The Atlantic-10 has “upped the ante” for the 2012-13 season.
The biggest basketball-only conference in the nation is welcoming Butler and Virginia Commonwealth to its ranks, expanding to 16 teams, and winning the conference re-alignment battle by gaining the two former Final Four mid-major teams.
“It’s a great basketball conference, it’s a conference that has had tradition and always has a number of teams fighting for the championship and almost all of those teams play in the NCAA Tournament,” Butler head coach Brad Stevens said Wednesday at Media Day.
Butler, the Cinderella team that made back-to-back national championship games in 2010 and 2011, is making the jump to the A-10 from the Horizon League while VCU is coming from the Colonial Athletic Association. Traditionally both leagues have had just a single representative in the NCAA Tournament, so moving to the A-10 changes how both teams will approach conference play.
“[In the Horizon League] January and February aren’t any fun,’’ Stevens said. “If you win it’s because you were supposed to and if you lose it crushes your season. You get the proper due for your achievements in [in the A-10]”
Aside from a conference change, Butler and VCU will have to adjust to changes in schedules, including traveling to the Barclays Center for the A-10 Tournament in March. Because of the size of the 16-team conference, VCU only will get one home-and-home contest, against in-state rival Richmond.
“VCU is still VCU, but certainly our opponents are much different,” Rams head coach Shaka Smart said. “We play 31 games and play 30 different teams. That makes it a unique season. With this conference change, we are going to have to be better.”
Butler and VCU received first-place votes in the A-10 preseason poll, but the early favorite for the league champion is St Joseph’s. Phil Martelli’s Hawks received 11 first-place votes and will be bringing back all five starters, including four who were named to preseason All A-10 teams.
“When I saw the selection, I was neither surprised nor startled,” Martelli said. “Nothing really changes.”
Though Martelli downplays the No. 1 selection, other coaches in the league are dreading the Hawks, including UMass’ Derek Kellogg, whose Minutemen join Temple and Saint Louis to round out the top five in voting.
“I get sick [thinking about St. Joe’s] because I think they are really good,” Massachusetts head coach Derek Kellogg said. “They have a lot of the intangibles that a lot of top-25 teams have. I think they’re a really good team, they’re big, athletic and experienced.”
Though Kellogg may be getting sick over St. Joe’s, UMass opponents will find their stomachs turning when preseason All A-10 point guard Chaz Williams comes into their gym. The Brooklyn native averaged 16.9 points, 6.2 assists and 4.4 rebounds last season.
Joining Williams on the preseason first team is Fordham senior forward Chris Gaston, who has led the Rams in scoring and rebounding in each of the past three seasons and has 52 double-doubles in 84 career games.
“[Chris] has had the best offseason since I’ve been here,” Fordham head coach Tom Pecora said. “He has to continue working hard to expand his game to the perimeter. I have spoken to a number of NBA people who want to come in and watch him practice and play. He’s a professional basketball player.”
Last year’s A-10 tournament champion St. Bonaventure was picked to finish 11th in the conference after losing their best player to the NBA, Andrew Nicholson.
“Missing Andrew is big, I’m not going to lie to you,” St. Bonaventure head coach Mark Schmidt said. “I think our guys have a little bit of a chip on their shoulder, trying to prove that it’s more than just a one-man team.”
Illustrating how deep the conference is with the arrival of VCU and Butler, is perennial A-10 powerhouse Xavier being predicted to be a middle of the pack team after losing all five of its starters from the team that made the NCAA Tournament last season.
Four of the 16 Atlantic-10 teams won’t even make it to the Barclays Center in March, the site of the league’s tournament.
“I don’t see too many teams that couldn’t be in the top half of the standings,” Smart said. “Last time I checked, if there’s eight in the top half, there has to be eight in the bottom half. Look at the teams that are picked eighth, ninth and 10th in this league. You’re going to have to put your hardhat on every night.”
Butler and VCU are not the only newcomers for the A-10. Former Wagner head coach Danny Hurley has taken over as the head coach at Rhode Island and former LIU-Brooklyn coach Jim Ferry has taken the reins at Duquesne.
asulla-heffinger@nypost.com