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Morning Session
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WASHINGTON -- The Atlantic 10 Conference had a first on Oct. 7 as it hosted a joint men’s and women’s basketball media day at District E in Washington D.C. which is adjacent to Capital One Arena, the site of the 2025 Atlantic 10 Men’s Basketball Championship.
A total of 30 women’s basketball coaches and student-athletes filled their Monday talking about their teams and spreading excitement about the fast-approaching basketball season.
This was done throughout the day by a press conference, interviews with The Next, CBS, national women’s basketball figure Debbie Antonelli, social media, pictures and many more activations.
Gallery: (10-8-2024) 2024 Atlantic 10 Basketball Media Day
It was an opportunity for everyone to come together to discuss women’s basketball, which unquestionably has been on the rise.
“As a former scholarship women's basketball student-athlete who played at the University of North Carolina and also a former coach at Georgia Tech, I just think the explosion over the last 24 months, really the excitement and appreciation for women's sports in general, but women's basketball in particular is extremely evident,” A-10 Commissioner Bernadette McGlade stated. “The coaches and student-athletes we have in that sport are tremendous, talented, skilled, smart, competitive and I think that's critically important.”
The day also provided an opportunity for head coaches to reconnect with one another while student-athletes, who normally only see each other when they compete, had a chance to interact with peers, and could find bonds and commonalities.
Six teams achieved postseason play last season, the most for the conference since 2018, with Saint Louis emerging victorious in the WNIT. The Atlantic 10 also had six teams in the top 90 of the NET which tied for the most teams of any non-autonomous league in Davidson, Richmond, Saint Joseph’s, VCU, George Mason and Rhode Island.
As Dayton Head Coach Tamika Williams-Jeter explained it, every night in the Atlantic 10 is a fight, and she cannot wait to see how this season shapes up.
“There's no better time to be in this conference,” Williams-Jeter beamed. “I think we have very good players in the A-10 and have great coaches. On any night, you can see anything. I play Aaron (Roussell) in Richmond, it's a positionless type of basketball team with lots of threes. If you guard them small, they're going to post you up. Davidson (Gayle Fulks) is going to switch everything and muddy the water. I go to Saint Louis, (Rebecca Tillett) is going to try to defend and take everything away from Ivy Wolf. Being a young coach coming into such a great conference, you learn a lot. I've grown a lot as a head coach in this conference. I'm most excited about competing, winning and putting a product out there that can be competitive. It's shown that if you're competitive in the A-10, you're one of the best teams in the country.”
Last season Richmond won the Atlantic 10 Championship, making its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2005, after a 65-51 triumph over Rhode Island.
The Spiders rank atop this season’s preseason poll garnering 10 of a possible 15 first-place votes. They return Addie Budnik, a Preseason All-Conference First and Defensive selection and Maggie Doogan, a first team selection, the latter of whom joined coach Aaron Roussell at media day.
“You constantly remember being on the floor, the hugs that you had,” stated Roussell on his team’s triumph. “Talking with the fans about how much fun they had in Henrico watching this team. It helped the perspective in Richmond of our program and hopefully give us some steam for the upcoming season as well.”
Saint Joseph’s placed second, claiming four first-place votes. The Hawks return a core which includes Preseason All-Conference First Teamers Talya Brugler and Laura Ziegler, in addition to Mackenzie Smith who was placed on the second team.
As coach Cindy Griffin enters her 24
th season, there was a clear look displaying both confidence and pride in the returning group she has, which when mixed in with a couple of new pieces is eager to take the next step as a program.
“We're really excited about this year, as you can imagine, coming off a great year last year,” Griffin explained. “Just looking to take that next step with this team and we feel that we have the best team to do that. We had a great offseason; kids were working hard and very determined. I'm looking forward to a great year.”
George Mason placed third in the poll. The Patriots improved by seven wins overall and six triumphs in A-10 play, bringing energy and family to the court each game.
The coaches recognized George Mason’s growth, by placing four players on preseason all-conference teams, the most of any program in Zahirah Walton (second team), Ta’Viyanna Habib (third team), Kennedy Harris (third team) and Nalani Kaysia (third team).
“We feel like we really took off at the end of last season,” coach Vanessa Blair-Lewis stated. “We had a really historic season, a great run that ended a little abruptly and I think that's the fire and passion we've been able to practice and play with throughout the summer going into preseason. I always say championship teams are player led, not coach led, this team is truly player led.”
Davidson placed fourth, earning the final first-place vote, a nod to the jump it took last season playing with joy and beating Wake Forest and Duke in the non-conference slate.
A returning Charlise Dunn was placed on the Preseason All-Conference Second Team causing coach Gayle Fulks to offer many of her trademark fist pumps throughout the season.
“The Atlantic 10 is a wonderful conference, from top to bottom there are excellent coaches, there's wonderful players, a lot have chosen to stay in the league which is phenomenal,” analyzed Fulks. “On any given night, you're going to be in a dogfight against a lot of different styles of play. Any given night, I think our league is one of the best in the country and we've got some of the best players in the country.”
VCU places fifth in the poll and had quite the turnaround improving by 19 wins overall and 11 in Atlantic 10 play.
The Rams saw Timaya Lewis-Eutsey and Mary-Anna Asare make the Preseason All-Conference Second and Third teams respectively, while Mykel Parham earned a spot on the Preseason All-Defensive Team, establishing a reliable core eager to find further success together.
“It's great to be in practices now, really getting ready,” bench boss Beth O’Boyle opened. “We know Nov. 6 will be here soon enough. We have a great group back and keeping the core together, we're excited about the summer our players have put in. Have Mary-Anna, Mykel, Jen (Ezeh) and Timaya all back is an exciting time for us. We've added a couple of newcomers who have added personality, and they will have an impact in our culture and on the floor for sure.”
