(upbeat music) ♪ It's the lockdown podcast network ♪ ♪ Your team every day ♪ (upbeat music) - Well, we got a minute. I'm gonna buy that truck I've been wanting. - Wait, don't you need like weeks to shop for a car? - I don't. Carvana makes it super convenient to find exactly what I want. - Hold up. You're buying a car on your phone? Isn't that more of a laptop thing? - You can shop wherever you want. - I like to do my research. Read reviews, compare models. Plus, Carvana has thousands of options. How'd you decide on that truck? - Because I like it. - Oh, that is a great reason. Go to Carvana.com to sell your car the convenient way. - It's the biggest woads bomb ever. - And the last one, sadly. Are we staring down a future where everybody has a GM? (upbeat music) - You are locked on college basketball. You're part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your team every day. - Hey there, what's up? Welcome into the Locked On College Basketball Podcast. The only daily national college hoop show out there. Where your host, my name is Isaac Shade. This wonderful gentleman to my side is Mr. Andy Patton. And you're joining us at Deep Place to get your college basketball content every single day. It's all part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Thanks so much for making us your first listen or watch of the day to get all that you need to know. Listen free to every episode on Ad. Listen, ad free to every episode on Amazon music. That's how that goes, right? Andy, I know how to say word. - Nailed it. - Shout out to all you every day you're joining us. And all the members of the Locked On College basketball discord where baby stuff is heating up as we get closer and closer to November 4th. This episode's brought to you by Fandall. Right now through September 22nd. All Fandall customers can bet $5 and get a three week free trial of NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. Visit fandall.com to get started. Andy, wild and wacky news that came out on Wednesday. Woj, his final bomb is the news that he is joining St. Bonnie's as their general manager. And so we're gonna talk about that, but kind of big picture really, what that means for college basketball at large. And then perfectly enough, we've got our A10 preview coming up for you. I love the synergy. Honestly, Woj announced the news when he did on our behalf, Andy. I think that's what happened. - It's really nice when we did. - It really is, man. What great alignment. So at A10 preview, we're gonna talk about Kareem Abdul-Jabbar joining the A10 along with his head coach, Josh Shirts. We'll give you our predictions, our tiers, major storylines, all of that coming up at Andy. Let's start with the big Woj bomb. The man is leaving and we're gonna have to get our NBA draft early knowledge from somebody else now. - Yeah. This was a crazy story to see this kind of pop up when it did on Wednesday morning. You know, it's one of those things where he's an alumni of St. Bonaventure. He's been a passionate fan of the program for a really long time. He's been a donor. He's been just involved with St. Bonaventure. And he's kind of credited his fandom of St. Bonaventure as part of the reason he wanted to get into this industry, wanted to cover basketball professionally. So for somebody who has been one of the most, you know, well-known figures in the basketball media space to want to take this step back and kind of give back to his alma mater instead of just financially, which is what he has been doing in the past. And he's got a huge contract from ESPN, has been, you know, making a lot of money doing what he does as a newsbreaker. Him and Sean Stronti have had that rivalry for a long time. But to see him kind of be willing to take this step back. And I think one thing that stood out to me is, this doesn't seem like an easy job in the sense that it's not like, you know, when coaches retire and they get like consulting gigs. And those aren't necessarily always easy, but oftentimes they're kind of cushy gigs. And like, this is not that. This is a job that's going to require a lot of research, a lot of, you know, dedication, a lot of long nights, long hours or whatever, but it's so much easier. The job that he's currently doing. And I think that that says a lot about, a just how difficult working in the newsbreaking industry is. And as for somebody who is making the kind of money that he was at ESPN to be like, I'm going to take a very large pay cut and go work for my alma mater and do hard work, do a difficult task. And especially, you know, a task that doesn't have a lot of, you know, you're not basing it off of anything. He's the first person to do this job at St. Bonaventure. He's one of the first people to do this job, period, just in general. And to be willing to take a risk