2015-16 Non-Conference Schedule Released

[tcf15]

Warde gonna Warde

The top half is obviously tremendous but how the does Warde let the quality fall SO low for the rest of the schedule. Schedule somebody from MWC or MVC. There are conferences on the up that would be fun to play not these absolute dogs.

I'd put more blame on Kevin Ollie than on Warde.

Once McCarthy makes contact with an interested school, the give-and-take begins, and Ollie begins to mull it over.

"Kevin is smart, he will not make impulsive, emotional decisions," McCarthy said. "He will wait to have all of the meaningful information provided to him. He might be interested in the concept of playing the school, but he's very analytical, very deliberative, very smart in terms of making good decisions for his program and scheduling is one very good example."

 

[IMind]

The 300+ thing always bothers me... granted I agree that we should be scheduling 100-200 games vs 200-300 games.. BUT the fact that you can get penalized so much for playing bad teams (and winning) is a huge problem.

 

[OkaForPrez]

Maybe we're still smarting over the Yale loss.

 

[BUHusky]

Top half is great. The bottom half is terrible.

That bottom half is similar to what Calhoun would schedule in the old Big East, and it was totally fine then. But Ollie is in the AAC. As everyone has said repeatedly UConn can't keep piling up those 300+ games...

Harvard and Yale no longer feel like they are guarantee games, which is fine considering their recent success. But even replacing some of those 300+ games with BU, or Dartmouth, or Columbia, or Holy Cross (all sub-200 teams) is a step up.

Also, when was the last time UConn scheduled a true OOC road game against a non power school? Buffalo? (and only because of the football tie-in) The death of the old Big East sucks and all but for god's sake move on and start scheduling home and homes with A10 or even MWC teams.

 

[Tenspro2002]

The top is good, with probably 5 Top 50 and 2-3 Top 25 games. Winning in Atlantis to secure those marquee matchups is important.

The bottom is atrocious. We still don't get it. What kills the AAC is scheduling OOC games against the worst 50 teams in D-I. It's not just scheduling good-great teams, it's avoiding scheduling horrible teams.

The cupcake schedule may have worked OK for Jim Calhoun in the old BE (though I would argue that by the end of his tenure, it started to hurt as the team was rarely prepared for BE play), but it certainly doesn't fly in the AAC.

 

[Waquoit]

We'll see the Blue Devils play in Bridgeport.

...the CCSU Blue Devils, that is. I'd bet CCSU will be in Bridgeport. In-state school and right near the holidays. They've booked Eastern Washington and Columbia in the past, so it's not like they book marquee teams for Bridgeport.

Last year's Central game drew over 13K in Hartford. I'm not sure they would want to mess with that. I'm betting on Furman.

 

[Dove]

Those 300+ RPI games are killer

How many P5 schools have that many "killer" games. Like, a lot?

 

[Robertelamin]

Probably all of them

 

[Inyatkin]

If only Kevin Ollie were as smart as all of us

 

[John]

If only Kevin Ollie were as smart as all of us

Well, I'm no basketball expert like him, but I sure as tootin' know I'm struggling to get pumped about spending money for season tickets and watching that mobile bakery roll through town.

 

[whaler11]

It would be fairly bizarre to play Central in Bridgeport. UMass-Lowell makes more sense and haven't the Bport games been on weekends (maybe Columbia was a Monday).

 

[whaler11]

Furman played in the CT Mutual Classic in the late 80's/early 90's? I seem to remember Central in the same field?

 

[8893]

What's a Furman?

Good old , the Paladins... My sister and brother in-laws alma mater ... This should be fun

Funny, I never knew anything about Furman until last year, when a friend mentioned it as a school that one of his kids was looking at. I've researched it quite a bit since and it sounds like a very good, historic university on a beautiful campus in a pretty nice corner of the country.

@Bill Sussman , I'm curious to hear whether your sister and brother-in-law think well of it. It's one (of many) I'm looking at now for my oldest daughter, who has it in her head that she wants to go to school "in the south" because of the weather. I don't think she understands the potential cultural differences she might encounter, and I'm interested to learn more about how pronounced (or not) those differences are in that area for, say, a fairly liberal kid from the Northeast.

