A10 historical data

[RhowdyRam02]

I've been putting together some information to try and quantify what programs are the most successful A10 programs. Some of the data you could probably guess, like a program like VCU has been enormously successful in their time in the A10, while some other schools, Fordham we're looking at you, not so much. This is going all the way back to the 1976-77 Eastern Collegiate Basketball League, which is where the history of the A10 starts and I'm only counting what teams have done while a member of this conference. Here's some of what I've got so far:

Rhode Island is 9th of current A10 schools in conference winning percentage at .465 (319-371). We're also 9th in conference tournament winning percentage at .441 (30-38).

We're 7th in what I consider the most important stat of all, which is NCAA games per year in the conference at .357. For this I took the amount of NCAA tournament games a team has played while a member of the A10 and divided that by the number of the years the team has been in the conference minus the 2019-20 season. My thinking on this stat is this number directly tells you how much money a team has generated for the conference when it comes to NCAA units, therefore, how valuable a team has been to the conference.

1. VCU - 1
2. Dayton - .519
3. UMass - .413
4. St. Louis - .412
5. St. Joe's - .4
6. Davidson - .375
7. Rhode Island - .357
8. Richmond - .333
9. George Washington - .283
10. La Salle - .148
11. St. Bonaventure - .116
12. Duquesne - .022
13-15. Loyola (IL), George Mason, Fordham - 0

I'm eventually hoping to add more data, maybe come up with a power index that merges all of these metrics into one ranking, share my Excel file on here, and maybe add schools that were in the A10 previously but are here no longer. The last is probably a long shot however. I can't think of any schools that were in the conference, aren't here now, and who eventually might return, so in a lot of ways they're irrelevant to what I'm trying to show. We'll see how this goes

[Obadiah]

Nice job. As a fact based person I know how much work is involved with putting together this historical record and appreciate your effort. One admonishment, when go back deep into history it may water down more recent trends. For example, La Salle's past includes a lot more winning years and a national championship, but we know that La Salle of today is far from that record. You might want to add a rolling last five years to your compilation to indicate most recent trends among A-10 programs.

[RhowdyRam02]

Thank you!

That's a good idea. I was toying with doing that, but using the year Davidson joined as a starting point for the most amount of data with this mostly current version of the A10. If not then the last five years and rolling it would be the most likely way I would handle it

[Obadiah]

Here's a comparison of each A-10 schools overall record winning % since 2000 (23 years) versus the last five years.
Some comments:
• The last five years data includes the Covid season and its aftermath, so factor that into any conclusions.
• Three years ago when I first looked at last five years data, URI took the #3 slot, now we occupy #10.
• In any re-alignment consideration, the consistency of a quality program will be a factor. In this respect, URI does not impress. VCU, Dayton, Davidson, Saint Louis, Richmond lead in that respect
• Loyola is too new a member of A-10 to make definitive assessment of their program. Prior to their terrible first year in A-10, their five year performance was .738.
• St. Joseph’s is the program which has taken the biggest hit in recent years. St. Bona has made the most progress.

          School    % Since 2000	      School   % Last Five Years 
1.	 VCU	        .701	        1.  VCU	           .707
2.	 Dayton	        .666	        2.  Dayton	   .701
3.	 Davidson	.656	        3.  Saint Louis	   .667
4.	 George Mason	.575	        4.  Loyola Chicago .634
5.	 Saint Louis	.566	        5.  Davidson	   .632
6.	 Richmond	.564	        6.  St. Bona	   .596
7.	 St. Joseph’s	.546	        7.  Richmond	   .573
8.	 Loyola Chicago	.523	        8.  George Mason   .547
9.	 Rhode Island	.520	        9.  Duquesne	   .524
10.	 GW	        .517	        10. Rhode Island   .487
11.	 UMass	        .508	        11. Fordham	   .451
12.	 St. Bona   	.493	        12. UMass	   .447
13.	 La Salle	.453	        13. La Salle	   .400
14.	 Duquesne	.432	        14. GW	           .375
15.	 Fordham	.354	        15. St. Joseph’s   .351

[RhowdyRam02]

Here are conference records with winning percentage since teams joined the league

1. VCU 136-54 (.716)
2. Davidson 99-56 (.639)
3. Dayton 270-178 (.607)
4. Saint Louis 163-135 (.552)
5. Richmond 190-157 (.549)
6. Saint Joseph's 348-332 (.513)
7. George Washington 361-379 (.489)
8. Massachusetts 344-381 (.466)
9. Rhode Island 319-371 (.465)
10. George Mason 74-99 (.430)
11. St. Bonaventure 295-402 (.421)
12. La Salle 174-275 (.386)
13. Duquesne 265-453 (.369)
14. Fordham 121-324 (.262)
15. Loyola (IL) 4-14 (.222)

[Rhody15]

All this shows me one thing.