like that, to step into an industry that obviously he's familiar with as somebody who's covered basketball for so long, but this is still a pretty new avenue. And I think it's really cool to see him do this. I think it's cool for St. Bonaventure. I think it's cool for the Atlantic 10. And I think it's cool for college basketball. You know, this is still a very new industry. And having somebody as high profile as Adrian Wojnarowski, willing to step into that role. Again, it's good for him and his work life balance and his family, but it's also really good for the sport. And I'm excited to see how this comes together for him and for St. Bonaventure. - Yeah, I mean, it's really neat to have somebody at St. Bonaventure being one of the trailblazers of this enterprise coming alongside Head Coach Mark Schmidt here going to be very interesting to see that synergy and how that plays out. But Andy, to your point of this being a pretty new thing, CJ Moore, who writes for the athletic has already done all the research for us. Right now from his research anyway, there are only 12 schools at the high major level that have this role. And now, Wojnarowski becomes just the third one at the high mid major level, if I can put it that way, meaning like A10, Mountain West and AAC. And so as of right now, if CJ's research is accurate, there are only 15 such people at the high and high mid major role, which is pretty interesting stuff. And I think before we get Andy to the big picture of it, do you, just at the St. Bonaventure level, do you think this is the type of move and role that can help them be ascendant at or near the top of the A10 at an annual level? - Yeah, I do, I do, and I think it'll be interesting to see why, if that makes sense. Like, do they get better recruits and have more success specifically because of the work that Wojnarowski is doing in terms of researching players and making connections and that kind of stuff? Or do they get a bump because of the added TV? More people are gonna watch St. Bonaventure, more people are gonna follow the team because they know Adrian Wojnarowski. And if he's tweeting about the team and he's talking about his job and talking about the players, like he's got this massive following. So I think there's, I don't think there's a lot of like high school players or even college basketball players who are like, well, I wasn't gonna consider transferring to St. Bonaventure, but now I will because Wojnar, like I don't think that's gonna happen very often, maybe occasionally, but I do think that his presence is going to help make more people interested in watching St. Bonaventure. And I think that's gonna have a positive impact on the program, but outside of that, I think just having somebody in this role is going to help. And I think that that's kind of more the big picture side of the conversation. But this is an area where coaches are struggling to continue to do all the aspects of their job that they're expected to do when basketball games, be a leader of men and help get guys to graduate and all those other aspects deal with the media, things like that, sponsorships, fundraising, boosters, all of that stuff, and also be navigating 1,500 players in the transfer portal every year. And I think having somebody who's going to help take a huge part of that off of your plate and narrow the list down to, here's 100 guys, here's 50 guys, whatever specific things they're gonna ask him to do. Right now, one team in the A10's gonna have a guy doing that. The other 14 teams are not, and there's no way in my mind that that does not give them an advantage until the other teams catch up. Yeah, and look, I mean, the Bonnie's have been on the come-up since it was earlier in the 2000s where they had five straight seasons of single-digit wins. They've been playing much better in the past decade or so. And I think this is an opportunity to really cement themselves along with like Dayton and VCU who seemed to pretty perennially be up at the top. And so man, that's gonna be really interesting. Andi, I was thinking about this. You know, as this role continues to grow and more and more people see the good of it and the win of it and feel like it's worth the financial resource investment in it, here's the question I want to pose to us both. By the start of the 26/27 season, so basically two years from right now, what percentage of power five programs, let's assume the PAC-TO hasn't come back to that stat-a-jet, we'll have a GM on staff. - I would say 90 plus percent. I mean, I think honestly it's gonna be, if there are teams that don't at that level, they'll probably be in the process of hiring for that position. I think it's most, I mean, at the power level outside of the big East, most of those programs are gonna prioritize hiring this position for