Gophers Announce 2013 Non-Conference Basketball Schedule

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Gophers Announce 2013 Non-Conference Basketball Schedule
The University of Minnesota men's basketball program announced its 2013 non-conference schedule today. The schedule includes 13 games, nine of which will be played at Williams Arena. The entire 2013-14 schedule with game times and television rights will be released by the Big Ten Conference at a later date.

The Golden Gophers open the regular season with four of their first five games at Williams Arena, including the season-opening tilt against Lehigh University on Fri., Nov. 8. Minnesota will leave the friendly confines of “The Barn” for four games during the non-conference season, beginning with a trip to Richmond, Va. to finish the home-and-home series. The Gophers defeated Richmond 72-57 last season in Minneapolis.

Minnesota will play three games in Maui at the Lahaina Civic Center as part of the 2013 EA SPORTS Maui Invitational Nov. 25-27. The Gophers open play on Nov. 25 against Syracuse University on ESPN2 and will play either the University of Arkansas or the University of California in the second round. The remaining field includes Baylor, Dayton, Gonzaga and Chaminade.

The entire EA SPORTS Maui Invitational will be televised live on the ESPN family of networks. Games will also be broadcast live on the WatchESPN mobile app and WatchESPN.com.

The Maroon and Gold's season officially begins on Fri., Nov. 1, in an exhibition matchup with the Wolves from Cardinal Stritch University, the reigning NAIA Division II National Champions. Minnesota's other exhibition game will be Mon., Nov. 4 against Concordia-St. Paul.

Minnesota returns its top two scorers from a team that finished the 2012-13 season 21-13 overall, including a win over UCLA in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Gophers’ Non-Conference Opponents:

Lehigh (Friday, Nov. 8 – Williams Arena) - Coached by Dr. Brett Reed (7th season)…first appearance against Gophers…finished 21-10 last season…made the postseason three of the last four years…posted three-straight 20-win seasons…lost to Wyoming in the CBI Tournament. Top returning scorer: Mackey McKnight (Sr. Guard – 11.9 ppg last season).

Montana (Tuesday, Nov. 12 – Williams Arena) - Coached by Wayne Tinkle (8th season)…Gophers lead series 3-1…finished 25-7 last season…reigning Big Sky Conference champions…back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances…lost to Syracuse in the NCAA Tournament second round. Top returning scorer: Kareem Jamar (Sr. Guard/Forward – 14.2 ppg last season).

Richmond (Saturday, Nov. 16 – Robins Center) - Coached by Chris Mooney (9th season)…series tied 1-1…Gophers won 72-57 last season…finished 19-15 last season…made the postseason five of the last six years…lost to Wright State in CBI Tournament. Top returning scorer: Cedrick Lindsay (Sr. Guard – 12.0 ppg last season).

Coastal Carolina (Tuesday, Nov. 19 – Williams Arena) - Coached by Cliff Ellis (7th season)…Gophers lead series 1-0…finished 14-15 last season. Top returning scorer: Warren Gillis (Jr. Guard – 10.5 ppg last season).

Wofford (Thursday, Nov. 21 – Williams Arena) - Coached by Mike Young (12th season)…Gophers lead series 2-0…finished 13-19 last season. Top returning scorer: Spencer Collins (So. Guard – 12.4 ppg last season).

Syracuse (Monday, Nov. 25 – Lahaina Civic Center) - Coached by Jim Boeheim (37th season)…Gophers lead series 1-0…defeated Orange in the 1990 Sweet 16…finished 30-10 last season…lost to Michigan in the Final Four… Top returning scorer: C.J. Fair (Sr. Forward – 14.5 ppg last season).

Florida State (Tuesday, Dec. 3 – Williams Arena – B1G/ACC Challenge) - Coached by Leonard Hamilton (12th season)…series tied 4-4…Gophers won 77-68 last season…finished 18-16 last season…made eight-straight postseason appearances… Top returning scorer: Okaro White (Sr. Forward – 12.4 ppg last season).

New Orleans (Saturday, Dec. 7 – Williams Arena) - Coached by Mark Slessinger (3rd season)…first appearance against Gophers…finished 8-18 last season…first season as member of the Southland Conference. Top returning scorer: Cory Dixon (Sr. Forward – 8.7 ppg last season).

