2015-16 Non-Conference Schedule Released

[ctchamps]

Dear Kevin:

In the future please contact The Boneyard before making your schedule.
If you chose to play some very weak teams to provide the coaching staff and players an opportunity to incorporate line ups and plays you could not otherwise try and develop when playing better teams that was a mistake.

You must put the cart before the horse and not worry about the teams development during the season. This forum has already declared the future is set in stone, the team is already polished. You should only worry about seeding in the NCAA tournament.

The fact that you lost your veteran point guard and back up point guard and probably will be bringing in at least two new players into the starting line up is irrelevant. The fact that you have two other new players (freshmen) on the team is unimportant. The fact that the team struggled last season is unimportant. You should only consider the emotional needs of the fans who are bored with cupcakes.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

None of us know all the ins and outs of constructing a schedule. KO is fully aware of what impacts our RPI so leave the fine details to him and the other decisions makers and be happy we have some top notch non-conference games!

Don't act like it's rocket science.

The top half of the schedule is fantastic, but the sub 300 games aren't acceptable.

Sure, we need cupcakes to fill out our home schedule, but there has to be teams from 150-300 that would agree to a 1 off against us.

 

[Matt1010]

Don't act like it's rocket science.

The top half of the schedule is fantastic, but the sub 300 games aren't acceptable.

Sure, we need cupcakes to fill out our home schedule, but there has to be teams from 150-300 that would agree to a 1 off against us.

Have you spoken with teams and know why they do/do not want to play us? We finished #72 in Kenpom last year, does that mean we won't finish better this year? I'm not going to spend my time looking into whether teams like Furman and UMass-Lowell will be better/worse this year but the difference between a 305/311 Kenpom finish and 150-300 is minuscule.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Have you spoken with teams and know why they do/do not want to play us? We finished #72 in Kenpom last year, does that mean we won't finish better this year? I'm not going to spend my time looking into whether teams like Furman and UMass-Lowell will be better/worse this year but the difference between a 305/311 Kenpom finish and 150-300 is minuscule.

What do you mean by miniscule? Because kenpom is one thing but the rpi hit is definitely an issue.

 

[Chief00]

Dear Kevin:

In the future please contact The Boneyard before making your schedule.
If you chose to play some very weak teams to provide the coaching staff and players an opportunity to incorporate line ups and plays you could not otherwise try and develop when playing better teams that was a mistake.

You must put the cart before the horse and not worry about the teams development during the season. This forum has already declared the future is set in stone, the team is already polished. You should only worry about seeding in the NCAA tournament.

The fact that you lost your veteran point guard and back up point guard and probably will be bringing in at least two new players into the starting line up is irrelevant. The fact that you have two other new players (freshmen) on the team is unimportant. The fact that the team struggled last season is unimportant. You should only consider the emotional needs of the fans who are bored with cupcakes.

Quickly frankly, I doubt playing a 300+ type team does anything to prepare for real teams. It does guarantee a win.

 

[Matt1010]

What do you mean by miniscule? Because kenpom is one thing but the rpi hit is definitely an issue.

What I'm saying is that those teams finishing at 305 and 311 are very very close to being 150-300. That small of a difference is a single W/L. They could easily finish this year top 300 and it will not negatively impact us.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

What I'm saying is that those teams finishing at 305 and 311 are very very close to being 150-300. That small of a difference is a single W/L. They could easily finish this year top 300 and it will not negatively impact us.

I don't think that's true either.

Around 300 in KenPom are mainly teams well under .500 and 150 are over .500.

Same with RPI which is the only relevant metric with respect to this debate.

 

[CTBasketball]

Can't have any slip ups. However it does hurt our RPI going into Selection Sunday. Could be pumped down a seed line or 5 considering our conference and the 300+ games. Hopefully those bad teams win though.

 

[CallMeBruce]

I don't believe that they can't find teams in the 150 rpi range to play. That's insane. I'm fine with CCSU because of Howie, but I simply don't believe that we couldn't land a game with a couple more non-tire fire programs.

 

[mauconnfan]

Just win and let it play out. If they look good when they need to and on nat TV they'll get what they deserve.

 

[Waquoit]

Quickly frankly, I doubt playing a 300+ type team does anything to prepare for real teams. It does guarantee a win.

They played 6 300+ teams in 2005-06 and went to the Elite Eight.

