This years schedule strength

[Ts5034]

After watching the "champions" classic tonight it got me thinking about Uconns somewhat weak out of conference schedule. One major difference btw Uconn and the other teams at the top (UNC,UK,Duke,Ohio St) is the big time games these teams are playing out of conference. I know the road through the Big East is always tough but i believe it always helps going into battle against the other top teams. I think playing MSU and Kentucky early last year helped Uconn a lot, along with the game at Texas. Win or lose the experience is huge and its a great test before the NCAA tournament.

 

[uconndoit]

Doomed?

 

[gibhunter]

Kentucky plays in a very weak league, so does UNC and Duke. They need strong OOC opponnents this year. UConn will get plenty of tests in league play.

 

[Dann]

this year is a down year in the occ. bummer but its not the worst thing for this team. who could have predicted ark in the sec matchup? or fsu being the 2nd best team at the tney? tenn being bad? we set ourself up for some good games but just didn't get them this year. when duke/msu/ku/uk did the msg thing, that shut out unc/uconn from joining those guys at all. unc had the game on the boat tho so they were safe. we got left out. big deal. next year will be great:
-game vs az on a boat
-pj tney
-texas
-tenn?
-sec game

 

[Waquoit]

I think UConn should make it a point to play at least one away (as opposed to neutral site) game before conference play.

 

[tzznandrew]

Much of the schedule was made last season, I think, before it started. Most people thought Kemba could be gone. They didn't know about Boatright/Daniels/Drummond. By most expectations, best case scenario was S16, E8, but most thought that was too optimistic.

Then, they expected penalties due to Miles. And the loss of Kemba. A team of sophomores and freshmen (with 2 juniors) who weren't defending champions could have benefited more than what we have here now.

 

[CTEagle]

Why question the SOS. This is how Calhoun built his program. Seems pretty consistent with most years.

 

[upstater]

Why question the SOS. This is how Calhoun built his program. Seems pretty consistent with most years.

UConn schedules tough OOC teams every year, at least 3 of them, and has been the BE school with the toughest OOC schedule for many years. Go back and look at the record, you'll see this is true. In the last decade alone, they've had series against North Carolina and Texas and Indiana. They take on all comers.

This year, they could end up with: Florida St., Arkansas, Tennessee.
Last year it was Michigan St., Kentucky, Texas, Tennessee.
Before that, LSU, Kentucky, Duke, Michigan, Texas
Miami, Wisconsin, Gonzaga, Michigan
Memphis, Gonzaga, Indiana, Georgia Tech
Mississippi, LSU, Indiana
Arkansas, Arizona, Gonzaga, LSU, Indiana
Indiana, Oklahoma, North Carolina
Georgia Tech, Utah, Oklahoma, North Carolina
Vanderbilt, Oklahoma, North Carolina
Vanderbilt, Oklahoma, North Carolina

 

[HuskyBballFan]

I think UConn should make it a point to play at least one away (as opposed to neutral site) game before conference play.

For whatever reason, Calhoun has always liked to sprinkle in the tough non-conference games during the conference schedule.

 

[upstater]

For whatever reason, Calhoun has always liked to sprinkle in the tough non-conference games during the conference schedule.

TV--------So few do it, makes for good TV

 

[DogMania]

We're sorting beating a dead horse. Our OOC sched is piss poor this year. Our RPI which is somewhat meaningless till the end of the season, is going to look horrible till we get part way into our BE schedule.

It would be wise for us not to have many RPI threads till the end of January. It is very likely that UConn will play just one ranked team (that is if we face FSU in the Battle 4 Atlantis and they remain ranked - 24th & 25th at this time depending which poll) till they face Cinci on January 18th. Now it's possible that WVU or ND could break into the top 25 before UConn plays them on 1/9 and 1/14 respectively, but you get the picture. Our RPI is going to be abysmal till then. Right now we have an RPI of 46 with a SOS of 102, both are pretty meaningless numbers considering how few a number of games UConn and the rest of the field have played thus far. Frankly, I'm surprised those numbers are even that high considering we beat Wagner and Columbia who have RPIs of 140 and 212 respectively. I don't know why they even bother to come out with the RPI until much later in the season.

 

[freescooter]

The overall crappiness of our schedule this year has me concerned. it is possilbe that we won't have faced a team with an NCAA chance until january 9. Now I relaize that the Big East scheduled a couple of patsies to open the Conference season when Calhoun is suspended, but the bottom line is we don't play anyone even among Big East teams until mid-january. I'm a little concerned that this team will not really be tested until awfully late in th eseason and that could be a problem. Sor tof like the 2007 team that blew through a a bunch of patsies then panicked when they had to play real teams. Now I realize that we have guys who have been through the ringer last year, but last year was last year and the real guts of that team is no longer around.

 

[frosh360]

I agree the schedule is weak this year but Uconn probly didnt see the Bruce Pearl thing going down with Tenessee. Fla State will be an okay test as will Arkansas. But it wont be the same intense battles like last year vs Texas and such. We shall see....anyone know who uconn has scheduled for non conference games or home and home series for the coming years?

 

[Waquoit]

Why question the SOS. This is how Calhoun built his program. Seems pretty consistent with most years.

You clearly don't have season tickets.

 

[Ts5034]

The overall crappiness of our schedule this year has me concerned. it is possilbe that we won't have faced a team with an NCAA chance until january 9. Now I relaize that the Big East scheduled a couple of patsies to open the Conference season when Calhoun is suspended, but the bottom line is we don't play anyone even among Big East teams until mid-january. I'm a little concerned that this team will not really be tested until awfully late in th eseason and that could be a problem. Sor tof like the 2007 team that blew through a a bunch of patsies then panicked when they had to play real teams. Now I realize that we have guys who have been through the ringer last year, but last year was last year and the real guts of that team is no longer around.

I was thinking the same thing about that 07 team. I thought Calhoun at the time was pretty open about making a mistake by not leaving CT to play a game before the big east started. That team was completely lost playing on the road but they were also very young.

 

[HuskyBballFan]

I've seen several people proclaim that Florida State is the 2nd best team in the ACC.

 

[HuskyBballFan]

It's pretty easy to look back in hindsight and cherry pick years where our non-conference schedule correlated with our success in the Big East. Did the 2007 team struggle because we had a lousy schedule or did they struggle because we lost our 7 best players from the year before? And what about last year's team? By anybody's standard, our non-league schedule was a bear - did that really help us in Big East play?

Bottom line is we got a bit unlucky this year from a schedule strength perspective. Tennessee was a great game when we scheduled it. The SEC Challenge game could have easily been Florida, Vandy, or Kentucky - we don't decide our opponent there. The Atlantis tournament isn't great but we can't go to Maui every year.

 

[upstater]

About Florida St., I'd almost rather face UNC. Fla. st. isn't that great at putting the ball through the net, but they excel at defense.Best D in the ACC (know that isn't saying much) but Napier will be tested.

 

[tzznandrew]

Hamilton coached teams always give UConn trouble.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Why question the SOS. This is how Calhoun built his program. Seems pretty consistent with most years.

weak flame attempt.