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Memphis under Calipari played plenty of cupcakes.
ND (football) of Basketball
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A stronger OOC does not really lead to a higher probability of making the tournament. Unless your "all else =" extends to winning the exact same amount of games against the harder schedule as you do against the easier schedule, which isn't really logical.
BUConn10
Artist formerly known as BUHusky10
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Normally I'd agree with you but I think our program is in a unique area.
As a high profile program, we always have talent on the roster that can come together and beat most teams on any given night. We have the athletes and resources for our guys to be capable of winning any game, but our consistency, chemistry and preparedness seem to be what have held us back lately.
I'd say even an unranked UConn team has a shot against a top 10 team many years if they are clicking. I also think we as a program have a bad habit of playing down and up to our opponents. For those reasons I think the benefits of a stronger schedule outweigh the negatives. After all UConn as a program rose to prominence fighting for air against the toughest schedules year in and year out in the early Big East days.
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As others have said, it is beyond unreasonable to expect to play 2+ teams from every P5 conference, especially if you're banking on many of them being neutral games.
With this year and last years schedule, UConn has extended themselves about as far as they can go. We haven't managed to secure the tier one games with the likes of Duke, Kentucky, or Kansas on a consistent basis (we did play Duke in 2014), but that second tier - the OSU's, Georgetown's, Maryland's and Texas's - is typically going to fetch you games against tournament caliber competition, and, sometimes, preseason top ten teams in marquee match-ups like Maryland @ MSG. Syracuse and Arizona are probably only a slight notch below the three teams mentioned above, and we play both in the coming years.
The bottom line is that we will be tested in any given season, even if it's obviously not as much as we would be in a better conference.
If there is one complaint about the schedule, it's the home games. Terrible, terrible home games for a couple years running now - some of that is out of their control (nobody knew OSU and Georgetown were going to suck last year), but regardless of whose fault it is, some electricity needs to be pumped into Gampel/XL before it dies. The two venues are like plants not being watered right now and it makes me sad.
With this year and last years schedule, UConn has extended themselves about as far as they can go. We haven't managed to secure the tier one games with the likes of Duke, Kentucky, or Kansas on a consistent basis (we did play Duke in 2014), but that second tier - the OSU's, Georgetown's, Maryland's and Texas's - is typically going to fetch you games against tournament caliber competition, and, sometimes, preseason top ten teams in marquee match-ups like Maryland @ MSG. Syracuse and Arizona are probably only a slight notch below the three teams mentioned above, and we play both in the coming years.
The bottom line is that we will be tested in any given season, even if it's obviously not as much as we would be in a better conference.
If there is one complaint about the schedule, it's the home games. Terrible, terrible home games for a couple years running now - some of that is out of their control (nobody knew OSU and Georgetown were going to suck last year), but regardless of whose fault it is, some electricity needs to be pumped into Gampel/XL before it dies. The two venues are like plants not being watered right now and it makes me sad.
Why is Auburn a marquee game? Because they are in a P5 conference? If that is the case, bring on Rutgers! You really think Georgetown is a marquee game? To whom? Oklahoma St?. And we MIGHT play UNC? We once played UNC at Gampel. Arizona at Gampel. Kansas in Htfd. Those were marquee games. Go to UCONN games.com and watch games from the 90's. Those were were marquee games.
FfldCntyFan
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E, if you really want to help the cause go to home football games and talk all of your friends into doing the same.
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While I agree that in this conference UConn has to schedule the best OOC schedule we can, I believe they have tried to do that the last couple of years. I know RPI isn't the end all these days but I believe we entered the NCAA tourney with a 26 RPI. Syracuse, despite the Bahamas tourney win and a tough ACC conference schedule, entered the tournament with a 73 RPI. If my numbers are wrong please someone chime in (going off of memory) but I think they are in the ballpark at least. Part of scheduling is a willing participant in a home and home series or setting up a nice neutral court game (Syracuse this coming season at MSG as an example). That said, we have to have some buy games just for straight cash. If you look at the OOC schedules of some of the top teams this coming season they don't really play anyone on the road for example Duke and Kentucky. We just need to try to eliminate the terrible matchups like we had last year with 200+ RPI teams. Our OOC schedule plus preseason tourneys gives us a great chance to improve our metrics with our schedule. We just need to win more of those games.
