Basketball Scheduling

[dawgatUSM]

Will Howlands name help us schedule better? It's always been a struggle to get good nonconference games for us for some reason. I wouldn't mind seeing us reaching out to some of these catholic schools and A10 schools and then have an ACC game or two for RPI purposes.

 

[msstate7]

I wanna see us play teams like uab, la tech, Tulane, memphis, Georgia state, etc. Teams we should beat, but help with Rpi even if we lose.

I definetely wanna get memphis and Georgia tech on schedule. I wanna recruit memphis and Atlanta

 

[ShrubDog]

There may be some matchups with some PAC 12 teams in the future. Once we get established I think coach would like to go back and play some of those teams again.

 

[Hammer Down]

I do not see where it hurts us to schedule harder, since all the committees look at is RPI. Baseball too. In general records are meaningless, save for the once per century Indiana or Kentucky. I suppose this is as good way to judge as any, and encourages better matchups.

 

[MSUDC11]

I may be wrong, but I believe we have the second games of our home and homes against FSU and Oregon State next season.

We should be hosting OSU and traveling to Tallahassee.

There's also the SEC/Big 12 challenge, which I'm guessing we will rotate back into this year. And we will surely be in an early season tournament somewhere against pretty decent teams.

Ray was supposedly in the process of really improving our nonconference schedule, so there may be more quality opponents that we don't know about yet.

 

[patdog]

I think we've seen the results of the SEC's policy requiring teams to beef up their OOC basketball schedules in the NCAA tournament bids this year. The SEC got 5 teams into the tournament, most since 2011. And yeah, we need to avoid all the 200+ RPI games in baseball too. Those are killers.

 

[DawgatAuburn]

I feel like I'm in a time warp. Two coaches ago, scheduling was one of my main complaints. Ditch the SWAC teams I said. Fine some stronger teams to play even if it means going 2 for 1, I said. "D@A wants our schedule to be at Duke, at UConn, and at Kansas every year" is what was hurled back at me. No, I said. But we can do better than we're doing now, I said, by scheduling smaller teams from the northeast that aren't complete RPI killers and getting games with the lower parts of the major conferences. But the only times we ever tried were when we thought we were going to be really good. "We'd rather watch us beat Nobody Tech in the Hump than potentially lose to a better team on national television" was one school of thought. Well, what we were doing wasn't working in the long run, the long run being postseason readiness. Now perhaps we'll have a different (better) philosophy. Test yourselves enough in the OOC so that when you make the postseason you are more prepared to play those types of games. Hopefully Coach Howland won't duck anyone for fear of losing. Hopefully he realizes that RPI/SOS/road wins are a better formula for success that padding your stats at home against weak competition.

 

[dawgatUSM]

I can't speak for others on this board but I have always been in that camp for basketball purposes. RPI is such a huge factor in basketball and that's why it's important.

 

[philduckworth]

you need to schedule for the NCAAT every year. Get the RPI killers off the schedule.

 

[tenureplan]

We need to play more true road games as well

There's no point in going to LA and playing UCLA on a "neutral court"

 

[patdog]

For some reason, a lot of people seem to have some mental block that prevents them from understanding there are only 2 possible OOC schedules. One comprised entirely of teams with RPIs in the 200s and the other comprised entirely of teams with top 30 RPIs. For some reason teams ranked #31 - #199 aren't available for us to schedule.

 

[MabenMaroon]

It is funny how a few years back towards the enf of the Stansbury regime, we were complaining that the match-up and win over UCLA in the Pete Newell Classic ( I believe ) didn't help our RPI that year. I distinctly remember folks saying something to the effect of " who knew that UCLA would suck that year ". Was that a Ben Howland coached Bruin team?

 

[DawgatAuburn]

Yes, and outside of his first season, it was his worst team.

 

[patdog]

Yes it was. He also coached against us when he was at Pitt. He's seen what MSU basketball can be, and I think that had to have played a part in him wanting to take this job.

 

[KurtRambis4]

So what you're saying

is that there's a bunch of dubmasses here...

 

[ArcherSPS]

We're playing in the 2015 Puerto Rico Tip Off. Teams in it are (RPI): Utah #20, Butler #31, Temple #34, the U #65, Minnesota #98 Montana #145, and Texas Tech #184.

 

[MSUDC11]

We're playing in the 2015 Puerto Rico Tip Off. Teams in it are (RPI): Utah #20, Butler #31, Temple #34, the U #65, Minnesota #98 Montana #145, and Texas Tech #184.

Missed that somehow. That's huge. You're guaranteed three games and at least two of them should be against decent teams.

I like this. It's a much better tournament than Las Vegas or Corpus Christi, which is where we've gone the last two years while playing (and losing to) bad teams.

 

[Seinfeld]

I've never understood why there hasn't been more effort to get Memphis on the schedule. I may be a little biased since my wife went there and I live in the area, but it just seems like a no brainer to me. Playing at the FedEx Forum would be a great little weekend trip for our fans.

That said, it's funny how there has seemed to be a brick wall between the two states for many years as it relates to basketball recruiting. Both MSU and OM have rarely gotten any of the better players out of Memphis and even Cal pretty much never got kids out of Mississippi.

 

[NewTweederEndzoneDance]

We're playing in the 2015 Puerto Rico Tip Off. Teams in it are (RPI): Utah #20, Butler #31, Temple #34, the U #65, Minnesota #98 Montana #145, and Texas Tech #184.

Playing those teams and then mixing in some actual road games against teams like UAB, Memphis, La Tech, Tulane, etc... that aren't big travel venues and that help with RPI, both as a road game and against quality to quasi-quality opponents, would be a good start to helping ensure our RPI is where it needs to be. Getting the games against RPI 200+ off the schedule is another thing that we need to do.

 

[Maroonthirteen]

I've never understood why there hasn't been more effort to get Memphis on the schedule. I may be a little biased since my wife went there and I live in thers.

You should know then. That there is zero interest from Memphis to play SEC schools. Cal put it in their head that they are above the SEC.. Even prior to Cal, they viewed themselves as superior to the SEC. Even with the local fan interest in UT and OM, they scheduled OM and UT rarely prior to Cal. Sorry but MSU basketball isn't anywhere on the radar of interesting opponents for Memphis and their fans. Even though you a right, it would be a big game to our handful of fans up here.

 

[patdog]

Memphis refusal to play us in basketball goes a lot further back than Calipari. It goes at least as far back as Dana Kirk, and maybe even further.

 

[msstate7]

You should know then. That there is zero interest from Memphis to play SEC schools. Cal put it in their head that they are above the SEC.. Even prior to Cal, they viewed themselves as superior to the SEC. Even with the local fan interest in UT and OM, they scheduled OM and UT rarely prior to Cal. Sorry but MSU basketball isn't anywhere on the radar of interesting opponents for Memphis and their fans. Even though you a right, it would be a big game to our handful of fans up here.

Ironic that cal left to coach an sec team

 

[Drebin]

Ironic that cal left to coach an sec team

Calipari left to coach Kentucky. Big difference.

Like it or not, our basketball program is not at the level of Memphis. It could definitely become that, but we don't have their history or success. All the way back to the 70s and 80s, they played in basketball-rich conferences like the Metro, the Great Midwest, and at one time C-USA before everyone bailed.

They recruit better, they have better facilities, and they have a richer booster network. It is what it is. They just happen to have a really ****** head coach right now.