All Things Gophers Non-Confefence Schedule

[SelectionSunday]

Alabama's top returning scorer Braxton Key tore his meniscus and will likely be out 3 months. 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.

If Alabama is without those 2 guys, in terms of resume it's very likely Gophers will get very little out of the Barclays Center Classic. Exempt events are supposed to be where teams get a lot of their non-conference SOS pop.

Western Carolina
Alabama A&M
UMass
Alabama (possibly without its 2 best players)

That's why you schedule/plan for 6 or 7 good opponents.

 

[Winasota Gopher]

Alabama's top returning scorer Braxton Key tore his meniscus and will likely be out 3 months. 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.

I read yesterday that Providence isn't looking so hot with 2 injuries that will affect them for our game against them. They lost their scrimmage (could mean 1000 things other than they suck) to Carelton....

 

[WanderingGopher]

I read yesterday that Providence isn't looking so hot with 2 injuries that will affect them for our game against them. They lost their scrimmage (could mean 1000 things other than they suck) to Carelton....

They did beat UConn soundly in a scrimmage. Also, “carleton” isn’t the mn School, it’s a Canadian college that has beaten a lot of US D1 teams.

I know Holt is injured. Who’s the second one?

 

[WanderingGopher]

If Alabama is without those 2 guys, in terms of resume it's very likely Gophers will get very little out of the Barclays Center Classic. Exempt events are supposed to be where teams get a lot of their non-conference SOS pop.

Western Carolina
Alabama A&M
UMass
Alabama (possibly without its 2 best players)

That's why you schedule/plan for 6 or 7 good opponents.

Yeah but if Alabama gets those guys back later and has a good conference season, nobody is going to have an asterisk by our win, come March. It’ll still help our numbers.

 

[Holy Man]

If Alabama is without those 2 guys, in terms of resume it's very likely Gophers will get very little out of the Barclays Center Classic. Exempt events are supposed to be where teams get a lot of their non-conference SOS pop.

Western Carolina
Alabama A&M
UMass
Alabama (possibly without its 2 best players)

That's why you schedule/plan for 6 or 7 good opponents.

For a good team, we have a bad NC schedule. Generally, I am okay with the top of the schedule (Providence, Miami, even Alabama-rub of the green on player issues-out of our control). It's the bottom that's brutal and will haunt at seeding time in March. Unless some of these on paper terrible teams are much better than expected, I just don't get scheduling so many 200+ teams. I suspect part of the strategy was the early conference start, but it still is brutal.

 

[Winasota Gopher]

They did beat UConn soundly in a scrimmage. Also, “carleton” isn’t the mn School, it’s a Canadian college that has beaten a lot of US D1 teams.

I know Holt is injured. Who’s the second one?

Thanks for the spelling correction, yes I'm aware that isn't a complete no name team. It's just losing a scrimmage to a non-power 5 can/could be concerning.

I read Jalen Lindsey is having knee issues that will probably clear up, but unlikely by the time we play them per this write-up.

https://www.bigeastcoastbias.com/2017/11/3/16599484/providence-friars-2017-18-season-preview-ed-cooley-kyron-cartwright-bullock-lindsey-holt-makai-alpha

 

[tmvander]

Personally I'm ok with Providence or Alabama a little banged up when we play them. They likely will still be nice SOS teams by the end of the year and with the rest of our non conference we can't afford any losses to the big teams we play. Sure we lose out on some high end competition etc. but we'll get that when the Big Ten season starts.

 

[gopherguy15]

They did beat UConn soundly in a scrimmage. Also, “carleton” isn’t the mn School, it’s a Canadian college that has beaten a lot of US D1 teams.

I know Holt is injured. Who’s the second one?

I heard they were banged up and were short-handed against Carleton. Not to mention it came right after beating UConn, and I read a report that the team looked uninterested all game. I'm sure they'll be fired up when we come to town...

 

[Livingat45north]

Alabama's top returning scorer Braxton Key tore his meniscus and will likely be out 3 months. 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.

From AL.com in September:
Here’s how Sexton connects to the FBI case, briefly. According to an FBI complaint that was released Tuesday, someone referred to as "Staff Member 1," whom Alabama later found out was [former Tide basketball administrator Kobie] Baker, took money from a financial advisor in return for trying to help push players toward signing with that financial advisor. He was also part of a dinner with a player's father, that agent and Rashan Michel, who was arrested Tuesday.

While the player's father wasn't named, he was identified as being the father of a highly-ranked incoming player at Staff Member 1's school and the dinner took place in Atlanta on or around Aug. 31. Sexton is from the Atlanta area.