football if they haven't already, because you're dealing with 100 plus scholarships for football, it's a much more intensive ask. Obviously you have more coaches, but you're still gonna want somebody in that role. But I think that the basketball side of things, you're gonna start to see these roles become commonplace. And I think it should. And I do think WOGE does help with that. I think having a high profile person doing this role, regardless of what program it's at, I think helps kind of put it back in the national conversation. More people are gonna talk about it, more people are gonna be curious about it, and I think more programs are gonna start to realize the benefit that this kind of position can have. So by 26, 27, I'd be pretty surprised if there were more than a handful of power conference programs that don't have somebody in this role, and the ones that don't are probably gonna be teams that are either significantly focused on football and have never really put a lot of attention in their basketball, or like I said, teams that are in the process of hiring, because I think it's just gonna become a normal position that college sports programs, particularly basketball and football, have on staff just going forward. - Yeah, I was gonna put it at 85%, but I think you're probably closer to the correct ballpark answer there than I am, and what's interesting to me is you mentioned how it's probably more needed for football because of the bigger rosters, but that means that every single selection for our basketball roster are that much more important, and so I think I can make that argument as well as like, because every person on your roster matters in a more significant way, it's like all the more so let's get after this, what I'm really curious to see Andy is you know, I think about at the professional level, when we think about the GM head coach relationship, usually it's like I'm thinking of the movie draft day where Kevin Costner's like, look, I'm building this team, you just gotta coach it, whatever that dude's name is, from what I can see his face, I can't think of that extra name. Anyway, it's like that's the relationship at the professional level. I feel like this is gonna be a little bit more flipped where coaches will say, all right, here's what we need, here's our approach to this, and these are the kind of kids I need you to go look for, whether it's in high school or the transfer portal or whatever, and it's probably like the GM is in on those meetings with the entire staff, and I think it will be more collective at the collegiate level, but that the head coach will be the one that is really, really probably laying that groundwork more than we see at the professional level. - Before we move on, I just wanna read this quote here from Drew Joyce, the new head coach at Duquesne, we're gonna be talking about him taking over at Duquesne in a second, but he was asked about Wodes joining the Bonnie's, and he said, Wodes, he's been around the game, he's an alumni, so he has pride and passion, I believe he's going to put his best foot forward, hopefully he does a good job and not a great job, and I thought that was a humorous way for Drew Joyce to handle this, and leads kind of perfectly into our next conversation, which is the A10, two years ago was a single-bit league, that was the first time in nearly 20 years that the A10 didn't put multiple teams in the big dance. Last year, kind of the only reason they did was because of that Duquesne team that managed to sneak into the tournament, steal a bid by winning the A10 Conference Championship, but we're gonna talk about how the A10 does seem to be moving in the right direction after bottoming out a couple years ago, and whether that trend is going to continue, all that coming up in just a second. The first folks, let's talk about eBay Motors, Passion, Drive, Patience, that's the formula for winning championships, and it's also what helps keep your rider die alive. eBay Motors has everything that you need to maintain your vehicle and level it up to peak performance, from superchargers to roof racks, exhaust kits to LED headlights and more, whether you're into speed, power, or style, eBay Motors has you covered. And with over 122 million parts for your number one rider die, you'll always find exactly what you're looking for. 