The Sports Gambling Podcast Network breaks down one of the country’s most volatile leagues, giving our Atlantic 10 Conference tournament preview, picks, and best bets.
Richmond and Loyola-Chicago shared the regular season title with a 15-3 conference record, but the Richmond Spiders will be the number one overall seed for the conference tournament. Bracketology has two Atlantic 10 teams slated to be dancing, but Loyola-Chicago is not one of them. Dayton will likely receive an at-large bid, and the second would be the champion of the Atlantic 10 tournament.
2024 Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament Preview, Picks, and Best Bets
2024 Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament Odds
Dayton +150
Richmond +475
Loyola-Chicago +550
Massachusetts +700
VCU +1000
St. Bonaventure +1300
Duquesne +1400
George Mason +1500
Saint Josephs +2500
Davidson +5000
La Salle +35000
Fordham +35000
Saint Louis +40000
George Washington +40000
Rhode Island +50000
The Favorite: Dayton +150
Dayton protected their home court all season without a blemish. They finished 15-0 at home and 14-4 in the conference. Richmond and Loyola-Chicago both finished with better records in conference; therefore, Dayton slides into the 3 seed here.
Five of Dayton’s six losses on the season have been by 5 points or less. The outlier? A neutral court game against Houston in November. This Dayton team is competitive, and it will take a lot for a contender in the Atlantic 10 to take down Da’Ron Holmes and the Flyers.
The Flyers don’t have an automatic bid to worry about, as they seem to be in at large. I’m sure that they would like to win a conference tournament that they haven’t in 20 years.
Best Bet: Richmond +475
The top overall seed getting 5/1 odds on the tournament should tell you how wide-open this conference is. Richmond is slotted in as a 12 seed in Bracketology projections and has the dreaded ‘aq’ designation. They are only projected to be dancing if they automatically qualify by winning their conference tournament.
The Spiders didn’t put together enough of a resume like the Dayton Flyers did. Richmond will await the winner of George Mason and St. Joseph’s to kick off their tournament. George Mason knocked off Richmond in the final game of the season, but we have to speculate on motivation factors in that one.
UMass sticks out as the thorn in the side of all of these teams in terms of matchups. Frank Martin is a veteran coach and has a team that is confident they can beat anyone in the bracket.
Richmond will have a collision course with them. They opted for the number one overall seed instead of the similarly priced Minutemen due to the Spiders’ ability to hold onto the ball on offense. They don’t turn it over.
Dark Horse: VCU +1000
It’s interesting to call the defending conference tournament champion the dark horse, but that’s a testament to how much changes in a year in this sport. VCU starts with the winner of Fordham and Davidson.
The Rams don’t get the luxury of the double bye as they fell outside of the top four in the conference standings. Given the extra game, the odds are warranted.
The Rams lost their last three games to complete the slide, but a new season is upon us, and the only way to dance is to win the tournament. I am encouraged by the way the Rams competed against Richmond this season, in addition to their two close games against Dayton—this team is a player in the conference.
They will run into UMass if they win their opening game. UMass beat the Rams by 22 points in their last meeting, and we love a good spot to exact revenge.
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