Non-Con schedule "officially" posted

[BUFAN]

Here is Dave Reynolds' article in today's (8/16/0 PJ Star about the non-conference schedule--
Bradley fortifies schedule

http://www.pjstar.com/sports/x1507910710/Bradley-fortifies-schedule

Here is WMBD's article--
Sweet 16 teams highlight BU's schedule

http://centralillinoisproud.com/content/fulltext/?cid=17881

I haven't added my opinion on this schedule, yet, but here it is if anyone cares-
I think Bradley did a remarkable job putting together this schedule, considering the adversity they faced. With the late cancelling of the TOTWC, and Iowa State asking for a change in their contracted game, Bradley could have been in a position to end up with a terrible bunch of teams. But instead, they have 2 Sweet 16 teams from last year on their non-conference schedule (Butler and Michigan State- something I can't find they have had for a long time), and they will have multiple games against teams that have won the national championship in recent memory (Florida or Syracuse, and Michigan State). The CBE is a good tournament to land in, considering just a couple weeks ago, they were left out in the cold by the folks in Alaska. The only thing I am disappointed about, is that there is no Red-White game, and we have to wait until Nov. 3rd to see the team. That will be tough!

Dave also reports one more tidbit at the bottom--
"Les said the final member of this season's team, freshman forward Taylor Brown of Dunwoody, Ga., will arrive on campus today. Brown, who committed to the Braves last month, will be seeing Bradley for the first time."

Welcome Taylor! But are we sure he is the "final member of this season's team"?

I too think this is a good schedule considering. I read somewhere the civic center had booked an event that limited open dates for BU Bb. I was hoping for a 2 for 1 kinda deal with a BCS school, but what we have is ok. I hope BU has some kind of charter scheduled for FGC.

[JBinPeoria]

I think the schedule is fine. There are some opportunities for some "Key" or "marquee" wins that help the NCAA cause should we not win the MVC. But the bottom line is that these "marquee" wins for mid-majors still don't count as much in the tournament committee's eyes as medoicre records in conferences packed with BCS competition. We are still in a position where we HAVE to win the MVC in my eyes for me to have any confidence that we will be looked upon favorably come NCAA time.

This leads me to my feelings about the College Basketball Experience Classic, which I never have heard of...so I assume it is new. This calls into question why it is even called a "classic", but that is besides the point. The way I see it is...we are in a pre-season exempt tournament against Richmond (RPI = 0.52), Florida Gulf Coast (RPI = 0.42) and University of Missouri Kansas City (RPI = ???). These three games only bring our overall strength of schedule down and will not be looked upon favorably by the selection committee. The upside of all this is that we get to play Florida or Syracuse on the road as part of this so-called "tournament". That is good, but get this...if we win this game against Florida, we do not advance in the so-called "tournament". Win-or-lose, its is a one way ticket into a "champrionship" series in the losers bracket against teams who's RPIs are so low, it will probably offset the stength of schedule lift we get from playing Florida or Syracuse.

To me, being invited to a so-called "tournament" such as this is an insult and a slap in the face to a program that is deserving of way more national respect than it actually gets. Part of me thinks we have more pride than to accept an invitation to a tournament where a first round victory against a Florida or Syracuse gets you a one-way ticket into the losers bracket. The other part of me realizes that perhaps it was the best deal on the table for our players once the "Top of the World Classic" went down the tubes.

Regardless, in the future, I would like to see Bradley participate in REAL tournaments. Tournaments where early-round road victories allow you to advance and play better teams with the ultimate goal of being in a pre-season championship game that will provide national exposure. A wonderful tournament that achieves this is the Pre-Season NIT. If you look at the Pre-Season NIT in any given year (16 teams, I think). You typically find the four teams they are hoping will make it to Madison Square Garden for the finals and typically 2-3 potential spoilers. That is fine. It is a win-win for participants where schools that have tough early round matchups at least get a strength of schedule boost and good experience. The better teams typically advance to play even better teams to improve their overall SOS. And most of all, the teams that win games don't get a one-way ticket to losersville (i.e. the loser's bracket).

[Da Coach]

I am sure Bradley would not hesitate to be in the Preseason NIT if asked, but they have never been asked. The TOTWC would have been such a "real tournament" with a real championship, but due to circumstances entirely beyond their control, those plans fell apart.

As I have said before, scheduling for a strong midmajor school like Bradley is perhaps the most difficult task of all. Lower schools don't have any problem getting "buy games" and higher schools can name their opponents. Year after year, Bradley has done a good job. Their overall Strength of Schedule ranks #2 among the MVC schools over the past 6 seasons since JL has been coach.

[Garland 22]

I am sure Bradley would not hesitate to be in the Preseason NIT if asked, but they have never been asked. The TOTWC would have been such a "real tournament" with a real championship, but due to circumstances entirely beyond their control, those plans fell apart.