Our arena, investments, facilities, location of the school, proximity to talented recruiting areas, etc do not seem to play much of a factor into our wining %.

Like most programs, success mostly is based on our who our coach is.

[section(105)]

Imagine where our winning % would be without them. I suspect lower.

[Obadiah]

On coaches, remember that on two occasions we elevated assistants without head coaching experience to the top job. That is not a typical route for major players in MBB, let alone doing it twice.

[RhowdyRam02]

All this shows me one thing.

Our arena, investments, facilities, location of the school, proximity to talented recruiting areas, etc do not seem to play much of a factor into our wining %.

Like most programs, success mostly is based on our who our coach is.

See, I thought the opposite when looking at not just us, but the conference as a whole with the conference records since joining the league. Eventually water finds its level. The teams that tend to invest the most consistently? You find them towards the top. The teams that can be hit or miss with their investments? You find them in the middle. The teams we look at and say they're not investing enough and their arenas are more like high school gyms. They're towards the bottom.

Coaches come and go, even a school's commitment to sports can rise and fall, but eventually it evens out and you see just how much a school values, and can spend, on athletics

[steviep123]

On coaches, remember that on two occasions we elevated assistants without head coaching experience to the top job. That is not a typical route for major players in MBB, let alone doing it twice.

To partially counter that, we did this on 3 occassions (nearly 4 - if it weren't for Harrick, we likely would have hired Tim O'Shea to replace Skinner). The first was Skinner who replaced Penders and that was a success. Before my time, but were Tom Carmody and Claude English also assistants under Calverley and Kraft, respectively? If so, then that's 1 success out of 5 times an assistant was elevated.

[RhodyKyle]

All this shows me one thing.

Our arena, investments, facilities, location of the school, proximity to talented recruiting areas, etc do not seem to play much of a factor into our wining %.

Like most programs, success mostly is based on our who our coach is.

Having the arena, investments, et al is how you get the good coaches who will bring the winning culture so it at least indirectly impacts win %

[section(105)]

Carmody came from Duke, if I recall correctly.

[section(105)]

Carmody came from Duke, if I recall correctly.

Along with Donnie Blackmon…….?

[Rhody74]

Carmody came from Duke, if I recall correctly.

Along with Donnie Blackmon…….?

Who changed his name to Abu Bakr.

[ramster]

Here's a comparison of each A-10 schools overall record winning % since 2000 (23 years) versus the last five years.
Some comments:
• The last five years data includes the Covid season and its aftermath, so factor that into any conclusions.
• Three years ago when I first looked at last five years data, URI took the #3 slot, now we occupy #10.
• In any re-alignment consideration, the consistency of a quality program will be a factor. In this respect, URI does not impress. VCU, Dayton, Davidson, Saint Louis, Richmond lead in that respect
• Loyola is too new a member of A-10 to make definitive assessment of their program. Prior to their terrible first year in A-10, their five year performance was .738.
• St. Joseph’s is the program which has taken the biggest hit in recent years. St. Bona has made the most progress.

          School    % Since 2000	      School   % Last Five Years 
1.	 VCU	        .701	        1.  VCU	           .707
2.	 Dayton	        .666	        2.  Dayton	   .701
3.	 Davidson	.656	        3.  Saint Louis	   .667
4.	 George Mason	.575	        4.  Loyola Chicago .634
5.	 Saint Louis	.566	        5.  Davidson	   .632
6.	 Richmond	.564	        6.  St. Bona	   .596
7.	 St. Joseph’s	.546	        7.  Richmond	   .573
8.	 Loyola Chicago	.523	        8.  George Mason   .547
9.	 Rhode Island	.520	        9.  Duquesne	   .524
10.	 GW	        .517	        10. Rhode Island   .487
11.	 UMass	        .508	        11. Fordham	   .451
12.	 St. Bona   	.493	        12. UMass	   .447
13.	 La Salle	.453	        13. La Salle	   .400
14.	 Duquesne	.432	        14. GW	           .375
15.	 Fordham	.354	        15. St. Joseph’s   .351

So URI 9th over last 23 years and 10th over last 5 years is far from being Top Tier and even 2nd Tier yet we would say we have an excellent BasketBall Arena and we invest well in Basketball. Our investments make our ranking look even worse, no?