PITTSBURGH — The Atlantic 10 Conference championship trophy sits on a black table at PPG Paints Arena in front of a replica of one of Pittsburgh’s famous yellow bridges.

A sign next to the table areads, “Trophy Station.”

Fans can take selfies with the trophy this week at the A-10 tournament. Of course, fans of the Dayton Flyers might not want to get too close to a trophy their team hasn’t won in 23 years. It brings back too many bad memories.

I remember many of those moments from 12 trips to the A-10 tournament.

Credit: David Jablonski

Credit: David Jablonski

• The Langston Galloway push-off in a semifinal loss to Saint Joseph’s in 2014.

• The A-10 championship game loss to Virginia Commonwealth in 2016.

• Another semifinal loss to Saint Joseph’s in 2016.

• The Davidson upset in the quarterfinals here in Pittsburgh in 2017.

• Forgettable early exits in 2018 and 2019 in coach Anthony Grant’s first two seasons.

• The canceled tournament of 2020 when I arrived in time at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., for the press conference announcing the news.

• The limited-attendance pandemic tournament in Richmond, Va., in 2021.

• The Malachi Smith ankle injury in a semifinal loss to Richmond in 2022.

• The second A-10 championship game loss to VCU in 2023.

• The quick quarterfinal exits in 2024 and 2025.

Credit: David Jablonski

Credit: David Jablonski

Now the 2026 tournament is here. I arrived at PPG Paints Arena in time Thursday to watch No. 5 seed George Mason play No. 13 seed St. Bonaventure in the second game of the second round. Dayton will play the winner of this game in the quarterfinals at 2 p.m. Friday.

In the first game Thursday, No. 9 seed George Washington beat No. 8 Fordham 66-62. George Washington led by as many as 24 points before Fordham rallied to cut the deficit to two points in the final two minutes.

Fordham has now failed to win the tournament in 31 A-10 seasons. Dayton entered the league in the same season, 1995-96, and has one championship.

George Washington (18-14) will play No. 1 seed Saint Louis (27-4) at 11:30 a.m. Friday. George Washington lost 79-76 at Saint Louis on Jan. 27 when Billikens star Robbie Avila, the A-10 Player of the Year, made a 3-pointer in the final seconds.

“Every game is different,” George Washington coach Chris Caputo said after the game. Thursday. “Because we played well for most of the game at Saint Louis does not mean we will play well tomorrow. We’ve got to take what we learned in the first game, evaluate some things they’ve done different since that game. It’s been a while now.”

George Washington will seek its first semifinal appearance since 2014.