Why is our OOC schedule so weak this year?

[dogpause]

What was the thinking in scheduling this mess? And why are we the only top tier team at Atlantis?
And please don't tell me how good Harvard is, because they are still an Ivy League school with no basketball scholarships.

 

[BLUEDOGHOUSE]

You might be surprised to know there probably was a method to the madness. The scheduling process this year is prudent for a young team without a proven leader. I understand the counter argument so just my opinion of course per the usual. Harvard is in a unique situation this year where they have very good upperclassmen and an excellent recruiting class coming in.

http://www.columbiaspectator.com/20...sketball-recruiting-reigns-supreme-ivy-league

I think Harvard this year could be a #11 seed or higher. Still you are correct its not last years Maui. My guess is both Daniels and Drummond took a quick glance at the schedule and smiled when they saw they would be headed to the Bahamas.

 

[Bryan Lord]

OOC was made before AD and DD came over. Without those two late additions we wouldnt of been complaining about the weak schedule.

 

[Scot-e]

We thought we were going to be rebuilding after missing the NCAAs last year and losing Kemba. Opps.

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

Reigning, and 3-time, NCAA National Champions' privilege?

 

[61cygni]

Because if there was something to be learned from last year, it's that being undefeated OOC gives you a really good chance at winning the NC!

 

[Silk City]

Kevin Ollie wanted to continue his coaching streak of being undefeated in OOC games.

 

[Kitaman]

As a fan it suxs, but it is what it is. Maybe no one wanted to play us.

 

[arnie3]

I don't think we'll face Harvard, not with FSU in that bracket. Some blogs have FSU as #2 in the ACC behind Carolina. This is not a horrible schedule but adequate for the team prior to UConn picking up 2 top 10 recruits in the summer. Obviously this isn't the same depth of out of conference schedule as last year, but I think that both Arkansas and FSU will be tough outs.

 

[Ts5034]

The last two years ooc schedules have been crazy good. After playing Duke, Uk, Texas, and Tennessee over the last couple years its tough to match up to that.

 

[Dann]

1) we were planning on having a young team without dd/ad, only have 10 ship players was the thought as well and also we expected kemba to go asap
2) tenn wasn't expected to be bad
3) atlantis wont be that bad, we will play at least 1 bcs team prob(fsu/utah)
4) we should have gotten a better sec matchup in the challenge but we got ARK
5)some maui teams were expected to also goto atlantis like us but instead went elsewhere. atlantis will become maui east in time, we will lay claim to winning it the first real(expanded full size) year...btw good payout for us...

our ooc/rpi will be just fine this year. we shouldn't lose but we will play some top 50 teams. fsu/harvard will help the rpi. ark will be a .500+ team.

next year we will have the sec challenge, a tourney(maybe nit or is that 1 more year away on the 4 year rotation?), the game on a boat and i think we might pick back up a texas/michigan type game...

 

[hooskies]

and do we have any say in who goes to Atlantis?

 

[UCDaveD]

I think Ark will have a decent year. When all is said and done, I think that'd be a good W.

 

[nimzovich]

when you remove the luck of the draw in the preseason tournaments, i really dont see much difference in UConn's non-conference schedules from year-to-year..Calhoun has been pretty consistent in preparing his team for conference play....always 2 or 3 high quality opponents and 6 or 7 of lesser quality.......

take a look at 2009 and 2011, the last two UConn Final Four appearances. do you really see much difference between this year and those two years?
quality programs in red

UConn schedules without preseason tournaments:

2011-12
Arkansas, Columbia, Coppin State, Fairfield, Harvard, Holy Cross, Maine, Wagner, Tennessee

2010-11
Stony Brook, Vermont, New Hampshire, Md-Bal County, Fairleigh Dickinson, Coppin St, Harvard, Tennessee, Texas

2009-10
William & Mary, Harvard, Colgate, Kentucky, UCF, Maine, Iona, Michigan, Texas

2008-0009
Western Carolina, Hartford, Bryant, Delaware St, Buffalo, Stony Brook, Gonzaga, Fairfield, Michigan

2007-2008
Gardner-Webb, Florida A&M, Gonzaga, Northeastern, Quinnipiac, Maine, UCF, Ga Tech, Indiana

 

[HuskyBballFan]

I agree with the last 4-5 posts. The OOC strategy is almost always the same - a preseason tournament (3 games) and two other games against power conference schools. The Tennessee game looked great when it was scheduled and I'm not sure that Uconn has any say in who we draw in the BE/SEC challenge or the Atlantis tournament. This also happens to be an "off" year in the Texas series - I'm pretty sure they play one more home-and-home starting next year.

To me it's the Atlantis tournament that brings down the schedule. If there was one more good team there on our side of the bracket, the schedule wouldn't look nearly as soft.

 

[Waquoit]

I think we should always play at least one true road game before conference play. Gives the new guys a real taste of what this game can be about. In the past, young UConn teams have feasted on home cupcakes only to get whacked hard in their first Big East road game. USF was a tough out at home last year, could it be a trap game on the road?

 

[arnie3]

I think that we will struggle at the start of the conference season, not only because JC won't be there, but also because these games speed up, and we're still a very young team. Lots of turnovers and missed opportunities.

 

[dogpause]

when you remove the luck of the draw in the preseason tournaments, i really dont see much difference in UConn's non-conference schedules from year-to-year..Calhoun has been pretty consistent in preparing his team for conference play....always 2 or 3 high quality opponents and 6 or 7 of lesser quality.......

take a look at 2009 and 2011, the last two UConn Final Four appearances. do you really see much difference between this year and those two years?
quality programs in red

UConn schedules without preseason tournaments:

2011-12
Arkansas, Columbia, Coppin State, Fairfield, Harvard, Holy Cross, Maine, Wagner, Tennessee

2010-11
Stony Brook, Vermont, New Hampshire, Md-Bal County, Fairleigh Dickinson, Coppin St, Harvard, Tennessee, Texas

2009-10
William & Mary, Harvard, Colgate, Kentucky, UCF, Maine, Iona, Michigan, Texas

2008-0009
Western Carolina, Hartford, Bryant, Delaware St, Buffalo, Stony Brook, Gonzaga, Fairfield, Michigan

2007-2008
Gardner-Webb, Florida A&M, Gonzaga, Northeastern, Quinnipiac, Maine, UCF, Ga Tech, Indiana

Nice job. It does look better in context with past years. Maybe last year's Maui and OOC games tainted my thinking.

 

[HuskyFan16]

when you remove the luck of the draw in the preseason tournaments, i really dont see much difference in UConn's non-conference schedules from year-to-year..Calhoun has been pretty consistent in preparing his team for conference play....always 2 or 3 high quality opponents and 6 or 7 of lesser quality.......

Its not really luck of the draw when you know you are scheduling yourself in a tournament with good teams.

 

[MarieM]

Wow the Women's team have a more competitive OOC schedule

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

The women's team barely has a more competitive Final Four.