Atlantic 10 preview: High hopes for VCU and GW, and a new roster for George Mason

Welcome to November It s time again for our annual preseason previews of the local college basketball teams The Atlantic Tournament won t be held in D C this season bummer Last March s tournament saw a championship tournament showdown between locals VCU and George Mason go down to the final possessions as the Rams punched their NCAA Tournament ticket with a - win This year thanks to transfers Barry Evans from Bryant Jadrian Tracey from Oregon and Tyrell Ward from LSU VCU is picked to win the A- again with a different George projected to finish in the upper tier George Washington posted wins last season its highest total since the NIT Championship season of and is picked to finish fourth Coach Chris Caputo mentioned he feels good about the association he s put together I think we re unselfish and I think we play very hard Caputo explained I think those two things are evident and several of the things we need to clean up everybody demands to clean up this time of year Preseason A- selection Rafael Castro averaged points with nine rebounds in his first year at GW and anticipates a fun style this winter You re going to see a lot of defense we re going to play hard Castro recounted me last month You re going to see a lot of dunks a lot of alley oops a lot of exciting play Caputo added Duquesne s Tre Dinkins III through the transfer portal while holdovers Trey Autry and Christian Jones each had their moments last season But he also knows that success this season does not hinge on what happened last year You can t look back and say OK if we were good last year and we got a few returners we re going to be good again ' Caputo mentioned We ve got to do a great job of getting there every single day with the work that we put in The work continues this month with games against American at the Smith Center and next month with a neutral site matchup against defending national champion Florida George Mason was picked sixth and coach Tony Skinn s association is coming off a - season tying the Final Four group and the squad that reached the round of for the preponderance wins in initiative history And he s had to tweak his preseason preparations after losing standouts Jalen Haynes to Cincinnati and Giovanni Emejuru to East Carolina To be honest with you the new X s and O s is really just management You know everyone can run offense and draw on the clipboard but can you manage your organization Skinn mentioned Especially with six seven eight nine new guys The main holdover from last year is preseason All-A selection Brayden O Connor who will look to produce on the floor and in the locker room He s a big-time contestant he s the hardest working guy on our crew Skinn declared He s one of the hardest working guys that I ve coached He puts so much pressure on himself but he s a great leader and he s going to have a chance to lead the charge this year Mason s charge through the nonconference season includes a two-week stretch where they ll host former CAA foes James Madison and Old Dominion while visiting Virginia Tech VCU went - last season and as mentioned was picked to win the league again as new head coach Phil Martelli Jr tries to become the seventh consecutive Rams coach to lead the undertaking to the NCAA Tournament This is a streak that goes back to Jeff Capel who left the school for Oklahoma in Current Richmond coach Chris Mooney wrapped up his first season with the Spiders with a - record and Richmond is tenth in the preseason poll But the Spiders have not posted consecutive losing league seasons since and they also have foreseen with senior center Mike Walz getting preseason notice and junior guard Mikkel Tyne returning after averaging points per competition last winter Source