2024 A-10 championship preview: Dayton, Richmond, Loyola among top contenders in Brooklyn

UD’s social media team, however, sometimes has access to the locker room, and in their latest video shared Saturday, they gave glimpses of Grant talking to the team after the last two games.

“We’ve got one more regular-season home game left,” Grant said Tuesday after a 100-83 victory at Saint Louis. “We’ve got a chance to go undefeated at home. It’s my seventh year. We’ve done it once. I don’t know how many other teams in the history of Dayton basketball have done that. You’ve got a chance to do it. Let’s accomplish that goal. It’s March. It’s a fun time of year.”

Then on Friday, after a 91-86 overtime victory against Virginia Commonwealth, Grant entered the locker room at UD Arena as the camera rolled. His players circled around him.

“Fellas, I’m emotional,” Grant said. “You guys were down 17. You never quit. They made 18 3 tonight. You found a way to win. The whole game, adversity hits you. I’m in awe. I really am. You guys made history tonight. And the fashion that you did it in tonight, guys I’ve been doing this for a long time, that’s about as good as I’ve seen in terms of grit and toughness and resiliency.”

Grant may need even more inspiring speeches and words of wisdom this week as Dayton (24-6, 14-4) plays in the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament in Brooklyn, N.Y. The No. 3 seed Flyers will play No. 6 Duquesne (20-11, 10-8), No. 11 Rhode Island (12-19, 6-12) or No. 14 Saint Louis (12-19, 5-13) in the quarterfinals at 7:30 p.m. Thursday.

The tournament starts with three games involving the six lowest seeds on Tuesday. No. 1 seed Richmond (23-8, 15-3) and No. 2 Loyola Chicago (23-8, 15-3) tied for the regular-season championship. Dayton is the only contender for a NCAA tournament at-large berth. It’s expected to be a wide-open tournament as always.

“I just think there’s a lot a lot of really good teams and well-coached teams in this league,” VCU coach Ryan Odom said Friday. “We’re certainly happy to be a part of it. (The A-10) doesn’t get the national respect it deserves. I think all the coaches would agree with that. The rankings are the rankings and could be a little bit flawed at times, but that’s neither here nor there. I do like where the A-10 is at right now and seeing where it could be headed in the future.”

Here’s a preview of the 15-team field:

Favorite: Dayton is the favorite, according to the Las Vegas odds. The Flyers were 1-2 agains the other top seeds with losses at No. 1 seed Richmond and at No. 2 Loyola and a victory at home against No. 4 Massachusetts (20-10, 11-7).

Dayton was the favorite the last two years, according to KenPom.com. The Flyers lost to Richmond in the semifinals in 2022 and lost to Virginia Commonwealth in the championship game in 2023. They have not won the tournament since 2003 and have never won the tournament outside UD Arena.

Surprising top seeds: Richmond (23-8, 15-3) was picked to finish 11th in the preseason poll and tied Loyola for first place, claiming a share of the regular-season title for the first time in its 23rd season in the league.

Richmond will play No. 8 seed George Mason (20-11, 9-9) or No. 9 Saint Joseph’s (19-12, 9-9) in the first quarterfinal game at 11:30 a.m. Thursday. Richmond split two games with George Mason in the regular season, winning 77-70 at George Mason in January and losing 64-46 at George Mason on Saturday. Richmond beat Saint Joseph’s 73-66 on Wednesday in Virginia.

• No. 2 seed Loyola Chicago (23-8, 15-3) finished last in the A-10 with a 4-14 mark a year ago in its first season in the league and tied Richmond for first this season.

Loyola will play No. 7 St. Bonaventure, No. 10 La Salle or No. 15 George Washington at 5 p.m. Thursday in the quarterfinals. Loyola lost at St. Bonaventure (18-12, 9-9), beat La Salle (15-16, 6-12) at home and beat George Washington (15-16, 4-4) on the road.

Hottest team: No. 6 seed Duquesne has won four games in a row. It beat La Salle at home, George Mason and VCU on the road and then George Washington at home.

“We played seven of the top nine teams in the league on the road,” Duquesne coach Keith Dambrot said in his postgame press conference Saturday. “Clearly, we’re a good team, but we’re also capable of losing to anyone. That’s what this league is. It’s a tough league. You have to battle every single night regardless of what place the teams are in.

Duquesne reached the 20-win mark in back-to-back seasons for the first time sine 1970-71 (21-4) and 1971-72 (20-5).

Coldest team: No. 12 seed Davidson (15-16, 5-13) lost the last five games of the regular season. It needs to win two games to avoid its first losing season since 2000-01 (15-17). Its A-10 record this season was its worst since joining the league in the 2014-15 season.

Davidson plays No. 13 Fordham (6-12, 12-19) in the first game of the tournament at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday. Davidson beat Fordham 79-69 and 68-53 in the regular season.

Player to watch: Dayton forward DaRon Holmes II leads the A-10 with 20.2 points per game. He’s the first Dayton player to lead the league in scoring.

Holmes was named Most Outstanding Player of the Tournament last year. He averaged 21.7 points in three games. He was the second Dayton player to win the award and first since Ramod Marshall in 2003. He was the first player to win the award from a losing team since Pat Carroll of Saint Joseph’s in 2005.

The last player to win the award two seasons in a row was Temple’s Dionte Christmas in 2008 and 2009.

Seed success: Five different seeds — every seed except a No. 2 — has won the championship in the last eight tournaments, and seven different programs have won the championship in the same span: No. 1 VCU (2023); 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 Rhode Island (2016); and No. 5 VCU (2015).

Brooklyn tradition: This will be the eighth time the event has been played at the Barclays Center. That includes the 2020 tournament, which saw two games played before being cancelled because of the pandemic.

Saint Joseph’s (2014 and 2016), Saint Louis (2013 and 2019) and Virginia Commonwealth (2015 and 2023) have each won two championships in Brooklyn. The event moves to the Capital One Center in Washington, D.C., in 2025.

History lesson: Four teams have never won the A-10 tournament: Fordham; George Mason; La Salle; and Loyola, which lost in the first round last year in its A-10 tournament debut.

• 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 (28 years), Dayton (21) and George Washington (18) also have long droughts.

• No team has repeated as champion since Temple from three straight tiles from 2008-10. The only current A-10 program that has repeated is Massachusetts, which won five straight championships from 1992-96 but has not won since.