Happen to be looking at the top 25 and...

[DogMania]

...most of the top teams have top 25 teams coming up soon on their schedule while UConn doesn't have any coming up anytime soon. I know I'm beating a dead horse here, but whoever put the schedule together really s*cked at it.

This team will be in for a rude awakening once the Big East season begins. I'm not saying that they won't be tested or run through that portion of the schedule unblemished, but there is little RPI bump in the early schedule and not many or any teams that will come close to the competition we'll face during conference play.

Fortunately, the first 4 BE games aren't against top tier conference teams, so maybe they'll be able to take care of business and continue to develop enough to handle the upper level teams. I would not be shocked if they lose one or more of them, especially with JC having to sit the first 3.

It just seems they would have been better served with sprinkling in one or two top 25 teams in there or even some top 40 teams. I'm not sure how high FSU, Utah or Arkansas are rated, but that's the best they could do and there's no guarantee they'll face FSU and/or Utah.

Yeah, nothing here we haven't already discussed, but if you go to ESPN's top 25 page you'll see what the other top teams are going to face over the next week or so, and I think we'd all trade those schedules for ours in a heart beat!

 

[HuskyBballFan]

Uconn had a very difficult non-conference schedule last year and they still got smacked in their first Big East game @ Pitt and then barely beat South Florida in overtime (at home) in their second Big East game. We can all agree that the non-conference schedule is not great, but let's also agree that it is not predictive of how they'll perform once the BE schedule starts.

 

[Peacefrog]

The upside is that it is more lower risk time for Drummond, Daniels and Boatright to get up to speed. Rather than a rude awakening to the realities of the Big East (the first few BE games are not amongst the toughest) I would tend to be more concerned with the effect on RPI and the resultant seeding process at the end of the year. Who knows, maybe Columbia ends up not being that bad and wins the Ivy and maybe some of the other cupcakes won't end up being so cupcakey.

 

[HuskyBballFan]

Fairfield, Harvard, and UNC-Ashville should have decent RPIs when all is said and done. And when you play 18 Big East games (included 2 against Syracuse), it will be impossible for Uconn to not have a respectible RPI come tournament time.

 

[bobbygt]

It would be really nice to see the defending national champs play a top-25 team. I'm still sorta pissed that uconn doesn't get to play UK or UF (or even Vandy, although they'll probably drop in the polls) in the SEC/big East series.

I'm hoping that they can play FSU. I also think Arkansas will turn out to be a decent team this year.

 

[Kitaman]

My issue is that it sucks as a fan to not see our team match up against the big boys. I don't think it will be a rude awakening but I think the advantage goes to the teams playing good competition. By the time we get Ville they will have been tested and a few other BE teams. In fact we could be the top team in the country sometime next month (by default). I really doubt this type of scheduling will happen again. If so I will join any protest movement organized.

We are UConn dammit!

 

[EricLA]

every year is different. last year UCONN got Michigan State and Kentucky really early and set the stage for a meteoric rise in the rankings, only to plummet as we struggled thru our BE schedule, then only to win the BET And storm thru the NCAA's. i agree it's more exciting for the fans to see a UCONN-KY or UNC-MSU matchup early on, but as Cleveland State showed (and Belmont almost showed) the name on the jersey often means little.

 

[DogMania]

I guess I should have looked at the entire top 25. FSU went from unranked last week to #24 in the Coach's Poll. Hopefully they can remain undefeated and ranked leading up to the Battle of Atlantis. Obviously, I hope we get to face them, both undefeated and get their first ranked pelt to put on their belt.

Not saying UConn will beat them, but if they want to remain a top the polls, they're going to have to win these games. I hope they're well prepared if that opportunity presents itself.

Last season our expectations were very low going into Maui. This year the expectations are high, along with the bulls-eye on their backs.

 

[Yonick]

Without Boatright & Bradley perhaps it's best the swchedule is soft early. With the talent we have we'll peak in late Feb and throughout March anyways. JC teams usually do.

