# 2008–09 Atlantic 10 Conference men's basketball season

The 2008–09 Atlantic 10 Conference men's basketball season marked the 33rd season of Atlantic 10 Conference basketball.

## Preseason

Xavier University was seen as the favourite to win the league by coaches and media in the preseason poll after having won the regular season the two previous years and also reaching the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament.
No A-10 side was in either the AP Poll or the ESPN/USA Today Coaches' poll top 25, Xavier dropping out from last season in 26th and 30th place respectively after losing 3 starters in the offseason, the university was in the lesser Sporting News Top 40 at 19th along with Saint Joseph's at 32nd and Temple at 38th.
The Musketeers' Derrick Brown along with the Owl's Dionte Christmas were named to the John R. Wooden Award preseason top 50 candidate list in November. Brown was also named to the Naismith Award watch list on December 18.
Another individual award, the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award selected Christmas and Jimmy Baron of Rhode Island on their 30-man preseason candidate list.
It was speculated if Christmas would be the first player in league history to lead the A-10 in scoring three seasons in a row whilst Ahmad Nivins of Saint Joseph's and Chris Lowe of Massachusetts also aimed to lead the conference for the third time, in field goal percentage and assists respectively.

### Atlantic 10 Preseason Poll

| Rank | Team |
| 1 | Xavier (44) |
| 2 | Temple (12) |
| 3 | Dayton (3) |
| 4 | Saint Joseph's |
| 5 | Charlotte (2) |
| 6 | Massachusetts |
| 7 | Saint Louis |
| 8 | Richmond |
| 9 | Rhode Island |
| 10 | La Salle |
| 11 | George Washington |
| 12 | Duquesne |
| 13 | Fordham |
| 14 | St. Bonaventure |
First-place votes in parentheses

### Preseason All-A10 Team

First Team
* Derrick Brown, Xavier
* Dionte Christmas, Temple
* Kevin Lisch, Saint Louis
* Chris Lowe, Massachusetts
* Ahmad Nivins, Saint Joseph's
Second Team
* Rob Diggs, George Washington
* Ricky Harris, Massachusetts
* Tommie Liddell, Saint Louis
* Lamont Mack, Charlotte
* Chris Wright, Dayton
Third Team
* C. J. Anderson, Xavier
* Kevin Anderson, Richmond
* Jimmy Baron, Rhode Island
* Rodney Green, La Salle
* David Gonzalvez, Richmond

### Preseason A10 All-Rookie Team

* Melquan Bolding, Duquesne
* Kenny Frease, Xavier
* Terrell Holloway, Xavier
* Mark Lyons, Xavier
* Paul Williams, Dayton

### Preseason A10 All-Defensive Team

* Lavoy Allen, Temple
* Derrick Brown, Xavier
* Kevin Lisch, Saint Louis
* Chris Lowe, Massachusetts
* Garrett Williamson, Saint Joseph’s

## Regular season

Xavier captured its third consecutive Atlantic 10 regular season crown with a 12-4 record in Conference play, it had been undefeated in conference play until four late-season losses to Duquesne, Dayton, Charlotte, and Richmond. The last A-10 program to enter the tournament as #1 seed thrice in a row was Temple in 1998-00. It moved the university into the top 25 in the national rankings (see below) of both the AP Poll (17th) and the ESPN/USA Today poll (18th).
On individual records, Temple's Dionte Christmas entered tournament play tied with Player of the Year Ahmad Nivins at 19.2 ppg in his quest to lead the conference in scoring for a record third consecutive time. Nivins' 62.5% put him in the driving seat to equal Alexander Koul's record in 1995-97 as the only players in A-10 history to lead the league in field goal percentage three consecutive years. They would both achieve these feats in post-season, Christmas with 19.5 ppg and Nivins with 61.2%, Massachusetts' Chris Lowe finished second in his similar pursuit of assists leading.

## Postseason
### Atlantic 10 Tournament

All the games were held at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City.