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Go to Carvana.com to sell your car the convenient way. - All right, I was heading into our 810 conference preview, and like you said at the beginning of the show, really nice timing to have this Wojnarowski conversation happen as we get into talking about the 810, they were the planned conference preview for this episode, so it kind of gave us an extra storyline, a major storyline to talk about leading into this conference preview. But there's some other exciting stuff going on in this conference. We'll talk some coaching changes. A big one, obviously at St. Louis with Josh Shirts taking over that program, bringing Robbie Habbalah along with him from Indiana State. But I think one of the big things we've seen in the 810 is that this conference has so traditionally been one of the few non-power conferences to put multiple teams in the NCAA tournament. And Mountain West typically does, the American typically does, the WCC oftentimes does. And the 810 is kind of one of the only other ones that regularly is a part of that conversation. And two seasons ago, they were a one-bid league, and it was the first time Isaac since 2005, that the 810 was a one-bid league. In 2023, it was the first time since 2005, 18 years. I guess 17, if you take out the year of the tournament, it didn't happen, but still an incredible streak of success for the 810. Last year they rebounded. They did get two teams in the tournament. Duquesne stole a bid like we mentioned, but they had multiple teams that had 20 plus wins. I think they had four teams in the NIT. So even if they might've only gotten one last year had Duquesne not done what Duquesne did, but we are seeing the conference kind of start to move back in the right direction after kind of bottoming out what it seemed like in 2023. And we got 11 coaches who are new since the 21-22 season. So majority of these programs have coaches who haven't been there for very long. And I think we're starting to kind of see those coaches get a little bit more comfortable as with any mid-major conference navigating the transfer portal is a challenge. And the 810 is not bleeding players the way that some of the smaller major conferences are, but it's still an adjustment that they have to make. And I think those changes are starting to kind of level out a little bit. And I expect that we're going to see the 810 continue to be one of the premier non-power conferences in college basketball. - I agree with you, Andy. I mean, early on, it seems like unless something wild just happens on paper, I fully expect this to be a multi-bid league this year and not in the same way that it happened last year. Like I have a hard time seeing Dayton not make it. BCU, probably St. Louis assuming that Robbie Avila does what we expected, you know, and we can get beyond that. But that's three teams that I feel like have right out of the gate, very legitimate expectations of making this thing. And so I feel like we should be taking steps back in the right direction and not just by the skin of the teeth, right? It could be three or more teams making it this year. And so I'm hopeful for that, you know, just as a kind of purist and traditionalist, I'm like, man, I like it when the 810 is solid and good. You and I were just looking back at Ken Palm data and stuff from years ago. At the beginning of the Ken Palm era, there was a couple of years where the 810 finished ahead of the SEC one year in '97 ahead of what we say, the big 12 in '88. - The big 12, yeah. - And so, I mean, obviously that's, we're not gonna get to that level right now, but I think we are trending in the right direction for sure. - Yeah, and I think, you know, we talked about 11 new coaches in the last couple of years. Two of them are coming in this year. And I think that's one of the big storylines. Obviously, Josh Shirts coming from Indiana State, they were tremendous last year. A lot of people were kind of surprised that Shirts, for lack of a better word, settled for the job at St. Louis. I think there were some people, you know, Darian DeVries coming from the same conference. He gets the job at West Virginia. So I think some people thought, "Oh, like maybe we'll see Josh Shirts get a power level job." But St. Louis is a traditionally very solid program. And I think this is a really fun year. - They were not last year. - Yeah, yes, not last year. And I think bringing Avila with him, I think it's going to be really interesting to see how that goes. And that's one of two coaching changes. The other one being Drew Joyce. We mentioned him earlier, taking over at Duquesne for the retired Keith Bambrot. Joyce is a close friend of LeBron James and the James family, played high school basketball with LeBron. And that kind of leads to what would have been one of the most interesting and fun storylines of the A10 and frankly, the entire college basketball season. It was rumored. I don't know if it was just a rumor that people connected the dots on it or if there was actually some smoke here. But Bronnie James, before he declared for the NBA draft, he did, or before he kept his name in the NBA draft, he also went on the transfer portal. And there were some rumors. What if he were to go to Duquesne to go play for Drew