Next Year's Schedule

[Brochacho]

What we know:
18 games vs the AAC.
@Ohio State
@Georgetown
3 games in Maui, with a field of: Oregon, UNC, Georgetown, Oklahoma State, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and Chaminade.

Speculated:
Series vs Cuse. UConn was in discussion with Syracuse revolving around H/H/MSG series.
Baylor/UConn men's/women's double-header at MSG.
Possible Villanova series.

Did I miss anything? Any teams you would like to see on the schedule next season?

 

[BFieldHusky]

I'd like to get back to playing Ivy League teams like Yale, Columbia, even Princeton. All 3 were in the Top 150 of the RPI, with 2 of them being Top 50 RPI teams.

 

[kelde1wd]

When does the Arizona series start?

 

[Brochacho]

When does the Arizona series start?

2017-18.

 

[kelde1wd]

2017-18.

Thanks

 

[DarthGrumpy]

FYI, I posted this elsewhere, if folks want to go to the G-Town game, which I believe is Jan 21, 2017, in DC, and need a hotel room, do it now. The Presidential Inauguration is scheduled for the day before, Friday, 20, 2017.

 

[KyleUC]

I love the idea of men's and women's double header with Baylor. Wouldn't be mad to see that with South Carolina either, with their men's team up-and-coming pretty well under Martin.

 

[aburks41]

What we know:
18 games vs the AAC.
@Ohio State
@Georgetown
3 games in Maui, with a field of: Oregon, UNC, Georgetown, Oklahoma State, Tennessee, Wisconsin, and Chaminade.

Kenpom has Wisconsin (#8), Oregon (#7), UNC (#6) in his preseason Top 10 for next year. Should be an interesting tournament.

 

[The Viking]

I assume once Emmert announces UNC's 2 year ban in a month that UNC's roster will empty out as players will be allowed to transfer to other teams immediately

 

[gtcam]

I assume once Emmert announces UNC's 2 year ban in a month that UNC's roster will empty out as players will be allowed to transfer to other teams immediately

DREAM ON

 

[mauconnfan]

I love the idea of men's and women's double header with Baylor. Wouldn't be mad to see that with South Carolina either, with their men's team up-and-coming pretty well under Martin.

Even ND

 

[Blue Blood]

I've always liked the idea of an early season round robin New England schedule with uri umass Maine Vermont and UNH some rpis are not good obviously but no worse than what we've had in the past couple years and at least it's a storyline to follow of who is new England's best hopefully we'd pretty much always have that title completely unrealistic obviously but interesting to consider

 

[FLhusky91]

What happened with that kansas series that was in the works? Would love to have them on the schedule.

 

[80shusky]

I'd like to get back to playing Ivy League teams like Yale, Columbia, even Princeton. All 3 were in the Top 150 of the RPI, with 2 of them being Top 50 RPI teams.

That would be nice. I'd like to see us stop scheduling 200+ RPI teams. We will get plenty of them in conference anyway.

 

[aburks41]

What happened with that kansas series that was in the works? Would love to have them on the schedule.

were going to be playing them in conference soon

 

[Tenspro2002]

If we could get Oregon and/or UNC in Maui, along with the rumored series, that would make for a killer OOC.

That's probably 5-6 Top 50 teams, including some Top 10.

Then all we'd have to do is clean up the chaff at the bottom -- no more CCSU, Sacred Heart, etc. If you're going to play America East and the MAAC, get the teams that win those conferences.

 

[Matrim55]

That would be nice. I'd like to see us stop scheduling 200+ RPI teams. We will get plenty of them in conference anyway.

I suspect only Tulane will be 200+ next year. The bottom of the conference is coming up.

 

[BFieldHusky]

Lets go with the premise that we play Syracuse at home and Baylor at MSG. I understand that could change. That would give you the following games:

3 in Maui (North Carolina, Oregon, Wisconsin, Oklahoma St, Tennessee, Georgetown)
at Ohio State
at Georgetown
Syracuse
Baylor (neutral)
There is 7 OOC games. At most, you would have 6 left.

