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2021–22 Schedule News

From a lay persons take, not knowing who is returning on all of these teams, here is how I see things.

Quad 1: NC State/Maryland
Quad 2: Utah State, Drake, Northern Iowa, Toledo
Quad 3: ODU, Wofford, Georgia State
Quad 4: Bucknell, NC Central,

We are banking a lot on playing some good mid-majors, Utah State, Drake, Northern Iowa, Toledo and them being Quad 1/2 games. That could work out well but again these 4 schools have to be Top 1-2 in the leagues for this games to really benefit us. If all 4 or 3 out of 4 do, we will have a really good OOC schedule. Toledo is probably the biggest stretch since we play them at home as being a Quad 2.

Given the uncertainty of the mid-major games being Quad 1/2 games though, I would look for one more really solid Quad 1 or 2 game with that last game. Another quad 3 or 4 home game added to this list, only can hurt us, so would stay away from that. I might look for a team like Penn State (BCS program that has difficulty often times of getting good OOC) or maybe a solid team from the AAC or Mountain West to fill that out.

All in all, I would rate our schedule as a B+ with potential if the cards fall right to be an A- or A and if they don't fall right to be a B on the low end.
 
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Drake should be Q1 on the road...they only have to make top 75. They should be very good and have significantly upgraded their OOC schedule that was a weak spot for them last year. They're playing Clemson in Holiday Hoopsgiving and they're in the Orlando MTE starting against a solid Belmont squad and with a bunch of other solid teams as later-round opponents.
 
Serious question: Would we be better off beating NC Central by 30 or simply not playing that game at all? I suspect the latter.
 
if the question is purely NET based, the answer is clearly the latter. But most everyone has a bunch of games that can only hurt you in the computer metrics. Games like this help is some ways too. First off you need wins always and wins are a good thing in many ways, not just computer rankings etc. 2nd, you get experience etc. and can try new things and players etc.

Now, our history with some of these games isn't too good, so we haven't always enjoyed the good stuff, but you need a couple of these a year to balance out the schedule
 
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I must admit that I don't really get scheduling these 300+ NET teams. There are 50 teams in the 200-250 range that should also be virtual locks to beat if we're an at-large team, and there has to be at least one of them interested in playing us.

How about VMI? Coastal Carolina? Gardner Webb? Chatty? UNC Asheville? ETSU? Towson? We should be able to roll over any of those squads, and while they wouldn't be a positive contributor to our résumé, they'd be much less of a drag than a team ranked 100 spots worse.
 
Drake should be Q1 on the road...they only have to make top 75. They should be very good and have significantly upgraded their OOC schedule that was a weak spot for them last year. They're playing Clemson in Holiday Hoopsgiving and they're in the Orlando MTE starting against a solid Belmont squad and with a bunch of other solid teams as later-round opponents.
Should be, could be. But for a mid-major like Drake, they only have to have a couple bad conference losses to knock them down out of Quad 1. That is the risk/reward with playing them. We've got 4 of in that category, playing 3 on the road, Drake, Utah State (I think neutral is still viewed as a road win), and Northern Iowa we play on the road. Northern Iowa tanked last year (injuries/Covid), but they have a good coach, who recruits well, s so I could seem them being good this year. Toledo is probably the biggest stretch to be a Quad 1 because we play them at home, that will almost definetly make them no more than a Quad 2, no matter how good they turn out to be.
 
Serious question: Would we be better off beating NC Central by 30 or simply not playing that game at all? I suspect the latter.
It is probably the latter, but every team plays a cupcake or two. If we limit it to one cupcake this year, I'm ok with that. Will be a chance to get some younger guys some minutes.
 
Serious question: Would we be better off beating NC Central by 30 or simply not playing that game at all? I suspect the latter.
Probably close to even Net wise, but the benefit would be getting an extra win. As long as our offensive and defensive efficiency is really good that game, I don't think it will hurt our net ranking. The schedule looks real good overall for a mid major looking for and expecting an at large bid.
 
I am hopeful that UNI will be significantly improved with AJ Green back.
 
it would be nice to get more of higher visibility home game for the OOC to drive a little more fan excitement too.
Maybe the ticket office is too worried about selling out if the games were decent. I guess this is back to the we will just get new fans logic. It doesn’t matter who the opponents are, everyone is going to want to come to the RC to see the most experienced team ever in college basketball.
 