South Dakota State (Tuesday, Dec. 10 – Williams Arena) - Coached by Scott Nagy (19th season)…Gophers lead series 16-0…Gophers won 88-64 last season…back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances…reigning Summit League champions…lost to Michigan in the NCAA Tournament second round. Top returning scorer: Jordan Dykstra (Sr. Forward – 12.5 ppg last season).

Nebraska Omaha (Friday, Dec. 20 – Williams Arena) - Coached by Derrin Hansen (9th season)…first appearance against Gophers…finished 11-20 last season…third season as a member of Division I…second season as a member of the Summit League. Top returning scorer: Justin Simmons (Sr. Guard – 16.7 ppg last season).

Texas A&M Corpus Christi (Saturday, Dec. 28 – Williams Arena) - Coached by Willis Wilson (3rd season…first appearance against Gophers…finished 6-23 last season. Top returning scorer: Will Nelson (Sr. Forward – 13.6 ppg last season).
 

Great. We actually play New Orleans and Coastal Carolina.

And WTF? Texas A&M Corpus Christi?

How many 300+ rpi opponents do we have?

We are the new hawkeyes.
 

I will be blunt...If we go 12-1 or 11-2, we have a good thing going.
 


Well the SOS won't be nearly as high as last year...hopefully Montana, Richmond, and Florida State can crack the top 100 in RPI. If not we better play a lot better Big Ten basketball if we want a shot at the tourney.
 


I don't mind a softer non-conference this year. We are putting in a whole new system and are incorporating a lot of new players. Give Pitino the nonconference to ge the team ready to compete in conference. Last year we had an extremely veteran team so the stronger nonconference schedule made sense.
 

Wow... that is a pitiful list of non conference schools. At least this will help the players get some confidence and wins under their belt, as well as learn the system before heading into B1G play.
 






I don't mind the first five games Lehigh, Montana and Wofford have been in the tourney within the last three years, Richmond on the roqad should be a decent test (should win) Will get some good competition in Maui and I'd rather play BC or NC State, but there are worst teams we could play in the ACC than FSU. After that it's UNO, New Orleans A&MCC pitful. Really wish we still had NDSU
 

Another F.U. to the season ticket holders, their best and most loyal customers. Not a morsel.

It doesn't help with recruiting either. The best want to play the best. Top plays get bored playing officiated scrimmages against obscure schools.
 

While I would hope that Ricco gets serious about Non-Conference schedules going forward...I have no problem with the cupcakes this year...especially with the Maui being 3 games we could lose. 10-3 with a new coach & system and a bunch of new faces is likely. 11-2, 12-1 would be great and 4 or more losses is a bad sign.

I do see FL, Louisville and maybe UConn on our schedule in the future with Ricco's connections...so here is hoping for home and homes with some bite in the coming years.
 



Dr.Don said:
Everyone wants marquee home games for every home game. It ain't gonna happen.
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People are considerably more realistic than that. The well run programs have a couple of challenging, attractive home games a year on top of three or four games against recognizable schools. We have a garbage non conference home schedule year after year because we have a crappy football program that doesn't make any money and we have two or three coaches whom we are still paying off.

I thought that the season ticket holders would be rewarded for writing the extra checks for premium seating with an entertaining schedule. The home non con schedule the last two years has been the height of arrogance, especially toward a group of people who aren't asking for much. There would have been a mass defection of season ticket holders if Tubby had been retained but a lot of us wrote the check again because of the curiosity factor.

After thirty plus years as a season ticket holder I don't feel the sense of obligation or loyalty to the program or the athletic dept that I once did because there is nothing coming back. It's easier and more rational to buy tickets on the street for the five or six meaningful games a year than to pay way up for an obviously substandard slate of games.
 

the secondary market for tickets during the non-conference schedule will be brutal. walk up prices will be under $10 for most games, maybe $15 for fla st
 

jamiche said:
Another F.U. to the season ticket holders, their best and most loyal customers. Not a morsel.

