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Message: [QUOTE="Scrutineer, post: 4436530, member: 8240"] Several reasons, but for simplicity's sake I'll focus on Kentucky. Basically, your initial statement seemed to imply UConn plays no games of consequence relative to the schedules of the media darlings you listed, so I thought it apropos to list the really weak teams two of those powerhouses play this year. First, we play 20 league games while Kentucky plays 18. The difference is what gives them the opportunity to play two H/H series more per year than us, one of which could be a "name" opponent at home. Secondly, in spite of our limited scheduling flexibility, the quality of our "buy" games looks better than theirs and is much better than what it's been the past few years. You schedule to give your team wins and as our roster has been upgraded so has the schedule. Kentucky plays 7 of these weaker opponents while we play 6. Do you believe the following list of teams they play is tougher than our schedule and their fans are thrilled with these games? [B]Kentucky:[/B] Howard Duquesne South Carolina St North Florida Bellarmine Yale Florida A&M [B]UConn:[/B] Stonehill Boston University Buffalo UNC Wilmington Delaware State LIU Thirdly, with the state of our Athletic Department's finances, they're not likely to give up a home game in order to schedule a H/H with more than one or two schools outside the conference. Florida is it this year and we also have the PK tournament which only counts as one game but gives us potentially three highly regarded opponents. Oklahoma State is a home game but it's one of the NBE/Big12 games if I recall correctly. Finally, every school has made for TV games. UConn at Florida and Oklahoma State at home, for example. UConn's game in the PKI only counts as one game but we face Oregon on essentially their home court and, depending on how the brackets evolve, could face highly ranked Michigan State and number one North Carolina. Kentucky, Duke and Kansas aren't in the field in Portland and I don't think they're in any other major early season tournament so they have more freedom to schedule another better opponent or two. Lots of issues, but in our situation it's probably the finances that primarily drive the decisions. [/QUOTE]

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