Scheduling - time for a rethink?

[polycom]

August this is a terrible idea. Even though we are getting crushed the only way we fill the XL center is v. good opponents. What you are suggesting is for us to get beat up and make no money? Yeah that's a horrible idea.

 

[August_West]

The premiss of scheduling a tough non conference when we were worried about the quality of the AAC was a valid one. This whole thing only makes sense when you have a decent team getting some early season quality wins that helps with tournament seeding. It all falls apart when you get blown out by the good teams which is where we are now. KO miscalculated the quality of his team. I think that he thought we would be a tournament team. His recruiting, coaching ability and judgement is now under question. The argument is that Gilbert’s loss made the whole thing fall apart. My contention is that you have to have enough quality players because injuries are expected.

Even with Gilbert I question it this year. If Larrier and Gilbert played full seasons last year then OK I can see it. We have our 3 best players all with full seasons under their belts together. And even with the transfer debacle that's a pretty solid nucleus to build around to test.

But for all intents and purposes Larrier and Gilbert were first year players THIS season. And with the transfers man we were in trouble. Especially with KO's penchant for not setting a rotation until March.

 

[August_West]

August this is a terrible idea. Even though we are getting crushed the only way we fill the XL center is v. good opponents. What you are suggesting is for us to get beat up and make no money? Yeah that's a horrible idea.

We play *1* good opponent at XL this year.

Does that make that much of a difference?

 

[Fan4ever]

The premiss of scheduling a tough non conference when we were worried about the quality of the AAC was a valid one. This whole thing only makes sense when you have a decent team getting some early season quality wins that helps with tournament seeding. It all falls apart when you get blown out by the good teams which is where we are now. KO miscalculated the quality of his team. I think that he thought we would be a tournament team. His recruiting, coaching ability and judgement is now under question. The argument is that Gilbert’s loss made the whole thing fall apart. My contention is that you have to have enough quality players because injuries are expected.

Agreed. Also your foundation to the tourney cannot be built on 2 players coming off major surgeries, especially when one (AG) is supposed to be your ignition switch. Where is plan B, C (we are talking about major surgery and a history of injury)? If it was MAL, fail. If it was AA, fail.

 

[Letsgohuskies11]

We play *1* good opponent at XL this year.

Does that make that much of a difference?

Wichita State or Villanova?

 

[polycom]

We play *1* good opponent at XL this year.

Does that make that much of a difference?

So which one isn't good W State or Nova?

 

[August_West]

Wichita State or Villanova?

Witchita St is in our conference

 

[8893]

Wichita State or Villanova?

So which one isn't good W State or Nova?

I believe he meant OOC.

 

[August_West]

I believe he meant OOC.

Because a conference mate is coming either way.

LOL @ "people"

 

[tdrink]

Witchita St is in our conference

Witchita St. runs it’s program like a high mid- major.

We are a mid- major now but still act like a P5 in many respects.

High mid - majors can schedule tough early because they return players who understand their role from the previous year.

We are turning over the lineup every year and have fresh faces that aren’t used to playing together so we lose while working on gelling and the season seems lost by the time things should be coming together.

Need to recruit program guys and rebuild from the ground up.

 

[August_West]

Sure I suppose you could have that opinion.

What weight do you give it? 5%?

Thank you.

Thats a fair question. But a tough one to answer.

I think 5% is in the range on the low end on the high end I might put it as high as 20% for the mental make up of this years team and all the frosh.

Somewhere between 5-20%.

Its easier to say in retrospect, Ill grant that.

But I think no matter what your opinion of this team and Kevin Ollie is, I think we can all universally agree that this team is shell shocked.

 

[whaler11]

Its not THE problem. we have LOTS of problems. In my opinion its A problem. Thats OK to have that opinion right?


Man people are so stupid these days.

Scaling it back a bit wouldn’t hurt results.

Especially since they get none of these games at home.

 

[Travelman6]

How many OOC does Uconn typically have per season? 12 to 13 games?

Maybe make the first 8 or 9 games super "easy" Coppin St. level games, maybe going up slightly in challenge every 2 games. Similar to what Gtown did. When you are 8-0 or 9-0, regardless of who you play, sometimes it just allows you to have that "swagger" even if unwarranted, that you can carry with you the rest of the season. It is a good way to start the season. Next schedule Cuse or Nova, maybe one other tough OOC, one last tune up and on to AAC play.

Imagine being 10-3 or even 9-4 (even with one bad loss) or 11-2 (beating one of the tough OOC) going into AAC play. It could actually help confidence.

 

[John]

We play *1* good opponent at XL this year.

Does that make that much of a difference?

2 good ones

 

[Waquoit]

Blaming this schedule as "too hard" is just more excuse making for the HC.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Thank you.

Thats a fair question. But a tough one to answer.

I think 5% is in the range on the low end on the high end I might put it as high as 20% for the mental make up of this years team and all the frosh.

Somewhere between 5-20%.

Its easier to say in retrospect, Ill grant that.

But I think no matter what your opinion of this team and Kevin Ollie is, I think we can all universally agree that this team is shell shocked.

I'm usually a believer that basketball gives you enough games that you can schedule a difficult OOC, but still have enough cupcakes to learn how to win with.

I didn't have high hopes for the squad this season going into the year, but as thin as the roster is and as tough as some of the OOC has been, there's no excuse for all the blow outs. I anticipate we'll see another 20 plus point drubbing this Saturday as well.

