Bradley schedule for 2013-2014

[tornado]

Here's an article on new head coach Anthony Evans' scheduling philosophy at brand new CUSA member, FIU - where their head coach last year, Richard Pitino, just left and took over at Minnesota...

They pick several extremely tough road games - "guarantee"-type games that are what lots of teams, like Bradley, claim they will not play or want to shy away from...

This season FIU is playing at National Champ Louisville, Georgetown, and others,
but I think their philosophy is really quite sound in addition to making a pretty decent payday at these games....

"We chose to pick South Carolina and Georgetown (and the other tough road games..)
..Evans said. “I want the team to be prepared when we go into conference play and that’s part of the preparation.”

http://fiusm.com/2013/09/30/evans-ready-to-lead-panthers-forward/

[tornado]

[B][SIZE="1"]
Oct. 18 Friday Red-White Scrimmage - 8pm at Ren-Col...

We are only a week away -- Red-White scrimmage will give many fans a chance to see the team for the first time in action...
let's pack the place and encourage our team!

Here's a recap of the past few Red-White scrimmages...
2012-13 - The Red-White was at Ren-Col, debuted Tyshon Pickett - modest crowd..clearly down a bunch after a poor record the previous year there was also a lot of confusion Re: the start time
2011-12 - R-W game in Ren-Col, crowd was stated at 2,056 but you decide - here's the photo proof - lack of the Itoo supper hurt preseason enthusiasm
2010-11 - 1st R-W at Ren-Col - nice crowd reported to be 1500-2000
2009-10 - no Red-White due to Fieldhouse torn down
2008-09 - no Red-White - Fieldhouse demolition
2007-08 - Red-White was at Fieldhouse with spaghetti supper also included - a massive 3,782 paid to see the last Red-White in the Fieldhouse
2006-07 - 2,700 at the old Fieldhouse - game also included dunk contest
2005-06 - attendance was 2,345 for Cellus' senior year, Tony Bennett scored 16.
pre-2005 the Red-White was a huge event - 3000+ we need to get the excitement back

[tornado]

One of our upcoming opponents, Central Michigan, held their intrasquad scrimmage...
they put up some pretty impressive scoring totals with the winning "Maroon" squad hanging 80 points on the scoreboard in just 30 minutes!!
They appear to be a pretty prolific 3-pt shooting team...

http://www.cm-life.com/2013/10/21/mens-basketball-shows-off-offense-in-open-scrimmage/

Green Bay also held theirs

http://www.greenbayphoenix.com//ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=22500&ATCLID=209288015

[tornado]

....FWIW...very few of our non-conference opponents are picked at the top of their respective conferences.

Jacksonville St. 7th in Ohio Valley - http://dalydoseofhoops.blogspot.com/...io-valley.html
Alabama State - 8th in SWAC - http://dalydoseofhoops.blogspot.com/...-athletic.html
Central Mich. - 10th in MAC - http://dalydoseofhoops.blogspot.com/...onference.html
Chicago St. is picked a hard-to-beleive 2nd in the WAC - http://dalydoseofhoops.blogspot.com/...onference.html
Illinois - pending
AZ St. - pending
UTPA - right behind Chicago State
IUPUI - last in Summit - http://dalydoseofhoops.blogspot.com/...it-league.html
UW-Milwaukee - last in Horizon - http://dalydoseofhoops.blogspot.com/...on-league.html
IPFW - next to last in Summit
Portland - pend. but they finished next to last in WCAC
Pacific - pending - finished 2nd in Big West
USF - pend but they finished 15th in Big East

now halfway thru the season we can see where our slate of opponents are at...

Jacksonville State - 7-11 & at the bottom of the OVC - RPI 316
Alabama State - 7-6 and 1-1 in SWAC - RPI 272
Central Michigan - 7-6 & 0-1 in MAC - RPI 273
Chicago State - 6-9 - RPI 222
Illinois - 13-3 but probably headed for 5, 6, or 7th in Big Ten - RPI 19
Arizona State - 12-3 but currently tied for 6th in Pac-12 - RPI 75
UTPA - 4-12, 0-1 in WAC - RPI 332
IUPUI - 5-12 worst record in Summit - RPI 322
UW-M - 12-5, better than expected, but just lost 77-49 to Cleveland State - RPI 115
IPFW - 12-5 - RPI 174
Portland - 9-7 but 1-3 in WCC - RPI 181
Pacific - 9-5 but 0-3 in WCC - RPI 63
USF - 9-6 but 0-2 & last place in American Athletic - RPI 196

Pretty much matches exactly what Da Coach predicted...

http://bradleyfans.com/vb/showthread.php?p=281740#post281740

[tornado]

Here's an interesting opinion by the President of Arizona State..
One of the D-II schools in Arizona, a private school called Grand Canyon University, is making the transition to Division I..
GCU is a private school that is an unusual venture - it is a school that answers to stockholders and they are a "for profit" business, but a very good academic school regardless,
and spearheading new, profitable ventures like online classes.