Joyce, somebody he's known pretty much his entire life, basically his whole life. That would have been a really fun story. Duquesne would have offered Bronnie a chance to, you know, not necessarily feel as much pressure as being in the former Pac-12 Big Ten. And he stayed at USC like he didn't look like a Power Five starting guard as a freshman. I think that's a reasonable take about Bronnie's performance. But maybe he would have been able to kind of shine in a different role at Duquesne. I wish it had happened. I think it would have been fun. I think Bronnie needed more seasoning in college again. This is not a hot take. I think most people feel even more strongly about it than I do, but I think I would have liked to see what Bronnie could have done in the A10 and just how Duquesne would have handled having that player on their roster. I think it would have been a really interesting storyline that I'm sad we didn't get. - Yeah, I am too, Andy. But you know what? Bronnie spoke it into existence years ago and he was not gonna let that go. So fine, whatever. We've been deprived of another year of Bronnie. Andy, for those who are unaware, let's just remind folks of the A10 membership. I'll go alphabetically here. Davidson, Dayton, Duquesne, we got some D's, Ford and George Mason, George Washington, with their recent nickname, James LaSalle, Leo and Chicago, who has been in the A10 now for a couple of years. Rhode Island, Richmond, Three Saints, Bonaventure, Joe's and Louis, or Louis, 'cause you know, whatever. UMass and then finally VCU. But a note on UMass, this is their last year before they're gonna head off to some action ahead of the 25, 26 season. So just keep that in mind. - Very organizing before you move on. UMass moving to the Mac from the A10 saddens me greatly because it's clearly a football-focused move and I get it. I don't wanna pretend I don't understand it, but it is taking a step down basketball-wise. It's just sad to see a program be willing to do that. I wish they could have kept their basketball on the A10, but alas, that is life in the college football-focused world of conference realignment. - Did you hear that, Andy? I think that was the sound of Marcus Cambi and John Calipari thoving gently into a tissue. Andy, last year, Loyola was the regular season champ, kind of rising back up. They had not been as good the year before. It's good to see them rise back under Drew Valentine. And then Duquesne, who we have been talking about, obviously was the tournament champ finding their way in. Andy, gonna be really interesting to see what happens. We had those two teams dating in Duquesne in the NCAA tournament, but four NIT teams, including VCU making to the quarterfinals, along with Loyola Richmond and St. Joe's, who will make our tournament predictions coming up here later on in the show. But Andy, I think that probably about wraps it up for big storylines here, unless you got anything else. - Nope, no, I am ready to make our predictions for this conference. - Oh, baby! Then we gotta talk about our bespectacled star, Robbie Avila, as the favorite for the A10 player of the year. And can he, in the midst of doing that, lead the Billikins to the big dance? We're gonna talk about that coming up in just a second. Right after I tell you about Fandool, look, you've heard us talk so much about Fandool, this summer, America's number one sports book, and we've been telling you this summer about a boost or a bonus that you can get daily from Fandool. Well, got something a little bit different for you this time around right now. Through September 22nd, all Fandool customers can bet $5 and get a three week free trial of NFL Sunday ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. And then with the YouTube TV base plan, you'll be able to watch every regular season Sunday afternoon out of market game. All you need is a Google account and a current form of payment, and you can cancel at any time. And look, the trial ends, the opportunity ends September 22nd. That's just a couple days away. So get in on this right now. Andy, how about some odds? National Championship, you know, we got some big boys at the top, Yukon, Duke, Kansas, all plus 1,000, Alabama plus 1,300. Scroll all the way down to Dayton plus 15,000. Why not take a flyer on it, folks, it'd be fun. Or how about wooden word odds? Our guy, Robbie Avila, oh man, plus 10,000, he has the best odds of any A10 player for that. Why not take a shot on that? If you want to get in on any of this or more, visit fandool.com/lockedon to download America's number one sports book. - Well, we got a minute and I'm gonna buy that truck I've been wanting. - Wait, don't you need like weeks to shop for a car? - I don't. Carvonda makes it super convenient to find exactly what I want. - Hold up, you're buying