Jack

🏀 2026-27 Atlantic 10 Preview 🏀 Team to watch: Saint Louis. For the second straight year, the coaches couldn’t separate the Billikens and VCU, picking them one point apart. Last season they tied for the regular-season title at 15-3, and both won an NCAA Tournament game. This board breaks the tie for Saint Louis, and the reason just walked back into the building. Robbie Avila, the reigning A-10 Player of the Year, won a court ruling last week that makes him eligible for a fifth season. If he suits up, Josh Schertz pairs him with Trey Green and Kellen Thames, two preseason First Teamers, and the Billikens become the most complete team in the league. The other half of the coin flip: VCU. The Rams took 11 first-place votes to Saint Louis’s 10 and bring back Lazar Djokovic (13.2 PPG, 5.2 RPG) and sophomore guard Nyk Lewis, both preseason First Team picks. Add Brandon Jennings, one of the league’s best perimeter defenders, and VCU has every piece it needs to make this a two-horse race all the way to Brooklyn. The bold call: St. Bonaventure in the top eight. The coaches picked the Bonnies dead last. This board isn’t buying it. New coach Mike MacDonald arrives from Division II Daemen, where he went 61-3 the last two seasons, and he brought his D-II Player of the Year, Zach Philipkoski (17.8 PPG, 42% from three), with him. MacDonald is the only coach in college basketball history to win 100 games at the D-I, D-II and D-III levels. Don’t be shocked if he adds to that total quickly. Storylines worth watching: - Robbie Avila’s eligibility. A preliminary injunction hearing is set for November 4, and the answer could swing the entire league race. - Duquesne’s Tarence Guinyard, who averaged 16.6 points and finished second in the A-10 in scoring, back for a fifth year after a court ruling cleared him. - Saint Joseph’s, picked sixth after finishing third last season under reigning Coach of the Year Steve Donahue. - Fordham trying to prove last year was no fluke after jumping from a 14th-place projection to an eighth-place finish. - George Mason’s Emmanuel Kanga, a 6'9" sophomore who Sports Illustrated calls one of the best young big men outside the power conferences. - The A-10 Tournament’s return to Barclays Center in Brooklyn for the first time since 2024. Fun fact: Tarence Guinyard became the first Duquesne player to make the All-A10 First Team since 2010. His best nights last season included 30 points at Villanova and 27 against Saint Louis. Coach of the Year watch: Mike MacDonald, St. Bonaventure. He’s replacing a program legend in Mark Schmidt, inheriting a team that went 4-14 in the league, and doing it on one of the smallest budgets in the A-10. If the Bonnies climb from last in the preseason poll to the middle of the standings, nobody in this conference will have done more with less.