I swear it's time that all the top NE teams make a scheduling alliance. DO IT! Cut the crap. Save Northeast basketball before it goes down the drain like NE College football
Won't happen. No desire to.
I would like to see an OOC schedule look something like this (assuming 13 non conference games):
-3 games for Pre-season tourney (2 of which are usually against P5 competition i.e. Syracuse and Iowa this year)
-4 games vs OBE/P5 (some combo of: Cuse, Nova, Providence, St. Johns, Pitt, WVU, Duke, Kentucky, Arizona, Ohio St., Michigan St.; mix in neutral sites with at least 1 true away, 1 true home game)
-3 games vs "mid major" competition (some combo of:URI, Yale, Dayton, St. Bonnies, Buffalo or really any other A10/CAA school; maybe 1 of these on the road)
-3 games vs "low-major" competition (some combo of: CCSU, UNH, UVM, UHart, QU, Sacred Heart or any other regionally located school.
I think attendance might benefit some from a more regionally based OOC, even the "tune up games." Although these "tune up" games are sparsely attended, I'd like to think the crowd would be a little bit better if, say, we played CCSU at XL rather than Lafayette or Umass-Lowell.
Our f'cking adminstrators and respective fan bases can't get past their egos to understand that the game is better when they play each other without regard to who actually wins. Play the game and everyone wins!
I like this but I do not know if this schedule is feasible with conferences expanding conference games OOC games are harder to come by.
Here is how I would do it (if possible), based on this year's schedule:
3 cupcakes (was 8)
- Morehead State (fine)
- UMKC (fine)
- 2K Classic (good)
- 2K Classic (good)
- Additional Game in normal Preseason Tourney (replaces Cornell)
- New Hampshire --> instead replace with Big East Opponent
- UMass - Lowell --> one of Hartford, Yale, Quinnipiac
- Arizona (great)
- Lafayette --> instead replace with P5 Opponent
- Florida State (great)
- Manhattan --> one of URI, UMass (either buy game or do a 2-for-1)
- Drexel (fine)
- Villanova (great)
2 games v. local schools that are borderline cupcakes but should be more challenging (was 0)
3 games in Preseason Tourney (at least 2 v. good P5/Big East) (was 2)
5 more games v. good P5/Big East opponents (was 3)
As a fan, this would be incredible but probably need a few more seasons before we could pull this off. Coaching staff wants / needs those cupcakes the next year, maybe two, in order to keep developing this team and culture back to the level we all expect. That schedule would be one of the toughest in the country but provide so much entertainment value.
Good buy game. NJIT is usually pretty decent.
They started the year 13-3, but had trouble navigating a better than usual A-Sun with Liberty and Lipscomb playing well, North Florida solid and FGCU always respectable.
Good buy game. NJIT is usually pretty decent.