As I have said before, scheduling for a strong midmajor school like Bradley is perhaps the most difficult task of all. Lower schools don't have any problem getting "buy games" and higher schools can name their opponents. Year after year, Bradley has done a good job. Their overall Strength of Schedule ranks #2 among the MVC schools over the past 6 seasons since JL has been coach.

I agree, this a good schedule with several tough road games. Remember last year we started with a road "cupcake" named UIC and got slapped. We had a BCS team at home and couldn't close the deal. This schedule is solid and will allow our new guys to start meshing in tough, but not overwhelming envioronments. Not to mention maybe a game in the Carrier Dome which would be cool.

Also on the CBE thing, I think the Sprint Center in KC which is a large venue probably told sponsors that there would be 4 big boys in for the final tourney. As much as we all love BU, I imagine most in the KC area wouldn't pay the roughly 30 dollar ticket price to see a couple of mid-majors face off. Cinderella is a big story in march, but not as compelling in Nov.

[Rocky-Mountains-Brave]

It may have been mentioned earlier - but Kansas is one of the Big 4
teams for this years CBE Classic. I would think that Kansas and every
Kansas fan would love another shot at Bradley in their own back yard.
But Heaven forbid if Bradley were to win again.

[basketball nut]

Thinking about this more. . .

There would be 16 teams overall. . .

The 4 Tier 1 teams go to KC.

There are 2 groups of 3 Tier 2 teams. . .this would be BU

There are 2 groups of 3 Tier 3 teams. . .

There are two sites (Fort Myers and I've seen nothing on where the other site may be) where the non-KC participants go, and the each of the Tier 2 teams play one game each against the Tier 3 teams. . .

What is interesting is FGCU would likely be Tier 3, but is a nice location in FL that I'm sure the teams had no trouble agreeing to go to.

So only 2 of our 3 games down there are neutral.

I don't know for certain either but I beleive squirrel is probably right on w/ this line up of games. The one game that concerns me is FGCU as they were not that bad for such a young team last year and if I remember right stayed w/ BU in the second half last year. I wouldn't take them too lightly this year. This is a team and a school that is going to hit the big time very quick becaue of where it is located. It is not only a great place to visit in the winter but it would be a great place to go to school all winter.

[brocks]

It may have been mentioned earlier - but Kansas is one of the Big 4
teams for this years CBE Classic. I would think that Kansas and every
Kansas fan would love another shot at Bradley in their own back yard.
But Heaven forbid if Bradley were to win again.

Yep, has been mentioned. Check the "Cleveland State Mystery" thread.

[Da Coach]

I have just learned that Bradley does not intend to arrange a fan trip to the Florida games in Ft. Myers, November 24, 25, and 26.
We hope to find out soon what hotel Bradley will be staying at in Ft. Myers, and what the exact schedule is for the games. We should also know within this next week which team (Syracuse or Florida) Bradley will play on November 16.

[chitown fanatic]

I think the thing that bothers me most about this non-con schedule is that even with the TOTW cancellation, we still would have had 3 dates to fill,and we stubbornly tried to hang on for home games instead of being bought by a bigger program and an SOS boost. Now we have SEMO, E. Tenn St, and SIU-E????? Who in Peoria would even want to see that garbage?? If I was a season ticket holder, I'd want a refund. One slip up against any of those three, not to mention going to another hyphen on their home floor in FGCU, and you can cancel any hopes of an at-large. I can see Nantz ripping this apart in March now....

[Stryker]

That's why I say we can only lose maybe 2 games in non-conference, and they better be against MSU and Florida, and even then we won't have a "signature" win. So just pray for a win against one of them and cleaning house on the rest of them.

[bugregshu]

I think the thing that bothers me most about this non-con schedule is that even with the TOTW cancellation, we still would have had 3 dates to fill,and we stubbornly tried to hang on for home games instead of being bought by a bigger program and an SOS boost. Now we have SEMO, E. Tenn St, and SIU-E????? Who in Peoria would even want to see that garbage?? If I was a season ticket holder, I'd want a refund. One slip up against any of those three, not to mention going to another hyphen on their home floor in FGCU, and you can cancel any hopes of an at-large. I can see Nantz ripping this apart in March now....

SIU-E is an opportunity for Lennox Forrester to make his Peoria comeback, so I think that game will draw a lot of fans, and it should be fun to watch as well

Also, you might want to check up on ETSU before you call them garbage.

[SFP]

I would have liked it if we could have fit in another high visability game. Stanford also lost some games and I would have loved to have scheduled them.

[ER3]

SIU-E is an opportunity for Lennox Forrester to make his Peoria comeback, so I think that game will draw a lot of fans, and it should be fun to watch as well

SIU-E is a first year Div I basketball program...They went 17-11 as a Div II team last year. That is a lousy opponent any way you slice it. I highly doubt that Lennox Forrester being their head coach is going to be any type of draw at all for that game. Any BU hoops fan that even knows who Lennox Forrester is already going to be at that game without even having to check the schedule...The 'casual' BU fan has no idea who Lennox Forrester is...so the SIU-E game isn't going to draw because of Lennox.