 

[Tenspro2002]

How many OOC does Uconn typically have per season? 12 to 13 games?

Maybe make the first 8 or 9 games super "easy" Coppin St. level games, maybe going up slightly in challenge every 2 games. Similar to what Gtown did. When you are 8-0 or 9-0, regardless of who you play, sometimes it just allows you to have that "swagger" even if unwarranted, that you can carry with you the rest of the season. It is a good way to start the season. Next schedule Cuse or Nova, maybe one other tough OOC, one last tune up and on to AAC play.

Imagine being 10-3 or even 9-4 (even with one bad loss) or 11-2 (beating one of the tough OOC) going into AAC play. It could actually help confidence.

The 2007 team started 11-0 and was ranked about #12 after beating a bunch of nobodies in OOC.

Then they started playing real opponents, went 6-14, and never figured it out. A lot of good the cupcake schedule did them...

 

[August_West]

The 2007 team started 11-0 and was ranked about #12 after beating a bunch of nobodies nobodies in OOC.

Then they started playing real opponents, went 6-14, and never figured it out. A lot of good the cupcake schedule did them...

Yeah it did.

We went 17-14 instead of 10-21.

See the point?

 

[auror]

I think finishing top 3 in league with no bad OOC losses gets you in every year. We should be able to do that regardless of Non conference schedule.

Hi from SMU!

Green Bay, SMU headline list of NCAA tournament snubs

"As we looked at SMU, they certainly passed the eye test," Wellman said. "They're a very good team, and they've had a very good year. When you're making these selections, you're looking for differentiators. Is there anything that stands out, either on the positive side or the negative side of the ledger that will cause you to absolutely take that team or really look at prioritizing and selecting other teams? In SMU's case, their downfall, their weakness, was their schedule.

"Their non-conference strength of schedule was ranked No. 302 out of, what do we have, 350 teams eligible for the tournament. It's one of the worst non-conference schedules. Their overall strength of schedule was 129. That would have been by far the worst at-large strength of schedule. The next-worst was 91. Really, the glaring weakness about SMU was their schedule."

...

SMU was ranked in both polls this past week, and it has four victories against top-25 teams this season. But the committee decided to make an example of the Mustangs; its weak non-conference schedule would not be rewarded.

It didn't help, either, that the committee showed little reverence for their conference. Fellow AAC member Louisville is one of the hottest teams in the nation having won 29 games including the AAC championship game, and the Cards earned a No. 4 seed.

SMU finished tied for 3rd in conference W/L record in the strongest year of the conference (by a lot, 5 top 50 KenPom teams, 4 top 30 RPI teams) and didn't get in. Our conference is now worse. This plan will not work.

 

[August_West]

Hi from SMU!

Green Bay, SMU headline list of NCAA tournament snubs



SMU finished tied for 3rd in conference W/L record in the strongest year of the conference (by a lot, 5 top 50 KenPom teams, 4 top 30 RPI teams) and didn't get in. Our conference is now worse. This plan will not work.

Yeah.

Seeing as weve never finished higher than 4th (or is it 5th?) in the AAC, how about we climb that mountain first before worrying about non-conference RPI tournament snubs.

 

[Caronimo]

If anything we need a tougher schedule, especially the home slate.

 

[TouchdownHusky]

The 2007 team started 11-0 and was ranked about #12 after beating a bunch of nobodies in OOC.

Then they started playing real opponents, went 6-14, and never figured it out. A lot of good the cupcake schedule did them...

The '07 team had a bunch of young guys who were not good that first year, but ended up getting UConn to a Final Four. That team had better players period, they ould destroy this year's team. Confrence realignment is what has screwed UConn, not the AAC. And, maybe UConn should get itself back to being a premier progam in the AAC.

 

[VAHuskyFan]

We should absolutely continue scheduling top teams.

It’s the only reason our RPI is as high as it is. Losing to a Top 10 team is actually better than beating an RPI 300 team.

It’s the only thing that gives us a chance for a decent seed in years when we’re good enough to make the tournament.

If our team is terrible, the schedule doesn’t really matter. There’s no non-conference schedule you could draw up to somehow cobble together an at-large resume this year.

It’s a positive for recruiting. And it sells tickets.

The problem is that we are not a good team and there’s just no way to paper that over.

 

[Tenspro2002]

Yeah it did.

We went 17-14 instead of 10-21.

See the point?

Which accomplished what, exactly? The team was still horrible by the end of the year and didn't play in a postseason tournament.

 

[Husky68]

How many OOC does Uconn typically have per season? 12 to 13 games?

Maybe make the first 8 or 9 games super "easy" Coppin St. level games, maybe going up slightly in challenge every 2 games. Similar to what Gtown did. When you are 8-0 or 9-0, regardless of who you play, sometimes it just allows you to have that "swagger" even if unwarranted, that you can carry with you the rest of the season. It is a good way to start the season. Next schedule Cuse or Nova, maybe one other tough OOC, one last tune up and on to AAC play.

Imagine being 10-3 or even 9-4 (even with one bad loss) or 11-2 (beating one of the tough OOC) going into AAC play. It could actually help confidence.

Yeah that really helped the Thabeet freshman year 2006-07 team, until UConn ran into WVU. Were 11-0 OOC and ended up 17-14. The team on the court vs. Memphis could not rebound or pass in addition to not being able to shoot adequately; not sure how easier OOC would have helped. Players on court against Memphis may be capable of playing better but proved they are capable of playing that bad.