All Things Gophers Non-Confefence Schedule

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SelectionSunday

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3 games still TBD, likely all at Williams Arena.

GOPHERS (10)
Nov. 13: @ #60 Providence
Nov. 15: #256 NIAGARA
Nov. 19: #322 WESTERN CAROLINA Barclays Center Classic)
Date TBD: #351 ALABAMA A&M (Barclays Center Classic)
Nov. 24: vs. #157 Massachusetts (Barclays Center Classic)
Nov. 25: vs. #56 Alabama (Barclays Center Classic)
Nov. 29: #42 MIAMI
Dec. 9: @ #35 Arkansas
Dec. 23: #271 FAU
Dec. 29: #112 HARVARD
Opponents Average KenPom Rank (so far): 166.2
NCAA Qualifiers (3): Arkansas, Miami, Providence
 

Not exactly a schedule loaded with excitement in November and December, but the Bama/Miami/Arkansas stretch should at least give us an idea if this team is truly a Big Ten title contender.


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Harvard is usually tough. Not sure what they return next year though.
 

Providence, Miami, and Alabama could all be top 25 teams. This schedule will challenge us.
 

Please tell me Niagra will be much better this year. I hate those bottom feeder games for a lot of reasons.
 


I think Niagara and WCU are supposed to be quite a bit better. FAU and especially Alabama A&M likely to leave bloody stain. And UMass likely to stink worse.

Still 100% believe this schedule needs 1 or 2 more top 75ish oppnents. No reason we shouldn't be starting a home & home this season.
 

Pretty sure I don't need to play providence, Miami, and Alabama to figure out if I'm big ten contender. As of right now it's just a matter whether we don't have our heads up our asses or not. We have potential all day long. I don't need those games to figure it out. I won at Purdue and northwestern last year with same team. We have everyone back. If we lose all those games we are still big ten contender. I won't be happy but we can still roll in big ten.
 


We always Bitch about our non conference schedule. This is pretty solid no?
 




Pretty much better power 5 just needs the texas arlington, little rock kinda flare?
 

Agree with you selection. Maybe Missouri would do a home and home. Or step up and do Kansas.
 

Filling those last 3 spots

These teams haven't released nonconference schedule. 1 or 2 of these would suit me fine. Last year's KenPom rank in parentheses:

Wichita State (8)
SMU (11)
Saint Mary's (15)
Cincinnati (23)
TCU (29)
Rhode Island (34)
Nevada (54)
Vermont (63)
UCF (68)
Georgetown (69)
Auburn (82)
New Mexico State (84)
UConn (96)
Loyola Chicago (97)
Stanford (102)
Temple (118)
Missouri State (134)
Northern Kentucky (138)
South Dakota (143)
Missouri (156)
North Dakota (168)
Penn (171)
Saint Joseph's (183)
UAB (196)
UIC (238)
Oregon State (264)
 



Wouldn't mind both Dakota schools and Vermont all three of them could win their leagues and will have decent RPI
 

SelectionSunday said:
These teams haven't released nonconference schedule. 1 or 2 of these would suit me fine. Last year's KenPom rank in parentheses:

Wichita State (8)
SMU (11)
Saint Mary's (15)
Cincinnati (23)
TCU (29)
Rhode Island (34)
Nevada (54)
Vermont (63)
UCF (68)
Georgetown (69)
Auburn (82)
New Mexico State (84)
UConn (96)
Loyola Chicago (97)
Stanford (102)
Temple (118)
Missouri State (134)
Northern Kentucky (138)
South Dakota (143)
Missouri (156)
North Dakota (168)
Penn (171)
Saint Joseph's (183)
UAB (196)
UIC (238)
Oregon State (264)
Click to expand...

Scratch Stanford off this list. Gophers not on Cardinal schedule. Would have liked to see Reid Travis.
 

SelectionSunday said:
Scratch Stanford off this list. Gophers not on Cardinal schedule. Would have liked to see Reid Travis.
Click to expand...

I'm never in favor of rewarding a local recruit who spurned us with a game back in town. Nothing personal against Reid. But we shouldn't hand Stanford a recruiting chip either. For the record no games against Puke at the Barn in the Tre era either.
 

