Yahoo! Sports is breaking down each league for the upcoming college basketball season working backward from No. 31 to No. 1. Here's a look at our No. 8 league, the Atlantic 10.
If the ACC is basketball's biggest conference realignment winner because of the additions of Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Notre Dame, then the revamped Atlantic 10 certainly isn't too far behind.
This season, the league welcomes newcomers VCU and Butler, two of the nation's glamor mid-major programs the past few years. Add those two to an already improving league that won't lose Temple to the Big East for one more season, and the result is a particularly formidable Atlantic 10 that lacks a truly elite team but appears to have at least a half dozen NCAA tournament contenders
Trying to pick a preseason Atlantic 10 favorite is a fool's errand this year because any of consensus the top six teams could make a legitimate case.
Is it VCU, which returns four starters from a team that fell one bucket shy of the Sweet 16? How about Saint Louis, which boasts Rick Majerus' most talented team but doesn't have Majerus to coach it? Or maybe Saint Joseph's, which has elite shot blocker C.J. Aiken and the league's best backcourt duo? Or perhaps Butler, which brings in Arkansas transfer Rotnei Clarke and freshman Kellen Dunham to fix last year's shooting woes?
The other two programs that can't be overlooked are Temple and UMass, both of whom are especially strong on the perimeter.
The Owls boast a stable of talented wings highlighted by the league's top returning scorer in Khalif Wyatt, but they'll need sophomore Will Cummings to develop at point guard and unproven frontcourt players to emerge. UMass is a year away from having its best team as a result of the impending arrival of Western Kentucky transfer Derrick Gordon, but Chaz Williams is good enough to make the Minutemen a contender this year if an interior scorer or two emerges.
All six of those programs received first-place votes in the Atlantic 10 preseason poll, with Saint Joseph's somewhat surprisingly edging second-place Saint Louis and third-place VCU for the top spot. The Billikens and Rams are probably the safest choices because they return so much from teams that went to the NCAA tournament and won a game last year.
Of teams outside the consensus top six, the most likely to surprise may be Dayton. With all-league point guard Kevin Dillard complemented by a frontcourt that includes a healthy Josh Benson, improving Matt Kavanaugh and LSU transfer Matt Derenbecker, the Flyers boast a nucleus perhaps good enough for a top four finish in previous years.
Notably missing from the conversation is Xavier, the Atlantic 10's flagship program for the past decade.
Thanks to the departure of Mark Lyons, Tu Holloway, Dez Wells and Kenny Frease and the NCAA half their recruiting class academically ineligible, the Musketeers will have an unusually threadbare roster this season. Their best hope is freshman point guard Semaj Christon leading a group of unproven veterans to a competitive season in a rebuilding year.
MAKING A LIST
Best shooter: Rotnei Clarke, Butler. In three seasons at Arkansas, Clarke connected on 41.7 percent of his attempts from behind the arc. That's welcome news for a Butler team that was among the poorest shooting teams in the nation last season but figures to improve greatly in that area with the additions of Clarke and freshman Kellen Dunham.
Best playmaker: Kevin Dillard, Dayton. The nod goes to Dillard here slightly ahead of UMass star Chaz Williams simply because of the Dayton point guard's superior assist-to-turnover ratio. Both point guards led their respective teams in scoring, assists and steals last season, but Dillard averaged 6.0 assists per game and just 2.8 turnovers.
• Atlantic 10 Capsule Preview: Addition of VCU, Butler makes strong league even more formidable
• Ranking the Atlantic 10's 15 most intriguing non-league games
• Interim Saint Louis coach Jim Crews has big shoes to fill
• A former Atlantic 10 player breaks down this year's league race
For more news on the Atlantic 10, visit Rivals.com
Best defender: C.J. Aiken, Saint Joseph's. It's tempting to go with Briante Weber or one of VCU's other ball-hawking guards, but Aiken gets the nod here for his game-changing shot-blocking ability. The 6-foot-9 junior swatted away 3.5 shots per game last season, earning A-10 defensive player of the year honors and establishing himself as one of the nation's premier shot blockers.
Top NBA prospect: Semaj Christon, Xavier. For a league with as many quality teams as the Atlantic 10, there aren't a lot of surefire NBA prospects to choose from this year. C.J. Aiken's shot-blocking and Khalif Wyatt's scoring give both a chance, but the selection here is Christon because of the Xavier freshman's size, skill and ability to run a team. He'll start right away at point guard for the Musketeers.
Best backcourt: Most of the Atlantic 10's top teams have an all-league-caliber guard in their starting lineup. Only Saint Joseph's has two. Between explosive Carl Jones (17.0 ppg) and versatile Langston Galloway (15.5 ppg), the Hawks have two of the six highest-scoring returners in the league last season. The depth behind them is unproven, but sophomore Chris Wilson is a good option off the bench at point guard.
Best frontcourt: Butler. In a backcourt-dominated league featuring numerous talented guards, most teams have questions up front. Butler's interior depth is a concern, but the starting duo of senior Andrew Smith and junior Khyle Marshall may be the class of the Atlantic 10. Both shoot a high percentage from the floor, rebound capably and play the solid interior defense we've come to expect from the Bulldogs.
Best recruiting class: Xavier. Chris Mack landed Rivals.com's No. 19 class nationally last season, a group that included Christon, outstanding perimeter shooter Myles Davis and talented power forward Jalen Reynolds. As with most things for Xavier this offseason, however, there's a catch: Both Davis and Reynolds were ruled academically ineligible for the 2012-13 season.