 

[ucp990411]

With this schedule, we had better beat some of the big boys, if we go 21-7 with maybe 1 or 2 good OOC wins we will sweating on selection Sunday. Those that think our conference will be improved are just hoping it will be. What will the rpi's of Tulane, East Carolina, Houston etc be? How many +300 teams are there in the conference? I just do not understand this schedule. Why not an annual New England tournament at the Fleet Center with us, BC, PC and UMass or URI?

 

[whaler11]

Even if you subtracted 100 from the RPIs of the bad teams... they still need to beat some big boys.

Also, last years RPI isn't part of next year's RPI - so while most of those teams might still stink they don't have to improve much to not be in the 300s.

 

[UConnSwag11]

@GavinKeefe: Just heard from R.J. Evans. He's been hired as a special assistant on Shaka Smart's staff at Texas. UConn plays at Texas on Dec. 29

 

[rw005]

Furman...what did we draw them out of a hat? Decent OOC schedule though.

 

[LIUCHusky]

With this schedule, we had better beat some of the big boys, if we go 21-7 with maybe 1 or 2 good OOC wins we will sweating on selection Sunday. Those that think our conference will be improved are just hoping it will be. What will the rpi's of Tulane, East Carolina, Houston etc be? How many +300 teams are there in the conference? I just do not understand this schedule. Why not an annual New England tournament at the Fleet Center with us, BC, PC and UMass or URI?

Why would there be any +300 teams in the AAC? I don't believe there were any close to that in 2015. With the expected improvement of this league in 2015-16 I wouldn't be to concerned about our rpi if we take care of business.

 

[David 76]

If we lose 5 or 6 of our best 7 games, we shouldn't be in the tournament.
Yeah, there are 2 too many cupcakes. But this OOC schedule also has more good games than we've seen.
Play the games. I'm not worrying about our chances for an 11 seed. Win and get in.

 

[UConn4ever]

Furman did play in their conference title game last season and had 0 Seniors FWIW

They lost by 3 to a good Wofford team in the title game

They were also like 10 games under .500 going into it and made a good run but If I recall right (probably not) if they won they would have had the least amount of wins for a tournament team

 

[Chief00]

They played 6 300+ teams in 2005-06 and went to the Elite Eight.

The landscape has totally changed, we are no longer in the best basketball conference in the country. Given that we need a much stronger OOC schedule. Additionally, we now have a bad TV deal, therefore it's more important than ever to max out ticket revenues and Furman and the like doesn't get that done.

 

[HooperScooper]

People get confused what the RPI is used for. A team's RPI is not for ranking to get into the NCAA Tournament or seeding or anything like that. What the committee uses the RPI for the teams you play to determine who you played and who you beat. A win over a 150 RPI team is not going to get you any more points with the committee than beating a 325 RPI team. The committee has a sheet that shows which teams you beat and their RPI ranking. So you can play a few 300+ RPI teams but you better have played a number of top 50 RPI teams and beaten them. Losses against top teams don't do you much good.

So the schedule is fine. There's enough there to get some good wins on the resume. Maine, Furman, UMass-Lowell and CCSU on the schedule isn't going to hurt their NCAA Tournament chances. But I think they better get at least 2 wins against Maryland, OSU, Texas and Georgetown.

 

[nyhusky89]

Furman/Sacred Heart/UMass-Lowell/Central Connecticut. Call me picky but we cannot be playing four of these teams. I understand that Atlantis, combined with @Texas, Maryland (N) & Ohio State/Georgetown (H) makes a very formidable top half of the non conference slate, but there is no excuse for the bottom of that slate to be composed entirely of the worst of the worst in college basketball. Yes, you have to have some cupcakes to insure revenue from home games, but these teams just do not belong on our schedule. You cannot being playing team outside the top 300. It doesn't matter if we win by 50, it is a patently useless series of games. Maybe they can't get better teams to agree to play without a return game, but after two years in this conference it should be apparent that we are going to play enough of these teams after January 1st. Four of them is just too many. Personally, I don't think we should play any of them, but why can't we play 2 and turn one into a Fordham/Iona/Manhattan/Fairfield and make the other Harvard (like we did every year I was in school) or even a rotating cast of top 150 NE teams-Umass/URI/Providence/Harvard/

In sum, i am pumped at the top of the non-con slate, but we cannot continue to schedule 4 bottom 300 teams. , make one a D-II team and at least it doesn't count in the RPI (dumb as it is we need to learn to game it at least a little). Two of those games are fine, we get a guaranteed home game and the revenue that entails, but there are enough teams within a bus ride of Gampel/Hartford that we should not need these game. I do not mind cupcakes, frankly I enjoy them from time to time, but these arent even cooked, they're just raw cupcake batter in a bowl.

