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2024–25 schedule

Yes, there are fewer OOC slots with the conferences going to 20 games, but we’re the only A-10 team in anywhere near this level of difficulty. There are a few others that are nothing to write home about, but all of them have SOMETHING on there. We’re hanging our hat on Charlotte and potentially Southern Illinois at the moment. Inexcusable.
 
Rocco seems to be confirming we’re in the Gulf Coast Showcase with Ball State (258 NET), Eastern Kentucky (219), Lousiana Tech (99), and Southern Illinois (116). Should be 3 more teams TBA.

Good work as usual @SFspidur. Definitely not what we hope for in a MTE. Hard to believe UR has been committed to this one for a significant period of time. Maybe the staff will realize the Forum has some high level researchers and won’t hold back these things for so long 😀
 
Here's the list of available teams for the three remaining spots in our MTE, accounting for the one-per-conference rule:

In
73 Richmond (A-10)
99 Louisiana Tech (CUSA)
116 Southern Illinois (MVC)
219 Eastern Kentucky (ASUN)
258 Ball State (MAC)

Candidates
95 Cornell (Ivy)
106 Morehead State (OVC)
140 Chattanooga (SoCon)
145 Tarleton State (WAC)
154 Weber State (Big Sky)
164 Bryant (AE)
188 Saint Peter’s (MAAC)
194 Marist (MAAC)
196 Cleveland State (Horizon)
198 Tulsa (AAC)
200 Harvard (Ivy)
222 Georgia State (Sun Belt)
225 Columbia (Ivy)
249 Central Connecticut (NEC)
261 Coppin State (MEAC)
263 Citadel (SoCon)
267 Lehigh (Lehigh)
276 Oral Roberts (Summit)
282 Tennessee State (OVC)
290 Wagner (NEC)
305 Delaware State (MEAC)
324 Fairleigh Dickinson (NEC)
330 NJIT (AE)
334 Dartmouth (Ivy)
335 Manhattan (MAAC)
338 Army (Patriot)
341 Florida A&M (SWAC)
 
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Rocco seems to be confirming we’re in the Gulf Coast Showcase with Ball State (258 NET), Eastern Kentucky (219), Lousiana Tech (99), and Southern Illinois (116). Should be 3 more teams TBA.

Let's go win this thing, and if we do, maybe one or two of the 3 wins here would look better than expected. A couple possible Q2 wins would be a lot better than likely Q4s without this MTE.
 
wow. I knew we had a leafy campus, didn’t realize it was this leafy.

This is really, extremely disappointing coming off a first ever A10 reg season title. If Auburn backed out and Belmont is the best OOC game you better believe I expect 13-0.

If this MTE is a Gazelle Group affair the conflict of interest has become too big to ignore.
 
wow. I knew we had a leafy campus, didn’t realize it was this leafy.

This is really, extremely disappointing coming off a first ever A10 reg season title. If Auburn backed out and Belmont is the best OOC game you better believe I expect 13-0.

If this MTE is a Gazelle Group affair the conflict of interest has become too big to ignore.
We still have to play the hand dealt to us!
 
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Maybe we could play a 2nd game against Dayton, St Joe's, or Loyola....or another team that might end up top 75, which would be a Q1 win on the road. Wouldn't surprise me, with all the terrible looking A-10 schedules out there, if they decide to go with 20 IC games in the next year or two.
Honestly, not a bad idea at all. No rules against it, I assume. Go on the road and play any of them, if they'd go for it.
 
By my calculations, if we go 13-0, 16-2, 2-1 in A10 tourney, we are 31-3 and on the bubble / out. Either we beat Dayton and someone else decent, but lose 2 "bad" games and the committee says we didn't play anyone and had 2 bad losses, or we beat all the patsies OOC, play similarly to last season except lose @Dayton, St. Joe's and again to Dayton in A10 final and the committee says we had no bad losses but also zero good wins. We're basically JMU from last year, only without the Michigan State win.

Even having beat Michigan State JMU were still on the bubble/out last year because of this SOS conundrum.

If we announce a schedule of Charlotte, Belmont and S. Illinois, this seems to be a monumental collapse in our program's operations. Someone owes like 85% of their salary back.
 
