Valley S.O.S. non-conf. (Updated)

[LittleBrave]

BU BRAVES:
Top 50 ---> 1 (@ Duke)
51-125 ---> 3
126-200 --> 5
201-250 --> 0
251 & Up -> 1 (high - 261 {Northern IL})

Home = 6, Away = 2, Neutral = 2 (H.O.F. Tip-Off Classic)
-----

CU 'Jays
Top 50 ---> 1 (vs. BYU)
51-125 ---> 2
126-200 --> 3
201-250 --> 1
251 & Up -> 5 (high - 305 {Idaho St.})

Home = 9, Away = 3, Neutral = 0
-----

Drake
Top 50 ---> 0
51-125 ---> 2
126-200 --> 1
201-250 --> 5
251 & Up -> 3 (high - 345 {Chicago St.})

Home = 5, Away = 3, Neutral = 3 (Great Alaska Shootout)
-----

Evansville
Top 50 ---> 1 (@ Butler)
51-125 ---> 2
126-200 --> 3
201-250 --> 2
251 & Up -> 2 (high - 308 {MD Eastern Shore})

Home = 6, Away = 4, Neutral = 0
-----

ISU Redbirds
Top 50 ---> 1 (vs. UNLV)
51-125 ---> 1
126-200 --> 1
201-250 --> 2
251 & Up -> 6 (high - 322 {SIU-Ed})

Home = 9, Away = 2, Neutral = 0
----

ISU Sycamores
Top 50 ---> 1 (at Purdue)
51-125 ---> 2
126-200 --> 2
201-250 --> 4
251 & Up -> 1 (high - 336 {Tex. Pan Amer.})

Home = 3, Away = 4, Neutral = 3 (Jerry Tark. Classic)
----

[tornado]

looks like BU and Evansville have the most quality schedules..

[LittleBrave]

# of opponents with RPI of 200 and higher:

BU BRAVES:
200 & Up --> 1

CU 'Jays
200 & Up --> 6

Drake
200 & Up --> 8

Evansville
200 & Up --> 4

ISU Redbirds
200 & Up --> 9

ISU Sycamores
200 & Up --> 5

[LittleBrave]

# of opponents with RPI of 200 and higher:

BU BRAVES:
200 & Up --> 1

CU 'Jays
200 & Up --> 6

Drake
200 & Up --> 8

Evansville
200 & Up --> 4

ISU Redbirds
200 & Up --> 9

ISU Sycamores
200 & Up --> 5

Shameful I dare say!
Yes, Evansville is close to us in terms of scheduling, but I'd give the upper hand to BU. After all, Duke (BU opponent) beat Butler (EU opponent)

[SycamoreFanatic]

Sycamores upped the ante a bit and I am all in favor of it versus playing an "Illinois State" type opponent at home.

http://www.wthitv.com/dpp/sports/isu-mens-basketball-finalizes-schedule

[tornado]

tough game to win - but go for it....

[Bravesfan]

I know I run the risk of reigniting the debate about scheduling, but I'm still a bit disappointed that we could not get a real solid upper tier mid-major school to play us at home. Again, I'm not suggesting a BCS team as they avoid us like the plague for the most part. I'm also not counting BCS teams on the road like Duke and USC. But there should be some solid mid-major teams that would be more than willing to play us at home as many are in the same boat looking to complete their schedules during the summer.

I know many of these teams will avoid us for the same reason that the big boys do, but the pool of potential mid-majors is a lot bigger than the BCS contigent. Obviously teams like Gonzaga, Butler, Memphis and Xavier would not want to run the risk of playing us at home, but there are many others that are of at least NIT quality that would work. I have mentioned Tulsa many times in the past as a team that would be a natural fit for a series, as the rivalry between the former Valley school would generate a lot of buzz for both schools, and would be a great quality opponent.

If Tulsa does not want to play us, what about the likes of UAB, UTEP, Utah St., Kent St, Ohio, Dayton, Rhode Island, Oakland of Michigan, ODU, VCU, George Mason, Drexel, Siena, Oral Roberts, Wright St, UW-Milwaukee, UNC Wilmington or Murray St.? And I'm sure there are plenty of others I can add to that list.

