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Wild night sets up Wildcats to win A-10 regular season title

Mat Shelton-EideBy 3 Comments3 Mins Read

A bunch of fans are going to hate this post.

For starters, VCU fans (yes, my alma mater), are going to blast me for saying anything negative about VCU. VCU super fan will say I’m trying to pretend I’m not biased while everyone else will hate me for posting a realistic prediction that doesn’t go the Rams way. A truly no-win situation, but I’m going ahead with this post regardless.

Davidson fans are going to hate this because they are going to think I’m about to jinx them.

Dayton fans are going to hate this because it doesn’t crown them champs. Same goes for Rhody in their rise (I think Rhody may be next season’s Preseason No.1, for what that’s worth).

So getting to the point: I truly believe Davidson won themselves an Atlantic 10 regular season title with tonight’s gutsy road win at Rhode Island.

I thought they would win it heading into tonight if my predictions for the night panned out — which, sure enough, they did — and I’m confident that the Wildcats with a healthy Jack Gibbs are primed to win their first-ever Atlantic 10 regular season title in just their first season in the league.

Think about that for a second, even if they don’t win it (which they will). Davidson, the Atlantic 10’s preseason No.12 team out of the Southern Conference, is the favorite to win the regular season at this point.

You don’t have to take my word for it either, take Ken Pomeroy’s.

Kenpom.com has the Wildcats the favorite to win all three of their remaining games. No other team currently tied a top the Atlantic 10 at 11-4 (VCU, Dayton or Rhode Island) can say the same.

Bob McKillop’s squad hosts both George Washington — who they recently beat by 13 on the road despite a horrible first half — and VCU — who they lost to by six in Richmond, and that was with Briante Weber — before traveling to Duquesne, currently kenpom’s 208th ranked team.

Davidson’s biggest obstacle realistically becomes the VCU Rams, who are the only team outside of Davidson that still controls their own destiny due to tie-break scenarios at the top of the conference.

If the Rams can get past Dayton they will hold a tie-breaker over both the Flyers and Rhody Rams due to head-to-head wins if it were to come down to a two-way tie between either. Currently VCU holds the same over Davidson but must travel to Belk Arena where the Wildcats have more often than not been downright deadly. Their average margin of victory in their six Atlantic 10 home wins is 22 points. They have just one home loss on the entire season, a head-scratcher they dropped at the buzzer to St. Bonaventure, all-be-it without the services of second leading scorer, Jack Gibbs.

There are a number of scenarios that involve a ton of help that could take either VCU or Davidson off their path toward either’s first-ever A-10 regular season title and a No.1 seed in Brooklyn, but as of this moment, don’t be surprised if the league’s regular season champ is crowned March 5th in Belk Arena in Davidson, NC, and don’t be surprised if they are led by a white-haired main from Queens, NY who coaches a bunch of under-recruited dudes who can flat out shoot the rock.

 

 

 

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Mat Shelton-Eide has been involved in college athletics since 2007, starting as a co-founder of VCURamNation.com where he covered the Rams all the way to Houston as the one-time CAA darling shocked the hoops world with a historic run to the Final 4. He has worked within two Atlantic 10 athletic departments, first as a graduate assistant in the VCU Sports Information Department during the '09-'10 basketball season, then after receiving his M.Ed. from VCU's Center for Sport Leadership, as a ticketing and marketing intern in the University of Richmond's athletic department during the inaugural season of Richmond's Robins Stadium, months before the Spiders 2011 Sweet 16 run.

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3 Comments

  1. Dave C on

    Great article. Except for one thing that comes into play. As a Davidson senior, I’m here to tell you that almost all of the students will be gone for the next week on spring break, meaning the atmosphere for the VCU home game won’t be nearly what it would otherwise be… Scares me considering how well we’ve played when all the students DO come out

    • Drew on

      As an alumni that lives in the area, I can tell you not to be worried about that. We filled two sections on the road against GWU in DC last week, and the Charlotte alumni network is pulling out all the stops to get people in the seats for this game. I know of people driving from Atlanta, Charleston, Richmond, and elsewhere just for this game – we’ll make some noise. Lots of us were at the games during the 2007-2008 tournament run, and we’re fired up for both the present and future.

  2. Old School on

    I think GW lost to Davidson by just a few points with a missed shot at the buzzer. I think GW will play smarter at Davidson, and GW will win that game. Also, I think VCU if they limit their three point shots, and drive the ball inside will beat Davidson. If VCU shoots over fifteen threes they will get beat by Davidson