When u regularly give out unnecessary contract extensions like free candy u can get a lack of urgency or motivation. Human nature for some. We’ve seen it b4 at UR. They can accept a schedule like this…the “what can we do the contracts didn’t come in” attitude. Like that doesn’t happen every year to all teams. Maybe we r still using fax machines for our contracts & we r staring at the fax all day. Oh no guys we’re out of paper.

24 year job security, Queally with more time on his hands now using NIL to get us recruits, you’d think actually reasons to go after it with hard national type schedule. Nope.
 
my translation: if you're not impressed with the 6 games we know about, it's only going downhill from there.

Schedule will be released in a few days yet we had 7 unknown games & the AD won’t even tell us 1 more on a local radio spot. And your boy JOC he really must have pissed off someone in Robins. 7 games out there schedule done & he’s not getting 1. I feel like a JOC tweet is coming they got to throw him a bone. Or yikes it’s just that bad.

I’ll give them credit…the secrets! It is the #1 thing U of R overall is very good at.
 
I'm thinking there's no really good game worth leaking.
they'll just put our a presser with the schedule.
we may or may not get an interview saying how difficult scheduling has become.
 
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Oh, you know that the spin on how difficult scheduling is will be forthcoming. Feel like throwing Hardt out there yesterday was to prime things so that the Labor Day schedule dump gets even less attention. Followed by one article where Moon says we had good games but then they *poof* disappeared and does a Jedi mind trick on JOC ("you do not need any good games in the OOC") and JOC never mentions the schedule again. Then immediately into discussion of the new players - which we all actually do want! - but never a mention that the staff let them down horribly already (I am now assuming basically no good OOC games.)

I also feel badly for season tix holders, especially all those who are clamoring for more home games in the OOC. Well, you'll probably get it, as we play a D2/3 team in that extra home game. Maybe they'll trot out Arcadia University as the opponent to resuscitate the wedding planner story as a cover (while never mentioning that it was previously called Beaver College when Moon was there.)
 
they get one good game in their MTE and they get that Hall of Fame neutral site game with VPI.
other than that their schedule is worse than ours.
 
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lol at Fordham in a MTE with Clemson and Penn State. Ordinarily it's a meh lineup, but compared to what we know of our MTE lineup, it's gold, Jerry, gold.
 
It will be interesting what quote we have in schedule release, maybe none. Probably something about how hard it is to schedule even tho peer schools r getting better games.

I feel like Penn State usually has weak schedule. Look at other side with Memphis. Yes Memphis has good bball brand but using OOC to enhance that brand. 8 majors. Not relying on AAC which is similar to A10. Also notice not 1 true cupcake at all (maybe Ark State?).

 
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Even tho I never actually said play 8 majors, those words were attributed to me and rebutted because no one, ever - with a capital E - plays 8 majors OOC. Yet here is Memphis, doing just that. How about that?

This is a schedule that gets them the benefit of the doubt if they get to 19 wins.

This is a schedule that tells recruits they will get exposure, that they will get experience against top teams and players, and will be able to test themselves.

This is a schedule of a school that thinks they should be considered one of the top teams in the country and aims to prove it on the court.
 
Even tho I never actually said play 8 majors, those words were attributed to me and rebutted because no one, ever - with a capital E - plays 8 majors OOC. Yet here is Memphis, doing just that. How about that?

This is a schedule that gets them the benefit of the doubt if they get to 19 wins.

This is a schedule that tells recruits they will get exposure, that they will get experience against top teams and players, and will be able to test themselves.

This is a schedule of a school that thinks they should be considered one of the top teams in the country and aims to prove it on the court.

Their schedule does say that. Ironically we r already “one of the top basketball programs in the nation”. Mooney said so himself when he was extended again. Unfortunately our schedule does not say that.
 
Even tho I never actually said play 8 majors, those words were attributed to me and rebutted because no one, ever - with a capital E - plays 8 majors OOC. Yet here is Memphis, doing just that. How about that?

This is a schedule that gets them the benefit of the doubt if they get to 19 wins.

This is a schedule that tells recruits they will get exposure, that they will get experience against top teams and players, and will be able to test themselves.

