A-10 tourney: ‘Win or go home’ time
2nd-seeded Flyers open play Thursday with quarterfinal matchup.
The Flyer Faithful have read this sentence often over the years and will hear it many times this week: “The Dayton Flyers have never won the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament outside their own arena.”
Almost 20 years have passed since Dayton won the A-10 tournament for the first and only time. The anniversary of a 79-72 victory against Temple at UD Arena arrives on March 15, three days after the final game of the 2023 tournament.
Selection Sunday and the A-10 championship game take place on March 12 this season. That’s a significant date in Dayton basketball history because that was the day the entire postseason was canceled in 2020 by the pandemic, killing Dayton’s best chance in the last 20 years of ending its A-10 tournament drought.
Could Dayton claim the A-10 championship three years later on the same day in the same arena where the 2020 tournament would have taken place? It would be a storybook chapter for a star-crossed season and certainly one the coaches and players think they can make happen.
“It’s win or go home,” said Dayton forward Mustapha Amzil on Friday after a 65-61 loss at Saint Louis. “Everyone wants to play in the postseason. I think we’ll be fine.”
The A-10 tournament starts today at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., with three games involving the bottom six seeds and continues Wednesday with four games. No. 2 seed Dayton (20-11) starts play in the quarterfinals at 5 p.m. Thursday against No. 7 seed George Washington (1615), No. 10 Saint Joseph’s (14-16) or No. 15 Loyola Chicago (10-20).
Here’s a preview of the 15-team field:
Favorite: No. 1 seed Virginia Commonwealth (24-7) takes a six-game winning streak into
the postseason. It won the regular-season championship by three games over three 12-6 teams: Dayton, Saint Louis and Fordham. It was the largest gap between first and second place since Dayton finished 18-0, four games ahead of Richmond, in 2020.
VCU joined the A-10 in the 2012-13 season and played in the A-10 final in its first five seasons, winning its only title in 2015 by beating Dayton 71-65 at the Barclays Center. It was the No. 3 seed last season and lost 75-64 to No. 6 seed Richmond, the eventual champion, in the first round.
VCU finished 4-1 against the other top three seeds. It beat Saint Louis twice in the regular season by a total of 20 points. Against Dayton, VCU rallied from a four-point deficit in the final 30 seconds to win 63-62 on Jan. 13 at UD Arena and then lost 62-58 in Richmond, Va., on Feb. 7. VCU beat Fordham 80-61 in Richmond.
VCU will play No. 8 Davidson (15-15) or No. 9 St. Bonaventure (14-17) in the quarterfinals at 11:30 a.m. Thursday.
Dark horse: No. 5 seed George Mason (19-12) won its last six regular-season games. That streak included a 74-69 victory at Dayton. The Patriots have not advanced past the quarterfinals since joining the league in the 2014-15 season. They play No. 12 Richmond (14-17), the defending A-10 tournament champion, or No. 13 Massachusetts (15-15) in the second round at 2 p.m. Wednesday.
Most surprising team: Fordham (24-7) has its highest seed ever in the A-10 tournament. It was picked to finish 11th and won the most A-10 games (12-6) in school history. Its previous best A-10 record was 10-6 in 2006-07. It reached the 20-win milestone for the first time since the 1990-91 season (25-8).
Fordham will play No. 6 seed Duquesne (20-11), another surprising team that finished last a year ago, No. 11 La Salle or No. 14 Rhode Island in the final quarterfinal game at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.
Most veteran team: No. 4 seed Saint Louis (20-11) has the 17th-most experienced roster in the country, according to KenPom. com. Its top seven scorers have all been in college basketball for at least four seasons. The Billikens will play George Mason, Richmond or UMass in the quarterfinals at 2 p.m. Thursday.
Coldest teams: La Salle (13-18) takes a five-game losing streak into the tournament. It plays Rhode Island, which has lost eight of its last nine games, in the first round at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday. First-year Rhode Island coach Archie Miller was 5-6 in six A-10 tournament appearances with Dayton from 2012-17.
Upset potential: St. Bonaventure beat VCU 61-58 at the Siegel Center in Richmond, Va., and could play VCU in the quarterfinals in a rematch of the 2021 championship game won by the Bonnies at UD Arena. St. Bonaventure plays Davidson in the second round at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Davidson lost twice to VCU in the regular season but nearly pulled off an upset in North Carolina before losing 61-59 on a basket by VCU point guard Adrian “Ace” Baldwin in the final minute.
Seed success: Five different seeds — every seed except a No. 2 — has won the championship in the last seven tournaments, and seven different programs have won the championship in the same span: No. 6 Richmond (2022); No. 1 St. Bonaventure (2021); No. 6 Saint Louis (2019); No. 3 Davidson (2018); No. 4 Rhode Island (2017); No. 4 Saint Joseph’s (2016); and No. 5 VCU (2015).
Brooklyn tradition: This will be the seventh time the event has been played at the Barclays Center. That includes the 2020 tournament, which saw two games played before being canceled because of the pandemic.
Saint Joseph’s (2014 and 2016) and Saint Louis (2013 and 2019) have each won two championships in Brooklyn. The event will also take place at Barclays in 2024.
History lesson: Four teams have never won the A-10 tournament: Fordham; George Mason; La Salle; and A-10 newcomer Loyola, which will make its A-10 tournament debut after winning the Missouri Valley Conference tournament the last two seasons.
Of the former champions, Duquesne has the longest drought. It won the tournament in 1977 when the A-10 was known as the Eastern Collegiate Basketball League. Massachusetts (27 years), Dayton (20) and George Washington (17) also have long droughts.
No team has repeated as champion since Temple won three straight tiles from 2008-10. The only current A-10 program that has repeated is Massachusetts, which won five straight championships from 199296 but has not won since.
Three coaches in this year’s tournament have won the championship: Travis Ford (Saint Louis, 2019); Mark Schmidt (St. Bonaventure, 2012 and 2021); and La Salle’s Fran Dunphy (2008, 2009 and 2010 with Temple).
Chris Mooney (Richmond, 2011 and 2022) has won two championships but had heart surgery in February and will miss the remainder of the season. Assistant coach Peter Thomas is now leading the team.
Five of the last eight A-10 champions have lost their last regular-season game: Saint Joseph’s in 2014 and 2016; Saint Louis in 2019; St. Bonaventure in 2021; and Richmond in 2022.