The 2010–11 Atlantic 10 Conference men's basketball season marked the 35th season of Atlantic 10 Conference basketball. The 2011 Atlantic 10 men's basketball tournament was held for the fifth straight year at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Preseason In the 2010 preseason, two new head coaches filled vacant Atlantic 10 positions. Fordham fired Dereck Whittenburg on December 3, 2009, and interim coach Jared Grasso was hired in Whittenburg's absence. The Rams finished the year 2–26, and Grasso was not retained. On March 25, 2010, Tom Pecora was hired from Hofstra, where he coached seven years to a 155–126 record. The Charlotte 49ers fired coach Bobby Lutz on March 15, despite being the team's all-time wins leader with a record of 218–158. In his final season, he led the team to a 19–12 mark but suffered a late season collapse and did not make the NCAA tournament or NIT. He was replaced by Alan Major, an assistant coach at Ohio State for six years, on April 9. Atlantic 10 media day was held on October 21, 2010. Temple was picked to win their fourth straight A-10 championship by coaches and the media. They received 19 first-place votes, and Xavier and Richmond received three first-place votes each, while Dayton was picked first on one ballot. Richmond's Kevin Anderson was the reigning player of the year, having won the honor in the 2009–10 Atlantic 10 Conference men's basketball season. Atlantic 10 preseason poll Atlantic 10 preseason teams Preseason watchlists On October 4, 2010, the Wooden Award preseason watch list was released, including three Atlantic 10 players. The watchlist was composed of 50 players who were not transfers, freshmen or medical redshirts. The list will be reduced to a 30-player mid-season watchlist in December and a final national ballot of about 20 players in March. The Naismith College Player of the Year watchlist of 50 players was announced on November 16, 2010. In late February, a shorter list of the top 30 players was compiled to prepare for a March vote to narrow the list to four finalists. Rankings Conference awards & honors Weekly honors Throughout the conference regular season, the Atlantic 10 offices name a player of the week and rookie of the week each Monday. Atlantic 10 All-Conference teams NABC The National Association of Basketball Coaches announced their Division I AllDistrict teams on March 9 to recognize the best men's