Coach on the rise: Dan Hurley, Rhode Island. Butler's Brad Stevens and VCU's Shaka Smart remain the hottest coaching commodities in the nation, but Rhode Island has another up-and-comer. Hurley, hired by the Rams last spring, built Wagner into a 25-win NEC contender in a mere two years. It will take longer to turn around Rhode Island, but Hurley has the Northeast recruiting ties to do it.
Coach on the hot seat: None. LaSalle's John Giannini and UMass' Derek Kellogg began last season with pressure to succeed, but the Explorers won 21 games and made their first postseason under Giannini and the Minutemen won 25 and made a deep NIT run. Barring a crash-and-burn from either of them, they should both have built up enough equity to remain in their jobs. Charlotte's Alan Major also needs to show some progress sooner or later, but it's tough to see him getting fired after just his third year with the 49ers.
FACTS AND FIGURES
New coaches: Dan Hurley, Rhode Island (Had been coach of Wagner); Jim Ferry, Duquesne (Had been coach at Long Island); Jim Crews, Saint Louis (Had been assistant under Rick Majerus);
Regular-season winner last season: Temple
Tourney winner last season: St. Bonaventure
League RPI rank in each of past 3 seasons: 2011-12: 7th ; 2010-11: 9th, 2009-10: 5th
NCAA bids the past three seasons: 10 (Xavier 3, Temple 3, Richmond 2, Saint Louis, St. Bonaventure)
In the span of mere days, officials at College of Charleston and Davidson made conflicting decisions regarding whether they should remain in the Southern Conference or accept an invitation to join the Colonial Athletic Association.
Now, history will evaluate the trajectory of these two programs against one-another in an effort to determine who made the better decision.
College of Charleston reportedly will accept an invitation to join the CAA, a decision that suggests the Cougars believe a more prestigious conference with greater TV revenue represents their best chance to grow as a program. Davidson will remain in the less high-profile SoCon, in essence sending the message they're comfortable with who they are and the level of success they've enjoyed.
So who got it right? Counterintuitive as it sounds, perhaps both of them.
Davidson had more to lose by leaving the SoCon than Charleston because the Wildcats have the greater recent history in the league.
In the past 11 seasons, Davidson has won its half of the SoCon eight times, made five NCAA tournament appearances and landed two NIT bids. The Wildcats are heavy favorites to win the SoCon and return to the NCAA tournament again next season thanks to the return of five starters from last year's 25-win team.
Charleston has been a perennial contender in the SoCon during that same time period, but the Cougars only have won or shared their half of the league four times in 11 years and they haven't been to the NCAA tournament since 1999. Most preseason projections have Charleston just behind Davidson yet again this season in the SoCon's Southern Division.
There's no guarantee Charleston can rise in stature in the tougher, deeper CAA, but the gamble comes with less risk for the Cougars than it would for Davidson. And even with the departure of VCU and Old Dominion severely weakening the CAA, the league still has some qualities that make it attractive to Charleston.
The CAA has been superior to the SoCon in basketball, earning multiple NCAA bids three times in the past seven years, producing two Final Four teams and landing a TV deal with NBC Sports Network. New contenders will have to emerge for the league to earn multiple NCAA bids again with regularity, but CAA teams have been far more likely to land in the 8-12 seed lines in the NCAA tournament than the SoCon teams, which seldom fare better than a No. 13 seed.
So if joining the CAA potentially could mean more money, more prestige and more exposure, why would Davidson turn that opportunity down? Well, because such a move would come with plenty of risk.
Since the CAA's footprint extends to the Northeast with Drexel and Northeastern, travel for league games would be much more arduous for Davidson than it is in a more regional league like the SoCon. Also, the CAA may not produce two or more NCAA tournament bids on a regular basis without VCU and Old Dominion, so Davidson no doubt worried that it would be making its path to the NCAA tournament more difficult by trading one one-bid league for a tougher one.
In an era of conference realignment when bigger is always better no matter the consequences, it was refreshing to see Davidson show restraint.
The Wildcats had too much to lose to join the CAA at a time when the league's future strength is unclear. College of Charleston was in a much better position to take that risk.
Two of the top five freshmen in the nation still await word from the NCAA on their status. A third will officially be allowed to play.
Whereas UCLA's Shabazz Muhammad and Kyle Anderson remain in limbo as the NCAA investigates whether they received extra benefits during their recruitment, Kentucky's Nerlens Noel has been cleared to play immediately for the Wildcats. Kentucky coach John Calipari broke the news on ESPN on Wednesday morning and an NCAA spokesman confirmed the news to multiple media outlets Wednesday afternoon.
"He's cleared right now to practice and compete," NCAA spokesman Bob Williams told the Louisville Courier-Journal.
At issue in Noel's recruitment were a series of perceived red flags from his high school days that were initially reported by Pete Thamel in the New York Times and on SI.com. CBSSports.com also reported Wednesday that one of the final issues concerning Noel's amateur status was how he once paid for an unofficial visit to Louisville.
Based on its ruling, it's clear the NCAA could not find concrete evidence Noel accepted any impermissible extra benefits. Noel's status could be reevaluated if the NCAA finds any new evidence, but at this point it appears the 6-foot-11 shot-blocking centerpiece of Kentucky's latest No. 1 recruiting class is good to go.
Not quite so fortunate are Muhammad and Anderson, the two decorated freshmen UCLA recruited to reverse its recent fortunes. UCLA continues to say their status remains unchanged at this point and refused to let either address their respective situations during media availability last week.
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