 

[gopherguy15]

From AL.com in September:
Here’s how Sexton connects to the FBI case, briefly. According to an FBI complaint that was released Tuesday, someone referred to as "Staff Member 1," whom Alabama later found out was [former Tide basketball administrator Kobie] Baker, took money from a financial advisor in return for trying to help push players toward signing with that financial advisor. He was also part of a dinner with a player's father, that agent and Rashan Michel, who was arrested Tuesday.

While the player's father wasn't named, he was identified as being the father of a highly-ranked incoming player at Staff Member 1's school and the dinner took place in Atlanta on or around Aug. 31. Sexton is from the Atlanta area.

I thought I heard that he's temporarily ineligible. It wasn't one of those deals where they say he's been ruled out for the entire semester or year. Regardless, if all of that ends up being true about Sexton and his father, Collin can kiss his college career goodbye. It was widely figured that he'd enter the draft after this year anyways. What an awful last week for Alabama basketball fans...

 

[Holy Man]

I thought I heard that he's temporarily ineligible. It wasn't one of those deals where they say he's been ruled out for the entire semester or year. Regardless, if all of that ends up being true about Sexton and his father, Collin can kiss his college career goodbye. It was widely figured that he'd enter the draft after this year anyways. What an awful last week for Alabama basketball fans...

Kind of Minnesota like, don't you think?

From what I read last night, Alabama is holding out the freshman "out of an abundance of caution" which usually means they think he'll be back. Unfortunately for Alabama, the Feds don't move quickly for anyone and they could care less about basketball schedules. If it is possible the player could be implicated, it may be a while before he sees the floor, if ever.

 

[SelectionSunday]

A stab at Gophers' opponents, most to least difficult games

1 @ Providence
2 MIAMI
3 @ Arkansas
4 vs. Alabama (assumes Tide will be without at least 1 of their studs)
5 HARVARD
6 NIAGARA
7 FAU
8 vs. UMass
9 WESTERN CAROLINA
10 DRAKE
11 SC UPSTATE
12 ORAL ROBERTS
13 ALABAMA A&M

 

[Golden_Sloth]

Kind of Minnesota like, don't you think?

From what I read last night, Alabama is holding out the freshman "out of an abundance of caution" which usually means they think he'll be back. Unfortunately for Alabama, the Feds don't move quickly for anyone and they could care less about basketball schedules. If it is possible the player could be implicated, it may be a while before he sees the floor, if ever.

I think they could have played him because it was an exhibition game, and held him out as to not ruffle any feathers. He is currently ineligible to play per the NCAA. Alabama is trying to get him reinstated but it hasn't happened yet. It could stretch on for a day, a week, a month, or the whole year.

 

[DLguy]

SS, curious as to why you put Providence above Miami. Is this just based on location? Or is Providence better than Miami? I'll hang up and listen.

 

[SelectionSunday]

SS, curious as to why you put Providence above Miami. Is this just based on location? Or is Providence better than Miami? I'll hang up and listen.

A notch below Miami (maybe), but location plays a big part.

 

[60's Guy]

Schedule

1 @ Providence
2 MIAMI
3 @ Arkansas
4 vs. Alabama (assumes Tide will be without at least 1 of their studs)
5 HARVARD
6 NIAGARA
7 FAU
8 vs. UMass
9 WESTERN CAROLINA
10 DRAKE
11 SC UPSTATE
12 ORAL ROBERTS
13 ALABAMA A&M

I like how our schedule has been set up so far. The spacing and the activities. We had the secret scrimmage, the intra squad scrimmage open to the public, the exhibition versus Concordia St Paul, and the change of venue...a little bit of hype, a little bit of charity,...exhibition versus Green Bay. I think that has been a great foundation to get guys comfortable and engaged! To assess some weaknesses or concerns etc. And am I spacing out...was there one more event in there too?

It'd be nice if the Barclay's Center matchups were different...I think that's what killed us. Make those competitive and maybe add one other top 100 team and we'd be looking good. Probably got ambushed on the Barclay's thing and the unknown of the Big Ten matchups in December I'm sure made scheduling difficult. If we played Michigan State in December then our schedule has a bit of a different feel.

 

[GopherNuts]

Alabama just announced that Sexton will be suspended just one game and then will be cleared to play. Still without Braxton Key who is a huge loss but that matchup definitely gets a bump after this news.

 

[gopherguy15]

Niagara won at St Boni tonight. St Boni was predicted by many to be in the mix for a possible NCAA berth out of the A10. The Gophers play Niagara next Wednesday...

 

[rickyupchurch]

For what it is worth, Arkansas plays Bucknell today at 5:00 on the SEC Network.