Schools we should play

[Gallipoli]

We should be scheduling some serious out of conference competition. We should play them any place, including a high school gym, they would agree, regardless of how poor a team we have. We need to compete against our peer schools.

Gonzaga
St. Mary's College
Georgetown
St. John's
Creighton
SMU
Stanford
Seton Hall
TCU
Baylor
Vanderbilt
Belmont
Any mountain west school
Any MVC school

 

[spiderman]

fun to play good teams like those, but that doesn't seem to be the way to go if NET is the driver.

 

[mr.spider]

fun to play good teams like those, but that doesn't seem to be the way to go if NET is the driver.

He just forgot to mention "and crush them"

 

[spiderjpo]

Nice group of opponents but I would prefer getting Wake Forest back on the schedule and trying to work out something with UVA or Duke. Those type of teams drive the NET even if you lose an away game to them.

 

[mr.spider]

Nice group of opponents but I would prefer getting Wake Forest back on the schedule and trying to work out something with UVA or Duke. Those type of teams drive the NET even if you lose an away game to them.

Absolutely! Let's make a deep run this year. Then we will have the leverage to pull that off!

 

[LongTimeLurkerFirstTimePoster]

We should be scheduling some serious out of conference competition. We should play them any place, including a high school gym, they would agree, regardless of how poor a team we have. We need to compete against our peer schools.

Gonzaga
St. Mary's College
Georgetown
St. John's
Creighton
SMU
Stanford
Seton Hall
TCU
Baylor
Vanderbilt
Belmont
Any mountain west school
Any MVC school

you're insane. the game has changed the P5 have no interest or requirement to play A10 schools (unless its an MTE). we would play them-they have no interest.

 

[urmite]

We should be scheduling some serious out of conference competition. We should play them any place, including a high school gym, they would agree, regardless of how poor a team we have. We need to compete against our peer schools.

Gonzaga
St. Mary's College
Georgetown
St. John's
Creighton
SMU
Stanford
Seton Hall
TCU
Baylor
Vanderbilt
Belmont
Any mountain west school
Any MVC school

Peer schools? But I see no mention of Williams or Tufts

 

[Gallipoli]

you're insane. the game has changed the P5 have no interest or requirement to play A10 schools (unless its an MTE). we would play them-they have no interest.

It looks like Dayton played in one multiple team event (a.k.a a tournament), in which they played LSU, St. Johns and Houston. They scheduled Northwestern, and beat SMU, Cincinatti and Oakland in separate games. Every one is saying the Power conferences are not scheduling A10 schools, in favor of 300 level schools.

 

[spider23]

you're insane. the game has changed the P5 have no interest or requirement to play A10 schools (unless its an MTE). we would play them-they have no interest.

I think the coach has to drive this. Also, I am checking out St. Mary's schedule. They basically played Xavier from a power conference AND a bunch of Mountain West teams. Geography seems to be out the door now as you have teams like Stanford and SMU joining the ACC.

Why can't we be forward thinking and reach out to Niko Medved, Leon Rice and the other MW coaches and AD's and play them??? I know, crazy thinking outside of the box. Woe is me. We called all the power conference schools.. As someone else mentioned, we seem to try to schedule down if we don't think we are that good. We need to schedule like we are good every year, and guess what, when we are like this year it works out.

If we go to the NCAA's this year again, we need to use that leverage (being that we are not a NET anchor opponent) and go out and get an extra P6 game (anywhere anytime) and a couple MW teams.

 

[Eight Legger]

It looks like Dayton played in one multiple team event (a.k.a a tournament), in which they played LSU, St. Johns and Houston. They scheduled and beat Northwestern, SMU, Cincinatti and Oakland in separate games. Every one is saying the Power conferences are not scheduling A10 schools, in favor of 300 level schools.

They lost to Northwestern.

 

[Eight Legger]

Our problem most years is that we seem to play at least two teams that normally are decent but in the year when we play them absolutely suck eggs. Siena and Buffalo are the examples this year. Just two horrifically atrocious teams this year when most years, they are at least decent.

The last five years, Siena won 20, 17, 12, 15 and 17 games. This year they are 4-25.

The last five years, Buffalo won 32, 20, 16, 19 and 15 games. This year they are 4-26.

If both of them had been even 10 games better (14-16 or so), I bet our NET goes up 5-6 spots.

 

[Gallipoli]

They lost to Northwestern.

Correct, but they scheduled Northwestern.

 

[URWilk110]

To take that approach you have to WIN those games. Two other examples from this year, UNI and Wichita St are worse than normal. We lost to those teams. Yes, I agree the power 5 conferences can play the system. The A10 is not good enough to do that. UR could schedule all Q4 teams and try to run up the score to improve efficiency metrics but our Q1/Q2 record wont be any better unless the rest of the conference could do the same thing.