a car on your phone? Isn't that more of a laptop thing? - You can shop wherever you want. - I like to do my research. Read reviews, compare models. Plus, Carvonda has thousands of options. How'd you decide on that truck? - Because I like it. - Oh, that is a great reason. Go to Carvonda.com to sell your car the convenient way. - All right, Andy, it's time for some predictions. We're gonna go A10 first team player of the year, transfer the year, freshman of the year, D-Poi, coach of the year, and then we'll give you some tiers for how we think these teams slot out. Andy, why don't you start with your first team, A10? - Yeah, and one thing we'll acknowledge here and we'll acknowledge is for all of the conference previews that we do, we always pick five players for the first team, we're not gonna do any 10 team, 10 player first teams, we're not doing that. - Honestly, that's why the Pac-12's dead, Andy, is 'cause I was dead. - That's what killed 'em. That must have been a difference. But we also only ever pick one player per team. So while I think even in A10, I think the 15 teams, there are still a couple of team draws, like, I could pick two or three guys from this team, but we're limiting ourselves to just one per team. So here's my first team here for the A10. Robbie Avila, not a surprise there whatsoever. Ed St. Louis transferring over from Indiana State. He was our first team Missouri Valley Conference last year. I got Max Shulga, who flirted with Villanova, and more than that, he was enrolled and was getting ready to move to Villanova and decided, you know, I actually don't wanna hit the transfer portal after all, return to VCU. He was a first teamer last year, no reason to think he won't be once again. Speaking of first teamers last year, Eric Reynolds from St. Joe's did it last year, expecting him to do it again. My last two picks, I got Posh Alexander, Butler transfer, formerly at St. John's. Now at Dayton for his final year of college basketball eligibility, I got him on the list. And then Des Washington from Loyola, Chicago. Watson, excuse me, Des Watson from Loyola, Chicago. He was a second teamer in the A10 last year. I expect him to take the leap and be a first teamer this year. - Andy, I have no idea why I just thought of this, and this is not the time for this discussion. Dayton feels very big-easty to me at some point in time. All right. - I think in the future, yes. - Yeah, I don't know why I just thought about that. Anyway, Andy, we have three of the same five. I've also got Avila, Shulga, and Reynolds on my first team. So I'll just give you my other two. The Dayton player I went with was not Posh Alexander. In fact, there were multiple Dayton players. I thought about for this, and I landed on Nate Santos, returning forward for the Flyers, who was 13 all A10 last year. And then I also went with George Mason's Darius Maddox, a guard there, played three years at Virginia Tech, was this will be year two at George Mason. This dude, Andy, is a career 41.9% from three, and a career 84.3% from the free throw line. Had about 14 points a game last year at George Mason. I think he takes another step forward this year in year five, one of those last ever COVID eligible players. Andy, out of all of that, who are you going with for your A10 player of the year? - Yeah, I'm going with Avila. I mean, I think obviously any player who's transferring up, I suppose in this case, you wonder if they're gonna be able to replicate their production, but I don't think there's a huge difference between the Missouri Valley Conference and the A10 and I think Avila's skill set is gonna translate at that level. He's playing with the same coach. I think that helps a lot as well because shirts was really invested in making sure that Avila was able to get the touches necessary to put up the numbers that he did last year, which for those who need a reminder were incredible. He averaged 17 and a half points a game. He averaged six and a half boards. He also averaged over four assists per game shot, just under 40% from three. We're talking about a 610 big man who can space the floor. He can distribute the ball. He's a decent rebounder. He's a high level scorer. I don't expect him to take any kind of drop moving to the A10. And if he puts up numbers anywhere close to that and if St. Louis jumps in the standings, which I expect that they will, I think he's gonna be the guy taking home that trophy next year. - Andy, I thought long and hard about this one, almost went with it. Also, did you notice that you said Josh Shirts was invested in... - Ooh, I'm so proud of you right now as a corny dad. - I'm actually gonna go with VCU's Max Shoga, who will be in his second year at VCU. As you said, we thought he might have landed in the big East, but coming back. And I just