Duquesne places sixth in the poll as all-around player Megan McConnell returns for her final season in a Dukes uniform. McConnell earned spots on the Preseason All-Conference First and Defensive Teams.
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th-year coach Dan Burt welcomes in several freshmen multiple transfers to compliment returning players, hoping to continue to build upon the standard Duquesne returned to last season.
“We're excited about the beginning of the year,” Burt said. “We call it relentless joy, which is where we're at. It's an organic term that comes from the outstanding summer that we've had and outstanding fall. Relentless because that's the way we're going to play on the offensive and defensive ends and joy because we have 14 young women that really buy into what we're doing and how we're playing differently. It's a joy to be around their level of competitiveness. We have no drop off from one to fourteen in terms of how we compete on a daily basis, so we're expecting our team to have a good year this year.”
Saint Louis is in the seventh position in this year’s preseason poll.
Preseason All-Conference Second Teamer Peyton Kennedy returns for one final run and is joined by All-Defensive Team recipient Kennedy Calhoun in helping to form what may be the most talented overall roster the Billikens have had as coach Rebecca Tillett enters year three with her program.
“We're all focused on earning multiple bids and having multiple teams in the postseason and making a lot of noise,” offered Tillett on the conference. “We had good progress in that space last year and want to continue to do that. We're competitors, so we want to compete and have that opportunity over and over again and this league provides a high level of competition and forces us to do that every day.”
Rhode Island is in the eighth position as Anaelle Dutat and Sophie Phillips each made the Preseason All-Conference Third Team, with the former also earning a defensive nod.
“When you have so many new faces, you put it together, watching them grow every day,” coach Tammi Reiss explained. “It's so different from last year's team, where you had a lot of returners. It's just a different environment. It's highly competitive because people are fighting for starting spots and minutes. Highly coachable group of young women, which I am most excited about with our new team. The A-10 it's just going to be a war from top to bottom.”
Both Fordham and Loyola Chicago tied for the ninth position.
Fordham was in Bridgette Mitchell’s first season last year and Taylor Donaldson paced the conference in scoring, earning a preseason first-team spot for her efforts. The Rams spent time in Greece this summer, further progressing as a program.
“We realized how much fun basketball genuinely is,” Mitchell assessed. “When you go back to its purest form, it's a lot of fun and you remember why you play. We had an opportunity to create some moments and memories for us to use throughout the year. This is why you play. Sometimes it's going to get tough, but you love this game and playing with each other, so we're connected, and the offseason really instilled that within the program.”
As for the Ramblers, the program grew in many ways. Having a year under their belt in the conference, Loyola Chicago took the learning lessons and applied them to the tune of a nine-win improvement, with seven of the triumphs occurring in A-10 play.
“We have so much respect for the coaching, talent and competitiveness on the women's side,” coach Allison Guth stated. “It was phenomenal to watch six teams make the postseason and do what they did. We're really excited for the season ahead. We've got 10 new players on our roster so what's been fun for us has been the last few months, figuring out our identity and our strengths.”
Dayton got voted into the 11
th spot and spent the offseason building towards taking a large step as a program with a clear nucleus being joined by players who will push them on an everyday basis.
George Washington is determined to get back to form this season and intentionally built a roster which it feels will allow it to do just that.
“We're excited with everything going on with our program,” coach Caroline McCombs illustrated. “We were very intentional this offseason in trying to find the right pieces to build our program. We have nine newcomers, our team has been working really hard implanting everything every day, developing the right mindset, skill set to compete in the A-10.”
Massachusetts enters year two of the Mike Leflar era eager to showcase the improvements his team has made across the board and believes that great things will happen at the Mullins Center this season.
“I'm really excited about who we've become this offseason and our level of competitiveness,” Leflar analyzed. “Honestly, we're just a bigger, stronger, faster team and right now a very together bunch. Last year from a wins-loss perspective we obviously struggled, but we got a lot of things right off the board. We've retained our staff and we've made great additions with our seven returners. There's a general sense and overall feeling of my expectations which are to win. We talk a lot about the players enjoying their whole UMass experience and a big piece of that is being successful as a team and program. I've challenged our group early in the season and I've been really happy with the way they've responded individually and as a team.”
St. Bonaventure enters year two of Jim Crowley’s second stint with the program and he was pleased with his team’s resiliency at season’s end coming together and learning. Now with a larger roster, there is clear optimism that there will be definite improvement this season.
“By the end we had seven kids going and that was never an excuse,” explained Crowley. “I thought we played pretty hard consistently with that. We certainly tried to play the way we wanted to and continued to do that when the ball didn't go in the basket. I thought that really set a foundation and that carried over in the summer for the folks who returned. I also think that made them hungry for what we want to do next.”
Lastly La Salle may have been placed last in the preseason poll, but coach Mountain MacGillivray could not stop smiling explaining his team has gone in a new direction which excites him.
“It's an exciting time to be a part of La Salle Women's Basketball,” MacGillivray implied. “We are excited about the opening of our new arena and a lot of fresh faces that are putting in a lot of work and spending a lot of time together over the summer bonding and connecting. It's a group that has really bought into being the best unit and team it can be. It's getting better every day and I'm excited to see what it looks like for our first game.”
When the dust settles, all of these teams will meet Mar. 5-9 at the Henrico Sports & Events Center looking to cut down a net.
This year will be the second time the Atlantic 10 Championship will be contested in Henrico and the buzz was palpable last year, leading to a contagious excitement to see what this season will bring.
“Certainly, our inaugural year was fabulous there,” McGlade concluded. “(We) had our first ever sold-out session, I believe we had two and are looking forward to continuing that success as we go into year number two.”