Rutgers will host Merrimack next year
- Thread starter WPUknight
- Start date
If we beat them we can play Monitor the next year. Sounds a little dangerous schedule wise since we're having some success.
...look who was paying attention in History class.
They'll help our strength of schedule component because they still use RPI to determine that.
Bad bad move. This is a very good program. Nothing good can come of this. We want a tougher schedule vs power conference schools not playing dangerous top low majors at home who come in like its their Super Bowl
Inexplicable
Inexplicable
Hopefully we're not under water when they play us as they may sneak up on us.
Nah, I think this will be an "Ironclad" win!
Maybe we’re having trouble getting teams to play us @ THE RAC?!
So you win the game. Period. Should be NO “wtf” losses with this group next season anyway, right?
Heard we may replace them with Virginia.
Their top 3 scorers this year were seniors. Game shouldn’t be an issue
its not that I worried about losing to Merrimack, its the risk/reward aspect which comes of these games, there is really no benefit to our schedule in general, they will be good but they were 19-11 with a net of 216 this year, unless they finish in the top 160 which is pretty questionable its a Q4 game, I would just as well schedule a bad low major. Im only saying this because I see them as an up and coming program that is hungry, lot of success at the lower level. There is no upside in beating them but alot of downside
Like to see us challenge ourselves by going outside the RAC. We go to UMass and not a big fan of this series because Umass was just a Q3 win at home this year but at least there is a decent shot it might qualify as a Q2 on the road . Would like to see this program challenge itself in a 4 or 8 team tourney where it can pick up a neutral win of quality. Of course it would help if we knew Gavitt/ACC games in advance which sort of hamstrings us
Saw headline and 1st thing was going to post that BAC is worried.....ha ha ha.
in fairness I am being overly dramatic...i mean my initial reaction was an overreaction IMO
I agree entirely with BAC. If you schedule low major at home let them be in bottom of their league. Merrimack will not sell tickets, if we win so what and a problem if we lose. Why make life harder than it needs to b. At least schedule a traditional local rival like Princeton or Rider if you want to play a low major. Why not Rider at Trenton arena to get a road win. That would be smarter.
Merrimack by itself is not bad... but we can't play Merrimack AND Fairleigh Dickinson AND Bryant AND NJIT.
Going into last year our schedule was:
6 sub-200 cupcakes (Caldwell, Bryant, Niagara, Drexel, SFA, Lafayette)
3 fine-ish mid-majors (NJIT, UMass, St. Bonaventure)
2 contactually-obligated high-majors (SHU and Pitt)
Interestingly NJIT and SFA basically swapped places, NJIT was far worse and SFA far better than expected.
This year we need to improve the ratio. I'd like to see something like:
3 sub-200 cupcakes (Merrimack and two others)
4 fine-ish mid-majors (@UMass and three others)
4 high-majors (SHU, ACC game, Big East game, and one more)
Going into last year our schedule was:
6 sub-200 cupcakes (Caldwell, Bryant, Niagara, Drexel, SFA, Lafayette)
3 fine-ish mid-majors (NJIT, UMass, St. Bonaventure)
2 contactually-obligated high-majors (SHU and Pitt)
Interestingly NJIT and SFA basically swapped places, NJIT was far worse and SFA far better than expected.
This year we need to improve the ratio. I'd like to see something like:
3 sub-200 cupcakes (Merrimack and two others)
4 fine-ish mid-majors (@UMass and three others)
4 high-majors (SHU, ACC game, Big East game, and one more)
we lucked out with SFA somewhat
again we sort of get hamstrung by what they decide to give us in those BE and ACC games, those games should be announced a year in advance.
if they give us Wake and De Paul, we say why didnt we schedule better, if they give us NCsSt and Nova we are happy...tough to schedule if you dont know who those opponents are...however for me, I am always of the mind you schedule a tough OOC....must get a road game in somewhere and we are at SHU and UMass so it doesnt look like its going to happen this year
again we sort of get hamstrung by what they decide to give us in those BE and ACC games, those games should be announced a year in advance.
if they give us Wake and De Paul, we say why didnt we schedule better, if they give us NCsSt and Nova we are happy...tough to schedule if you dont know who those opponents are...however for me, I am always of the mind you schedule a tough OOC....must get a road game in somewhere and we are at SHU and UMass so it doesnt look like its going to happen this year
Is our Michigan State game at MSG? Neutral site game against top program in lieu of a home game.
We have to start being invited to these pre season tourneys. That is part of the problem as it is by invitation. Hobbs and Pike have to start pushing for it as well as The Jimmy V Classic that if were good forever should have us as the anchor every year.
Pay attention to Colonel Rutgers here in this thread, we will not have to worry about OOC or overall schedule strength.
Fans are forgetting how the system works....if you are starting in the Top 30 or 20 range, the voting public will keep those teams in those ranges most of the year. There really wasn't anything different from RUs overall resume vs a dozen other schools this past season, other than perception and lack of exposure for RU.
Winning the games we did was still looked at skeptically for 4 months, while other schools who were perceived to be good, suffered losses and rarely saw their ratings or rankings changed.
RU will be more than fine in 2020-21 from a schedule perspective.
Fans are forgetting how the system works....if you are starting in the Top 30 or 20 range, the voting public will keep those teams in those ranges most of the year. There really wasn't anything different from RUs overall resume vs a dozen other schools this past season, other than perception and lack of exposure for RU.
Winning the games we did was still looked at skeptically for 4 months, while other schools who were perceived to be good, suffered losses and rarely saw their ratings or rankings changed.
RU will be more than fine in 2020-21 from a schedule perspective.
the strength of schedule isnt determined by top 25 rankings, its determined by the rpi....RU did solid in the overall sos 48 but its non conference sos was 101 which is passable but could be better
The NET is the most important thing out there and how it sorts as is the sos which seems to be rpi generated
there is absolutely no reason with tournaments held in Prudential, Barclays and MSG that RU cannot somehow find their way into these games going forward, might be too late for next year but it would be criminal if 2021-2022 we did not take part
Agreed but again I do not know absolutely. Is it too late to be invited to the pre season tourneys starting in November or December ? If it is, then like I said Hobbs and Pike have to push for the following year.
At some point we have to say screw what we have/supposed to do. I want there to be games where we can have new players play through mistakes. If it hurts our NET in the short term it could help us in the long term when we end up beating a B1G school in game 18 because a freshman stepped up when an upset class man had a bad day.
Actually, don't pay attention to me. The ironclad known as "Merrimack" by most that clashed with the Union's "Monitor" was renamed the U.S.S. Virginia by the Confederate Navy during the Civil War. I was going deep history there.
No kidding. We have to start acting like we belong with the better teams , get more national exposure and challenge ourselves. We won't be able to say we are young again next year and as far as I'm concerned, we're already an NCAA tournament team. All the good B1G teams were in early season tournaments this past year.
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