The a10 tournament opened Wednesday at PPG Paints Arena with an unexpected soundtrack: cellphones blaring in unison during a postgame interview, cutting through the routine of scores and strategy. The alerts weren’t about basketball at all—there was a tornado warning for the area—but inside the building, the first-day crowd kept its focus on the games.
What happened on Day 1 of the A10 Tournament?
The first day of the Atlantic 10 men’s basketball tournament unfolded as a mix of packed-room urgency and early-round possibility. In the opener, No. 12 seed St. Bonaventure extended coach Mark Schmidt’s season—and his career—for at least one more day with a 99-80 win over No. 13 La Salle. Schmidt, set to retire at season’s end after 25 years as a head coach (six at Robert Morris and 19 at St. Bonaventure), met the cellphone disruption with dry humor.
“Is that Jack?” Schmidt joked, in the middle of a point he was trying to make with a reference to former golfing great Jack Nicklaus. Once order returned to the media room, Schmidt finished the thought: “You learn how to win by winning. ” He added that practice matters, but pulling out a win matters more—confidence has to be earned in the moment.
On the court, that message matched the bracket’s tone. No. 14 Loyola Chicago upset No. 11 Richmond, 75-67, moving on to Thursday’s second round in the 14-team event. For the more than 4, 600 fans who helped get the tournament rolling, the opening day served as a reminder that March doesn’t wait for anyone—not even the weather.
Who plays Thursday, and why does Day 2 feel bigger in the a10 tournament?
Thursday expands the slate, and with it the sense of momentum in the building. The second round tips off at 11: 30 a. m. ET with No. 8 Fordham facing No. 9 George Washington. St. Bonaventure meets No. 5 George Mason at 2 p. m. ET. Host Duquesne, the No. 7 seed, faces No. 10 Rhode Island at 5 p. m. ET. Loyola Chicago takes on No. 5 Davidson at 7: 30 p. m. ET in the nightcap.
Attendance was expected to rise with the broader schedule, as more fanbases arrive and more teams enter the frame. The tournament is back in Pittsburgh for the first time in seven years and runs through Sunday’s championship game, making each day feel less like a stopover and more like a countdown.
As the rounds progress, the stakes become higher—an idea that lives not only in coaches’ phrasing but in the way fans plan their time and money. P. J. Boggs and Brian Shevitz, friends who made the trip from Mercer, 65 miles north of Pittsburgh, described their approach in practical terms. Boggs said they’ll likely be around for Friday’s quarterfinals, when high-seeded teams who enjoyed a double bye will begin play. “We’re going to take tomorrow off and come back when Saint Louis and VCU get starting to play, ” Boggs said.
Why are fans traveling to Pittsburgh, even with disruptions and uncertainty?
The building’s atmosphere Wednesday suggested that the draw is bigger than one program or one tipoff time. The first day’s disruptions—phones buzzing, everyone scrambling, a warning cutting into a coach’s sentence—didn’t scatter the crowd. They muted their screens, reset the microphones, and continued. That brief moment of tension, then laughter, became a small portrait of why people keep coming: the tournament’s rhythm pulls them in, and the shared experience keeps them there.
Some fans came for specific teams, others for the larger ritual of postseason college basketball. Ron Jordan, a VCU fan from Richmond, arrived in Pittsburgh with his wife, Dianne, and daughter, Merrill, intending to attend all five sessions. “We’re here because we’re college basketball junkies, particularly with the A-10, ” Jordan said.
That kind of commitment carries an implied faith: that the games will offer something worth remembering—an upset, a late run, a coach’s final spring, or simply the feeling of being in the arena when it matters. In that sense, the a10 tournament isn’t only a bracket unfolding; it’s a temporary community built session by session, with strangers sharing space, noise, and tension as if they’ve done it for years.
And if the opening day was any indication, Pittsburgh’s return as host comes with its own texture: a familiar building, a league-wide gathering, and the unpredictable interruptions that make a week feel alive. By the time Thursday’s first game begins at 11: 30 a. m. ET, the phones will be quieter, the stands fuller, and the questions sharper—who’s ready to win now, and who will leave thinking about what slipped away.
Image caption (alt text): Fans gather inside PPG Paints Arena as the a10 tournament begins in Pittsburgh.
