2008–09 Atlantic 10 Conference men's basketball season

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

First-place votes in parentheses

Preseason All-A10 Team

First Team

Second Team

Third Team

Preseason A10 All-Rookie Team

Preseason A10 All-Defensive Team

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.

Atlantic 10 Tournament

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

Weekly awards

Atlantic 10 Players of the Week
Throughout the conference season, the Atlantic 10 offices name a player and rookie of the week.

All-Conference Awards

Atlantic 10 Men's Basketball All-Conference Teams

First Team

Second Team

Third Team

Honorable Mention

Rookie Team

Defensive Team

Academic Team

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