It doesn't help with recruiting either. The best want to play the best. Top plays get bored playing officiated scrimmages against obscure schools.
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I don't like the home schedule either. However it's a good schedule for recruiting. Maui is the premier tourney and its on ESPN. Can't beat that for recruiting. The December home games won't move the dial one way or another for recruiting.

It's about the "home schedule" not the overall schedule. No doubt, the home schedule is lacking. I actually enjoyed last years home schedule as there were a number of good programs (albeit from smaller leagues). This year it just blows chunks.
 

jamiche said:
People are considerably more realistic than that. The well run programs have a couple of challenging, attractive home games a year on top of three or four games against recognizable schools. We have a garbage non conference home schedule year after year because we have a crappy football program that doesn't make any money and we have two or three coaches whom we are still paying off.

I thought that the season ticket holders would be rewarded for writing the extra checks for premium seating with an entertaining schedule. The home non con schedule the last two years has been the height of arrogance, especially toward a group of people who aren't asking for much. There would have been a mass defection of season ticket holders if Tubby had been retained but a lot of us wrote the check again because of the curiosity factor.

After thirty plus years as a season ticket holder I don't feel the sense of obligation or loyalty to the program or the athletic dept that I once did because there is nothing coming back. It's easier and more rational to buy tickets on the street for the five or six meaningful games a year than to pay way up for an obviously substandard slate of games.
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This is too often forgotten.

And add the high prices to that.

All in all the season ticket holders for BB have been extremely generous.
 

jamiche said:
People are considerably more realistic than that. The well run programs have a couple of challenging, attractive home games a year on top of three or four games against recognizable schools. We have a garbage non conference home schedule year after year because we have a crappy football program that doesn't make any money and we have two or three coaches whom we are still paying off.

I thought that the season ticket holders would be rewarded for writing the extra checks for premium seating with an entertaining schedule. The home non con schedule the last two years has been the height of arrogance, especially toward a group of people who aren't asking for much. There would have been a mass defection of season ticket holders if Tubby had been retained but a lot of us wrote the check again because of the curiosity factor.

After thirty plus years as a season ticket holder I don't feel the sense of obligation or loyalty to the program or the athletic dept that I once did because there is nothing coming back. It's easier and more rational to buy tickets on the street for the five or six meaningful games a year than to pay way up for an obviously substandard slate of games.
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I'd love to hear your reasoning on this. There are plenty of teams with terrible football programs that get great marquee basketball matchups. The two couldn't be more unrelated. Did you forget we are also paying off a certain basketball coach we also fired?
 

I completely understand that it is very difficult to get home games against the top tier programs in college basketball. Even other BCS teams aren't going to automatically give up their own home games to travel very often. However, being that the non conference schedule is determined year by year (for the most part) there should be no excuse to have 3 teams of RPI's around 300.

These games do very little to help prepare our guys for the Big Ten schedule and do absolutely nothing positive for helping our resume come March. There are plenty of better teams that we could have scheduled that we would still beat but would be more of a quality matchup IMO.
 

The month of December is a joke. It's very hard to generate fan interest when you play a handful of meaningful games, then have an entire month of nothing until the B1G starts. We can make fun of Esposito, but UNO, New Orleans and Corpus Cristi are RPI killers that he never would have scheduled. Even with an 11-1 non-conference, we'll probably need to go 10-8 at minimum to make the NCAA's
 

Gopherocious said:
I'd love to hear your reasoning on this. There are plenty of teams with terrible football programs that get great marquee basketball matchups. The two couldn't be more unrelated. Did you forget we are also paying off a certain basketball coach we also fired?
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I talked about the payoffs to coaches who are no longer here in other posts. Of course they are related.

When you combine a revenue deficient football program with the payoffs with a culture inside the athletic dept that the ticket buyer doesn't matter, you get schedules like this.
 

MadtownGopher said:
I don't mind a softer non-conference this year. We are putting in a whole new system and are incorporating a lot of new players. Give Pitino the nonconference to ge the team ready to compete in conference. Last year we had an extremely veteran team so the stronger nonconference schedule made sense.
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Just to let you know, your friend Tubby has the toughest NC in Big12. He is also their 1st year coach. Who are you? Rick's other son?

