Atlantic 10 Conference: Looking back at 50 years of basketball

One of the perks of Atlantic 10 Conference Commissioner Bernadette V. McGlade’s job is handing out trophies. In 18 years on the job, she has handled that duty many times.

“There’s nothing like seeing student athletes win championships and collect trophies,” McGlade said in November, one day after announcing her retirement. “They’re proud moments. They’re moments that are embedded in the memories of our student-athletes and our coaches. I often say it’s hard to win a championship, and there are many great coaches and great athletes that go through their entire career and never have that opportunity.”

McGlade will get a few more opportunities to take part in those moments. She’ll continue to serve as commissioner until the end of the 2025-26 academic year.

Starting in January, the A-10 Presidents Council will start a national search for McGlade’s successor. Asked in November what advice she would give to the next person to have her position, McGlade said he would tell them they need to be resilient.

“In this business,” McGlade said, “there are a lot of great things and a lot of great opportunities that become available from the seat that I sit in as commissioner on behalf of the league. I think being able to see those opportunities and take advantage of them when you have the chance to really advance your membership and the goals and the values that you have set for the league are really important.

“But, at the same time, I think you have to be able to weather the storm. We don’t win every game. We don’t win every contest. We don’t get the number of teams that we want in the postseason, whether it’s with Olympic championships or basketball. So I think the resilience of really knowing what you want in the long run is really critically important. The opportunity to work in intercollegiate athletics is an unbelievable privilege, and it’s very different from going into a corporate office every single day. There are many, many more good days than there are challenging days.

The end of McGlade’s tenure coincides with the league celebrating its 50th birthday in 2026. The A-10 got its start in 1976 as the Eastern Independent Collegiate Basketball League.

Although the 1976-77 season was the league’s first, news of the league’s formation came out in the summer of 1975.

“Eight Eastern colleges have adopted a constitution for a new basketball league, to be known as the Eastern Independent Collegiate Basketball League,” the Associated Press reported. “Athletic directors of Duquesne, George Washington, Massachusetts, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Villanova and West Virginia approved the charter and agreed to begin play in the 1976-77 season.”

The ECBL took “Basketball” out of its title in 1977, changing its name to the Eastern Athletic Association. It added golf, swimming, tennis and wrestling after the NCAA ruled that it would bar conferences from receiving automatic NCAA tournament berths if they offered only basketball.

The ECBL and EAA were also known as the “East Indies (Independents)” and then the “Eastern Eight.” In 1982, the name changed again to the Atlantic 10 Conference. Penn State, Saint Joseph’s and Temple joined the league as Villanova and Pittsburgh departed.

Over the years, many other programs have come and gone, including the Dayton Flyers, starting in the 1995-96 season. Only two of the original members remain: Duquesne; and George Washington.

Duquesne did leave the A-10 for one year, joining the Midwestern Collegiate Conference for the 1992-93 season. It returned to the A-10 for the 1993-94 season because it expected the MCC to lose its automatic NCAA tournament berth with Dayton leaving for the Great Midwest and league membership falling below the number of teams the NCAA required for leagues to earn an automatic bid.

Despite the many membership changes over the years, the A-10 has had more stability than many conferences. Ten of the current 14 members have been part of the A-10 for 20 or more seasons. By comparison, the Big East and Mountain West each have six teams that fit that bill.

Can that stability last another 50 years? That’s hard to imagine, but the last five decades have provided many memorable teams, moments, coaches and players. Here’s a look back at A-10 men’s basketball’s first 50 years.

Credit: David Jablonski

Credit: David Jablonski

Best NCAA tournament run: Only one A-10 team has reached the Final Four. In 1996, Massachusetts finished 35-2. It beat Georgetown, led by Allen Iverson, in the Elite Eight and lost to eventual national champion Kentucky 81-74 in the national semifinals.

That was the last of eight seasons for UMass coach John Calipari, who had a record of 193-71.

In 1997, the NCAA vacated the Final Four run by UMass, ruling that star forward Marcus Camby accepted improper gifts. A Final Four banner still hangs at the Mullins Center in Amherst, Massachusetts, however.

After playing in the NCAA tournament seven years in a row in the 1990s, UMass has made one appearance (2014) in the last 27 seasons.

UMass, a charter member of the A-10, left the conference for the Mid-American Conference in 2025. Calipari coached in the NBA and then at Memphis and Kentucky. He’s now in his second season at Arkansas.

