Weird thing is, when Cal first got here he was gREAt at understanding and exploiting this reality. How do you unlearn that?Unfortunately yet another year of Cal not understanding how to schedule.
Of the 358 NET ranked teams, Kentucky has played:
334. Robert Morris
307. Mount St. Mary's
86. Ohio
335. Albany
329. North Florida
345. Central Michigan
This is a pathetic display of planning. You could still be 6-1 by playing more "Ohio" opponents and be racking up the quadrant 3 (and maybe a quad 2) wins. Instead, we've basically played 5 scrimmages, in games that do absolutely nothing.
Our strength of schedule is in the 300s. All there is to it.I understand the issue with playing bad teams, but it's not we lost to any of them, or even came close to losing to them. I just don't see how the results warrants 39.
I understand the issue with playing bad teams, but it's not we lost to any of them, or even came close to losing to them. I just don't see how the results warrants 39.
Because LSU has played a much better level of mid major competition than we have.True, but then why is LSU at 2? Best team they've played is Wake Forest, best team we've played is Duke. Both played Ohio, and we beat them by more.
The games against teams in the 300s were scheduled by design.
i’m willing to at least wait to see how it plays out. if we run through and dominate the sec and get a 1 seed it would be really hard to complain.I also think if we weren’t coming off worst season in history of basketball, it’d be a bit more jarring. But whether designed or not, think Calipari welcomed opportunity to build some confidence against cupcakes. And I’m good with that.
So they are 2nd purely on the basis of avoiding bad teams instead of scheduling really good ones.
People talk about gaming the system and that's a good example right there.
Cal is starting to schedule more like Tubby, where he invites friends and family rather than worrying about the actual schedule strength.Unfortunately yet another year of Cal not understanding how to schedule.
Of the 358 NET ranked teams, Kentucky has played:
334. Robert Morris
307. Mount St. Mary's
86. Ohio
335. Albany
329. North Florida
345. Central Michigan
This is a pathetic display of planning. You could still be 6-1 by playing more "Ohio" opponents and be racking up the quadrant 3 (and maybe a quad 2) wins. Instead, we've basically played 5 scrimmages, in games that do absolutely nothing.
Well, you know, we could easily “game the system” in the same way, but Cal chooses not to.
Ohio was a good non-con opponent for us. A middle of the pack team that is good enough to provide us with a legit challenge (and help our NET), but still bad enough to ensure that we’ll almost certainly win the game if played on our home court. We should schedule more opponents like Ohio.
But, instead, Cal usually prefers scraping from the very bottom of the barrel. Those bottom-tier opponents ranked in the 300s are basically just worthless toxic assets when your NET score is calculated.
Unfortunately yet another year of Cal not understanding how to schedule.
Of the 358 NET ranked teams, Kentucky has played:
334. Robert Morris
307. Mount St. Mary's
86. Ohio
335. Albany
329. North Florida
345. Central Michigan
This is a pathetic display of planning. You could still be 6-1 by playing more "Ohio" opponents and be racking up the quadrant 3 (and maybe a quad 2) wins. Instead, we've basically played 5 scrimmages, in games that do absolutely nothing.
ExactlyIn typical fashion everyone over reacts, and acts like everyone lines up top 25 teams EVERY SINGLE night, which is not the case...here are few of their NON league schedules
UK: 5 games
Duke(N)
Kansas(A)
ND(A)
Ohio State(N)
Louisville(H)
Duke: 3 games
UK(N)
Ohio State(A)
Gonzaga(N)
UCLA: 4 games
Villanova(H)
Gonzaga(N)
UNC(N)
Marquette
Gonzaga: 6 games
UCLA(N)
Duke(N)
Texas(H)
Bama(N)
Washington(H)
Texas Tech(N)
But if your Gonzaga, why wouldnt you schedule 6 like that knowing that you will almost 100% not face a ranked team the rest of the conference season other than BYU
Gonzaga only non conference true road game is at Washington
I just dont get the over reaction, we just havent played the toughest part of our schedule, and minus a few years its very similar, give or take a couple games, to what you will see form most all power 5 schools.
And this isnt the same SEC of 10+ years ago...lots of really good, competitive teams
Cal is startng to schedule more like Tubby, where he invites friends and family rather than worrying about the actual schedule strength.
To be honest, this is largely the NCAA's fault. They really shouldn't be publishing their results until around late January to early February. In fact I don't believe anyone should try to rank teams until at least the non-conference portion of games is complete.In typical fashion everyone over reacts, and acts like everyone lines up top 25 teams EVERY SINGLE night, which is not the case...here are few of their NON league schedules
....
I just dont get the over reaction, we just havent played the toughest part of our schedule, and minus a few years its very similar, give or take a couple games, to what you will see form most all power 5 schools.
And this isnt the same SEC of 10+ years ago...lots of really good, competitive teams
It does make me wonder how prepared we really are to now face good competition.We will see soon enough.
Because teams rated under 100 and 150 factor huge in these rankings. We don’t need to play a stacked schedule but we don’t need to play the 300 ranked teams either.True, but then why is LSU at 2? Best team they've played is Wake Forest, best team we've played is Duke. Both played Ohio, and we beat them by more.
Tubby actually had pretty tough OOC schedules every year. Had IU and UNC to contend with, and almost always played ND, who was usually ranked.Cal is starting to schedule more like Tubby, where he invites friends and family rather than worrying about the actual schedule strength.