ODU on 12/19 is official:


Mississippi State has also announced their schedule:

 
Schedule is out. The last remaining game we didn't know about is a home game against Hofstra (*sounds of doom*) on 11/22.

Going strictly off of last year's final NET rankings, we have the following for quads:

Q1 (3): Maryland, Drake, Utah State
Q2 (3): NC State, Wofford, Louisville or Mississippi St.
Q3 (4): Georgia St., Toledo, ODU, Northern Iowa
Q4 (3): NC Central, Hofstra, Bucknell


 
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Pretty happy with this schedule overall for what we need. Enough chances to get some big wins, some good road wins, and a good challenge for us heading into league play. Now let's win most of those games.
 
Hofstra revenge game

its in a terrible awkward spot in schedule in between two big road games w basically no rest/prep. That said bc we lost to Hofstra last year that should presumably help, also think they lost a couple of their better players.

wonder if this is just a buy game or part of a 2 for 1 maybe. We have given return games to similar schools like W&M wofford & C of C recently.
 
Going strictly off of last year's final NET rankings, we have the following for quads:

Q1 (3): Maryland, Drake, Utah State
Q2 (3): NC State, Wofford, Louisville or Mississippi St.
Q3 (4): Georgia St., Toledo, ODU, Northern Iowa
Q4 (3): NC Central, Hofstra, Bucknell
That is very solid. Can't get any more balanced.
 
Schedule is out. The last remaining game we didn't know about is a home game against Hofstra (*sounds of doom*) on 11/22.

Going strictly off of last year's final NET rankings, we have the following for quads:

Q1 (3): Maryland, Drake, Utah State
Q2 (3): NC State, Wofford, Louisville or Mississippi St.
Q3 (4): Georgia St., Toledo, ODU, Northern Iowa
Q4 (3): NC Central, Hofstra, Bucknell


The way I see it - at a minimum we have to win 1 Q1 game. Win 2 of the Q2 games. And win at least 3 of the Q3 and all Q4 games. If we do that - we are still in a good spot come A10 regular season.
Of course I hope and think we will do better - but this is the minimum we need to keep ourselves in the conversation going into A10 play. You can't earn an at-large bid in OOC play, but you can certainly lose your bid in OOC.
 
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At this point I just hope we get to PLAY all of the games. Preferably with fans in attendance, but better to play with no fans than not to play at all.
 
Agree PalmTree.

I just don't know how UR or any campus for that matter would be able to mandate that students be vaccinated before returning to campus, but then allow themselves to fill an on-campus basketball or football stadium with thousand of fans and have no idea if they are vaccinated. I got a feeling we will be hearing some pretty soon about game attendance for both football and basketball.

But I do think we should be able to play the games, just maybe with reduced or limited capacity. But sadly - I don't see COVID not having an effect and can definetley see a game getting cancelled or postponed because of testing results for unvaccinated players (either on our team or opponent).
 
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Lunardi's latest bracketology is out, and he dropped us a slot to a 10-seed, facing UConn. Bona is up to a 5-seed, and that's it for the A-10.

Maryland is 5, Louisville is a 7, Mississippi State has joined his field as the last one in, and Georgia State is a 15 auto bid. Drake is fifth out.

 
Big musical acts are already requiring vaccinations in order to get into concerts. Not much of a reach to think that sports teams and colleges are going to be doing the same. This is pretty much in line with the timeline that was predicted months ago for this stuff. We're at the point at which everyone has had ample time to get it if they want it.
 
Latest data from the university:

- 94% of students have reported, and 92.6% of those are fully vaccinated
- 98% of faculty and staff have reported, with 91.4% of those fully vaccinated

Full approval of Pfizer is probably less than a month away, so the holdouts need to get moving or figure out a basis for their exemption request.

 
Great schedule! Pretty much perfect for a mid major at large favorite like us. I hoped for at least 2 Q1s, 3 or 4 Q2s, 3 or 4 Q3s, and 3 or 4 Q4s (and, strangely got some push back on this) and it looks like we did exactly that. Of course, we don't know exactly where these teams will end up, but it is easy to feel pretty confident the quad numbers and SOS number will be in our favor at the end. Now, we just need to win a big majority of them to put us in great shape going into A-10 play.
 
I too like this schedule. Potentially, even stronger than predicted (Louisville, N.C. State, Miss. State, ODU, Northern Iowa) COULD have very good years. These opponents are appropriate for the most mature team in college basketball history. Well done by the staff. You have to beat some quality opponents if you want to be considered among the best.
 
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