Fordham Basketball Picked to Finish Last in the Atlantic 10

Fordham isn't getting much respect these days. When you look at what the Rams have done of late, perhaps that's understandable.

Thirty-nine wins in six seasons isn't going to excite the masses. In fact, when you've performed as poorly as Fordham has over a good portion of its 19 seasons in the Atlantic 10, you develop a reputation as being one of those perennially rebuilding programs.

But here's where reputation should meet reality.

On Tuesday, the Atlantic 10 Conference announced its preseason poll and awards, part of the conference's media day festivities at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Fordham was picked to finish 14th, dead last in the conference. (Full disclosure: I took part in the voting for the A-10 preseason poll and awards.)

Even George Mason was picked to finish ahead of the Rams despite the fact that Fordham beat the Patriots in the play-in game of last season's A-10 tournament. Davidson wasn't even in the conference a year ago, and yet the Wildcats were picked to finish two spots ahead of the Rams.

I'm not saying that Fordham should have been picked to finish first or anywhere close to that. But can we at least get the Rams out of the cellar? Both Yahoo Sports and CBSSports.com said yes, picking the Rams to finish next-to-last.

I'm going to guess that with more talent—albeit young and unproven—on the roster, Fordham, which won just two regular-season conference games last year, is not going to finish last in the A-10 despite the fact that the league is by far the best non-major conference in the country, a safe statement after it sent six teams to the NCAA tournament a year ago.

VCU was the unanimous pick to win the A-10, with the Rams picking up all 28 first-place votes. George Washington was selected to finish second, followed by Dayton, Massachusetts and Richmond rounding out the top five. Rhode Island, La Salle, Saint Joseph's, Saint Louis, St. Bonaventure and Duquesne were picked in spots six through 11.

Fordham's Jon Severe, a sophomore, was named Preseason Third Team All-Conference after averaging 17.3 points per game as a freshman. Dayton's Jordan Sibert, George Washington's Patricio Garino, Richmond's Kendall Anthony, Saint Joseph's DeAndre' Bembry and VCU's Treveon Graham and Briante Weber were named First Team All-Conference. (Due to a tie in voting, six players were selected.)

While Severe is already a household name, it won't be long before Eric Paschall, Nemanja Zarkovic and Christian Sengfelder join him. Maybe then, Fordham will start getting some respect.

Charles Costello covers the Fordham Rams for Bleacher Report. A full archive of his articles can be found here. Twitter: @CFCostello