[Beninator]

I too would love to see all BCS teams coming to Peoria, but let's face it, we're not going to get that.
To get multiple BCS & Sweet sixteen opponents is pretty impressive, especially since this is the 2nd year in a row that at least one of them is a HOME GAME.

I understand this point, but in the future, I would like to see us schedule some upper mid-major schools to compliment the tournaments and or buy-in games with larger schools. I would think that we are including Butler for future games, but I would like to see a series of games with Xavier for example.

[ER3]

I too would love to see all BCS teams coming to Peoria, but let's face it, we're not going to get that.

That's not what I'm expecting or asking for. I understand that we cannot consistently get quality BCS teams to come to Carver. However, I don't understand why we cannot bring in several quality mid-majors every year...and stop having to schedule RPI-killers like SEMO and SIU-E...
The good mid-major teams cry every year about how hard it is to put together a quality schedule because the big boys won't play them...well, why aren't these teams scheduling each other? You can build a quality non-conference schedule without having 10 BCS teams on it....Putting teams like Tulsa, Xavier, Charlotte, St. Joseph's, Temple, UMass, Dayton, UAB, Western Kentucky, Kent St., Ohio, etc. on our home schedule would make a huge difference...we have enough bad road games (FGCU, UMKC) on our schedule because of this CBE Tournament, we don't need two more on our home slate (SEMO, SIU-E).

To get multiple BCS & Sweet Sixteen opponents is pretty impressive, especially since this is the 2nd year in a row that at least one of them is a HOME GAME.
How many Valley teams in your memory have EVER hosted Sweet Sixteen opponents in consecutive years?

I'm glad Butler is on our schedule...and yes, they were a great team last year...But they should be way, way down this year...They lost 4 of their top 5 scorers from last year's team...so raving about having a Sweet 16 team coming into our building this year is a bit misleading...The Butler team coming into Carver this year will in no way resemble a Sweet 16 caliber team.

Also, keep in mind, as I review the schedules of some of the other Valley teams (this year's and last year's) most of them had numerous 200+ RPI opponents last year and most had D-II opponents on their schedules (ISU played Missouri-St. Louis as a regular season opponent - NOT an exhibition).
Even Creighton last year played a D-II opponent and two 250+ RPI opponents (North Carolina Central, Savannah State).
UNI played D-II Wartburg, MSU played D-II Harding, UE played Hanover, and even DRAKE played TWO D-II opponents (Cornell College & UC-San Diego)!!

We likely have at least 4 teams on our non-conference schedule this year that will have an RPI greater than 200 (SEMO, FGCU, UMKC, SIU-E)...that is not good.

BUT-- Bradley did not have any D-II opponents last year, nor this year, and we had THREE top 20 RPI opponents (Michigan State, Vandy, Butler)!
NOBODY else in the Valley even had TWO non-conference opponents with RPI's in the TOP 20, yet we had three.
This season, with possibly Syracuse, Butler, Michigan State we could do it again, and have one of the toughest Valley non-con slates.

Last year's schedule was very good...no question. We took a step backwards with this year's...it happens.
Do you really believe that Butler is going to be anywhere near the RPI top 20 this year? They lose Graves, Green, Campbell, and Betko...They will be young and nowhere near as good as they were last year...
Syracuse had an RPI of about 55 last year and Donte Green left early for the NBA...so I doubt it would be realistic to project them as a possible RPI top 20 team.

I think this is a good pre-conference schedule, and might end up being the toughest in the valley and could have no 200+ RPI teams.

Do you really believe that there will be no 200+ RPI teams on our schedule this year?
FGCU had an RPI of 294 last year...
SEMO had an RPI of 291 last year...
UMKC had an RPI of 288 last year...
SIU-E is a first year Div-I program...

I don't see how all four of those teams will be in the top 200 this year. Frankly, I'd be surprised if more than one of them had an RPI better than 200 at the end of the season...

I disagree....[SIU-E is] and will become a decent regional non-conference rival in time, so I think it is good to schedule them.

In time...maybe...I was merely saying that they are likely to be a lousy RPI 200+ team on our schedule this year...


The schedule isn't terrible this year...it just is a disappointment when comparing it to last year's...Having a non-con schedule with 4 games against probable RPI 200+ teams is a little underwhelming, IMO. And only having one game this year against a probable top 20 team (Michigan State) doesn't give us much of a boost...Butler and Syracuse are nice teams to have on the schedule, but I don't think either team projects to be a world-beater this year.

We'll see how it all plays out. Hopefully the Valley is stronger this year and that will be where the rest of our quality opponents will come from...