 

[DogMania]

It would be really nice to see the defending national champs play a top-25 team. I'm still sorta pissed that uconn doesn't get to play UK or UF (or even Vandy, although they'll probably drop in the polls) in the SEC/big East series.

I'm hoping that they can play FSU. I also think Arkansas will turn out to be a decent team this year.

I wonder how they came up with the match-ups. I'm guessing it was done matching up where each team finished within the conference. That is one way to avoid any criticisms as to any favoritism used on matching them up. A better way would be to match them up per their 2011/12 preseason conference ranking, but unfortunately those rankings come out far too late for them to be used for scheduling purposes. TV wise, the network must be kicking themselves by not matching up UConn vs UK, a re-match of last season's F-4...not to mention all of us wanting to kick the ass of whoever set this up.

 

[BLUEDOGHOUSE]

Interesting thread DoggyM ruff ruff ruff!!!!!!!!!!!! hahahahaha

Anyways...Taking a quick look at Maui this year for the fun of it (and to compare an upgrade in competition). If you substitute UConn for this years representative Georgetown it is conceivable UConn could make it to the Final. Knock off Kansas and UCLA before heading to the Final against either Memphis, Duke, Michigan or Tennessee. The lower bracket in Maui they could win a few games. The upper bracket they could get bounced easily at this point in the season. There is a good chance FSU, Arkansas and Harvard will find their way into the top 25 at years end when strength of schedule is evaluated. I think Calhoun & Co. put together a schedule that will work out well for this years team. Especially considering the status of Boatright and the fact it will take a game or 2 for him to adjust to real time game experience. Is it better to take an L against Memphis, Kansas ect ect... or beat a team not rated as high? All programs apply a balancing test to determined what is in their best interests. These scheduling decisions are always up for debate but in my very humble and objective opinion UConn is playing their cards right. Only time will tell....

 

[Scoe]

it is what it is

 

[M_Funkhauser43!]

I don't think they had an inkling of the ****storm that was gonna go down at Tennessee before they signed a deal for a series with them. You can't really fault the people handling the schedule for that. Then there's the disappointing pairing in the Big East/SEC challenge, which somebody mentioned above.

If UConn were to play the perennially ranked Tennessee team everyone thought they were gonna play, plus one of either Kentucky, Florida or Vanderbilt (any of whom they should be playing) and then matched up against a tourney-quality team in Florida St. at Atlantis, people would be talking about how tough our non-conference schedule was again.

It's a thin line between what everyone considers a tough slate and a cupcake fest. Perhaps a few too many things were left to chance this year, but the staff put the program in a position to have some competitive games outside of the BE.

 

[BLUEDOGHOUSE]

I don't think they had an inkling of the ****storm that was gonna go down at Tennessee before they signed a deal for a series with them. You can't really fault the people handling the schedule for that. Then there's the disappointing pairing in the Big East/SEC challenge, which somebody mentioned above.

If UConn were to play the perennially ranked Tennessee team everyone thought they were gonna play, plus one of either Kentucky, Florida or Vanderbilt (any of whom they should be playing) and then matched up against a tourney-quality team in Florida St. at Atlantis, people would be talking about how tough our non-conference schedule was again.

It's a thin line between what everyone considers a tough slate and a cupcake fest. Perhaps a few too many things were left to chance this year, but the staff put the program in a position to have some competitive games outside of the BE.

What I see possibly transpiring on Dec. 3rd is 1 team fully realizing that their NCAA tournament lives may be at stake and seizing the opportunity to break into the Top 25 while the other team and its fans commiserate that Kentucky, Florida or Vandy is not in the house. No question 1 team has more to gain here then the other making this 1 of the more dangerous games on the schedule for UConn. Any team bringing the highly touted recruiting class of Ky Madden, Devonta Abron, Hunter Michelson and BJ Young off the bench is very good. Anderson can coach and is back home with Nolan Richardson who is inspiring the team with pre game speeches.