Credit: David Jablonski

Most unexpected NCAA tournament runs: La Salle reached the Sweet 16 as a No. 13 seed in 2013, upsetting Kansas State and Mississippi before losing to Wichita State.

In 2014, Dayton reached the Elite Eight as a No. 11 seed. It beat Ohio State, Syracuse and Stanford before losing to Florida. No A-10 team has reached the Sweet 16 since then.

Most NCAA tournament appearances: Temple reached the tournament 23 times in 31 seasons in the A-10. It made 12 straight appearances from 1990-2001. Since departing for the American Athletic Conference in 2012, it has played in the tournament twice in 12 seasons.

Among current members, Dayton, George Washington and Virginia Commonwealth have all made nine NCAA tournament appearances as members of the A-10.

VCU has made nine appearances in 13 seasons. Dayton took 30 seasons to reach that number. George Washington has nine appearances in 49 seasons.

Best team of the 1980s: Temple finished 32-2 overall and 18-0 in the A-10 in the 1987-88 season. It earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament and lost to No. 2 seed Duke in the Elite Eight. Mark Macon led the team in scoring (20.6) as a freshman.

Best team of the early 2000s: Saint Joseph’s, coached by Phil Martelli, finished 30-2 overall and 16-0 in the A-10 in 2003-04. It climbed to No. 1 in the Associated Press top-25 poll and reached the Elite Eight. Guard Jameer Nelson led the team in scoring (20.6).

Credit: David Jablonski - Staff Writer

Best recent team: In the 2019-20 season, Dayton climbed to No. 3 in the AP poll, won its last 20 games and finished 29-2 overall and 18-0 in the A-10.

Obi Toppin joined Nelson (2004) and Camby (1996) on the list of A-10 players who have won national player of the year awards.

Best addition: Virginia Commonwealth joined the A-10 in the 2012-13 season after 17 seasons in the Colonial Athletic Association. In its first 13 seasons in the A-10, VCU has won more regular-season championships (4) and A-10 tournament titles (3) than any other program.

Worst addition: After five seasons in the Patriot League, Fordham joined the A-10 in 1995. In 30 A-10 seasons, Fordham has posted a winning record three times.

Top scorer: Macon, a 6-foot-4 guard at Temple, scored 2,609 points in four seasons (1987-91). He is also Temple’s all-time leading scorer.

Macon’s college coach, John Chaney, told the Philadelphia Daily News in 1991 that Macon “was everything I could ask an athlete to be.”

The Denver Nuggets selected Macon with the No. 8 pick in the 1991 NBA Draft. He averaged 6.7 points in a six-year career.

Macon was one of five players named to the ESPN Atlantic 10 Conference Silver Anniversary team in 2004 along with David West (Xavier), Marcus Camby and Lou Roe (UMass) and Jameer Nelson (Saint Joseph’s).

Most prolific 3-point shooter: Rhode Island’s Jimmy Baron made 361 of 838 3-pointers (43.1%) from 2005-09. He’s the son of Jim Baron, who coached Rhode Island from 2001-12.

Jimmy played overseas until 2020 and is now an assistant coach with the San Antonio Spurs.

Credit: David Jablonski/Staff

Most accurate 3-point shooter: Duquesne’s Micah Mason owns the A-10 record for career 3-point shooting percentage (271 of 592, 45.8%). He played three seasons for the Dukes (2013-16) after starting his career at Drake.

Highest single-season scoring average: Duquesne forward Mark Stevenson, who played his first three seasons at Notre Dame, averaged 27.2 points in the 1989-90 season. The Dukes finished 7-22.

“I’d really rather win,” Stevenson said that March. “I’d trade any of those points I’ve scored for victories.”

Best single-game offensive performance: Rutgers senior guard Eric Higgins set an A-10 record that still stands with 51 points against Penn State on Feb. 21, 1987. He made 19 of 30 field goals and 13 of 19 free throws.

Rutgers lost 100-99 in double overtime when Higgins missed a shot at the buzzer.

“It feels all right to score 51,” Riggins said then, “but it was on me at the end and I missed a shot.”

Credit: David Jablonski

Most assists: Richmond’s Jacob Gilyard set the A-10 career record with 782 assists, averaging 5.1 assists in five seasons (2017-22). He helped lead Richmond to an A-10 tournament championship in 2022.

For four-year players, Temple’s Howard Evans owns the record. He tallied 748 assists from 1984-88, averaging 5.7 assists per game.

