Smart not sure CAA automatically deserves two bids

Shaka Smart speaks to media following the NCAA Tournament selection show this past Sunday. (Photo by Chris Conway/The CT)

Adam Stern
Executive Editor
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From the minute the CAA championsip game ended last week up until Selection Sunday, VCU third-year head coach Shaka Smart lobbied for Drexel to get into the NCAA Tournament.

On press conferences, radio shows and back-room phone calls, VCU’s head honcho made it very clear he believed the Dragons were worthy of one of the 37 at-large bids.

Yet, even though the CAA received three bids last year and clearly were in the running for two this year, when asked by The CT Sports if he thought the CAA was evolving into a league that will routinely deserves two bids, Smart wasn’t quite ready to make that leap.

“I think it’s a year-by-year deal,” Smart said. “I think this year, in my opinion, the CAA was worthy of two NCAA Tournament teams, so it didn’t work out for us this year, the CAA. They won 19 games in a row, won 25 of their last 27.

“But the thing you learned last year is: there is going to be so much said over the next couple days about teams that were included, teams that were excluded,” Smart said. “It’s kind of like a call that an official makes: it’s not going to change; it is what it is.

“So do I think we can regularly get two or three teams into the tournament? Yeah, we just have to keep getting better as a league. I think next year, with all the good players coming back and the teams that we’ll have in this league, we really should be in a terrific position to get multiple bids.”

However, his support for Drexel this year notwithstanding, Smart did make sure to note those bids will be largely determined through a team’s non-conference schedule, a fact which likely doomed Drexel this go-round with their non-conference strength of schedule ranking at 223 out of 335 Division I institutions.

“Fortunately or unfortunately, the vast majority of (a team’s at-large bid consideration) comes down to November and December, and how teams perform in non-conference play,” Smart said. “And that’s just the reality of it.”
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