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How do you think Jim B and the Orange have so many wins under his tutelage? I mean everyone has cupcakes on their schedule like it or not. Not even worth talking about, can't jump in to the season playing Duke and UK with a young team WTF. The schedule is fine, let's throw up the ball and play.
stay in the quicksand or be proactive and make a change
truth
I hear you, certainly don't want Duke UK on opening night, but what do you think is going to get UCONN a higher seed in the NCAA tournament....dominating the American or having a winning record versus the toughest OOC schedule? Generally, top 4 seeds win the tournament, right? The tournaments won as a lower seed were anomalies.
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Every comment you make in this thread just reinforces the fact that you don't understand this topic at even the most basic level. If we dominate the American and have good OOC results playing the type of OOC schedule we've had the last few years, we will get a very high seed in the tournament every time. Our seeds the last few years are not caused by our schedule, they are caused by losing a bunch of games.
thanks for your clarification. The American has been in existence for 3 years. The highest seed every obtained was by Louisville in the 2013-2014 season where they had a 4 seed, they went 31-6 (overall). UNC and UK on the OOC; the rest, cupcakes. SMU the following year went 27-7 (overall) and got a 6 seed! Zags, Indy, Arkansas and UM on the OOC; the rest, cupcakes. UCONN does have a decent OOC, but during this time while we're in the AAC, it's may be more beneficial to load up the OOC from a recruiting and seeding standpoint.
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Again, you seem to be under the impression that we live in a world where you can schedule a bunch of P5 teams and then they just give you a high seed regardless of what happens in the games. SMU's problem wasn't that they played only the Zags, Indy, Arkansas, and UM + a bunch of cupcakes. The problem was in the actual game they played against Gonzaga, they lost. In the actual game they played against Indiana, they lost. In the actual game they played against Arkansas, they lost. Seem ridiculous to make the assumption that if they swapped cupcake games for more P5 games they would win them all and get a better seed.
Louisville probably should have been seeded one line higher, but as you mentioned, their schedule was truly garbage outside of their 2 P5 OOC games (we're playing 7 of those this year), and they lost both of them handily.
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Yeah I think the OOC schedule has been fine the last few years and the real problem is mediocre AAC records and some bad in conference losses.
C
Chief00
But now we have a weak rated conference schedule - and many of our higher rated games are at neutral courts - not good for season tickets sales
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Hi Chief, IMO these are two different, though connected, arguments. While our conference schedule leaves some things to be desired and the schedule does not benefit our season ticket holders as much as it should, which is important, the OP was posting about our OOC strength of schedule not benefiting us from a competitive standpoint as it relates to NCAA tournament seeding (I think). I believe it does. Your contention that our conference schedule is weak has merit vs P5 conferences like the ACC, B10, SEC, etc. However, our conference strength of schedule is good enough that if we win the games we should, and at minimum split our "big" OOC games we should get a decent seed in the tourney. The problem has been that we aren't winning enough games in our conference. We can complain all we want that the AAC is weak, but only if we dominate it. If we go undefeated in the conference, split our major OOC games and still get a lower than expected seed then we can complain. Lets win our games before we whine about seeding. UConn's fans all complain that our conference is weak and it is holding us back. It might be from a recruiting standpoint. But from a competitive standpoint if we are losing 5-6 games in conference, we have nothing to complain about other than our own lack of performance.
C
Chief00
Playing elite OOC games at home helps your program in numerous ways.
gtcam
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Big Difference = those Memphis teams were undefeated or near so in their conference year after year
gtcam
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I don't think he was stretching that far
gtcam
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the 90s weren't dealing with P5
UConn and the Big East were kings - it was different - compare UConn in the 90s (where they were conference wise) and now is night and day
The playing field then saw the Big East as the P1 and everyone else was P2 or lower
The ACC, Big 10, Big 12, Pac 10 - they all wanted to play a Big East team
I don't think anything was said relating to the game being "marquee." And yes, as others have stated, none of this matters if UCONN does not perform well with its conference schedule. But having P5 schools like Auburn/Rutgers on the schedule instead of North Florida and BU would be better for the long-run.
Looks like you were right about those "cupcakes" (or maybe we're just not that good (yet))
You know...as bad as the team is now...if it can string together a little streak, it may still be able to pull itself back into the top 25 (oregon 13, cuse 18, and ohio state may be ranked by that time) ....if those first two losses were against P5's...it would be a little easier to do that.... at least this ist college football where are season would essentially be over now...the team needs steadily progress and finish strong....the team is not good right now...but it seems they also play to the level of the comp...we shall see....perhaps just wishful thinking...STAY POSITIVE
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