And it's not just us. Many teams in the Valley have consistent trouble getting these types of teams into their arena, but Creighton has done well over the years playing teams like Xavier and St. Josephs in their arena. The MWC-MVC tourney helps fill that bill, but with the Mountain West Conference being blown up for all intents and purposes next year, we need to try harder to get these teams into our house, even if it means (dare I say it!) utilizing the occasional dreaded 2-for-1 setup! It would be nice if we can get one additional quality team into Peoria each year, because even just one of these type of teams can make a big difference on our strength of schedule.

Oh, and before anyone says otherwise, Les does a great job scheduling the way he does, and it has shown in our non-con SOS over the last few years. Just hoping we can find a way to tweak things a bit to make our home schedule better, as Michigan St. and Butler have been past opponents that visited our building. Of course a great showing during the conference season will utimately lead to a great Bracketbuster opponent, which every other year means an RPI boost. But a preseason quality opponent at home would go a long way as well.

[shockerfan13]

Are you ready for the 3-4 300+ rpi teams that WSU will play at home this year? This blurb from Marshall doesn't give me alot of hope for anything solid. It's a good thing there are some good neutral/road possibilities out there for the Shox.

http://blogs.kansas.com/shockwaves/2010/09/03/getting-closer-on-wsus-schedule/

“We’ve haven’t gone to the (Division II route),” he said. “At this point, I’m happy to have games. I’m happy to have SOMEONE from Division I to play.”

Here are the known games for the Shox thus far:

UConn (Maui)
Michigan St/Chaminade (Maui)
Maui game #3
UMKC (last year of the deal with them I believe. They are horrible, but it has helped since we have recruited the KC area kind of hard recently. I'll give a pass on this one, but not the others)
@ San Diego St (good opponent for the MVC/MWC challenge)
LSU ("neutral" court LOL...in Shreveport) it will actually be one of our worst RPI teams IMHO LOL
Tulsa (This is a 4 year series starting in Wichita this year. I do like getting them back on the schedule. They've still been picking up some good recruits too, so that makes me hopefull they can stay competitive)
Texas Southern (ugh)

3 more games to come, and they all appear to be guarantee games. Those will be the ones that bring the schedule down a notch. The thing that can swing this from a pretty good schedule, to an almost Ill St type of schedule is the success in Maui. Lose to a bad UConn team, then get Chaminade. Beat Chaminade and more than likely play Oklahoma or Virginia. If that is the route the Shox take in Maui, it won't do them much good. If they beat UConn, they could lose to Mich St and still get to play either Kentucky or Washington. That would be MUCH better of a path. Do that and you can afford to play a few creampuffs at home (as long as you don't lose to them!)

[Bravesfan]

Are you ready for the 3-4 300+ rpi teams that WSU will play at home this year? This blurb from Marshall doesn't give me alot of hope for anything solid. It's a good thing there are some good neutral/road possibilities out there for the Shox.

http://blogs.kansas.com/shockwaves/2010/09/03/getting-closer-on-wsus-schedule/

Here are the known games for the Shox thus far:

UConn (Maui)
Michigan St/Chaminade (Maui)
Maui game #3
UMKC (last year of the deal with them I believe. They are horrible, but it has helped since we have recruited the KC area kind of hard recently. I'll give a pass on this one, but not the others)
@ San Diego St (good opponent for the MVC/MWC challenge)
LSU ("neutral" court LOL...in Shreveport) it will actually be one of our worst RPI teams IMHO LOL
Tulsa (This is a 4 year series starting in Wichita this year. I do like getting them back on the schedule. They've still been picking up some good recruits too, so that makes me hopefull they can stay competitive)
Texas Southern (ugh)

3 more games to come, and they all appear to be guarantee games. Those will be the ones that bring the schedule down a notch. The thing that can swing this from a pretty good schedule, to an almost Ill St type of schedule is the success in Maui. Lose to a bad UConn team, then get Chaminade. Beat Chaminade and more than likely play Oklahoma or Virginia. If that is the route the Shox take in Maui, it won't do them much good. If they beat UConn, they could lose to Mich St and still get to play either Kentucky or Washington. That would be MUCH better of a path. Do that and you can afford to play a few creampuffs at home (as long as you don't lose to them!)

