Non-Con schedule "officially" posted

[squirrel]

Where did I say there was anything wrong with those 7 games?

And now that I know exactly how the pairings for the non-feature BB games are made, it's clearer why we ended up with NIU. . .which is perfectly fine (local player for NIU gets the hometown game, the return game in Chicago--or DeKalb. . .part of the greater Chicagoland area).

Look, I'm not criticizing playing in Chicago. I obviously understand its benefits and it is an excellent outreach.

I am merely stating that we don't need to go out of our way to make sure it happens. Again, our schedule needs to become more national, less regional.

As pointed out in my initial post on the matter...who should we make sure we are playing up there? Chicago St? UIC again?

The CCI or a neutral court game with regularity are perfectly fine. But we should not compromise the quality of our schedule all for the sake a game in Chicago.

[IheartBU]

Any other Chicagoland alumni bummed the are no games in Chicago? I was really hoping for a Northwestern, Chicago State, or even NIU game. Not for their RPI value but just for the easy drive. Last year, UIC was alright, but Loyola was great just because you can show up and sit court side in their high school style gym.

Anyone else starting to think about a road trip up to UW-Milwaukee? Is it possible we bring more fans like the Loyola game? UW-Milwaukee only averaged 5200 at home last year and that include the 10000+ for their game against UW-Madison.

Abe -- Myself and a certain blonde we both know are probably in for this ... let us know if you and Mrs. Abe are making the trip.

[Beninator]

The CCI or a neutral court game with regularity are perfectly fine. But we should not compromise the quality of our schedule all for the sake a game in Chicago.

In all reality, we dont have to compromise the quality of our schedule for the sake of a game in Chicago. If we look at this years schedule, there are three games in which we could replace an opponent with a quality mid-major. (ETSU, SIU Edwardsville, and SEMO) Duke tries to go out of their way to schedule a game in New York for their alumni and recruiting even though that game isnt always against a quality opponent. --and yes I realize that Duke doesnt have to worry about strength of schedule-- I think we should do the same by placing an emphasis on a game in Chicago.

[MacabreMob]

2006-07-- .....Also, Bradley was not guaranteed they would play Illinois, they could have played Ohio is they had lost the 1st game against Rutgers.

It was Miami (Ohio). And we coulda played them had UIUC lost the 1st game. We blew out Rutgers and UIUC got lucky escaping Miami (Ohio).

[it's boogie time]

You know what Boogie Time - that's fine. But watch those games again 10 times each especially down the stretch and final 5 minutes.... and the outcome of the Ohio game and the crowd that roared it in outdoes the atmosphere of a loss to a Top 10 B10 team in the house every time.

Coming from a UIUC fan that went to the "show" to watch the trapeze artist fall when Bradley faced Mich St... your schadenfreude response does not surprise me.

So basically, the crowd was loud when Bradley went on a furious run (25 to 5 or something like that). I stood the whole time during the Michigan State game. I hadn't done that since my Molinarmy days. If you are just looking for loud moments, either of the shots that Sam made late against Drake or Evansville would beat out the CBI moment. You can even go one game later in that homestand to hear loud moments of a free throw by Wilson and a subsequent wild shot by Eldridge that made the crowd go wild.

It was fun at the end of the Ohio game. I also remember thinking how loud the place would have been if there was a regular crowd and all of them had stayed.

Hard to watch the Ohio game again since it wasn't on tv and the tape never even made it's way to Charlottesville.

[squirrel]

In all reality, we dont have to compromise the quality of our schedule for the sake of a game in Chicago. If we look at this years schedule, there are three games in which we could replace an opponent with a quality mid-major. (ETSU, SIU Edwardsville, and SEMO) Duke tries to go out of their way to schedule a game in New York for their alumni and recruiting even though that game isnt always against a quality opponent. --and yes I realize that Duke doesnt have to worry about strength of schedule-- I think we should do the same by placing an emphasis on a game in Chicago.