That stuff doesn't bother me. Adds a little extra pop to the game if it was a big-time recruit, and someone Gophers really went after, though I suspect in Tre's case the staff knew they had little to no chance.
 

SelectionSunday said:
That stuff doesn't bother me. Adds a little extra pop to the game if it was a big-time recruit, and someone Gophers really went after, though I suspect in Tre's case the staff knew they had little to no chance.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Gophers should put on their big boy shorts and play anyone, anywhere.
 

I'd be very interested with scheduling someone like Saint Mary's (CA).... they've had a very high RPI these last two years but tend to have weaker schedules (for example they lost to UT-A last year at home after we beat them by a pretty decent margin). Maybe we could steal a high RPI home and home?
 

Are we intentionally not scheduling the xDSUs and UxDs? From that group, we would most likely find a conference championship and auto bid recipient and maybe 2 until UND finishes up its Big Sky obligations. SDSU might have a draftable player on its roster. None of these schools is terribly sexy but more interesting than the Niagaras of the worlds.
 

Juxster said:
I'd be very interested with scheduling someone like Saint Mary's (CA).... they've had a very high RPI these last two years but tend to have weaker schedules (for example they lost to UT-A last year at home after we beat them by a pretty decent margin). Maybe we could steal a high RPI home and home?
Click to expand...

Saint Mary's, Nevada, and BYU are among the non-Power 6 programs I'd love to see Pitino schedule a home & home with, but Power 6 coaches are just too afraid to do that. Would be beneficial to both, and no shame in losing. But coaches want to save face more than anything.
 

Schedule...

"Saint Mary's, Nevada, and BYU are among the non-Power 6 programs I'd love to see Pitino schedule a home & home with, but Power 6 coaches are just too afraid to do that. Would be beneficial to both, and no shame in losing. But coaches want to save face more than anything."

+ too much money at stake in NCAA's for the U & many coaches get bonuses...
 

row19gopher said:
"Saint Mary's, Nevada, and BYU are among the non-Power 6 programs I'd love to see Pitino schedule a home & home with, but Power 6 coaches are just too afraid to do that. Would be beneficial to both, and no shame in losing. But coaches want to save face more than anything."

+ too much money at stake in NCAA's for the U & many coaches get bonuses...
Click to expand...

Pitino is a smart young guy. He's one of many coaches that has learned how to game the RPI/scheduling.
 


JimmyJamesMD said:
SS, would you say this year's non-conf schedule is setup to give us a solid RPI ?
Click to expand...

Let me process it a bit, and then I'll come back and give you my thoughts. Initial thought is this is a very mediocre schedule, certainly a lot worse than last year's. With (presumably) a better team, schedule should be tougher, not softer.
 

SelectionSunday said:
3 games still TBD, likely all at Williams Arena.

GOPHERS (10)
Nov. 13: @ #60 Providence
Nov. 15: #256 NIAGARA
Nov. 19: #322 WESTERN CAROLINA Barclays Center Classic)
Date TBD: #351 ALABAMA A&M (Barclays Center Classic)
Nov. 24: vs. #157 Massachusetts (Barclays Center Classic)
Nov. 25: vs. #56 Alabama (Barclays Center Classic)
Nov. 29: #42 MIAMI
Dec. 9: @ #35 Arkansas
Dec. 23: #271 FAU
Dec. 29: #112 HARVARD
Opponents Average KenPom Rank (so far): 166.2
NCAA Qualifiers (3): Arkansas, Miami, Providence
Click to expand...


As a season ticket holder it is very disappointing to see only 9 pre big ten games with only one game of any interest at all against Miami (not DUKE?). Then one of our home big ten games is played in New York. Very disappointing. I feel ripped off.
 

Non-Conference Schedule Thoughts

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The Good
(1) 2 true road games vs. quality opponents. Pitino got that right. Should play 2 true road games every season, not just once in a while.

(2) Alabama, Miami, and Providence all are good bets to make the NCAA Tournament. Arkansas and Harvard are maybes.

The Bad
(1) Did not start a home & home vs. a Power 6/notable opponent in a year where the overall and home schedules sorely needed one.

