Don’t Sleep on the Atlantic 10

The college basketball landscape is often difficult to get a read on especially when you’re talking about teams outside the top 25. For years the Atlantic 10 has been one of my favorite leagues to watch. While there isn’t much of a national following for the league, it is often well balanced with teams that are relatively equal.

Perhaps the most underappreciated aspect of the Atlantic 10 is the stable of coaches that the league employs. Mark Schmidt has turned St. Bonaventure into a program that is at least a bubble team most seasons. Anthony Grant had Dayton ranked within the top five in the nation during the 2019-20 season while Bob McKillop is nothing short of a Hall of Famer with 14 regular season titles and eight conference tournament championships.

Mike Rhoades, Travis Ford, Chris Mooney and Keith Dambrot are all well established and respected program leaders who regularly win more than they lose.

The league as a whole ranks tenth in the Pomeroy conference rankings so far this season but they have scored some nice upsets so far this season. The most memorable of which is Dayton upsetting #4 Kansas on a last second shot a day after the Flyers defeated Miami (FL) by 16 points when they were a six point dog.

Dayton is still just 3-3 on the season and somehow suffered three consecutive home losses to Austin Peay, Lipscomb and UMass Lowell prior to the Miami game. The Flyers will play Belmont today (Sunday) in another game that they will enter as the underdog.

VCU was able to take down the Syracuse Orange in the Bahamas before dropping consecutive games to Baylor and UConn (in overtime). The Rams were 5.5 point underdogs against Syracuse but managed to win by a dozen and hold the Orange to just 55 points.

Saint Josephs has defeated Georgetown this season, UMass took down Rutgers and even Fordham defeated Akron. George Mason took down Maryland prior to their current four game skid. All of these teams were underdogs and all won straight up. The Rams were 10 point underdogs and boat raced the Zips by 20 points while holding them to just 43 total.

Rhode Island is 5-2, Saint Louis is 6-1 despite losing their best player prior to the season and Richmond has played arguably the toughest schedule in the league thus far. The Spiders have yet to score a landmark victory but they have hung tough with the likes of Utah State, Drake, Maryland and Mississippi State. They will be battle tested when conference play rolls around.

Davidson is currently the best team in the league against the spread at 5-1 while outperforming the number +3.5 points per game. Saint Louis has the best point per game average in terms of outperforming the spread at +6.3 points while Rhode Island is 5-2 against the number.

If totals are your thing, take a gander at Massachusetts, the Minutemen have gone over in six of their eight games this season. Their average margin of over is a shade over 19 points per game. George Washington has gone under in six of their eight games this season and have done so by an average of -7.1 points per contest.

In closing, if you are looking for good dogs to win straight up or teams to cover, take a look at the Atlantic 10 for your wagering needs.