46. Dayton Flyers

47. St Mary’s Gaels

48. Washington Huskies

49. UCF Knights

50. Louisville Cardinals

51. Boise State Broncos

52. Clemson Tigers

53. New Mexico Lobos

54. Arizona State Sun Devils

55. Utah State Aggies

56. Colorado State Rams

57. Seton Hall Pirates

58. SMU Mustangs

59. South Carolina Gamecocks

60. Nevada Wolfpack

61. TCU Horned Frogs

62. Villanova Wildcats

63. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets

64. Saint Louis Billikens

65. Syracuse Orange

66. Nebraska Cornhuskers

67. Pittsburgh Panthers

68. Iowa Hawkeyes

69. NC State Wolfpack

70. Butler Bulldogs

71. Princeton Tigers

72. Virginia Cavaliers

73. Saint Joseph’s Hawks

74. Oklahoma Sooners

75. West Virginia Mountaineers

76. Georgia Bulldogs

77. UAB Blazers

78: Wisconsin Badgers

79. San Diego State Aztecs

80. Missouri Tigers

81. Northwestern Wildcats

82. Loyola Chicago Ramblers

Here is where each of our analysts have the Flyers ranked:

Steven	Maxwell	Kam	Cody
44	61	44	48

There are plenty of reasons to be excited about the entire A10 Conference this year. In 2023, the A10 Conference was a one bid league. Last year, if it weren’t for bid stealer, Duquesne, it would’ve been a one bid league once again. However, this year will be different. So far in this series, we’ve already wrote about Loyola Chicago, Saint Joseph’s, Saint Louis, and Dayton. All four are formidable NCAA tournament caliber teams. It’s possible that VCU may be the cream of the crop.

The Rams are returning nearly 61% of their minutes from last season, which includes All-Conference First Team guard, Max Shulga. After initially entering the portal and committing to Villanova, Shulga quickly had a change of heart and announced he’ll be returning to the Rams. Shulga is a career 39.5% 3 point shooter, and the senior is joined by three graduate students in the starting five, as well as a junior. Accompanying Shulga is the Rams’ second leading scorer from a year ago, Joe Bamisile. Bamisile has had previous stops at Virginia Tech, George Washington, and Oklahoma. Additionally, former Michigan guard, Zeb Jackson, and junior big man Christian Fermin is back too. Finally, the starting five is rounded out by Jack Clark, who is in his sixth year of college basketball. The first man off the bench is 5’10” grad transfer Phillip Russell from UT Arlington. Given five of the top six players on the depth chart are all seniors or grad students, this team has a ton of experience. Russell and Clark have played for three previous colleges, as his Bamisile.

Aside from these six guys, the roster is filled with all freshmen and sophomores. The one sophomore to keep an eye on is Alphonzo ‘Fats’ Billups. Billups shot 43% from 3 last season and even scores 23 points against Penn State in the ESPN Events Invitational last season. The bench may become important. Last season, 38.5% of Ryan Odom’s squad’s minutes came off the bench, which was the 35th highest in the nation. Additionally, if there’s anything this team will do well, it’s shoot free throws. Last season, as a team, the Rams shot 78.1% from the charity stripe. As a result, 20.9% of their points came from the free throw line, while 35.8% came from three. The remaining points allotted for two points was a mere 43.3%, which ranked in the bottom twelve among every division one program. With this said, expect this team to shoot a ton of threes and get to the foul line a lot. Given the guard play is the strong suit of this team, expect ball movement as well. The Rams assisted on nearly 57% of their baskets from last season due to their ability to generate threes.

While VCU may be the favorite in the A10, they definitely aren’t in a tier of their own. Both St. Louis and Dayton are within the same vicinity as the Rams. Honestly, the best of three may be a coin flip. Both St. Joseph’s and Loyola Chicago aren’t far behind, either. At the very least, fans of the A10 should expect the conference to be a three bid league for the first time since 2018.