This is a schedule of a school that thinks they should be considered one of the top teams in the country and aims to prove it on the court.
we'll see if their schedule works out for them ... but that's a really fun schedule for the players and their fans.
 
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Even tho I never actually said play 8 majors, those words were attributed to me and rebutted because no one, ever - with a capital E - plays 8 majors OOC. Yet here is Memphis, doing just that. How about that?

This is a schedule that gets them the benefit of the doubt if they get to 19 wins.

This is a schedule that tells recruits they will get exposure, that they will get experience against top teams and players, and will be able to test themselves.

This is a schedule of a school that thinks they should be considered one of the top teams in the country and aims to prove it on the court.
Great schedule. No question about it, but if you are asking why can't we have one like this, do u really think Missouri, Ole Miss, and Miss St would play us on our court?
 
we'll see if their schedule works out for them ... but that's a really fun schedule for the players and their fans.
it may not! But at least you know where you are, and what you need to do to get there. All while providing excitement to your fanbase and players/recruits/alums of the program. And if they go 2-6 in those 8, it may be enough to get them in come selection day if they take care of business in the other 5 OOC games. Committee tends to look very favorably at teams who have top 5 OOC schedules, which I'd imagine this project to be.
 
When u regularly give out unnecessary contract extensions like free candy u can get a lack of urgency or motivation. Human nature for some. We’ve seen it b4 at UR. They can accept a schedule like this…the “what can we do the contracts didn’t come in” attitude. Like that doesn’t happen every year to all teams. Maybe we r still using fax machines for our contracts & we r staring at the fax all day. Oh no guys we’re out of paper.

24 year job security, Queally with more time on his hands now using NIL to get us recruits, you’d think actually reasons to go after it with hard national type schedule. Nope.

Yes our schedule is certainly going to be lackluster, yes it’s disappointing that we couldn’t have done better especially considering we just won A10 regular season, and yes the margin of error for an at-large shifted from small to very small, but I think the staff should get more benefit of the doubt here. Over the last 10-15 years we have had pretty solid schedules in my opinion and MTEs despite limiting ourselves to the Gazelle group. Also, our ability to get good games was overall pretty consistent despite prior season success. I am not making excuses about the difficulty of scheduling now as other teams have navigated it, but do want to acknowledge that the landscape of college basketball scheduling has changed the last 5 years with NET, and the forming of bigger conferences that are scheduling 20 conference games.

I am not intending this reply to lead to another debate/discussion on Mooney’s tenure here and the contract extensions he received, etc. I just don’t think that this idea of the 24 year job security or comfort with status quo is the reason why we had a poorer schedule this year. Sounds like contracts with bigger name teams didn’t go through, which was likely beyond our control among other factors that led to this outcome. It certainly wasn’t for a lack of trying. We have to make the most of what we got.
 
this needs to be an aberation and not a future trend. the message needs to been heard by the staff that fans want and expect a more exciting OOC schedule.

I'm glad we moved up from the CAA to the A10. we play less weak teams in conference. but playing more weak teams in the OOC kinda defeats the purpose.
 
It is all a plan to have less activity on the Forum. No need for any at-large threads this year. /s

It is a major disappointment that the staff can’t seem to do more than one thing well. Seems to have improved on the recruiting side and then a slide backwards on OOC schedule. Promotions from within maybe the root cause. Getting a bit thin in the experience category to me.
 
Goo Moos officially announce their schedule...Duke and an MTE at Marquette are the headliners. JMU was obviously highly rated last year based on a gaudy record and the season-opening win over Michigan State. One D-III opponent in Ferrum.

 
It will be interesting what quote we have in schedule release, maybe none. Probably something about how hard it is to schedule even tho peer schools r getting better games.

I feel like Penn State usually has weak schedule. Look at other side with Memphis. Yes Memphis has good bball brand but using OOC to enhance that brand. 8 majors. Not relying on AAC which is similar to A10. Also notice not 1 true cupcake at all (maybe Ark State?).

