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.