 

[nyhusky89]

Did not read through before I posted and I am glad that plenty of other people feel the same way. We just cannot play four sub-300 teams. BU/Northeastern/URI/UMass/Fairfield/Iona/Manhattan/Fordham/Harvard/Yale. Just pick two of those with two really awful teams. I just do not understand how the athletic office has not figured out (or acted. Do not tell me this was their only option, to play 4 terrible teams. One of the above or someone I am forgetting certainly had an opening) that we play enough of these games in conference. Our non-con needs to be absolutely loaded and while the top is awesome, it feels like we take two steps back. Now if we lose those four games we have no middle ground non con wins to pick up. Something top 200 (hopefully better) where you can really beat them and it actually looks decent because they can put up a fight against most teams. ugh

 

[jleves]

It's also important to remember those are last years RPI numbers. If a bunch of those teams return lots of players, their RPI numbers will be better this year. I get that they won't vault into the top 150 but several can get into the 200s. Scheduling is about projecting where teams will be this year.

Generally I agree we could have and should have avoided some of these and tried to schedule more mid majors, but it's way too early to say those teams we have scheduled will be as bad this year. It may be a strategy to find last years 250+ low majors and figure which ones are going to better this year with returning players and get them to be 250-200.

Bottom line - win games and you get in. Win a lot of games and you get a good seed. Beat a lot of top 50 teams and you get a top seed.

So let's go beat the good ones and see how it unfolds.

But as Fishy pointed out last year - Louisville winning the AAC a couple years ago with good numbers got a 4 - I doubt we can expect anything better than that.

 

[VAHuskyFan]

Now that we're in the AAC our scheduling folks have two jobs:

(1) schedule marquee opponents,
(2) avoid the dregs of Division I.

The first job is the tough one. And we nailed it. And then we go and schedule Central Connecticut, Maine, Furman and a Massachusetts directional school??? How did that even happen? Did they call us and we were feeling generous? Did we think we were scheduling a hockey game???

You know how you lose a game against an RPI 200+ team? You show up. We'd literally be better off playing DII teams.

There are a lot of solid basketball schools in weaker conferences who, like us, need help in the SOS department. Half of the Atlantic 10 is generally in the RPI 50-150 range, which is the sweet spot for building a tournament resume (think Rhode Island, UMass, George Washington). I'd have to think many of those schools would take the SOS and exposure boost of playing us -- even without a return game. Or offer a few 2-for-1s if it would allow us to trade 3 brutal RPI 200+ schedule-killer games for 3 RPI 50-150 games. But we can't keep shooting ourselves in the foot like this.

 

[champs99and04]

Reading through this thread, I appear to be in the distinct minority, and I am not implying that there are no grounds for suggesting we schedule slightly better cupcakes, but I think this is one of those times where folks just need to step back from the computer screen and take a deep breath.

Warde, KO and Co. have constructed an A+ schedule, and the fact that we might be playing 274 RPI Furman instead of 201 RPI Sacred Heart isn't going to change that. I hesitate to play the "we're spoiled" card, and I know that those who expressed objections don't necessarily fall into that category, but I look at the schedule, see people saying stuff like "we need to do better," and wonder if I'm living in the same world as you folks.

We play in an awesome preseason tournament featuring several national brands. We have a game at Madison Square Garden against the potential preseason #2. We play Ohio State at Gampel. We play @ Texas. We play Georgetown at the XL.

They could not have done anything more to cater to our craving for competitive drama, and given that two of these are home games and another is an hour and a half from campus, none of this is going to have to be experienced second hand. They have constructed a massive platform for our team - which we all believe to be extremely good - to broadcast their aspirations to the rest of the country.

Repeat after me: it doesn't matter

If UConn beats Syracuse, beats Maryland, beats Georgetown, beats Gonzaga...that's all the committee is going to remember. Who did you play, who did you beat? Those are the questions that are asked on selection Sunday. Will our RPI be a little lower? Maybe, but the RPI is a grouping mechanism.

I was with @jleves right until that last paragraph. Louisville was given a four seed in 2014 because they didn't beat a soul OOC. As the committee has proven time and time again, if you're good enough, it doesn't matter what conference you're in (and I think the AAC will be good).