Undefeated teams (merged)

[oldude]

It’s no longer just Kim playing a cupcake schedule anymore. Outside of a handful of teams like TX, SC, etc. from P4 conferences, for several reasons, just about every other team has set up a cupcake buffet as their OOC appetizer.

Reason 1 is obvious. They want to amp up their W/L record so that a .500 record in conference doesn’t relegate them to the NIT.

The 2nd reason has everything to do with costs and revenue sharing. It’s much more cost effective to invite Cupcake U to travel to your home court, pick up their travel expenses and get the benefits of home court merchandise and ticket sales, then traveling halfway across the country, overseas or to the Bahamas to play a top team.

 

[BJC]

I'm not a Kim Mulkey fan, but I can understand her approach after a conversation with one of her former player's parent. She allows her kids free time during the summer. They are not required to be on campus or participate in summer workouts. Most of them use that time to push their brands, etc...The easy schedule allows them to regroup, build confidence and preserve energy with less chance of injuries. She uses the preseason as a recruiting tool. Her kids are all over social media dancing, laughing while blowing teams out by 50 points a night.

 

[CL82]

Until Sunday when they play a highly motivated LSU team....Also, Shea's OOC was pretty pathetic as well (worse than LSU's) so I expect a loss at home to LSU.

We shall see.

 

[MSGRET]

I just don't get that statement. So by only playing other top P4 teams would she grow the game? Have you seen the attendance figures that Kim has generated since arriving at LSU? I think playing many of the mid-majors and getting fans in the seats is just as important, if not more so than playing Stanford, UCLA or USC with only 3200 fans while her games garner 10,000

Until yesterday she had played only one team that may have a chance of getting into the tournament with not winning their conference tournament and that was Duke at #25. Every other team was rated by Massey between #132 to #355. There are only 363 teams in Div 1 basketball. Geno will play only one non conference game with a team ranked higher than #132 and that was Loyola-Chicago at #246 and that was only because they couldn't get anyone rated higher to play a filler game. UConn has played three conference games with teams rated worse than #132, Xavier at #171, DePaul at #205 and Providence at #136. They will play an additional three game against the same three teams, not counting the possibility of playing in the BE Tournament.

 

[cancontent]

We need Vandy to lose so that UConn covers everything east of the Mississippi River…. 😉

I'm trying to figure out how UConn gets only a portion of the thumb that makes up the mitten of Michigan.

 

[HuskyNan]

I'm trying to figure out how UConn gets only a portion of the thumb that makes up the mitten of Michigan.

I think the map show the parts of the country that are geographically closest to the school

 

[RockyMTblue2]

LSU was undefeated until yesterdays loss to KY.

Is there any follower of womens' basketball who doesn't know Mulkey believes running up the score on OOC weaklings is the best possible training regime?

 

[iri10]

I'm trying to figure out how UConn gets only a portion of the thumb that makes up the mitten of Michigan.

I think the map show the parts of the country that are geographically closest to the school

Yeah. If you notice, the tiny bit of UConn on the Michigan thumb is on a straight line with the rest of UConn's border with Vanderbilt.

Basically, imagine taking a globe and putting in pins on the exact geographic locations of the various undefeated schools. Then imagine measuring out distances from those pins - like with a rigid string tied to the pin and going around in a circle.

The boundaries between schools will happen at places where the distances are roughly equal for both schools. (where the strings extending out from the pins are the same length)

 

[DefenseBB]

Until yesterday she had played only one team that may have a chance of getting into the tournament with not winning their conference tournament and that was Duke at #25. Every other team was rated by Massey between #132 to #355. There are only 363 teams in Div 1 basketball. Geno will play only one non conference game with a team ranked higher than #132 and that was Loyola-Chicago at #246 and that was only because they couldn't get anyone rated higher to play a filler game. UConn has played three conference games with teams rated worse than #132, Xavier at #171, DePaul at #205 and Providence at #136. They will play an additional three game against the same three teams, not counting the possibility of playing in the BE Tournament.

Thanks for the note but I am well aware of the scheduling as you are that the BE is just not a very good conference and is propped up by UConn. Geno, by his willingness to play anyone, anywhere, was able to get the games on TV. When Kim was at Baylor, she did play Tennessee, Stanford and UConn (although not consistently).

As I said, she is from Louisiana and has added Tulane to her schedule with "home and home" games to help those programs get "marquee games" on their slate.

I just don't get your argument either on touting Geno's OOC as drastically helping grow the game. Geno has already created a "must watch" program, where people are rooting for or rooting against UConn and is why Barclay's Center and the HOF games keep including UConn. The attendance at those games is rather paltry compared to what Geno would get by having them at home (same teams but in Hartford (15,000+) or Gampel (10,000+) vs. the 5,000 he garners at those venues. That would mean more money to the UConn coffers.

TV enjoys the money for the UConn games, absolutely but would an LSU-Maryland game or a LSU-Louisville game create the same TV ratings?

The whole point is at 63 years old, Kim is who Kim is, and she has already contributed mightily to growing the game so to quibble how she prefers to prepare her team for conference play or the NCAAT is not worth the effort. After all, she has won 4 titles and really has nothing to prove to us or herself.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

I'm not a Kim Mulkey fan, but I can understand her approach after a conversation with one of her former player's parent. She allows her kids free time during the summer. They are not required to be on campus or participate in summer workouts. Most of them use that time to push their brands, etc...The easy schedule allows them to regroup, build confidence and preserve energy with less chance of injuries. She uses the preseason as a recruiting tool. Her kids are all over social media dancing, laughing while blowing teams out by 50 points a night.

Oh golly gee, I feel so much better about Mulkey now.