Most steals: Gilyard also owns the A-10 steals record (466). He broke the record of 325, set by St. Bonaventure’s Marques Green in 2004, in his fourth season and then added 108 steals to the record in his fifth season.

Credit: David Jablonski

Most games played: Saint Louis guard Gibson Jimerson spent six seasons in the A-10. He received a medical redshirt as a freshman after playing in 10 games in the 2019-20 season. The 2020-21 season, which was played during the pandemic, didn’t count against anyone’s eligibility.

That’s how Jimerson accumulated 166 appearances. He averaged 14.6 points in his career and scored 2,428 points.

The top seven players in games played all took advantage of the extra season of eligibility granted to players because of the pandemic.

The top player on the list who played before the pandemic is VCU forward Mo-Alie Cox, who appeared in 142 games from 2013-17 before starting a career as a NFL tight end.

Winningest coach: John Chaney coached Temple for 24 seasons (1982-2006) in the A-10 and had a record of 516-253. The Owls won seven A-10 regular-season championships during Chaney’s tenure and also shared a West Division championship. He coached them to six A-10 tournament titles as well.

Chaney died in 2021 at 89.

“I didn’t know him personally, but I did something because of him that I’d never done before,” Dayton coach Anthony Grant said then. “When I was an assistant at Florida, we got beat by them in the second round of the NCAA tournament and afterward I went to his press conference. I was a huge fan of his. I knew guys who played for him and I’d heard some of the stories they’d shared. I wanted to listen to him.”

Only Martelli, who was 454-328 in 24 seasons (1994-2019) at Saint Joseph’s, came close to Chaney’s win total.

Best NBA player: Norm Nixon’s final season in college basketball at Duquesne took place in the first season for the A-10, then the ECBL. He was the league’s first player of the year.

Nixon averaged 15.7 points in a 10-year NBA career. He twice won the NBA MVP award.

Of course, the best NBA player from a current A-10 school is Stephen Curry, but Davidson played in the Southern Conference during his college career.

Most points by an A-10 player in the NBA: Xavier forward David West, the only player to win the A-10 player of the year award three times (2002-04), scored 14,034 points in a 15-year NBA career.

West is the A-10’s all-time leading rebounder (1,309), though Dayton’s Ryan Perryman holds the record for rebounds per game (10.7). West averaged 10.4.

Highest-drafted player: The Toronto Raptors selected Camby, of UMass, with the No. 2 overall pick in the 1996 NBA Draft. He averaged 9.5 points in a 17-year NBA career.

Other first-round picks from the A-10 are: Dayton’s DaRon Holmes II (No. 22, 2024); VCU’s Bones Hyland (No. 26, 2021); Dayton’s Obi Toppin (No. 8, 2020); Saint Joseph’s DeAndre’ Bembry (No. 21, 2016); St. Bonaventure’s Andrew Nicholson (No. 19, 2012); Saint Joseph’s Nelson (No. 20, 2004); Saint Joseph’s Delonte West (No. 24, 2004); Rhode Island’s Lamar Odom (No. 4, 1999); George Washington’s Yinka Dare (No. 14, 1994); Saint Joseph’s Maurice Martin (No. 16, 1986); and Duquesne’s Nixon (No. 22, 1977).

Longest game: According to StatHead.com, the only four overtime game between two A-10 teams took place on Jan. 29, 2020, when George Washington beat Davidson 107-104 in Washington, D.C. Maceo Jack led GW with 35 points.

Strangest travel story: In 2017, the Saint Louis team bus was stolen after a game at St. Bonaventure. According to reports at the time, a female bus driver drove the bus 40 miles away, leaving the team at the Reilly Center. She was arrested on a charge of driving while intoxicated.

A-10 MEMBERSHIP TIMELINE

1976 (8 members) — IN: Rutgers; Villanova; George Washington; Massachusetts; West Virginia; Penn State; Duquesne; and Pittsburgh.

1979 (8) — IN: St. Bonaventure. OUT: Penn State.

1980 (8) — IN: Rhode Island. OUT: Villanova.

1982 (10) — IN: Saint Joseph’s; Temple; and Penn State. OUT: Pittsburgh.

1991 (9) — OUT: Penn State.

1992 (8) — OUT: Duquesne.

1993 (9) — IN: Duquesne.

1995 (12) — IN: Dayton; Xavier; Virginia Tech; Fordham; and La Salle. OUT: Rutgers; and West Virginia.

2000 (11) — OUT: Virginia Tech.

2001 (12) — IN: Richmond.

2005 (14) — IN: Charlotte; and Saint Louis.