I do think that's true, but I think it goes further than that, it's conference consistency, top-to-bottom.RF1 wrote:I guess I was not alone in my thinking.
Found this post on another forum:
Matt Norlander and Gary Parrish, on their CBS college basketball podcast were talking about coaching changes and theories on why Will Wade left a great job at VCU for an average job at LSU in a p5 conference. Parrish put forward the theory based on his conversations with coaches that in this day and age with more and more NCAA bubble bids going to schools in p5 conferences and all the advantages they have in terms of revenue, scheduling in and out of conference that some coaches are saying its easier to make the NCAA as say the 5th best team in the SEC or the 9th best team in the ACC than it is to be the 2nd best team in the A-10. The old way of thinking was that it's better to be at a top 3 job in a bad league than a bottom 3 job in a good league. They went on to talk about with P5 teams expanding the number of in-conference games to 20 for some leagues, and them having the leverage to schedule other P5 teams from other conference in the OOC schedule which will leave teams like Illinois State or other "mid-majors" with less chances for good OOC wins, and then come selection time they will be knocked for not having more top-50 wins.
In 2013, the A10 was a 5 bid conference.They seeded 4-5-6-9-13.
Out of conference they beat Top 25 teams like Gonzaga, Syracuse, Indiana and New Mexico and Top 50 teams like Marquette, North Carolina, Memphis and Belmont among those tourney teams. The other above .500 teams that year also beat Notre Dame who was a Top 50 team.
In 2014, they built off that to become a 6 bid conference, seeded 5-5-6-9-10-11. Out of conference they beat Top 25 teams like Virginia, Gonzaga and Creighton and Top 50 teams like Maryland, New Mexico, BYU, and Providence.
Since then, the A10 has gone 7-8-11 (playin), 7-8-10, and 7-10-11 (automatic - playin more than likely).
The ineffectiveness of the middle as well as the top to consistently secure Top 50 wins has limited the room for error of the top teams in the A10.
Per KenPom, this year the A10 was the worst it's been since 2011, and 4th worst as far as KenPom goes back to 2002. It wasn't much better in 2015 and 2016.
URI this season was a perfect example of that, they struggled to come along OOC, but had they suffered an upset in the A10 tournament, it's very possible they never see the lights of March.
It's imperative for the A10 as a conference (if they want to earn a good next TV contract, and continue to retain their talented coaches), to at least stay consistently close to the 2013 level as a strong 4 bid conferences with 3 or 4 teams very strong on the bubble or NIT picture.