A lot of you blame the system on UR not being an at large team this year. However, if we had just beat UNI and Witchita St, things would be much different. Those were two bad losses. BC was also not a great loss. Our bad out of conference performance plus the A10 being a terrible conference this year is what put us in the position we are in.

The three days in Brooklyn are all that matter.

 

[Eight Legger]

It's not a terrible conference though..It's the eighth-ranked conference in the country. It has nine teams in the top 100. It sucks that we lost those OOC games but we have since beaten a ton of better teams and may run through 18 games with only two losses, something only a handful of teams in the nation can say they've done.

 

[Gallipoli]

To take that approach you have to WIN those games. Two other examples from this year, UNI and Wichita St are worse than normal. We lost to those teams. Yes, I agree the power 5 conferences can play the system. The A10 is not good enough to do that. UR could schedule all Q4 teams and try to run up the score to improve efficiency metrics but our Q1/Q2 record wont be any better unless the rest of the conference could do the same thing.

A lot of you blame the system on UR not being an at large team this year. However, if we had just beat UNI and Witchita St, things would be much different. Those were two bad losses. BC was also not a great loss. Our bad out of conference performance plus the A10 being a terrible conference this year is what put us in the position we are in.

The three days in Brooklyn are all that matter.

With all due respect, the A10 is pretty good this year.

 

[URWilk110]

Nine teams in the top 100 but ONE in the top 68. 2020 there were five in top 68, 2021 four in top 68, 2022 four in top 68. Last year was awful. This year better on average but still ONE in top 68. That is not a recipe for an at large bid unless you have a very good OOC. You cant pile up Q1 wins when the conference has one team in the top 50.

 

[mr.spider]

Our problem most years is that we seem to play at least two teams that normally are decent but in the year when we play them absolutely suck eggs. Siena and Buffalo are the examples this year. Just two horrifically atrocious teams this year when most years, they are at least decent.

The last five years, Siena won 20, 17, 12, 15 and 17 games. This year they are 4-25.

The last five years, Buffalo won 32, 20, 16, 19 and 15 games. This year they are 4-26.

If both of them had been even 10 games better (14-16 or so), I bet our NET goes up 5-6 spots.

Or just beat Buffalo by 30 like we could have done before we let the foot off of the gas.

 

[Eight Legger]

Nine teams in the top 100 but ONE in the top 68. 2020 there were five in top 68, 2021 four in top 68, 2022 four in top 68. Last year was awful. This year better on average but still ONE in top 68. That is not a recipe for an at large bid unless you have a very good OOC. You cant pile up Q1 wins when the conference has one team in the top 50.

That was a long time ago. There are 76 teams in the Power 6 alone, and the majority of them will be in the top 100 most years, so that doesn't leave much room for other leagues to have a bunch of top-100 teams. Nine is pretty impressive to me.

 

[URWilk110]

I dont disagree the deck is stacked against A10 teams moreso now than before. And that is sort of my point, you have to have a couple good OOC wins and not lose to a team like Wichita St. to have a shot. Our OOC was not strong enough in the current system to get an at large. You need Q1 wins and there was only one opportunity in conference this year. Last year there was also one opportunity. 2022 there were three plus one in the A10 tournament. 2021 in the shortened season there were two but would have been at least one more. 2020 there were 3 with the possibility of another in the A10 semi-finals if we made it there.

So while the conference had a bunch of teams between 75 and 100 this year, it is weaker at the top which has allowed less opportunity for Q1 wins.

 

[PhillySpider]

Conference isn't really our problem and we cant really control it in any event.

Our problem is non-conference. We didn't schedule great at all. We got unlucky with some teams on the schedule as detailed above. The A10 as a whole outside of Dayton didn't really get many good wins at all and also didn't schedule great overall. And we didn't perform great in that OOC either (take out teams ranked 319th or higher - - - and that we played at home - - we were 3-5 OOC against a just OK group with zero road wins and one neutral site win . All together, not a good look for the OOC part of our schedule.

And I think for a team like us - - non power 6, conference winner, strong conference season etc., the Committee really wants to see something OOC that sort of validates the in conference stuff. OOC wins against good (tier1) teams, strong NET or strong OOC SOS. Something to validate the conference performance. We don't have anything really. Teams like Grand Canyon, JMU and McNeese all have more than we do in their OOC to "validate" the rest of their season (and I don't think they are getting at-larges either). Not saying this is right or fair, just the way I think it is. With our profile, losing in the tournament (even in the final to Dayton) is going to leave us out.

What we need to do is what the Mountain West has done over the years - - - they all scheduled up and they all performed well and now they are looking at being a 6 bid league (maybe even 7 with a conference tourney cinderella). They are the 7th best conference while A10 is 8th. I'd go deconstruct what they have done and try to replicate it!!

 

[8legs1dream]

or better yet, simply join the MWC 😉