONAVENTURE BONNIES
The Bonnies are off to yet another hot start, matching last year’s 5-0 that eventually turned into 14-1 including a close home win over eventual champ, VCU. That season finished ok enough, the Bonnies going 9-9 in conference play before being ousted by VCU in the A-10 tourney and then later falling to Kent State, 75-56, in the first round of the NIT. This year Mark Schmidt’s squad has played a schedule more challenging for the most part than the teams above, playing three squads within the top-200 including a neutral court win over kenpom No.123 Bradley. The challenge with the start is the Bonnies have looked less than dominant in winning those games, surviving Bradley 69-63, escaping Youngstown State 84-80 in the Reilly Center and playing a fairly close game against a very mediocre Sienna squad.
FOR REAL OR FRAUD? I’m selling the Bonnies unfortunately. Schmidt will play about five guys all season long and I just have not been as impressed with this group as I have with previous transfer classes. They have not been incredibly efficient despite the schedule, but to their credit have found ways to win.
