By Sean Brennan
Special to Atlantic10.com
Fordham coach Tom Pecora recalls sitting around the Barclays Center last fall for the media day tipoff to the season and the questions making the rounds that day seem almost comical at one year later.
“The talk at media day last year was how can we keep up the pace we were on as a conference with all the teams leaving?” said Pecora, Fordham’s fourth-year coach. “You had Butler leave and Xavier leave. So the thinking was there was no way we could be as good, forget about being better. And then what happens? The league was even better.”
It’s been seven months since the Atlantic 10 landed six bids to last season’s NCAA Tournament, tying the ACC, Big 10 and Pac 12 for the second most bids behind the Big 12’s seven selections. But the euphoria from last spring had subsided only slightly at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn Tuesday for this season’s media day and the question everyone wanted an answer to this time around was this: Is the Atlantic 10 now considered one of NCAA basketball’s power conferences?
“It should be,” said Dayton head coach Archie Miller, whose Flyers made a spirited run to the Elite Eight last year with victories over Ohio State, Syracuse and Stanford. “In the three seasons that I’ve been in the league we’ve had 15 (NCAA tournament) bids. I don’t know how many leagues in the last three years get 15 bids. Last season was the deepest the league has ever been and it’s a league that has tremendous coaching. The league is great, it’s going to be great again and I won’t be surprised if there is not another season with four, five or six bids.”
Last season six teams from the Atlantic 10 finished with 20 or more wins while another – Richmond – chalked up 19. The conference also saw nine of its teams ranked in the top 100 while teams such as LaSalle (which reached the Sweet 16 in 2013) and Dayton (Elite Eight last year) made major March noise the past two seasons.
So is it time for the Atlantic 10 to take its seat at the big boy table with the ACC, Big 10, Pac 12, Big East and Big 12?
“I absolutely think we’re up there with the big boys,” said Duquesne head coach Jim Ferry. “It’s proven out to be that we’re not a one-hit wonder. You look around the room and you see the coaches that are in this league right now. You got (VCU head coach) Shaka Smart who has been to the Final Four, (George Mason’s) Paul Hewitt has been to the Final Four, (St. Joe’s) Phil Martelli has coached teams that have been undefeated, you got (Davidson’s) Bob McKillop (Elite Eight in 2008), you got (St. Louis’) Jim Crews (back-to-back conferene Coach of the Year), you look at Archie Miller and what he did. You got (Richmond’s) Chris Mooney (who has been) to the Sweet 16. You look at the caliber of coaches in this league right now and I’ll put them up against the Big East, the ACC. I’d put them up against anybody. This conference has really established itself as a premier conference and it’s our job to keep it up there.”
Smart, whose VCU Rams are one of just three teams (the others being Duke and Syracuse) to post 26 or more wins in a season in each of the past five seasons, thinks it’s time the Atlantic 10 got its due, even if he doesn’t think the conference has hit “elite” status just yet.
“It’s certainly not a Mid-Major league,” Smart said of the A-10. “To me, elite would be one of the top one or two leagues. That would make you elite. I don’t think we’re to that point. But I think we’re somewhere in between. If you look over the past three years, and we’ve only been in the league two years, but 15 teams have gotten NCAA tournament bids over the last three years so it’s not like a flash in the pan type of deal. I think that number – 15 - over three years compares pretty favorably to any conference in the country.”
The quality and depth in the conference was a main talking point Tuesday and the arrival of conference newcomer Davidson provided the perfect segue. After 74 seasons as a member of the Southern Conference, Bob McKillop’s Wildcats arrive in the Atlantic 10 toting some robust basketball credentials.
While in the Southern Conference, the Wildcats captured 12 conference tournament titles and 23 regular-season crowns. They have won 20 or more games 21 times in school history - including 12 under McKillop – and have reached the NCAA Tournament 12 times, including the ‘Cats memorable run to the 2008 Elite Eight after it captured the nation’s basketball hearts with victories over Gonzaga, Georgetown and Wisconsin before dropping a two-point decision to eventual champion Kansas.
McKillop said he has a wide range of emotions as Davidson begins its maiden voyage in the Atlantic 10 but he said he is looking forward to not only playing in a premier league but of also reaping the benefits membership has to offer.
Like in recruiting, for instance.
“Once you achieve the level of success the Atlantic 10 has your recruiting is going to be enhanced,” said McKillop, whose 472 career wins ranks him 29th all time in Division I. “And that’s what has happened. Recruiting has improved, looking at the rosters and what coaches are saying. But (Atlantic 10 commissioner) Bernadette (McGlade) is unbelievable. She is a catalyst for this kind of success. She is aggressive, assertive and I think she is incredibly organized and I think she wants to fight to be one of the best conferences in America and I think this trend is going to continue. I think it can be sustained because it wasn’t built on a shooting star. It was built upon a shining star. It wasn’t just up there across the sky. The conference is up there because it has stayed in the sky. When you sustain it that is the mark of excellence and I think this conference has the ability to sustain it.”
While Davidson’s arrival only fortifies an already impressive league, McKillop’s track record of success is not welcomed by all his new coaching brethren.
“They’ll come in I’m sure everyone will have them ranked at the bottom (of the conference) but if we play against Davidson, any coach who has ever played against Coach McKillop in the last 20-some years is probably very nervous eight now,” Dayton’s Miller said. “I know I am. I think they’re going to bring a real toughness to the league, they’re going to bring a very discipline style and I also think they’re not going to take a backseat to anybody. They’ve got great pride in their program and they have great tradition.”
Dan Hurley, who is building Rhode Island into yet another formidable program in the conference, thinks the strength of the league is due to solid programs throughout the standings with not much room for error.
“There are no easy nights in this league and that’s from top to bottom,” Hurley said. “There is so much parity and the success of the top teams in the league has helped everyone in the league recruit a better quality prospect and that, in turn, has made it much, much more competitive.”
So while McKillop prepares for his first foray into his new conference – “It’s a tremendous challenge and it’s the excitement of the Broadway stage. And that, to me, is the biggest thing to be excited about, that Broadway stage” – Pecora sees the days when the Atlantic 10 was on the outside looking in at the power conferences as over.
“It’s interesting during my four years at Fordham each year the league has gotten better and better as we went from three to four to five to six (tournament) bids,” Pecora said. “So who knows what the future will bring? I would never underestimate the Atlantic 10. We’re one of two conferences in the country who are basketball driven who will get multiple bids. I think the future of this league is to each year get four or five or six bids. The competition is that good. Last year we had nine teams in the top 100 so yeah, basketball people know it and as a conference we know it. Just try and schedule, that’s the telltale sign of how well you’re doing.”
So might we see the Atlantic 10 nab six bids or even seven once Selection Sunday rolls around in March? Pecora said it’s not the long shot it might have been several seasons ago.
“I think it’s doable, I definitely do,” Pecora said. “I wouldn’t be shocked by it that’s for sure. You’re never surprised when a score pops up on TV and it’s an A-10 team beating a team from a so-called power conference. You know why? Because we are a power conference.”