 

[Drumguy]

Not every school wants to play us or fits our open dates. There was an interesting article a few years back about how the AD's have a web site they use for the openings and how difficult it is for some finishing touches to the schedule.

Maybe we're playing Furman as it was the only school with an open date that would travel at that time?

Don't get me wrong, I'd rather play Kansas or Duke or UNC than Furman but a lot of posters assume that the staff and AD are pure incompetants and choose to fill the schedule with creampuffs, let's give them a little more credit than that.

 

[Stainmaster]

Not every school wants to play us or fits our open dates. There was an interesting article a few years back about how the AD's have a web site they use for the openings and how difficult it is for some finishing touches to the schedule.

Maybe we're playing Furman as it was the only school with an open date that would travel at that time?

Don't get me wrong, I'd rather play Kansas or Duke or UNC than Furman but a lot of posters assume that the staff and AD are pure incompetants and choose to fill the schedule with creampuffs, let's give them a little more credit than that.

You mean KO and the AD staff aren't trying to tank the program and ruin our lives?

 

[Brochacho]

Not every school wants to play us or fits our open dates. There was an interesting article a few years back about how the AD's have a web site they use for the openings and how difficult it is for some finishing touches to the schedule.

Maybe we're playing Furman as it was the only school with an open date that would travel at that time?

Don't get me wrong, I'd rather play Kansas or Duke or UNC than Furman but a lot of posters assume that the staff and AD are pure incompetants and choose to fill the schedule with creampuffs, let's give them a little more credit than that.

Website is basketballtravelers. It went private however, you need to be affiliated with a school to view it.

I think the issue people have with this schedule is the balance. We will be playing 6-7 top 100 RPI teams, and 6-7 teams likely to be sub-200 teams. There is no middle ground, if this schedule had an Ivy team or two I think this would be a great schedule. However, I won't be complaining about a schedule that could quite possibly be Maryland, Texas, Georgetown, Ohio State, Syracuse, Michigan, and Gonzaga.

 

[RayIsTheGOAT]

Do I really have to sit through a game against Furman and Maine? Good grief. I understand the need to schedule lower level teams, but Maine won 3 freaking games last year. THREE.

What happened to Yale? Thought we had a good little rivalry going there... and I can't see why either team wouldn't agree to it/be able to fit it in...

 

[Walker11]

We are not asking for a game vs KU or Duke rather than Furman. We want a game vs. a Columbia or a Colgate, teams that aren't going to plummet our SOS. Teams have gamed the SOS before, it's not impossible, they need to do better.

 

[Jerry1714]

Of all the nearly 400 D1 schools they play Furman?

Really odd schedule. Lots of top 30ish games and lots of 300+ games. How about pick some cupcakes from the 100-200 range?

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

 

[Inyatkin]

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

Great, now I've got to sweat the Furman game.

 

[lange10]

Welp, here's to hoping that UCF, ECU, USF, Tulane and Houston all finish in the top 150 RPI (that ain't happening)

 

[Aldo Carducci]

Even if the American is improved (and I really hope it is) still no excuse for 4 300+ games.

What about scheduling new Big East schools? Rather Depaul or Seton Hall than Furman, maybe even Rutgers?

 

[Chief00]

I will start off with quite frankly, because this won't please the sugar coating, koolaide drinking crowd.
With the early season tournament we play enough top teams - many away or on neutral courts. But, playing a 300+ RPI team works against the over-all RPI in a stupid way - since the chance of losing to a team 230 is not much greater than a team at 330 - if you are any good at all.

Given the weak conference and issues with attendance in recent years - they need to not just focus on who we play but who we play at home. We need another OSU level home game and a couple mid type teams.
Another thing are we going to schedule against the NFL again? How many 9pm games in Storrs?
You can never schedule perfect and lots of variables go into a schedule but we can do better.

 

[Matt1010]

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!

 

[Jerry1714]

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!

But everyone will think they can do better and can basically create a schedule of whatever teams they want on it