GWRising, the information in your posts is always interesting. I'm so glad you contribute to this board. However, I sure wish I had your confidence about the coming season. Too many of us have watched the last four seasons with 10th, 12th, 10th and 11th place finishes in the conference. I don't think anyone on this board will be gloating or sending emails about a 10th, 11th or 12th place finish. That said, I hope we are all sending emails. Please tell me what place finish will it take for you to send an email to the asshat.

You can sum up either the writer's laziness or lack of knowledge by his decision to write that Lee, Adams and Bamisile combined to score 11 points a game last season, erroneously implying that GW has three transfers (actually 4) who shouldn't make much of an impact.  Might be worth mentioning that James Bishop averaged 3.1 points per game at LSU before averaging 19.1 per game at GW.  It's called giving players a genuine opportunity.

Definitely one of the lazier predictions I've seen in general, and it's not because we are picked 13th in it (I fully expect most prediction lists to have us bottom 4 since JC hasn't shown anything yet. While I don't expect us to finish there, I can completely understand that thinking at the moment.)

I actually would have had less of an issue if there was no reasoning behind the ranking. The fact that there is a write-up on each team actually makes it less credible. There is a clear drop-off in analysis after the top 5 teams on the list. Who is arriving and departing is important, but not everything.

I laughed when I saw St. Joe's at 9. Nothing against Jordan Hall, who will probably be in the NBA a year from now (and is a great talent), but St. Joe's has arguably been at Fordham's level the past few years. The fact that they won "four of their last five games" is irrelevant without context because that coincided with Daly coming back from injury and he isn't returning to college next year. I'm not a Lange guy, but maybe he'll prove me wrong.

I feel like no one ever knows who is on La Salle (or maybe cares). The author wrote a combined three lines on them. I always think they have a bunch of 3/4 star guys who end up shooting like 30% from the field.

I like this ranking better:
https://staringatthefloorboards.wordpress.com/2021/07/02/atlantic-10-2021-22-early-season-preview/

Shooting is a valid criticism for the team next year, although I'm hopeful that Brayon's improved shot + Bishop moving to SG will maybe help things. Adams and Bamisile seem to have good mechanics even if it hasn't translated yet (the latter hasn't had much of an opportunity either).
 

You guys are right, the writer just focused on what he projects will be the best 5 or 6 teams and probably just blindly ranked the bottom 4 teams, and placed GW at 13 for whatever reason. Anyone who follows the A10 should know that BCS transfers often provide a significant boost in the A-10, so writing off Bamisile, Ira Lee and Adams like that isn't a wise move, especially considering that James Bishop increased his scoring average by 16 at GW last year, as GW Rising pointed out.

The preview that DMVPiranha posted gave a lot more in-depth analysis, even though he still picked GW to finish 10th. he did mention GW could be a sleeper with the addition of the 3 BCS transfers. It's also interesting that both previews are All In on Kim English at George Mason. Mason appears to have more question marks than GW, but both pick them to be better than GW. 

Both previews agree that St. Bonaventure is head and shoulders above everyone in the A10 next year and I assume they will start the season ranked(top 15??). Is there a chance that this St. Bonaventure team will follow in the footsteps of other all-time great A10 teams such as 1988 Temple, 1996 UMass, 2004 St.Joe's, or 2020 Dayton? With the experience, depth and potential elite big man/All-American in Osunniyi, they could do it. I hope they are scheduled to play a bunch of BCS teams in the OOC so they can establish a national profile/following before conference play starts. 

That staringatthefloorboards preview is outstanding.  Not solely because more was written about each team but because the writer actually used some foresight when making his predictions.  Some thoughts:

1) Mark Schmidt was referred to as the best coach in the league.  Way back when, actually when the Bonnies were a middle-of-the-pack program, Mike Lonergan was asked in an interview who he thought the best coach in the conference was.  Many would have dodged the question or would have picked the coach of one of the top teams.  Lonergan went with Schmidt and was fairly emphatic about it.  That always stuck with me.

2. I wonder whether all of this "the Bonnies are in a class by themselves" talk will ultimately help produce an adverse effect.  When the conference's champion returns practically everyone, the talk is understandable.  However, there are also these factors:

a. Will they perform differently being the hunted and not the hunter?
b. Will an all-senior starting lineup constitute a harmonious team?  Will players start to play for professional scouts/professional contracts rather than for the good of the team?
c. Will they stay as healthy as they have in the past, particularly without outstanding depth (though with improved depth)?

Entering last season, the Wisconsin Badgers had 6 key seniors coming off a co-Big 10 Championship season and their 2020-21 season imploded.  I've seen it happen with other senior-dominated teams as well.

