First place will be on the line when Dayton, Richmond meet Thursday

A surprising team sits atop the Atlantic 10 standings almost a third of the way through the schedule.

The Richmond Spiders finished ninth last season and was picked to finish sixth this season in the preseason poll. They have never finished higher than third in coach Chris Mooney’s 11 seasons. They didn’t impress anyone in non-conference season, finishing 6-6.

Yet Richmond is the only unbeaten team remaining in A-10 play, and it has won three games on the road, beating Davidson, George Washington and St. Joseph’s. Now it will try to win at an arena where it has long struggled. Richmond is 1-11 at UD Arena. The Spiders (11-6, 5-0) and Flyers (13-4, 4-1) play at 7 p.m. Thursday.

“Dayton is one of the best places to play in the country,” said Mooney on Monday on the Atlantic 10 coaches teleconference. “The fans are extremely knowledgeable and gracious and supportive of their team. It’s a great place to play. It can turn on you pretty quickly because of how tuned in they are to the game and how much they can get their team going.”

Injury news: Mooney admitted Monday his team caught one break by playing St. Bonaventure on Jan. 11 with the Bonnies' leading scorer, Jaylen Adams, on the bench with an ankle injury, and another break Saturday when they played a St. Joseph's team without its leading scorer, Shavar Newkirk.

The Spiders could get lucky again Thursday. Dayton senior guard Kyle Davis is day to day with a sprained ankle.

Adams has missed two straight games. He leads the A-10 with 22.3 points per game. Newkirk will miss the rest of the season with a knee injury.

Tournament changes: The NCAA will hold a meeting Friday in Indianapolis to discuss using more advanced analytics in picking the field of 68. Ken Pomeroy, of the Pomeroy Ratings, and Jeff Sagarin, of the Sagarin Ratings, will be among the experts at the meeting. An improved selection process could be used as early as the 2018 tournament.

“I’m very encouraged,” said St. Bonaventure coach Mark Schmidt, whose team just missed making the tournament a year ago. “I think they need to do that. I think they need to get the best 68 teams. The more people involved, the better off it is.”

First loss: Virginia Commonwealth (14-4, 4-1) fell into a second-place tie with Dayton and La Salle (10-5, 4-1) with a 69-63 loss at Davidson on Saturday The Wildcats (9-7, 2-3) bounced back from a surprising 60-54 loss at home to Fordham (7-11, 1-3).

Those two games were a big reason Atlantic 10 Assistant Commissioner Drew Dickerson described the league as “topsy turvy” in the conference call Monday. VCU beat George Washington 85-55 in its previous game.

The Rams went from shooting 51.6 percent against the Colonials to shooting 35.4 percent against the Wildcats.

“It was a mixed bag,” VCU coach Will Wade said. “We played really well against GW and didn’t quite have it at Davidson. Davidson played extremely well. They were very hungry and very desperate.”

Players of the week: Davidson's Peyton Aldridge and Richmond's T.J. Cline shared the player of the week honor. Aldridge averaged 21 points and 10 rebounds. Cline averaged 15 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists.

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