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- A-10's woes are over
A-10's woes are over
One-bid A-10? Not this season. The conference is primed to be a three-bid league once again. Plus, Memphis wins a thriller, but may be out a starter, Friars officially won't have Hopkins, and five players you should watch.
Tristan Freeman & Rob Dauster
January 05, 2024
It’s that time of year when injuries can suddenly derail a season.
Let’s see how two NCAA Tournament hopefuls are dealing with them, plus more.
1. The Atlantic 10’s coming up big
Conference strength is cyclical.
Take the SEC. At least six of its 14 members have reached the NCAA Tournament since 2018. The SEC has averaged seven bids the last five tournaments, and sent eight teams dancing in 2018 and in 2023.
From 2009-2017, the SEC never had more than five bids. In four of those nine season, just three SEC teams went dancing.
That means 35 SEC teams earned a bid from 2009-2017. The same number of teams reached the dance in the five tournaments from 2018-2023.
The Atlantic 10 has been on the opposite side of that cycle. From 2012-2018, the conference averaged four NCAA Tournament bids, with the peak coming in 2014 when six teams heard their name called on Selection Sunday. (Not to mention the six top-two seeds the league received in the NIT during that same stretch.)
The last five seasons? Not so much. The situation reached a low last season when just one bid went to the Atlantic 10: VCU’s automatic bid for winning the league tournament.
That’s coming to an end in the best way possible.