Duquesne basketball teams picked in middle of the pack in Atlantic 10 preseason polls

The Duquesne basketball teams will kick off their 2025-26 seasons looking to earn a measure of respect after both were swept aside Tuesday in voting for the top teams in the Atlantic 10 Conference.

So, too, were their players ignored.

Flanked on Tuesday by sophomore guard Mackenzie Blackford at the A-10’s annual media day at PPG Paints Arena, Duquesne women’s coach Dan Burt bristled at the very thought.

“Very frankly, I’ll say that she’s the leading returning scorer in the A-10 who didn’t get named to a preseason all-Atlantic 10 team. We’ll use that as a chip on our shoulder throughout the year,” Burt said. “It’s a travesty that she’s not a member of one of the preseason all-conference teams. Write that down.”

The Duquesne men’s team was chosen to finish ninth and the women’s team came in eighth in a preseason poll of the league’s coaches and select media members.

Both defending league champions — the VCU men and Richmond women — were installed as favorites to repeat.

The Duquesne men, who open the season Nov. 3 against Niagara as part of a doubleheader with the Dukes women’s team at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse, return 10 players, including guard Cam Crawford.

The 6-foot-5 senior last season led the A-10 in 3-point shooting percentage (43.1).

Eight newcomers will join the Dukes, among them former Pitt big man John Hugley IV, who spent the past two seasons at Oklahoma and Xavier, before transferring to Duquesne.

The Duquesne women, who will face Saint Francis in the other Nov. 3 opener at UPMC Cooper Fieldhouse, return eight letterwinners but are tasked with replacing all-conference guard Megan McConnell, the team’s leading scorer a year ago.

Blackford, who ranked second in the A-10 in 3-point shooting percentage (38.7) heads the list of women’s returnees, which includes three juniors and five sophomores.

A-10 preseason basketball polls

Men

Rank, team, points

1. VCU (11), 342

2. Saint Louis (11), 341

3. Dayton (3), 321

4. George Washington, 296

5. Loyola Chicago (2), 286

6. George Mason, 254

7 Saint Joseph’s, 195

8. St. Bonaventure, 185

9. Duquesne, 155

10. Richmond, 142

11. Davidson, 107

12. Rhode Island, 102

13. La Salle, 56

14. Fordham, 53

Women

Rank, team, points

1. Richmond (9), 188

2. George Mason (4), 185

3. Davidson (1), 167

4. Rhode Island, 137

5. Dayton, 123

6. Saint Joseph’s, 120

7. VCU, 110

8. Duquesne, 95

9. Saint Louis, 86

10. George Washington, 75

11. Fordham, 63

12. La Salle, 56

13. Loyola Chicago, 43

14. St. Bonaventure, 22

Note: First-place votes in parentheses.

Another Martelli

First-year VCU men’s coach Phil Martelli Jr. inherits a team picked as the favorite to repeat as A-10 champion.

The Rams, who welcome nine newcomers, including seven transfers, have won two of the past three A-10 titles, including a 68-63 victory over George Mason in last season’s title game.

VCU’s final season under former coach Ryan Odom, who moved on to become coach at Virginia, ended with an 80-71 loss to No. 17 BYU in an NCAA Tournament first-round game.

Martelli Jr., who coached Bryant to two 20-win seasons and an appearance in the 2025 NCAA Tournament, is the son of former longtime Saint Joseph’s coach Phil Martelli Sr., who compiled a 444-328 record in 24 seasons with the Hawks.

Martelli Sr. led Saint Joseph’s to six NCAA Tournament appearances between 1995 and 2019.

Welcome back

The A-10’s 50th Anniversary Celebration Luncheon accentuated the day at PPG Paints Arena, where former Duquesne and Pitt women’s coach Suzie McConnell-Serio was among the guests for a “courtside chat” hosted by Mike Clark of TribLive news partner WTAE.

It seems an appropriate decision by the A-10 to return its men’s basketball tournament to Pittsburgh for the league’s 50th season.

After all, it was Duquesne, the region’s remaining conference representative, that won the league’s first men’s tournament championship to cap the maiden 1976-77 season when the league was known as the Eastern 8 Basketball League.

“The last time we were here, Pittsburgh did a really good job of running the tournament,” said St. Bonaventure men’s coach Mark Schmidt, a former coach at Robert Morris. “It seems like they really want us here, and we’re really appreciative of that.”

The men’s tournament returns to the city that was its host on an annual basis in its infancy from 1978-82.

No. 4 seed Duquesne defeated No. 2 Villanova, 57-54, in the inaugural men’s championship at Philadelphia’s Spectrum before the tournament was moved to Pittsburgh’s Civic Arena, where it was held at its former site across from PPG Paints Arena.

Duquesne won its only other title in 2023-24 at Barclays Center in New York.

Incidentally, before both schools left the conference, West Virginia won the championship three times, and Pitt won it once.

WPIAL flavor

Former Mt. Lebanon star Ashleigh Connor, a two-time Trib 10 selection and two-time all-state honoree, represented La Salle at A-10 media day.

The 5-11 junior, who began her college career at A-10 counterpart Saint Louis, is in her second season at La Salle, where she led the Explorers a year ago in scoring (10.8 ppg).

At Mt. Lebanon, Connor averaged 21 points per game as a senior in leading the Blue Devils to a WPIAL Class 6A championship and an appearance in the 2022 PIAA championship game, where they dropped a 60-40 decision to Plymouth-Whitemarsh of District 1.