Memphis A Likely Future Opponent For MBB After AAC Membership Ends

[Drew]

Love this

 

[Hey Adrien!]

Great news! Memphis will be a great opponent for UConn as long as Penny is the coach.

 

[uconnbaseball]

FedEx Forum is a nice arena. Looking forward to returning there for an OOC match while playing conference tournament games at MSG.

 

[Guapo]

This is good.

Everything is good.

 

[A10 fan]

Makes tons of sense. USF for the women too. The women will still need to have a strong ooc schedule, as the BE is not nearly as strong on the women's side as it is for the men. It's deeper than the AAC though, with maybe 3 programs that are on about the same level as USF. That's still nowhere close to UConn's level. Got to miss sharing a league with ND, and Rutgers. The ironic thing is that there are maybe 4 or 5 AAC programs that would look good occasionally popping up on UConn's schedule. Other than the travel, it wasn't really playing Houston, Cincy, Wichita, or even Temple that was the biggest problem. Even Tulsa isn't terrible as a buy game with no return trip, as you do need to play a couple of "cupcakes" that at least have a pulse. It's playing Tulane, and ECU, along with the other weak programs.

 

[RayIsTheGOAT]

My goodness the days of struggling to patch together a good schedule are nearly over.
2020-21 is going to be loaded.

 

[JMick]

I was hoping to be rid of all their fans but whatever. The games should be good

 

[FlippinCrazy!]

I would expect cincy and Wichita state to be regular opponents as well, fingers crossed

 

[StepbackCity]

I would expect cincy and Wichita state to be regular opponents as well, fingers crossed

I don’t think we need to be regular opponents with any AAC team besides Memphis lol

 

[Hoophound]

I don’t know. I’d rather play Cincy or Wichita than Columbia or Monmouth. It just depends what you need to make a good, well thought out schedule. I will continue to feel bad for Cincy with them being stuck in the AAC.

 

[FlippinCrazy!]

I don’t think we need to be regular opponents with any AAC team besides Memphis lol

Why not? Let’s pick like 2 AAC schools out of Memphis, cincy, temple, USF, Wichita state and UCF every year. There were a lot of travel issues and bottom barrel teams in the AAC, but these teams were the good part of the conference for UConn. And there’s no bad blood or anything

Throw in an A10 school (umass please!), a couple power 5 schools, tournament games, and teams like BU and northeastern. I would love that schedule. I also know nothing about schedule making tho lol

 

[A10 fan]

You think that maybe a home and home vs one of the AAC hoops powers might buy a football game? Certainly it would be worth playing 4 year deals with Memphis, and Cincy, or Houston in return for a football home and away with each. That would be 2 very nice ooc hoops games each year, and the football games could be spread out over the 4 years, one each year. Of course I'd try to do this with Pitt, and one of the other former BE teams (not BC) first. Have to use the hoop team as leverage. Will be more effective once the team gets back on top of course. You just have to be careful, you don't want to saddle the hoop team with 6-7 killer OOC games every year. I'm sure Hurley wouldn't be thrilled about having to play 6 rough ooc games every year, especially considering that 3 would be on the road.

 

[tcf15]

Stunning Steve rn:

 

[A10 fan]

Why not? Let’s pick like 2 AAC schools out of Memphis, cincy, temple, USF, Wichita state and UCF every year. There were a lot of travel issues and bottom barrel teams in the AAC, but these teams were the good part of the conference for UConn. And there’s no bad blood or anything

Throw in an A10 school (umass please!), a couple power 5 schools, tournament games, and teams like BU and northeastern. I would love that schedule. I also know nothing about schedule making tho lol

To me the key is this; for all of their talk about playing tough schedules, can you trust the NCAA to reward a team on Selection Sunday, if they play that kind of schedule? If UConn can play a tough 20 game BE schedule, play whoever is lined up for them in those conference challenges, play a preseason tournament, and then play 3-4 games vs P5, and/or AAC elite teams, and still get a bid, and the correct seed when they lose 2-3 more games than they would playing one of those Georgetown joke ooc schedules, I'd be all for it. I'm sure most season ticket holders would much prefer to see Pitt, and Cincy coming to town in December, than some NEC garbage. Of course you'd have to win some of those games. Can you trust the committee?

