Get To Know a College Basketball Mid-Major: Atlantic 10

You know all about the Power 6 conferences in college basketball. You hear about those more than any other, and those groups often dominate the March Madness conversation. There are 31 other conferences out there, however, and our goal is to get you up to speed on the teams, players and fights in the standings to know before the conference tournaments, Selection Sunday and the official start of March Madness. It’s time for you to get to know a mid-major: this time, it’s the Atlantic 10. The Atlantic 10 is inaccurately named at this point, but it’s not as if that’s an uncommon occurrence for conferences in this day and age. There are actually 14 teams in the A-10, and not all of them are even bordering the Atlantic, either. None of that matters so much in this era of being able to stream any college game from anywhere, though, so just go wherever makes sense. All 14 of the schools in the A-10 participate in the conference tournament, with the top four seeds receiving a double-bye into the quarterfinals, teams 5-10 getting a first-round bye and the bottom four essentially in a play-in first round. Winning the tournament, and the automatic bid, is of the utmost importance as is the case with every mid-major, but the Atlantic 10 has had multiple at-large bids at times over the past three years, across the men’s and women’s leagues. And that matters in 2025-2026, since each has two teams that are tournament-worthy in the mix, depending on how well the conference tournaments go, anyway. Losing too early in those tournaments can mess with a team’s standing in the NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) and Wins Above Bubble (WAB) and all. Atlantic 10 — Men’s College Basketball Leaders: Saint Louis had been undefeated in conference play, in an 18-game streak that dated back to the non-conference portion of the schedule, but that all ended on Tuesday when Rhode Island defeated the Billikens in a surprise upset. Through Feb. 18, Saint Louis is still in control in the A-10, in first at 12-1, but VCU is now half-a-game back at 12-2. George Mason had been keeping pace, but has lost three in a row and is now 9-5. Saint Joseph’s, Dayton and Duquesne are all 8-5, and Davidson 7-6. Every other team in the conference is under .500: Rhode Island (6-7), Fordham (6-8), George Washington (6-8), Richmond (4-10), La Salle (3-10), St. Bonaventure (3-10) and Loyola Chicago (2-12) round out the standings. Saint Louis is No. 18 in the poll and 22nd in NET, while VCU sits 45th. There are three other top-100 teams, though, in Dayton (85), George Washington (88) and George Mason (98). Davidson comes in at 104 and Rhode Island 122 for top-125 squad. Every other team in the A-10 is in the top-200 except for La Salle (239) and Loyola Chicago (308). There is depth here, but as far as teams that could possibly make the tournament without the benefit of the automatic bid, you are talking about just Saint Louis and VCU: the Billikens are 36th in WAB, at 2.02, while VCU is 47th at 0.72. George Mason comes next at 75, out of the 68-team range and with a -2.24 WAB. George Mason can absolutely win the A-10 tournament, but also, it has to. Saint Louis doesn’t have one big-time player driving its offense, but instead five players averaging double-digit points with another two at 9.3 and 9.7 points per game. Similarly, there is no star rebounder, but instead six averaging between 4.2 and 5.7. It all comes to the 41st and 28th Offensive and Defensive Ratings per KenPom, and the 26th-best Net Rating in D-I. Junior guard and Xavier transfer Trey Green is the best of the bunch on offense, with an Atlantic 10-best Offensive Rating of 140.0, while sophomore guard Amari McCottry has the top Defensive Rating in the conference. VCU is powered by two of the five-best players in the conference instead of that level of depth: sophomore guard Terrence Hill is second in the conference in Player Efficiency Rating at 24.8 and Offensive Rating, with College of Charleston transfer and junior forward Lazar Djokovic in fifth with a PER of 22.5. Hill is the leading scorer and first in assists, while Djokovic is second in scoring and first in rebounds. As for George Mason, it lacks both the array of weapons of Saint Louis and the multiple top options of VCU, but the Patriots do have junior center Riley Allenspach, who ranks third in the A-10 in PER thanks to 13 points per game on 57.7% shooting along with 5.9 rebounds and the seventh-best Offensive Rating in the conference (125.6). Atlantic 10 – Women’s College Basketball Leaders: There is no one dominant team on the women’s side, either, but instead a whole mess of squads with aspirations for March. Rhode Island is 14-1 and atop the conference, with 13-2 George Mason right behind it. Richmond is 12-3 after back-to-back losses — that’s a dangerous team that is much better than it has shown the last couple of times out, and was top-40 prior to those defeats. Behind this trio is 9-6 Saint Joseph’s and Davidson, then 8-7 Loyola Chicago and La Salle. Dayton is 7-8, St. Bonaventure and George Washington 6-9, Saint Louis 5-10, VCU 4-11, and both Duquesne and Fordham 2-13. By NET, there are three and maybe even four teams that have a legitimate shot at March Madness for reasons other than the automatic bid, but the reality is that, at most, two would get an invitation with one of them being the auto. Hey, in the process of finding a conference champion, other teams are going to lose, and that will solve the “problem” of this clustering. Richmond is first in NET in the conference at 42, with Rhode Island right behind it at 46. George Mason (63) and Davidson (70) are longer shots, but both are in a position to benefit from seeding in the conference tourney and actually win the thing, too. Wins Above Bubble is less pleased with the A-10, with Rhode Island just making it above the 0.00 baseline at 0.58, good for 42nd, with Richmond falling to 52nd and -0.51 because of its tough week. George Mason is further back, at 69th, while Davidson actually slipped behind Saint Joseph’s — neither is anywhere near a tourney berth by WAB, though. Maggie Doogan, Richmond’s senior forward, is the star of the A-10. She’s leading in points (21.6), minutes (34.6), shooting percentage (51.2%), 2-point percentage (59.6%), true shooting percentage (64.6%), PER (33.9 — the lone player over 30), Plus/Minus (12.7), is second in Offensive Rating and 14th in Defensive Rating. She’s first on her team not only in points, but also rebounds (8.0) and second in assists (4.0). That’s all great, but also is a reminder that, even with Doogan, Richmond peaked as a top-40 team. Senior guard Rachel Ullstrom — second on the Spiders in scoring and rebounds — is actually the one player ahead of Doogan in Offensive Rating and is third in PER, but isn’t as good defensively outside of an ability to pull down rebounds — if you can slow one of these two down, Richmond is a lot more vulnerable given its success revolves around this pair. Easier said than done, of course, given the Spiders’ success this season, but in its last game, against George Washington, the two combined for 19 points and the team as a whole shot 37%. The game before that, 16 points and 26.5% shooting. Richmond isn’t invincible, by any means — George Mason is one of the teams that beat it, but 6-9 George Washington was the other. It’s a wide-open conference, even if it might seem otherwise at first blush.