I think you guys have a much better schedule than ISU has even with these 3 or so guarentee games. Yes, it could be better, but this late in the season, they need to get anyone right now. I'm surprised they still need that many games to fill out their schedule!

[TheAsianSensation]

Wichita seems to have a bit of history of letting bad games sneak on the tail end of the schedule. Boy, their schedule is so close to so good with Maui in there too.

[TheAsianSensation]

http://tribstar.com/sports/x797274436/From-the-Press-Box-Kudos-to-ISU-men-s-hoops-coach-Lansing-for-having-guts-to-play-ND

Interesting tidbit on Indiana St. They turned down a home-and-home with Rhode Island to play a buy game at Notre Dame. Interesting. Maybe there's some in-state dynamic going on, but if the league as a whole is going to solidify, we need more home-and-homes with A-10 schools and the like.

Which leads to a philosophical question of which I'm pretty sure I know the answer: If the option is a buy game at Illinois or a home-and-home with Rhode Island, which do you choose?

[it's boogie time]

Which leads to a philosophical question of which I'm pretty sure I know the answer: If the option is a buy game at Illinois or a home-and-home with Rhode Island, which do you choose?

I think going to Illinois with no return trip is an option every year. You can do that with any team. A home and home with a team at your same perceived level is a good get.

[squirrelgotdead]

http://tribstar.com/sports/x79727443...uts-to-play-ND


Interesting tidbit on Indiana St. They turned down a home-and-home with Rhode Island to play a buy game at Notre Dame. Interesting. Maybe there's some in-state dynamic going on, but if the league as a whole is going to solidify, we need more home-and-homes with A-10 schools and the like.

Which leads to a philosophical question of which I'm pretty sure I know the answer: If the option is a buy game at Illinois or a home-and-home with Rhode Island, which do you choose?

It depends on your position, too, a bit. Indiana State probably stands to make more money by taking the buy game at Notre Dame than they would selling tickets to a game against URI. But Bradley would likely sell that game out. URI isn't exactly a "name" program that people will recognize, either. But I think a lot of BU fans would.

[Bravesfan]

It depends on your position, too, a bit. Indiana State probably stands to make more money by taking the buy game at Notre Dame than they would selling tickets to a game against URI. But Bradley would likely sell that game out. URI isn't exactly a "name" program that people will recognize, either. But I think a lot of BU fans would.

That's probably how I feel too. A win against a name program via a buy-in would go a lot further towards solidifying an NCAA Tournament birth with a top two finish and the required number of wins. But you lose two years worth of games against a lesser "name" team, but one of those types of teams that I always feel would solidify our schedule if we can't get the big name type of teams. They also lose a higher drawing home game by taking the buy-in game on the road, though like you said, perhaps URI would be a better draw for us than for Indiana State.

It's a tough choice considering many here, Jim Les included (in theory at least) are totally against these 2-for-1 or one shot buy-in deals. I don't have a problem with ISU playing at Notre Dame in a one shot deal any more than I would have a problem with us playing at Duke one time. Even our recent 2-for-1's against Michigan St. and Iowa St. at least gave us those elusive home games against the big boys which is nothing but a good thing. I for one hope we get more of these in the near future even if we can hook onto a good tournament each year, just so we have the potential of getting a home game against someone of "stature" so to speak.

Btw, to clarify my earlier post, I did not realize Detroit won 20 games last season. If Detroit can play like the Detroit of "old" from the late 90's through the early 00's when they were a consistent Horizon League power, then this was a very solid home game added to our schedule. Unfortunately it will be played while most students are away from campus, but it should be a great game for the local season ticket holders who have been looking for at least a semi-decent home opponent for the last couple of years now.