 

[BFieldHusky]

To me the key is this; for all of their talk about playing tough schedules, can you trust the NCAA to reward a team on Selection Sunday, if they play that kind of schedule? If UConn can play a tough 20 game BE schedule, play whoever is lined up for them in those conference challenges, play a preseason tournament, and then play 3-4 games vs P5, and/or AAC elite teams, and still get a bid, and the correct seed when they lose 2-3 more games than they would playing one of those Georgetown joke ooc schedules, I'd be all for it. I'm sure most season ticket holders would much prefer to see Pitt, and Cincy coming to town in December, than some NEC garbage. Of course you'd have to win some of those games. Can you trust the committee?

So you want to play 29 of 31 regular season games against top 125 teams? Duke and Kentucky don't even do that.

 

[FlippinCrazy!]

To me the key is this; for all of their talk about playing tough schedules, can you trust the NCAA to reward a team on Selection Sunday, if they play that kind of schedule? If UConn can play a tough 20 game BE schedule, play whoever is lined up for them in those conference challenges, play a preseason tournament, and then play 3-4 games vs P5, and/or AAC elite teams, and still get a bid, and the correct seed when they lose 2-3 more games than they would playing one of those Georgetown joke ooc schedules, I'd be all for it. I'm sure most season ticket holders would much prefer to see Pitt, and Cincy coming to town in December, than some NEC garbage. Of course you'd have to win some of those games. Can you trust the committee?

True but I’ve always felt the committee values tough schedules over wins (especially for power 5 + big east). Look at Georgetown they got left out last year (and deservedly so). But then teams like Texas got in and Oklahoma were in the discussion because they played killer schedules. Personally I thought neither deserved to be in.

Hopefully this next season will be different, and come 2020 or 2021, it won’t be about how to put together the best schedule to make the tournament, but how to put together the best schedule for the team to prepare for the tournament!

 

[upstater]

I don't understand the appeal of Wichita St. Does nothing for me at all.

I'd like to keep playing Cincy though.

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

Memphis will be a great opponent for UConn as long as Penny is the coach.

In bed with AAU and all, Hardaway’s recruited well. On the other hand, he’s never been a head coach, managed a roster of guys who likely all believe they’re the 2nd coming of Hardaway or the like, run a program, etc. Time will tell ...

 

[Dooooooomed]

I don't understand the appeal of Wichita St. Does nothing for me at all.

I'd like to keep playing Cincy though.

The Wichita AD went against the Aresco narrative. That's enough for me.

 

[crazyUCfan23]

In addition to Memphis, I'd like to see Cincy and Wichita fairly regularly. Wichita will always be a strong program as long as marshall is the coach. If houston continues to trend upward, throw them in the mix as well.

 

[RayIsTheGOAT]

I don't understand the appeal of Wichita St. Does nothing for me at all.

I'd like to keep playing Cincy though.

The appeal is that they are a pretty good college basketball brand and have a top tier coach. They were a borderline powerhouse for a good stretch of years not too long ago, which was validated by a final four run.

Their AD also has respect for us.

 

[upstater]

The appeal is that they are a pretty good college basketball brand and have a top tier coach. They were a borderline powerhouse for a good stretch of years not too long ago, which was validated by a final four run.

Their AD also has respect for us.

Someone here compiled their record and ranking over the years. It was seriously not impressive in the least. I'd say way overblown.

 

[RayIsTheGOAT]

Someone here compiled their record and ranking over the years. It was seriously not impressive in the least. I'd say way overblown.

They got to a final four, have been a 1 seed, been to multiple NCAA tournaments in the last several years and even in a very down year last year, they got to what, the NIT semis? Much better than us in recent down years...

They’re a legit program.

 

[tcf15]

Big East 11 game OOC schedule:

3 or 4 games- early season tourney
1 game- big 10 challenge
1 game- big 12 challenge (will this continue now that both conferences dont have 10 teams?)
1 game- memphis

that only leaves 4 or 5 free games. we might need to offer 1 or 2 as home and homes to help football schedule P5 opponents. That leaves us with between 2 and 4 games against midmajors (everyone does it)

we'd have the strongest schedule in the country

It's more likely going to be 3-5 high majors and 6-8 buy games. Like BField is saying (in the other thread), now that we've got 20 BE conference games, we don't need to strive for the best OOC schedule in the country.

 

[tzznandrew]

The appeal is that they are a pretty good college basketball brand and have a top tier coach. They were a borderline powerhouse for a good stretch of years not too long ago, which was validated by a final four run.

Their AD also has respect for us.

Since 2010, they've been in made it into the Top 15 6 out of 10 years. Top 10 4 out of 10.

Last year was an outlier given their recent history in that it's the only year they didn't reach 25 wins. They had 22.