think he's just a prime candidate to me to take an even bigger leap and really hop up. And so I wouldn't, won't be shocked at all. And I think it's a great pick with Avila. But I just, I got some Max Shoga vibes for this thing. So doing that, that said though, I think the transfer of the year is probably a no brainer for both of us. Do you have who I have? - Yeah, I think it's gotta be Avila. And I think it's pretty clear it's gonna be him. But I did have a couple honorable mentions. - Well, it's here. - I'm actually gonna mention Posh Alexander in another spot later. So I'll skip him for now. But another player that, I don't know if he's, he's not gonna win it over Avila, but Katie Johnson is now in the A10. He's gonna play for George Mason this year. I'm really interested in how this might go. For those who need to refresh her, Katie Johnson, spent the last three years at Auburn, was a freshman at Georgia prior to that, has kind of saw his production dip every single year. He's been in college basketball, he's not a particularly productive scorer, but he can get hot in a hurry. He's, I think he's gonna have the keys to the kingdom at George Mason. I think they're gonna give him a lot of freedom. And I'm interested to see if he could go out and put up like 17 points a game. It might be a pretty unproductive 17 points a game, but that might get him at least in this conversation. And more than anything else, I'm just interested to see how he looks at a different level out of the SEC. - And yeah, I'm gonna go for an honorable mention transfer with Zed Key coming over from Ohio State, staying in Ohio, going to Dayton. So we'll be playing along with Posh Alexander and with Nate Santos, who we mentioned earlier. And so man, I've just, Dayton, - That's got some intriguing pieces. - Looking at freshman of the year, this was a tougher one to pick. Obviously not a lot of top 100 caliber freshmen who are going to the A10 right now, but VCU did land a top 150 prospect in Luke Bamboy. He's a 610th center. He played at Compass Prep High School in Arizona, one of the West Coast basketball factories. He had offers from a lot of high profile programs. Houston had an offer out on him. So did SMU in Miami and Iowa, Georgia Tech and Cal offers from a lot of good programs, ends up going to VCU. They lost some of their production in the front court graduated last year. So I think we're gonna see Bamboy play a decent role right away as a freshman. And I think that's enough to have him have a serious consideration for this award. - Andy, I'm going to the bottom of the conference. I don't think LaSalle's gonna be very good this year, spoiler alert for our tears, but give me Deuce Jones, who is a six, two point guard out of Edison, New Jersey. I think he's gonna do some stuff for the Ramblers. No, the explorers, excuse me. Who's the Ramblers? I'm going all the way. Thank you, good grief. Just all these guys going on journeys. You know what I'm saying, Ramblers, explorers, it doesn't matter. But Deuce Jones, watch out for him coming out of LaSalle. - Defensive player of the year, this is where I'm gonna have Posh Alexander. And it's honestly, it was not a hard decision for me, Posh Alexander spent four years in the big East. And he led the conference in steals all four years. There's no reason he's not gonna do, have similar production in the A10 where the guards are not quite as good, pop to bottom. So don't be surprised to see Posh Alexander average, 2.6, 2.8, three steals per game, win defensive player of the year, book it. - My only question is why Tony Bennett didn't get him down at Virginia. It feels like a clear and obvious choice. No, don't overthink this, Posh Alexander is your deep boy. - Let's go coach of the year here. I'm going with Billy Lang at St. Joe's. I think St. Joe's is gonna be a top three, top four team in the league. I think they're gonna compete with Dayton VCU and St. Louis at the top there. Lang has let in the four full seasons, not counting the COVID shortened year. Lang has gone from six wins to 11 wins to 16 wins, last year to 21 wins. That is incredible consistency. Five added wins per year. I'm not necessarily saying that I'm predicting they're gonna win 26 games this year. I haven't looked at their entire schedule, but if they win 23, 24, 25 games, maybe they go, they were nine and nine in the league last year. If they are over 500 in the league, I think there's a real chance they do that. Eric Reynolds is back, Xavier Brown is back. They added a transfer from Rutgers, Derek Simpson, who averaged eight points per game last year. Yeah, give me Billy Lang taking into, taking home this award for Seachos. Andy, I'm actually gonna go with Josh Schurts because St. Louis, man, was struggled. Struggled a lot back here. Man, 13 and 20 overall, five and 