Tubby actually had pretty tough OOC schedules every year. Had IU and UNC to contend with, and almost always played ND, who was usually ranked.
We're playing Southern because Sean Woods is the coach I thought?The other note is the teams that we schedule down at the bottom usually have some kind of connection.
We are playing Southern because of that agreement with the SWAC.
We played Central Michigan cause of Tony Barbee
We are playing High Point because of Tubby.
These games should no doubt but limited but I get some of them.
Because, you're looking at it from the wrong perspective. People aren't complaining because we aren't playing Kansas every night.In typical fashion everyone over reacts, and acts like everyone lines up top 25 teams EVERY SINGLE night, which is not the case...here are few of their NON league schedules
UK: 5 games
Duke(N)
Kansas(A)
ND(A)
Ohio State(N)
Louisville(H)
Duke: 3 games
UK(N)
Ohio State(A)
Gonzaga(N)
UCLA: 4 games
Villanova(H)
Gonzaga(N)
UNC(N)
Marquette
Gonzaga: 6 games
UCLA(N)
Duke(N)
Texas(H)
Bama(N)
Washington(H)
Texas Tech(N)
But if your Gonzaga, why wouldnt you schedule 6 like that knowing that you will almost 100% not face a ranked team the rest of the conference season other than BYU
Gonzaga only non conference true road game is at Washington
I just dont get the over reaction, we just havent played the toughest part of our schedule, and minus a few years its very similar, give or take a couple games, to what you will see form most all power 5 schools.
And this isnt the same SEC of 10+ years ago...lots of really good, competitive teams
This is absolutely the truth and people wonder why Rupp has empty seatsCal is starting to schedule more like Tubby, where he invites friends and family rather than worrying about the actual schedule strength.
5-0 v Quad 4!!!!!!
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College attendance is down across the country. But I guess we’re supposed to be immune to a sports wide problem.I went to a Creighton game last week. Arena seats 19,000 people in downtown Omaha. Creighton is in Big East. They played NDSU. Maybe 9k in attendance. Made a Kentucky Tuesday night game vs Directional State feel like Mardi Gras.
first world problem I guess
They don’t even need to be P5 schools, just schedule a higher level of mid-major.Yes, I get not every P5 school is going to sign up to play a home and home with us, but I bet there are more than enough that would that we could sprinkle a couple in there.
You have over 17,000 post and for some reason I feel like 12,000 of them is to grip about the schedule. Maybe you should talk to Cal and see if he will put you on staff just to figure out which cupcakes to play.Missed opportunities in meaningless cupcake games where the difference in a few points could be the difference in a seed line or a tournament location?
I agree with all you have said and agree with others that the NET is flawed.
But I can't see how anyone can dispute that UK has yet to actually exploit it, like I'm sure other programs are.
Why?
Exactly. Go get UCF. We played Seton Hall recently (and lost but I digress)They don’t even need to be P5 schools, just schedule a higher level of mid-major.
And I know there’s no way to know for sure how good a team is gonna be, but there certainly are indicators that give s pretty damn good idea. For example, when you schedule a MAC team (like Ohio), its an extremely good bet that team will provide a better opponent than a team like UNF that’s only been division 1 for a few years.
Far too many of our opponents in recent years have been cases where it was exceedingly obvious that we were trying to scrape from the bottom of the D1 barrel when we scheduled them.
This would be a fantastic point... if the season ended in December.
If Kentucky is good enough, we will be top 5 or 10 regardless of schedule. NET Rankings in December worthless. They literally provide no new insight to what we already know.
It’s not great. Three of the games are tied to Cal or a Kentucky native. So that can’t be helped. The others could definitely be swapped up a bit.Exactly. Go get UCF. We played Seton Hall recently (and lost but I digress)
I just don't get why people defend a poor schedule. The schedule is bad and it deserves to be called out.
Yeah no one is complaining about hooking up Barbee or Woods, or obviously bringing Tubby back. That's why you sprinkle those games into a decent schedule not build your entire schedule around them. Albany and North Florida? WhyIt’s not great. Three of the games are tied to Cal or a Kentucky native. So that can’t be helped. The others could definitely be swapped up a bit.
And again I think it was more of a knee jerk reaction to how tough last years was. I think next year the schedule will look a lot better. Or at least it should.
North Florida has a kid from Kentucky. And they called asking if they could come play a game in Rupp for his sake.Yeah no one is complaining about hooking up Barbee or Woods, or obviously bringing Tubby back. That's why you sprinkle those games into a decent schedule not build your entire schedule around them. Albany and North Florida? Why
LOL! This can't be true can it? And for Cal to take a call from North Florida and agree to schedule them because "they have a kid from Kentucky"? LOL! No way.North Florida has a kid from Kentucky. And they called asking if they could come play a game in Rupp for his sake.
Cal of course said yes. Just good sportsmanship.
We'll see what our Strength of Schedule turns out to be when it's all said and done. I think it's going to be worse than you suspect.The thing is.........it's not really a poor schedule. Once all of our non conference games are played, the non conference schedule is actually fairly good.
UK just plays a very what I call "top heavy" schedule. We either play top teams or bottom dwellers. There's not much in the way of teams ranked 100-200 say.
Having said this and despite LSU's NET ranking, I'd much rather ours than theirs TBH. And I think most people here would as well even the ones that gripe about ours.