3. Richmond was the conference darling entering last season, they lose only Blake Francis (though a substantial loss) and hopefully for them pick up a healthy Nick Sherod.  There's enough here to make major progress.

4. Great analysis of Dayton who boasts a Top 20-25 recruiting class nationally.  And to those old enough, do we really have to worry about  another Lynn Greer?

5.  My early choice for conference player of the year is Javonte Perkins.

6. Both previews seem to embrace Kim English and Mason.  Am not sure I'm seeing this just yet.

7. Does Lee become Davidson's go-to scorer?  Between Grady, Gibbs and some old guy named Curry, it seems like McKillop always has one.

8. URI without Fats Russell?    8th actually seems high to me.

9.  VCU was already going to be without Bones Hyland but the Ace Baldwin injury on top of that makes things interesting.  This is when having a system with a full buy-in from the players may really pay off.

10.  There may not be a more head scratching program in the conference than Duquesne.  Dambrot really appeared to be building from the ground up.  He lost the three best players he had inherited to transfer and yet was able to improve that team.  And then seemingly out of nowhere, the guys he brought in all began to transfer one by one.  

11.  Am not seeing a Woodstock reunion in Amherst.

12.  St Joe's has the legacy which allows certain pundits to overhype them out of sheer desire to see them be better.  There is some improvement within the program but I can't see them escaping the play-in games.

13. La Salle making the Sweet 16 that one season may have been the worst possible ramification for any Explorer coach.  The expectations are that it can be done again but in reality, it's a really tough job.  Maybe the toughest in the conference next to.....

14. Fordham.  Good luck to Nima.

Lots of people put the 'Superstar Assistant/Future Coaching Legend' tag on Kim English, that's probably playing a huge role in the hype for George Mason because they lost a lot of talent from last year's team. It also looks like he's brought in several transfers(guys he recruited to Colorado and Tennessee) who could put up similar production to Bishop and Lindo last year, and 1 or 2 of his incoming freshman chose George Mason over BCS schools. 

Gwmayhem, good point about St. Bonaventure possibly being overconfident or lacking focus this year with all the hype. Everything seems to point to them being a dominant team who could go undefeated in the A10 and enter the NCAA tournament as a very high seed, how will they handle these expectations? They do have the bad taste of last year's ugly loss(they couldn't make any shots for the entire game!!) to LSU in the NCAA tournament that should really motivate them this year. 

One of the previews mentioned that former VCU star Bones Hyland could be a late 1st round pick in the NBA draft later this month, so that could be back to back years with a 1st round pick from the A10. 

Without saying I agree or disagree with the prediction, while these pre-season rankings are interesting, with 6 or so new players, a returning player who sat all of last season and nobody who has been on the team for more than 1 season (how amazing is that?), I cannot  see how anyone can possibly intelligently forecast how GW will do next season.   In fact, I may suggest a new marketing slogan...Come to the games.  Who knows how we'll do?   In any event, if this same pollster who knows nothing about GW basketball other than what he could learn in one hour on the internet, had picked us for 3rd instead of 13th, I think the reaction on this board may have been a bit different.

Long Suffering Fan wrote:

Without saying I agree or disagree with the prediction, while these pre-season rankings are interesting, with 6 or so new players, a returning player who sat all of last season and nobody who has been on the team for more than 1 season (how amazing is that?), I cannot  see how anyone can possibly intelligently forecast how GW will do next season.   In fact, I may suggest a new marketing slogan...Come to the games.  Who knows how we'll do?   In any event, if this same pollster who knows nothing about GW basketball other than what he could learn in one hour on the internet, had picked us for 3rd instead of 13th, I think the reaction on this board may have been a bit different.

LSF, am not sure I can get behind your last sentence depending on what you meant.  Would a favorable write-up and prediction perhaps put us in a better mood about the upcoming season?  I can certainly see this.  However, if a third place prediction was based on "next-to-nothing", the same way that the writer's 13th place prediction was essentially based on very few pertinent facts, I would likely be taking the prediction with the same grain of salt.  I think it's fair to say that both 3rd place and 13th place are highly improbable for 2021-22.

GWRising, I would say your forecast assumes that GW will be better than Mason, St. Joe's, UMASS, Duquesne, La Salle, and Fordham.  Doesn't appear to be out of the question.  If we are in a battle for 6th-8th place with URI and Davidson, that would be a nice leap.  The top 5, two saints not named Joe's, two Richmond schools and Dayton, I wouldn't think are within reach.