Interesting quad prediction OOC and AAC

 
they get one good game in their MTE and they get that Hall of Fame neutral site game with VPI.
other than that their schedule is worse than ours.
I suspect their in conference schedule may be better than ours…
 
I am not intending this reply to lead to another debate/discussion on Mooney’s tenure here and the contract extensions he received, etc. I just don’t think that this idea of the 24 year job security or comfort with status quo is the reason why we had a poorer schedule this year. Sounds like contracts with bigger name teams didn’t go through, which was likely beyond our control among other factors that led to this outcome. It certainly wasn’t for a lack of trying. We have to make the most of what we got.

I don't really agree that it's beyond our control. There r varied factors but scheduling is a core part of the job. Working out contracts goes on all the time. That's not a new thing. Every year there are games that almost happended. & most of us r in business. We all know when someone is wishy washy on not signing the deal. Ok it's not easy. and that's what we'll hear. But other similar teams r getting these games. We hear we are "one of the top basketball programs in the nation". should be easier. we hear it's only bottom 150 NET getting P5 road games. not true. We hear of other teams riding a scheduling high off good season. maybe we just f'd up badly this year. But stinks feeling like u have to almost run the table based on our schedule.

Idk if complaceny seeped into scheduling per se or not. I can admit it's possible we just did a poor job. But I do feel like there is a don't rock the boat mentality with Mooney. 1 NCAA going on 14 years I think it's well known. Frankly the 1 year he was truly under pressure he ultimately produced. Gilly went bonkers but whatever it counts. I think if u look at when he's gotten any extension the very next year we didn't do very well. So I don't dismiss complacency either. With all the job security he's had and how our traditional scheduling philosphy hasn't produced enough - I know I know JUST WIN MORE - well that doesn't work either, I think we'd go all out some year at least once. Tho it's been clear for a while it was not this season either.
 
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Mooney makes enough that he could hire a full-time scheduling assistant with his own money as an investment (play better games, win some, make the tourney, get another extension). I haven't really been paying close attention to this whole thing until the last couple days, but it's sort of ridiculous that we are playing the woe-are-we sad trombone here as a program. Really no excuse for other teams in our conference having obviously better schedules than what ours will be. Accountability is a thing.
 
Great schedule. No question about it, but if you are asking why can't we have one like this, do u really think Missouri, Ole Miss, and Miss St would play us on our court?

Not to put words in his mouth but Brownstone never said we can get 3 majors at home. Tho me personally I don't close the book on 1. Heck we've done it with Miss St. before too. I think he said take them on the road. I've said the same. Right now that's more doable for us. Also, there are 5 other games road/neutral. 5. 8 majors total. 0 cupcakes.

This is purposeful for Memphis, I don't think anyone can argue that. Different mentality. I respect it, not relying on AAC. I suspect they realize that would be futile. Am I saying we can do exactly what Memphis can do? No. They have a good bball brand. But Memphis ain't elite. I think they've won 1 NCAA game in 10 years.
 
Idk if complaceny seeped into scheduling per se or not. I can admit it's possible we just did a poor job.
looking back, our schedules are almost always pretty good. that hasn't led to a lot of tournaments.
this year's schedule will be light. maybe that's by design.

maybe the staff reads this board and sees us complain about the 57% winning percentage. "you want a better winning percentage ... ok we'll play an easier schedule".

and maybe it'll work. maybe we'll put up a gaudy record and generate some enthusiasm. maybe come conference time we'll have lines out to the parking lot of the RC.
 
sman - we SHOULD have a gaudy OOC record this year, if what we are hearing is true and what we've seen so far in scheduling fills out the OOC the same way, there is no reason not to go into A10 play with anything but an awesome record. If it generates excitement for the league games, terrific, I'm all for that. Maybe that support will translate to an extra home win or two.

Will it garner support for an at large if UR doesn't win the A10 tournament? An entirely different discussion - exactly the one we are having.

No one wants to have to run the table from game 1, it's an impossibly high bar and ask, especially because a bunch of A10 road games like @Dayton are simply really tough. UR didn't get credit for winning some good A10 road games last year (@Loyola) and won't again this year. Even if those games become wins, the committee will compare UR's OOC schedule and wins vs other bubble teams and (again, speculation on the known facts at this time) unfortunately we are not winning any debates there.

Also, isn't K. GIll heading the committee or something? A10 tourney tile or bust. August 29.
 
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