13 in the eight, 10. Prior to that, Coach Ford had had four of the last five seasons, were 21 seasons. The only one that wasn't was the year after COVID, when they only played 21 games. So, you know, it's like, come on, what we're doing. And so I just really think it's weird, you know, as somebody who lives in the state of Missouri, it was odd last year. People were coming to me, knowing that I do college basketball. I was like, what is happening with St. Louis? And so I just think Schurts comes in, obviously when you have a talent like Avila, I think that helps propel them. And we know how this goes a lot of times. It's either people vote for somebody that was supposed to get like 30th in their conference and finishes 25th, or the shiny new thing on the block. That's nice and people are gonna vote for it. So that for me is Josh Schurts. Andy, let's wrap this up with quickly getting through our tiers. I'm just gonna rock through it. And you tell me if you got anybody that you're super out on, or think I'm an idiot for saying it this way. Tier one, for me, I've got VCU and Dayton in a class by themselves atop the A10. Right behind them though, is this conglomerate in tier two of St. Louis, St. Joe's, George Mason, and Loyola Chicago. Andy, the Ramblers, I wish you'd gotten that right earlier. I'm just kidding, that was me. Tier three, I've got these Bonnie's and their new general manager and Duquesne. I might be a little high on Duquesne. That's when I keep questioning and flipping. Tier four, this is my biggest tier, George Washington, UMass in their last year, Richmond, Rody, and the fight in Steph Curry's Davidson. Davidson's another team that I can't quite figure out what they're gonna be this year. And then tier five down at the bottom, mentioned it earlier, LaSalle and Fordham. That's my tiers for the A10. - I think that's pretty good. I'm with you and I'm not sure what to do with Davidson. I think you have them in the right spot, but I wouldn't be surprised if they make both of us look silly this year. I think the only thing I might do is I might move George Mason to tier three with St. Bonaventure and Duquesne. And it's not even like that I think George Mason's gonna be bad, I just think that I feel more strongly about St. Louis St. Joe's and Loyola being in that tier. And then the tier three, the Bonnie's Duquesne and George Mason are all kind of wild card teams and I feel like they kind of all belong closer together. I can see them all being top five in the league. I could also see them being, you know, in the eight, nine, 10 range as well. So it's gonna be a really fun league year in the A10. I think there's a lot of teams that are gonna kind of be able to compete for those top three or four spots. I think spots four through like nine could go a lot of different directions. - I agree. And you know what? I appreciate your George Mason movement. I'm in on it way to go. Let's change it. Andy quickly, get us out. Regular season conference tournament chance in the A10, what you got? - Dayton's gonna win regular season. I think the rosters, they're a well-coached team. I think even losing to Ron Holmes, I think they're still gonna be in that conversation. Conference tournament is always a crapshoot. Give me St. Louis, why not? Give me St. Louis. I think Josh Shirts is very unhappy. He missed the NCAA tournament last year. So is Obla. They're gonna find a way to ensure their spot in the dance. So give me Dayton win in the regular season. Give me St. Louis in the conference tournament. They're both gonna make the NCAA tournament as well. - I was gonna go VCU regular season, but Dayton as my conference tournament champs, but St. Louis is hanging around with both of those as well. So I don't think either of us are very far off from each other there. - That is gonna wrap it up for us today, folks. I love these conference previews. They are so much fun. It's always a good opportunity for us to dig in deep. Look at all the newcomers. Look at the new coaches. Look at how things are shaken out and each of these respective conferences. We're gonna do quite a few more of these between now and the start of the college basketball season. We're also gonna continue our team preview series. As you folks have been seeing, we've been doing quite a few of those episodes throughout the last couple of weeks as well. We're looking forward to continuing to dive deep on each of those perceived top 25 teams as well as the high major and a few of the fun mid major conferences for those previews as well. Folks, have a fantastic weekend. As always, apologies to the lawyer family. Let's go Wildcats. And until next time, as always, peace out. - A prime members, you can listen to this lock-down podcast ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. (upbeat music)
