VCU Hoops | Rams, with new coach, voted preseason favorite in A-10

Defending A-10 champ VCU was voted as the conference’s best in a preseason poll of coaches and media, which was released on Tuesday.

There’s a new coach on the sidelines – Phil Martelli Jr., who took over after Ryan Odom left for the job at UVA.

Martelli, like everybody else in college basketball, filled out his roster via the transfer portal, with seven transfers among the nine new faces in the Black & Gold for 2025-2026.

Five Rams, four of them newcomers, were named to preseason All-Atlantic 10 teams – seniors Barry Evans (Baltimore, Md.) and Jadrian Tracey (Fort Myers, Fla.) and junior Tyrell Ward (Washington, D.C.) were named to second team, sophomore Ahmad Nowell (Philadelphia, Pa.) was selected to the third team,  and sophomore Brandon Jennings (Richmond, Va.) landed a spot on the league’s preseason All-Defensive Team.

Evans was one of two players to follow Martelli from Bryant, where he enjoyed a breakout junior campaign. The 6’8” forward averaged 13.3 points, 6.8 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game last season to lead the Bulldogs to a conference title and an NCAA Tournament berth.

Evans, the America East Newcomer of the Year, had previously spent two seasons at St. Bonaventure.

Tracey joins the Rams in 2025-2026 after helping Oregon to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances. The 6’6” guard, who began his collegiate career at Saint Joseph’s, averaged 6.9 points and 2.8 rebounds for the Ducks in 2024-2025.

In 2023-2024, Tracey started 22 games and supplied 7.6 points and 3.6 rebounds for a 24-win Oregon squad.

Ward, who did not play last year, enjoyed a pair of standout seasons at LSU from 2022-2024. As a sophomore in 2023-2024, the 6’6” Ward averaged 9.1 points and 2.3 rebounds per game, while shooting 41.3 percent (52-of-126) from three-point range for the Tigers.

Nowell arrived in Richmond this summer following one season at UConn. The highly touted point guard missed time with a shoulder injury last year, but saw action in 18 games and averaged 1.5 points and 1.1 assists.

Nowell was ranked No. 30 in ESPN’s Top 100 recruits for the Class of 2024, and initially committed to UConn over offers from Kansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Auburn, St. John’s and others.

A 6’4” guard, Jennings is one of five members of VCU’s 2025 A-10 Championship team set to return in 2025-2026.

Despite a roster of fifth-year guards, Jennings carved out a vital role in VCU’s rotation as a freshman in 2024-2025. He appeared in all 35 games for the Black and Gold and averaged 2.7 points and 2.3 rebounds, while shooting 39.3 percent (11-of-28) from three-point range.

VCU will open with exhibitions at Villanova (Oct. 19) and against Fairfield (Oct. 26) before tipping off the 2025-2026 regular season on Monday, Nov. 3, when the Rams host Wagner at the Stuart C. Siegel Center.

2025 A-10 Preseason Poll

---

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. Bonaventure 185
9. Duquesne 155
10. Richmond 142
11. Davidson 107
12. Rhode Island 102
13. La Salle 56
14. Fordham 53

First place votes in parenthesis