Go Gophers
 

The-Real-Truth said:
Just to let you know, your friend Tubby has the toughest NC in Big12.
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Haven't seen Tech's NC schedule yet. I know they have some good road tests (Bama, Zona, ASU), but I have a hard time believing it can stack up vs. Kansas' schedule. Can you post it? Thanks.
 

An upset or two in Maui and beat Florida State the RPI will be fine, go winless in Maui and lose to Florida State at home, 10-8 would probably be needed.

One decent game in December would make the schedule a bit different, Montana, Richmond aren't bad, Florida State will be decent, a whole month without a challange won't be fun to watch.
 

jovs said:
One decent game in December would make the schedule a bit different, Montana, Richmond aren't bad, Florida State will be decent, a whole month without a challange won't be fun to watch.
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That about sums it up perfectly. Not a bad overall schedule in the first month, but after the Florida State game it's simply window dressing until the Big Ten season starts. Hopefully at that point the Gophers will have a respectable resume (wins @ Richmond, 2 in Maui, FSU?) to carry into January.
 

Anyone know when the times for the games are announced? I'm planning on being in the band at the games again this year, and I have a class that might conflict with the game times.
 

Cayman said:
Anyone know when the times for the games are announced? I'm planning on being in the band at the games again this year, and I have a class that might conflict with the game times.
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When the final schedule is released (with Big Ten games), which usually comes out by mid-August.
 


We should be playing teams like Marquette, Iowa State, or at least Creighton, Drake, No. Iowa, and Depaul every year. At least there would be a little regional interest without dealing with the gnat like former North Central Conference DII teams we play every year.

The quality of these games makes the Basketball season ticket a tough commitment to make or continue to keep.
 

Looking at the schedules of teams it would make sense (IMHO) for Minnesota to schedule home/homes with

Marquette: This is the no brainer to me as both schools would benefit from playing a game in the others area for recruiting purposes. Marquette plays Ohio State at home and Wisconsin on the road, so I doubt they would have even considered a 3rd non-conference game against a B1G school this year. If we could play them next year, it would likely need to be on the road so they could keep us on an alternate home/road schedule with Wisconsin

DePaul: DePaul would be great for Minnesota for recruiting purposes in the Chicago area. DePaul wouldn't have made a good match this year as the y are playing Arizona State and Oregon State at home and Northwestern on the road. Assuming they don't want to play two B1G schools on the road (like I did with Marquette) a home and home next year would need to start at DePaul.

Cincinnati The Bearcats make sense from a competitive standpoint closer to Marquette than DePaul and also reside in a market that I assume we'd like to recruit in (and possibly vice versa). I don't believe they have announced their entire schedule, but they might have been a good fit for the Gophers this year. UC wanted to beef up their schedule and have both NC State and San Diego State coming to Fifth Third Arena.

St John's This might be a stretch, but if the Gophers want to recruit in the NYC area, a game against St John's would be perfect. St John's will play Wisconsin in Sioux Falls (WHAT?) and Syracuse at MSG.

Missouri Now that they are in the SEC, I would assume that Missouri would want to beef up their non-conference schedule to improve their tourney chances. They did exactly that this year with West Virginia and UCLA coming to Missouri in addition to the annual game against Illinois in St Louis (at NC State too!).

Obviously the dream match ups of Louisville, Kentucky, Kansas, UNC, Duke are possible, but unlikely (except Louisville). I personally don't see any reason to schedule Iowa State as they already are attempting to recruit kids from Minnesota and there's rarely a kid from Iowa who the Gophers show interest in. The Cyclones do typically play a very Minnesota like non-conference slate, so there is room in their schedule for another high major school beyond the yearly Iowa battle.

I am still kind of baffled by the need/desire to schedule a home and home with Richmond. The Spiders are typically a solid team, but I don't think they moved the needle in the Twin Cities at all last season. You would think that series with a school like Richmond would be a 2 for type of deal.

I really feel bad for the season ticket holders who get the one (usually mediocre) ACC opponent every other year and maybe one other game against a school that would be considered a high major yearly. It seems like 2 solid home games every year and 3 in the years where the B1G/ACC challenge is a home game would be fair.
 

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