3MW’s All Conference Team:
Player of the Year: Obi Toppin, R So., Dayton
Coach of the Year: Anthony Grant, Dayton
Newcomer of the Year: Tre Mitchell, Fr., Massachusetts
Freshman of the Year: Tre Mitchell, Fr., Massachusetts
Season Storylines:
Perhaps the biggest story in college basketball this season was Obi Toppin and the Dayton Flyers, who finished the year 29-2 and 18-0 in A-10 play. Anthony Grant’s offense is pure poetry, one that focuses on taking high percentage and efficient shots. Toppin and his delicious dunks garnered all the national media attention, but senior teammates Jalen Crutcher and Trey Landers were every bit as important to this team’s success. The Flyers have a legitimate shot at a 1-seed in the NCAA Tournament should they capture the A-10 conference tournament crown.
The A-10 was very good this season, but unfortunately we may only see one team from this conference in the Field of 68. Richmond’s resume has looked better as of late behind the play of forward Grant Golden and A-10 DPOY Jacob Gilyard. Should the Spiders get to the championship game, an at-large bid is all but a certainty, but if they fall to Rhode Island, Chris Mooney may be game-planning for the NIT next week. Rhode Island looked to be a tournament team in early February but a 3-4 slide has the Rams in need of a conference championship to crash the Dance. Saint Louis actually vaulted URI in at-large consideration with its strong play of late. Led by All-Conference players Jordan Goodwin and Hasahn French and super-sub Javonte Perkins, the Billikens are a very dangerous team who played Dayton right down to the wire twice earlier this year.
Duquesne and St. Bonaventure finished around where we expected them to in the preseason. The Dukes started the year 10-0 against a Downy-soft schedule and looked to be a legit A-10 title threat on January 15th when they sat 15-2 (5-0). Though they faltered a bit down the stretch, credit Keith Dambrot for quickly building this program into a conference contender. The Bonnies were victims of the injury bug, particularly to stud big man Osun Osunniyi. Without Osunniyi, St. Bonaventure went just 1-6 (strangely, the only win was against Rutgers).
On the disappointing end of the spectrum, preseason favorites VCU and Davidson dramatically underperformed. The Rams had a ton of poor injury luck, but even that shouldn’t have prevented them from finishing above .500 in the league. Davidson can once again point to its poor defense as an excuse for its underachievement – losing Luke Frampton five games into the year didn’t help either.
UMass was a pleasant surprise behind NCOY Tre Mitchell, an absolute load up front at 6’9” 240 lbs. La Salle was impressive in the non-conference slate, beating conference leaders such as Murray State, Wright State, and South Alabama. The Explorers finished league play on a high note after starting a dreadful 1-8. Jamion Christian enjoyed a somewhat successful season during his first year at the helm of George Washington. The Colonials are a young team that should blossom within the next few years. The other George, George Mason, suffered a crushing blow when star senior Justin Kier went down with a season-ending injury. After an 11-1 start to the season, GMU couldn’t muster any momentum in A-10 play. Fordham and Saint Joseph’s were expectedly awful. At least St. Joe’s, led by Delaware transfer Ryan Daly, can point to a few impressive wins against Bradley, UConn, William & Mary, Davidson and Penn. Fordham never got off the ground with a roster that was riddled with injuries all season.
Tournament Preview
The A-10 tourney is held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn over five days. The top four squads receive byes to the third round while the bottom four have to win five games to claim the auto-bid.
There’s no reason to not pick Dayton, but here I go anyway. I think somebody takes down the Flyers. Dayton has this season locked up and at worst will be a 2-seed in the Dance. No fan base travels better than the Flyer Faithful, but there’s a lot of hungry, talented teams in this league yearning for a spot in the Big Dance.
I like SLU, Bart Torvik’s 3rd best team in the country since February 19th, to take home the hardware. Aside from free shooting, the Billikens are an outstanding team featuring an extremely talented and athletic roster. Richmond or Rhode Island both have the goods to win the championship as well, while Davidson and its potent offense serves as a nice dark horse pick.
Tournament Predictions
(12) George Mason over (13) Saint Joseph’s
(11) George Washington over (14) Fordham
(9) VCU over (8) Massachusetts
(5) St. Bonaventure over (12) George Mason
(7) Davidson over (10) La Salle
(6) Duquesne over (11) George Washington
(1) Dayton over (9) VCU
(4) Saint Louis over (5) St. Bonaventure
(2) Richmond over (7) Davidson
(3) Rhode Island over (6) Duquesne
(4) Saint Louis over (1) Dayton
(2) Richmond over (3) Rhode Island
(4) Saint Louis over (2) Richmond