I agree. . .but again, that's why we requested Milwaukee for the BB last year.

UIC and Milwaukee simply aren't going to cut it most years, when I am already committed to keeping Loyola on.

I have no problem if we can get into a high profile neutral court game up there every year, or for the CCI. But I see no movement in that direction.

[basketball nut]

Even though I agree on paper the non-conf schedule looks weak, my question is how do we know what we are getting. Everyone is going off of last years schedule and the fact that we are playing a new D-1 team in SIU-E (which I told my wife over a year ago they would be on the schedule this year because of LF being the coach). At this time last year all of us on this board would have said that DU was a weak opponent (and how good we were going to be) also but look what happened. I guess my point is let's wait and see how the season plays out.
As for our opponents lets see what FGCU has as they were a young team last season that looked like they have some ability if they learned to play together and could give us a good game and as for SIU-E they may not be as bad as some on this board think as they were not a real bad D-2 team last year and have p/u some players that are more D-1 type players to go w/ that team.
I guess I just don't understand how we can project what a team is going to do when we really don't know what they have and how much they have improved. Of course some of you are the same ones that 3 years ago thought that JC should transfer as he will not be playing much at BU. Oh that is right he only went on to be 1st team MVC and lead the nation in 3 point shooting %
As another poster said let's win all of our games and we will let the RPI take care of itself.

[Grassman]

That attitude is the sole reason we have Milwaukee on the schedule this year.

I don't disagree with your points.

But Chicago is a nicety, not a necessity.

Squirrel

The sole reason Milwaukee is on the schedule is-----------Milwaukee is a return Bracket buster ganme

[squirrel]

Squirrel

The sole reason Milwaukee is on the schedule is-----------Milwaukee is a return Bracket buster ganme

That was specifically requested by us so that we would have a game in the Chicago/Milwaukee area. . .

[basketball nut]

That was specifically requested by us so that we would have a game in the Chicago/Milwaukee area. . .

We have that much power w/ ESPN and the B/B game? Wow JL must be doing one _____ of a job.

[squirrel]

The only real involvement ESPN has on the non-TV portion of the Bracket Buster is telling the schools or conference commissioners what online meeting scheduling site to use.

[Da Coach]

I hope this is just more sarcasm and exaggeration. I have spoken with coaches involved in the BB, and the selections are 100% the responsibility of ESPN. That's not to say that a few coaches don't try to lobby for their preferred opponent, but ESPN makes all the final decisions.

[squirrel]

Call it exaggeration if you will, but I have it from two people at ESPN DIRECTLY involved in the process how it is done.

You are right, coaches can lobby, but that's not all there is. But ESPN uses an online scheduler (similar to Go2Meeting) and it is ultimately left to (typically) commissioners or (in some cases where commissioners don't get involved or an independent program) the coaches.

Tell me where the exaggeration is. . .

[Beninator]

That was specifically requested by us so that we would have a game in the Chicago/Milwaukee area. . .

I am going by memory here which is dangerous, but I thought that an additional reason for BU requesting UWM was the fact that we wouldnt have to jump through hoops with travel connections to a similar ranked school with the return game from the bracket buster. (late December game during a busy travel season)
I actually dont have too much of a gripe with UWM on this years schedule as long as this doesnt turn into a yearly series. SEMO on this schedule jumps out to me as a slot in the sched in which we could have done better.

[squirrel]

I am going by memory here which is dangerous, but I thought that an additional reason for BU requesting UWM was the fact that we wouldnt have to jump through hoops with travel connections to a similar ranked school with the return game from the bracket buster. (late December game during a busy travel season)
I actually dont have too much of a gripe with UWM on this years schedule as long as this doesnt turn into a yearly series. SEMO on this schedule jumps out to me as a slot in the sched in which we could have done better.

BU can charter a bus or a plane or two with very little concern for interference or conflicts.

I wouldn't normally have a gripe against Milwaukee either, if it wasn't our 5th road game against the Horizon League in 2 years.