Schedule Hard

[it's boogie time]

Scheduling seems to be a balancing act. When you think you will have a good team, you want to schedule big names. However, big names don't want to schedule you when it looks good for your team.

Bradley had the schedule to do some damage this year. It's hard to think that Bradley played Iowa, Iowa State, Michigan State and Vanderbilt and none of the games were on the road.

ISU tried that closed scrimmage stuff before with Porter Moser. I think you need the lights and the crowd to give some of your newcomers the experience. Plus, the school gets some $$$.

[squirrel]

Yes, we played some great teams this year. We also played some not-so-great teams this year. And any benefit received from playing Butler and Wright St was offset from playing UIC and Loyola.

Don't get me wrong, I like the rivalry with Loyola and want them on the schedule every year. And we should play Butler relatively frequently.

However, I don't subscribe to the notion we need to play UIC and/or Milwaukee for games in those markets. . .why not just try to schedule a noteworthy neutral court game with somebody like Gonzaga, St. Joseph's, Illinois, Xavier, Missouri, etc. in Chicago, St. Louis, or Milwaukee. Plenty of teams and plenty of venues to get games in those markets without scheduling dead-weight games.

[squirrel]

SIU's scheduling before this year was all about scheduling (as much as you can predict) other D1 Conference champs. RPI wise, you want to schedule games vs teams that win a bunch of games. Conference champions from even low majors win bunches of games, thus SIU regularly had top 10/20 RPI's. In other words, you do not need to schedule other big schools to have a very, very good RPI.

Now when you're like BU and play half of another mid-major, it will not do much for your RPI.

Exactly. . .

Coaches have a pretty good idea of who the top teams in the various leagues will be.

[BU_EMT128]

Yes, we played some great teams this year. We also played some not-so-great teams this year. And any benefit received from playing Butler and Wright St was offset from playing UIC and Loyola.

Don't get me wrong, I like the rivalry with Loyola and want them on the schedule every year. And we should play Butler relatively frequently.

However, I don't subscribe to the notion we need to play UIC and/or Milwaukee for games in those markets. . .why not just try to schedule a noteworthy neutral court game with somebody like Gonzaga, St. Joseph's, Illinois, Xavier, Missouri, etc. in Chicago, St. Louis, or Milwaukee. Plenty of teams and plenty of venues to get games in those markets without scheduling dead-weight games.

We did not have a choice in playing Milwaukee correct? Just another reason why I feel that we need to exempt ourselves from the bracketbuster and schedule a game that actually may have some implications, for better or worse, for both teams involved. I feel that the bracketbuster has become a 'dead weight' game

[squirrel]

We did not have a choice in playing Milwaukee correct? Just another reason why I feel that we need to exempt ourselves from the bracketbuster and schedule a game that actually may have some implications, for better or worse, for both teams involved. I feel that the bracketbuster has become a 'dead weight' game

Actually we did. After it became clear we would not be in a feature game, JL requested Milwaukee specifically for the W and the return game.

[BU_EMT128]

Actually we did. After it became clear we would not be in a feature game, JL requested Milwaukee specifically for the W and the return game.

So once we realized we were not in a marquee matchup, we had our pick of the litter for who we wanted to play? Who else could we have chosen?

[MacabreMob]

Actually we did. After it became clear we would not be in a feature game, JL requested Milwaukee specifically for the W and the return game.

I know you were in favor of Niagara. And maybe their 19-10 record mighta been better for our RPI than UWM's 13-16 record.

But how do the rest of Metro Atlantic records (and rpi's) help us?

[squirrel]

I know you were in favor of Niagara. And maybe their 19-10 record mighta been better for our RPI than UWM's 13-16 record.

But how do the rest of Metro Atlantic records (and rpi's) help us?

Simple. Directly better opponent (.5 to the RPI calculation) and different connectors, and opponents opponents wins aren't working against you the same way they do with the other HL games. In other words, Butlers wins came at the expense of UIC, Wright, Milwaukee, and Loyola. The same way that all of their wins also worked against each other.

With Niagara, BU indirectly gets credit for Siena, Marist, and Rider's wins with little interference.

That trumps the bad rpi's from the MAAC because your raw calculation will be greater.

[squirrel]

So once we realized we were not in a marquee matchup, we had our pick of the litter for who we wanted to play? Who else could we have chosen?

Yes. The scheduling is done via a web meeting scheduling service with conference commissioner's and AD's with schools able to request preferences.

[BradleyBrave]

Actually we did. After it became clear we would not be in a feature game, JL requested Milwaukee specifically for the W and the return game.

I know you may disagree Squirrel, but knowing that we had to win the MVC Tournament to dance (therefore the RPI boost is insignificant), and knowing that we were just getting our team back together (Ruff had recently come back and AW wasn't hurt yet), an easier opponent at home with a close (and likely winnable) return game next year makes sense. I can't fault the logic on that selection.

[MacabreMob]

Simple. Directly better opponent (.5 to the RPI calculation) and different connectors, and opponents opponents wins aren't working against you the same way they do with the other HL games. In other words, Butlers wins came at the expense of UIC, Wright, Milwaukee, and Loyola. The same way that all of their wins also worked against each other.

With Niagara, BU indirectly gets credit for Siena, Marist, and Rider's wins with little interference.

That trumps the bad rpi's from the MAAC because your raw calculation will be greater.

I understand all that and I think you have a good point.

But, Feb 4th - BracketBuster Announcements

UWM
RPI 125
Record 11-10
Finished 2-6

Niagara
RPI 136
Record 13-7
Finished 6-3

I just think you have a love fest for Metro Atlantic.

[squirrel]

I know you may disagree Squirrel, but knowing that we had to win the MVC Tournament to dance (therefore the RPI boost is insignificant), and knowing that we were just getting our team back together (Ruff had recently come back and AW wasn't hurt yet), an easier opponent at home with a close (and likely winnable) return game next year makes sense. I can't fault the logic on that selection.

If we weren't already playing multiple games from the same league next year, I would agree.

[squirrel]

I understand all that and I think you have a good point.


I just think you have a love fest for Metro Atlantic.

Every team with the exception of Loyola remaining on Milwaukee's sked beyond Feb. 4 had a winning record. So even though at the time they had a winning record, I wasn't blinded by that fact.

Niagara had the one bad loss in the week leading up to the pairings, but still had a decent shot to approach a 20-win season. I will submit however that they did have a disappointing finish to their season overall.

I just may happen to have a love fest for the MAAC.

[BradleyBrave]

If we weren't already playing multiple games from the same league next year, I would agree.

That's a good point as well, and I still have big issues with us scheduling UIC when we already have Loyola and Butler on the schedule. Fortunately this coming year, 3 of our 4 games in our Horizon League schedule are at Carver. Hopefully after next year we can trim down to only 1 or 2.

[MacabreMob]

Basic schedule:

2 Horizon (hone-n-home)
2 MAC (home-n-home)
1 B10 (could be road "buy" game only)
1 A10 (prefer home-n-home)
1 Summitt (no return road game)
1 other low-major w/out return game like OVC
1 holiday tourney
18 Conf games
1 Conf Trny
1 BracketBuster