ANALYSIS: A-10 full of surprises in Week 1

“It’s like something went haywire in here,” one announcer said.

The same thing happened in the A-10 standings with only a 2-0 start by the Dayton Flyers, the preseason favorite and highest-rated team in all the various rankings, bringing stability to the conference.

Much will change over the course of the 18-game schedule, which stretches from Jan. 3 to March 9, but there were a number of takeaways in the first week of play.

Best start: Dayton (12-2, 2-0) did not trail in either of its first two games, winning 72-57 at Davidson in dominant fashion on Wednesday and then hanging on to beat UMass 64-60 on Sunday at UD Arena. The Flyers have won nine games in a row and are on the verge of being ranked in the Associated Press top-25 poll.

Team to watch: George Mason (13-2, 2-0) joined Dayton and Loyola Chicago at the top of the standings by winning 77-62 at La Salle on Wednesday and then beating Saint Louis 79-67. This is the second 2-0 start for the Patriots in 11 seasons in the A-10.

Most improved team: Loyola Chicago (10-5, 2-0) needed 10 games to win two games in the A-10 last season and finished 4-14. Last week, it won 80-73 at Saint Louis and 72-67 against Duquesne in its A-10 home opener.

Des Watson, who played the last two seasons at another A-10 school (Davidson), scored 24 and 15 points, respectively in the two A-10 games.

Worst start: Defending champion Virginia Commonwealth, which was picked to finish second, lost two home games: 89-78 to St. Bonaventure on Wednesday; and 84-82 to George Washington on Saturday. Since the A-10 did away with divisions after the 2004-05 season, no eventual regular-season champion has started 0-2.

NET update: Seven A-10 teams rank in the top 100 of the NCAA Evaluation Tool: No. 20 Dayton; No. 57 George Mason; No. 60 Saint Joseph’s; No. 64 St. Bonaventure; No. 77 UMass; No. 90 Duquesne; and No. 93 Richmond. Only three teams finished in the top 100 last season: No. 53 VCU; No. 78 Davidson; and No. 99 Saint Louis.

Best shots: George Washington guard James Bishop IV, the leading scorer in the A-10 last season, made a tie-breaking jump shot with 1.7 seconds remaining to beat VCU. He scored 23 of his 28 points after halftime. He’s averaging 18.5 points, second behind Duquesne guard Dae Dae Grant (18.6).

• Rhode Island guard Luis Kortright made a driving layup with one second to play to break a tie with Saint Joseph’s and lead the Rams to a 78-74 victory on the opening night of A-10 play Wednesday. Rhode Island added two more points at the free-throw line just before the buzzer.

Most surprising result: Saint Joseph’s (10-4, 0-1) ranked among the top A-10 performers in non-conference play but lost to Rhode Island (7-7, 1-0), which ranked among the biggest strugglers. Forward David Green, a two-time transfer who couldn’t play until the NCAA decision in December to make all transfers eligible, has boosted Rhode Island with 31 points in his first two appearances.

“New team, new season,” second-year Rhode Island coach Archie Miller told the Providence Journal. “If you watched us play, the first 10 or 11 games were totally different just in terms of personnel and ability level. Now that we have some things figured out, we can keep tweaking it a little bit more. We’re going to need every single guy on our team to be ready to go. But we’re a little different right now.”

Best player: Dayton junior forward DaRon Holmes II scored 18 in each of the first two A-10 games. He has made three 3-pointers in three of Dayton’s last five games. He ranks eighth in KenPom.com’s national player of the year standings.

Best newcomers: Three players who were on other teams a season ago rank in the top in scoring.

• Richmond fifth-year senior guard Jordan King played two seasons at Siena and then two at East Tennessee State before joining the Spiders. He’s averaging a career-best 17.8 points per game.

• George Mason sophomore guard Keyshawn Hall averaged 5.4 points last season as a freshman at UNLV and is averaging 17.3 this season.

• Josh Cohen, a fifth-year forward, is averaging 16.6 points. He played the last four seasons at St. Francis (Pa.), scoring 1,132 points.

Biggest potential injury news: Dayton guard Kobe Elvis landed awkwardly after making a short jump shot against UMass, fell to the ground and clutched his right knee. He left the game at the 18:15 mark but returned at the 15:15 mark and played three more minutes before leaving the game for good.

Elvis did not warm up for the second half and sat on the bench the rest of the game. He was not icing the knee at that time, however.

Monday on the weekly Flyer Insider show on WHIO Radio, the voice of the Flyers, Larry Hansgen, asked coach Anthony Grant about Elvis. “I have no idea at this point,” Grant said, “but hopefully we’ll know soon.”

Best off-court drama: Saint Louis (7-8, 0-2) started A-10 play with a loss at home to Loyola Chicago and then fell at George Mason.

The Billikens have finished in the top five four years in a row, but fans are restless. Coach Travis Ford has one NCAA tournament appearance in seven seasons. Two of the most critical accounts on X (Twitter) received direct messages this week from anonymous accounts defending Ford and the program. On Monday, Ford was forced to admit his son ran one of the accounts.

“I told him, ‘Hey, your heart was probably in the right place’ but we’ve talked about these things before,’” Ford said on his weekly radio show, according to a report by Stu Durando, of the St. Louis Post Dispatch. “Someone talking negative about me wouldn’t be the first time, and we’ve talked about this as a family on many occasions. It’s very easy for me to ignore. I pay no attention to it. They get upset when it becomes personal.”