(2) The double whammy. Play an opponent (Alabama A&M) that not only was the worst team in Division I last year (#351 according to both KenPom and RPI), A&M also is ineligible for the NCAA Tournament. Pitino doesn't like bracketed tournaments, so this is the price he's gonna' pay sometimes. Gophers' 4 games as part of Barclay's Center Classic nets Gophers a grand total of one good opponent (Alabama), one that's rebuilding and going to stink (UMass), and two terrible ones (Alabama A&M, Western Carolina).

(3) Play only 4 opponents who finished in the top 100 of KenPom last year. That's inexcusable. In my opinion that number needs to be (at least) 6 every season. Last season Gophers were close with 5.

(4) This is basically a 5-game non-conference schedule. The 4 obvious ones + Harvard. The other 8 are automatic W's. simply window dressing.

Overall, disappointed in this schedule. Gophers (presumably) are going to be better this season, then why not upgrade the schedule from last season? This schedule a couple steps down from 2016-17, which was very solid.

11-2 should be the expectation. Certainly anything worse than that and the Gophers will have their work cut out for them heading into the B1G season.
 

Agreed that this is a disappointing non-conference schedule. Things started so positive when we initially heard about Providence and Miami (though I really wanted Duke), paired with Arkansas. Then the wheels fell off when we heard about Western Carolina and Alabama A&M, but like SS said above, that's the price you can pay when you refuse to play bracketed non-conference tournaments. These four team challenges, like the Barclays Classic, tend to have some pre-tournament bottom dwellers that teams are forced to play beforehand. And we got stuck with two big-time RPI-killing teams. The only thing to hang our hat on is every one of these teams should be better this year, except Arkansas will probably be about the same:

Nov. 13: @ #60 Providence
Nov. 25: vs. #56 Alabama (Barclays Center Classic)
Nov. 29: #42 MIAMI
Dec. 9: @ #35 Arkansas
Dec. 29: #112 HARVARD

I would expect all of those five teams to end the year in the top 100, and there's a shot that four could be in the top 50 (might only be three though). If Pitino can at least add one more top 100 team (a top 2017 projected mid-major team, for example, like UT-Arlington was in 2016), that would be six top 100 teams. Given the black marks of Western Carolina and Alabama A&M, it's not like six top 100 teams will make it a great schedule (statistically) by any means anymore, but it would still be solid, as viewed by the NCAA committee in March. Either way, I wish we would have challenged ourselves more. To be the best, you want to play the best.
 

SelectionSunday said:
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The Good
(1) 2 true road games vs. quality opponents. Pitino got that right. Should play 2 true road games every season, not just once in a while.

(2) Alabama, Miami, and Providence all are good bets to make the NCAA Tournament. Arkansas and Harvard are maybes.

The Bad
(1) Did not start a home & home vs. a Power 6/notable opponent in a year where the overall and home schedules sorely needed one.

(2) The double whammy. Play an opponent (Alabama A&M) that not only was the worst team in Division I last year (#351 according to both KenPom and RPI), A&M also is ineligible for the NCAA Tournament. Pitino doesn't like bracketed tournaments, so this is the price he's gonna' pay sometimes. Gophers' 4 games as part of Barclay's Center Classic nets Gophers a grand total of one good opponent (Alabama), one that's rebuilding and going to stink (UMass), and two terrible ones (Alabama A&M, Western Carolina).

(3) Play only 4 opponents who finished in the top 100 of KenPom last year. That's inexcusable. In my opinion that number needs to be (at least) 6 every season. Last season Gophers were close with 5.

(4) This is basically a 5-game non-conference schedule. The 4 obvious ones + Harvard. The other 8 are automatic W's. simply window dressing.

Overall, disappointed in this schedule. Gophers (presumably) are going to be better this season, then why not upgrade the schedule from last season? This schedule a couple steps down from 2016-17, which was very solid.

11-2 should be the expectation. Certainly anything worse than that and the Gophers will have their work cut out for them heading into the B1G season.
Click to expand...

Thanks SS. As always, youre the best
 

Alabama's top returning scorer Braxton Key tore his meniscus and will likely be out a month. 5* PG and projected lottery pick Collin Sexton is ineligible to play for Alabama. It sounds like the NCAA cleared him at first but now have reopened their investigation into his recruitment after the FBI stuff. That matchup's losing a bit of it's luster sadly. I thought it had the chance to be a bit of a shootout with Nate and Sexton going at it.
 

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