This year we played 6 OOC games against cupcakes. They were ranked 166, 179, 262, 264, 311, and 351 in the RPI. Just can't afford to do that. Replace the bottom 4 with games against teams 150-225 in the RPI, and it makes a huge difference with your RPI/SOS numbers.

We ended up 35 in the RPI, with a SOS of 48. Replace those games and I imagine our RPI is the low 20s, and we were a 6-7 seed in the tournament, despite all the losses in league play.

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

That would be nice. I'd like to see us stop scheduling 200+ RPI teams. We will get plenty of them in conference anyway.

200+, I'd like to see us stop with the 300+ teams. Central and Maine were 351 and 313 respectively. The year before, Coppin State and CCSU were 311 and 342 respectively. It's good to include a few cupcakes in there as tune-up games, but at least make them against competent teams. Some of the Ivies suggested are good ideas, certainly Harvard and Yale. Maybe throw in a decent Patriot League team like a Bucknell, or a MAC team. Sprinkle in a chump to counterbalance, but at least bring in some teams that we should beat but who will not only challenge us, but boost our schedule strength. I'd also like to see more A-10 teams on there as mid-level OOC games, and certainly continue the trend of rescheduling Big East teams such as GT, Nova, PC, etc., if for no other reason than they'll be attendance boosters.

With the bottom of the AAC being so bad, we don't have the luxury of making up the SOS difference in conference when the cupcakes are 250-300+, and it's hurt our seeding in the NCAA both times we've made it from the AAC.

 

[Matrim55]

With the bottom of the AAC being so bad, we don't have the luxury of making up the SOS difference in conference when the cupcakes are 250-300+, and it's hurt our seeding in the NCAA both times we've made it from the AAC.

I don't disagree w/ your overall point, but the bottom of the AAC is set to be much better next year. Probably only Tulane will be below 200.

 

[tzznandrew]

I don't disagree w/ your overall point, but the bottom of the AAC is set to be much better next year. Probably only Tulane will be below 200.

I hope (and do think) you're right, but we were optimistic last year, too. To be fair, things right now would likely look much better if SMU were eligible.

Some old threads from last year make interesting reading:

Preseason AAC rankings and such
AAC overview from SI.com
Jon Rothstein on the AAC
Will the bottom of the American be viable...
Conference Schedule Pairings (full of amazing hyperbole on seeding)
Ranking the American Conference (with much less depth than yours)

 

[shizzle787]

We have 13 games so this is what I want to see.
Maui: 3 games (I hope we avoid Chaminade as that does NOTHING for our RPI)
@ Georgetown
@ Ohio State
vs Villanova
vs Baylor at MSG
@ Syracuse
vs Yale
vs Harvard
vs Princeton
vs Wichita State
vs Fairfield

Basically, this is a rehash of some the ideas (and already determined games) above noted, but also it avoids ANYONE particularly bad. We played 7 good opponents in OOC this year and 6 bad opponents; that ratio needs to be closer to 9-4 with all four being solid mid-majors or good local schools.

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

It may be that the bottom of the conference will improve, but that doesn't take away that we need to get rid of these rpi 300+ games that are destroying our SOS. We caught a raw deal this year in that Ohio State and Georgetown both happened to have monumentally awful seasons, and Michigan, Gonzaga, and Syracuse were down from normal in the regular season. But that's always the risk in scheduling, you have to hedge that by not falling off the RPI cliff with nonsense games like CCSU and Maine.

 

[Inyatkin]

It may be that the bottom of the conference will improve, but that doesn't take away that we need to get rid of these rpi 300+ games that are destroying our SOS. We caught a raw deal this year in that Ohio State and Georgetown both happened to have monumentally awful seasons, and Michigan, Gonzaga, and Syracuse were down from normal in the regular season. But that's always the risk in scheduling, you have to hedge that by not falling off the RPI cliff with nonsense games like CCSU and Maine.

Jeez I know it's a message board and all but Ohio State was not "monumentally awful." They were a borderline bubble team. They just weren't up to their usual standards. Even Georgetown was capable of beating most teams (including us) on a given day.

 

[JimHurley]

What I want most is to start the season off with a bang. I want to play a Duke, UNC, Kentucky, etc. for our first game. Nothing better than that.