## Conference awards and honors
### Weekly awards

Atlantic 10 Players of the Week Throughout the conference season, the Atlantic 10 offices name a player and rookie of the week.
| Week | Player of the week | Rookie of the week |
| November 16 | Dionte Christmas, Temple | Trey Blue, Fordham |
| November 16 | Ahmad Nivins, Saint Joseph's | Trey Blue, Fordham |
| November 23 | Jimmy Baron, Rhode Island | Eric Evans, Duquesne |
| November 23 | Jimmy Baron, Rhode Island | Andrew Nicholson, St. Bonaventure |
| November 30 | Damian Saunders, Duquesne | Chris Wright, Dayton |
| November 30 | Andrew Nicholson, St. Bonaventure | Chris Wright, Dayton |
| December 7 | Ahmad Nivins, Saint Joseph's | Andrew Nicholson, St. Bonaventure |
| December 7 | B.J. Raymond, Xavier | Andrew Nicholson, St. Bonaventure |
| December 14 | Dionte Christmas, Temple | Jio Fontan, Fordham |
| December 14 | Aaron Jackson, Duquesne | Jio Fontan, Fordham |
| December 21 | Tommie Liddell, Saint Louis | Eric Evans, Duquesne |
| December 28< | Ahmad Nivins, Saint Joseph's | Eric Evans, Duquesne |
| December 28< | Ahmad Nivins, Saint Joseph's | Jio Fontan, Fordham |
| January 5 | Aaron Jackson, Duquesne | Willie Reed, Saint Louis |
| January 11 | Derrick Brown, Xavier | Andrew Nicholson, St. Bonaventure |
| January 11 | Ahmad Nivins, Saint Joseph's | Andrew Nicholson, St. Bonaventure |
| January 18 | Dionte Christmas, Temple | Alberto Estwick, Fordham |
| January 18 | Dionte Christmas, Temple | Chris Johnson, Dayton |
| January 25 | Justin Harper, Richmond | Kenny Frease, Xavier |
| January 25 | Ahmad Nivins, Saint Joseph's | Kenny Frease, Xavier |
| February 1 | Tasheed Carr, Saint Joseph's | Andrew Nicholson, St. Bonaventure |
| February 1 | B.J. Raymond, Xavier | Andrew Nicholson, St. Bonaventure |
| February 8 | Aaron Jackson, Duquesne | Andrew Nicholson, St. Bonaventure |
| February 15 | Lamont Mack, Charlotte | Kwamain Mitchell, Saint Louis |
| February 22 | Kevin Anderson, Richmond | Kwamain Mitchell, Saint Louis |
| February 22 | Rob Diggs, George Washington | Kwamain Mitchell, Saint Louis |
| March 1 | Damian Hollis, George Washington | Eric Evans, Duquesne |
| March 1 | Aaron Jackson, Duquesne | Eric Evans, Duquesne |

### All-Conference Awards

* Player of the Year: Ahmad Nivins, Saint Joseph's
* Rookie of the Year: Andrew Nicholson, St. Bonaventure
* Defensive Player of the Year: Tony Gaffney, Massachusetts
* Chris Daniels Most Improved Player of the Year: Aaron Jackson, Duquesne
* Sixth Man of the Year: Delroy James, Rhode Island
* Student-Athlete of the Year: Kevin Lisch, Saint Louis
* Coach of the Year: Jim Baron, Rhode Island

#### Atlantic 10 Men's Basketball All-Conference Teams

First Team
* Jimmy Baron, Rhode Island
* Dionte Christmas, Temple
* Aaron Jackson, Duquesne
* Ahmad Nivins, Saint Joseph's
* B.J. Raymond, Xavier
Second Team
* Kevin Anderson, Richmond
* Derrick Brown, Xavier
* Tony Gaffney, Massachusetts
* Rodney Green, La Salle
* Chris Wright, Dayton
Third Team
* Lavoy Allen, Temple
* Ricky Harris, Massachusetts
* Kevin Lisch, Saint Louis
* Lamont Mack, Charlotte
* Kahiem Seawright, Rhode Island
Honorable Mention
* C.J. Anderson, Xavier
* David Gonzalvez, Richmond
* Marcus Johnson, Dayton
* Chris Lowe, Massachusetts
* Damian Saunders, Duquesne
Rookie Team
* Melquan Bolding, Duquesne
* Jio Fontan, Fordham
* Chris Johnson, Dayton
* Kwamain Mitchell, Saint Louis
* Andrew Nicholson, St. Bonaventure
Defensive Team
* Lavoy Allen, Temple
* Tony Gaffney, Massachusetts
* Ahmad Nivins, Saint Joseph's
* London Warren, Dayton
* Garrett Williamson, Saint Joseph’s
Academic Team
* Jimmy Baron, Rhode Island
* Luke Bonner, Massachusetts
* Jason Duty, Duquesne
* Will Martell, Rhode Island
* Yves Mekongo Mbala, La Salle

## Rankings

2008–09 Atlantic 10 Conference Weekly Rankings Key: ██ Increase in ranking. ██ Decrease in ranking. RV = Received Votes :
| AP Poll | Pre | Wk 1 | Wk 2 | Wk 3 | Wk 4 | Wk 5 | Wk 6 | Wk 7 | Wk 8 | Wk 9 | Wk 10 | Wk 11 | Wk 12 | Wk 13 | Wk 14 | Wk 15 | Wk 16 | Wk 17 | Wk 18 |
| Charlotte | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Dayton | | | | 27 | 26 | 30 | 30 | 37 | 41 | | 42 | 36 | 26 | 31 | 25 | 31 | 30 | 33 | |
| Duquesne | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Fordham | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| George Washington | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| La Salle | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Massachusetts | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Rhode Island | | 42 | 43 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 40 | | |
| Richmond | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Saint Louis | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| St. Bonaventure | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| St. Joseph's | 53 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Temple | 45 | | | | | 43 | | | | | | | | | | | | 33 | 35 |
| Xavier | 26 | 29 | 16 | 14 | 10 | 7 | 14 | 22 | 16 | 15 | 15 | 10 | 9 | 14 | 16 | 19 | 17 | 19 | 20 |

## Post Tournament Results
### NCAA tournament

Xavier (2-1) : Regional semifinals (Sweet Sixteen)
Dayton (1-1): Regional second round
Temple (0-1): Regional first round

### National Invitation Tournament

Rhode Island (1-1): Second round
Duquesne (0-1): First round

### College Basketball Invitational

Richmond (2-1): Semifinal