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[PAY]...https://theathletic.com/3724899/2022/10/27/dayton-san-diego-state-saint-marys-headline-mid-major-top-10/?source=nbatw&redirected=1

1. Dayton (24-11 last season)
2. San Diego State (23-9)
3. Saint Mary’s (26-8)
4. Wyoming (25-9)
5. Saint Louis (23-12)

6. UAB (27-8)
Andy Kennedy is set to begin his third season as coach at his alma mater with his best team yet. The Blazers return three starters and six of their top nine players from the squad that went 14-4 in Conference USA and won the league tournament to garner their first NCAA bid in seven years. UAB boasts one of the top mid-major players in America in Jordan “Jelly” Walker, a 5-11 super senior who previously played for SMU and Tulane. Walker was named the league’s player of the year after averaging 20.3 points, 4.9 assists, 2.8 rebounds and 1.5 steals. The other two returning starters will buffer the frontcourt — 7-0 senior center Trey Jemison (7.0 points, 7.4 rebounds, 1.5 blocks per game) and 6-8 senior forward K.J. Buffen (10.0 points, 6.8 rebounds). Kennedy likes his teams to be old, so instead of recruiting high school seniors he went into the portal and signed six transfers, four of whom will be playing for their third school. This will be UAB’s final season in Conference USA before it moves to the AAC next season.

7. Liberty (22-11)

8. Western Kentucky (19-13)
Seventh-year coach Rick Stansbury has never taken the Hilltoppers to the NCAA Tournament. This season they have some big aspirations, many of which revolve around Jamarion Sharp, the 7-5 senior center who led the nation in blocks at 4.6 per game while also averaging 8.2 points and 7.6 rebounds. Last year’s leading scorer, 6-1 guard Dayvion McKnight (16.2 points, 5.5 assists), is also back for his junior season. Beyond the returnees, few coaches around the country did a better job upgrading their rosters via the transfer portal than Stansbury. He brought in Dontaie Allen, a 6-6 redshirt junior guard from Kentucky, 6-3 junior point guard Khristian Lander from Indiana, and Emmanuel Akot, a 6-8 super senior from Boise State who had originally committed to Memphis but changed his mind in August.

9. North Texas (25-7)
The Mean Green have quietly become a consistent force under sixth-year coach Grant McCasland, the former Baylor player and assistant coach who has guided his teams to 20 or more wins in four of the past five seasons. Last season’s 25 wins were the most in school history. North Texas returns four of its top six players for its final season in Conference USA before heading for the AAC next season. The best of the bunch is 5-11 senior guard Tylor Perry, who started just one game last season but led the team in scoring at 13.5 points per game on 41.1 percent 3-point shooting and was named Conference USA’s Sixth Man of the Year. He forms a potent inside-outside duo with 6-10 junior forward Abou Ousmane, a rebounding force who also scored 10.2 points per game. North Texas supplanted Virginia as the slowest team in the country, per KenPom, but McCasland expects the pace to quicken this season after three of his top defenders graduated.

10. Iona (25-8)

The more I hear about WKU, the more legit I think they will be this year. I still think Sharp is just a freakishly tall dude who sucks big time at the actual game of basketball, but the transfers they've added look impressive on paper. Can Stansbury finally get them into the tournament and not choke? I really think it'll be them and us at the top of the conference. UNT is going to be UNT - playing to win a 50-49 game every night. They will be in the mix, but I don't think they'll be as good as the last two years. MTSU and FAU are good teams too. I'm probably being homerish, but I think that at our best we are a step above everyone else in conference this year. I don't doubt we will drop a couple of games against the other top teams, but we absolutely have to avoid the head-scratching losses that plagued us last year.

Another similar article stated when discussing UAB that they considered the top five mid-major teams this season to be UAB, Western Kentucky and North Texas.

(NOTE they didn't cosider Gonzaga a mid-major)

Agree on WKU. This could be Stansbury’s best team.

I think MTSU is being seriously underrated. That team has a lot of good players.