30 years ago, the regular season mattered. How you finished in conference mattered. Conference titles mattered. In this day and age, it's about the Tournament. That doesn't mean it's good or bad.....it's just how it is. If you want your fans engaged, if you want your alumni engaged, if you want donations/NIL to happen......everything you do has to be set up for tournament success. I don't care how/where we finish in the conference these days (other than how it affects us getting to/advancing in the Tournament), I just care about mattering in March (and so do most people). If we could make a Sweet 16 every 5 years or so, that would go a helluva lot further than finishing in the top half of the conference every year. That's just how it is. Fran can keep leaning on that "body of work" all he wants.....right up to there only being 5,000 fans per night because everyone is tired of the same old thing every year.
As AD, Beth has to understand this and be prepared to cut a coach loose that, while his overall record might be positive, his results in March don't warrant continuing to keep him around.