But the President of ASU, Michael Crow, slams that idea - he thinks it is unfair that they might actually gain a tiny little bit of the profit that Arizona schools get from the NCAA....
He seems to have a strong bias towards a school that can actually be run well enough to not lose money!

http://www.azcentral.com/sports/colleges/articles/20130719arizona-state-president-michael-crow-says-forprofit-grand-canyon-does-not-belong-in-ncaa-division-i.html

Jeff Eisenberg writes an opinion for YahooSports! then proceeds to slam Arizona State & the Pac 12 for their self-serving and transparent stance.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaab-the-dagger/arizona-state-attempt-keep-grand-canyon-university-division-153010564.html

he reasons that the real purpose of the Pac 12 opposition is they are worried that the private/for profit formula might work, and that GCU might just some day compete with the state schools, and beat them out for recruits.

so - let's look back - how did this tiny, obscure, private, "for-profit" college do
in their very first season of D-I play (they are still transitioning)

They did exceptionally well...considering their roster is all DII kids and nobody has ever heard of them so it's quite hard for them to recruit...

They finished 15-14 & 10-6 in the WAC - good enough for 3rd place!!

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/wac/2014/03/10/college-basketball-grand-canyon-lopes/6223357/

They are not eligible for the NCAA Tourney nor their own conference tourney - but might get a bid to the CBI or CIT!

[tornado]

Grand Canyon University wants to play in the post-season and so they buy their way into the CIT, even tho they are ineligible for either the NCAA or NIT tournaments - because they are still transitioning to Division I...

http://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/college/gcu/2014/03/12/gcu-mens-basketball-will-host-1st-round-cit-game-next-wednesday/6354017/

[Chico]

Grand Canyon University wants to play in the post-season and so they buy their way into the CIT, even tho they are ineligible for either the NCAA or NIT tournaments - because they are still transitioning to Division I...

http://www.azcentral.com/story/sport...esday/6354017/

Good for them.

[amckillip]

so - let's look back - how did this tiny, obscure, private, "for-profit" college do
in their very first season of D-I play (they are still transitioning)

They did exceptionally well...considering their roster is all DII kids and nobody has ever heard of them so it's quite hard for them to recruit...

They finished 15-14 & 10-6 in the WAC - good enough for 3rd place!!

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/wac/2014/03/10/college-basketball-grand-canyon-lopes/6223357/

They are not eligible for the NCAA Tourney nor their own conference tourney - but might get a bid to the CBI or CIT!

I am very surprised that a D-1 conference allowed a recently purchased for profit college in. For profit colleges, especially those who buy up struggling not-for-profit colleges are extremely 'suspect.' I have minimal knowledge at all about Grand Canyon other than it recently (within the last 10 years or so), got bought and became for profit, but is fairly decently respected. I know Phoenix is a hotbed of sorts for online and non-traditional schools because of the large population center and lack of historic options outside of the 3 major State Universities, so it has contributed to the rise of Thunderbird, University of Phoenix, and Grand Canyon, among others. All of which are at minimum considered decent, but there are many horror stories that cloud for-profit colleges.

See Ashford University in our own backyard... (And this is after repeated attempts by Ashford to clean up and 'whitewash' their Wiki page...)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashford_University#Government_controversies

[tornado]

It is hard to sort out the truth ....
because on one side - profit is a motive for these universities - so wherever there is the desire to profit - we may hear spin instead of truth...

but on the other side - the people who run and work at standard schools ...
(schools that don't mind making a profit but that are run as "not-for-profit" operations and thus get substantial governmental and tax breaks and goodies/freebies)

...definitely have a strong bias, fear, and dislike of such for-profit schools - and some of that is just a fear that their comfy jobs could be at risk if someone finds a better way of doing things....or perhaps demand a little accountability...
not too unlike how public school teachers hate the idea of certain private ventures & charter schools....
they simply want to try to use their clout to protect their jobs and their comfy and previously locked-in work situations.

I say let the free market decide - because that's the was our whole system in the USA has worked for 240 years!

[amckillip]

It is hard to sort out the truth ....
because on one side - profit is a motive for these universities - so wherever there is the desire to profit - we may hear spin instead of truth...

but on the other side - the people who run and work at standard schools ...
(schools that don't mind making a profit but that are run as "not-for-profit" operations and thus get substantial governmental and tax breaks and goodies/freebies)

...definitely have a strong bias, fear, and dislike of such for-profit schools - and some of that is just a fear that their comfy jobs could be at risk if someone finds a better way of doing things....or perhaps demand a little accountability...
not too unlike how public school teachers hate the idea of certain private ventures & charter schools....
they simply want to try to use their clout to protect their jobs and their comfy and previously locked-in work situations.

I say let the free market decide - because that's the was our whole system in the USA has worked for 240 years!

One major issue however is the predatory practices of some For Profit schools like Ashford, they admit anyone, get people who are not qualified for College to sign up, take out loans they can't afford (to pay the for profit school), and then hang them out to dry when they fail out.