Gophers Non-Conference Schedule Released

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Didn't think it could get worse than last year from an SOS standpoint, but it appears it has. If we lose to A&M there isn't one sure fire NCAA tournament team on this schedule. And this comes with us being fortunate we get BC in the challenge, because we could have gotten stuck with a team like Pitt or Ga Tech.
 

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Good News: We should rack up some wins in non-conference play.

Bad News: This isn't going to test us very much or help when it comes to NCAA tourney resume.
 

bizzle22 said:
Good News: We should rack up some wins in non-conference play.

Bad News: This isn't going to test us very much or help when it comes to NCAA tourney resume.
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This means to get into ncaas, gophers must win at least 10-11 b1g games against good NCAA tourney b1g teams.

Maybe Coyle is setting Pitino up to fail???
 


Four BTN Plus appearances (3 games, 1 exhibition).
 

Thomasthetank said:
This means to get into ncaas, gophers must win at least 10-11 b1g games against good NCAA tourney b1g teams.

Maybe Coyle is setting Pitino up to fail???
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Pitino and his staff are the ones who set the schedule
 

Having 5 potential Power 5 games out of 10 isn't a bad ratio, but this is still underwhelming. Also, they don't play a meaningful game from 12/5 until 1/3/18. An entire dead month is a sure way to ensure that no one but the hard core fans pay any attention.
 

Is there a reason the game at US Bank is at 9 PM?
 



Seems like a pretty decent schedule to me. I think both Arkansas State and North Florida will be a lot better than they were last year at least where they finished RPI wise. Seems like a lot of days between games early in the season though is that because we are playing 1 less game than normal?
 

Goldy Gopher said:
Seems like a pretty decent schedule to me. I think both Arkansas State and North Florida will be a lot better than they were last year at least where they finished RPI wise. Seems like a lot of days between games early in the season though is that because we are playing 1 less game than normal?
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We're essentially playing 3 less non-conference games than normal and 2 more conference games. The season is also starting 3 days earlier. (I'm not sure why. Having the first game on election day seems dumb.)
 

Goldy Gopher said:
Seems like a pretty decent schedule to me. I think both Arkansas State and North Florida will be a lot better than they were last year at least where they finished RPI wise. Seems like a lot of days between games early in the season though is that because we are playing 1 less game than normal?
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Please tell me you’re not serious. If you think this is a pretty decent non-conference schedule I think you need to stop drinking the Kool-Aid. This is an outright embarrassment. If we want to compete with the best schools and demonstrate to recruits that we play tough games outside of the B1G you have to do better than this. I’m going to assume you’re also not a season ticket holder.
 

Blitzkrieg said:
Please tell me you’re not serious. If you think this is a pretty decent non-conference schedule I think you need to stop drinking the Kool-Aid. This is an outright embarrassment. If we want to compete with the best schools and demonstrate to recruits that we play tough games outside of the B1G you have to do better than this. I’m going to assume you’re also not a season ticket holder.
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I think this is a result of playing two more conference games and it is happening all across the conference. Coaches are going to want to play a good number of guaranteed wins and are going to want to limit the number of non conference games that could be problematic. It's just reality.
 



Blitzkrieg said:
Please tell me you’re not serious. If you think this is a pretty decent non-conference schedule I think you need to stop drinking the Kool-Aid. This is an outright embarrassment. If we want to compete with the best schools and demonstrate to recruits that we play tough games outside of the B1G you have to do better than this. I’m going to assume you’re also not a season ticket holder.
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You think a recruiting pitch we are making talks about our non con schedule?
 

Blitzkrieg said:
Please tell me you’re not serious. If you think this is a pretty decent non-conference schedule I think you need to stop drinking the Kool-Aid. This is an outright embarrassment. If we want to compete with the best schools and demonstrate to recruits that we play tough games outside of the B1G you have to do better than this. I’m going to assume you’re also not a season ticket holder.
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Actually, when you add in the two additional conference games, plus the five non-conference P6 games, I would think this schedule contains more regular season high major opponents than any schedule in the past ten years (25 total high major games).

I mean you're looking at 25 games against high major teams and only six games on the entire schedule that are not high major programs. That is by far the fewest "bye (guarantee)" games we've had in years and years.

Home non-conference games against Oklahoma State and Utah (first time in a long time two high majors will visit the Twin Cities).

This schedule is fine and will easily provide a sufficient enough SOS if the Gophers take care of business.
 
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I am concerned about how this schedule was set up and it seems like the Vancouver Showcase's failure to add the additional teams to the "field" (home games for the Gophers that don't affect the tournament) is the main reason for this: The Gophers get just one tune up game (Omaha) to start the season before Utah starts a 7 game stretch against only high major opponents (or a 6 of 7 streak if if they play Santa Clara). That 7 game streak ends with the first two B1G games of the season. If the Gophers don't come out of the gate sharp, they could really dig themselves in a hole with no tune up games to get right. After those 7 games, the Gophers get 4 straight tune up games before they go to Wisconsin to begin the B1G only portion of the schedule. In real time, they go more than a month without a tune up game (11/6 to 12/8) and then go nearly a month without seeing real competition (12/5 to 1/3) which presents its own set of issues.
 

3399 said:
I think this is a result of playing two more conference games and it is happening all across the conference. Coaches are going to want to play a good number of guaranteed wins and are going to want to limit the number of non conference games that could be problematic. It's just reality.
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I don’t disagree that playing 2 more B1G games changes their mindset in scheduling. But if you want to compete with the big boys you need more than Okla St and Utah. Even Wisconsin plays Xavier and Marquette, not including the competition they’ll see in the Battle 4 Atlantis.

I’m not asking them to follow MSU’s schedule of Kansas, UCLA, either UNC or Texas and Florida. But let’s face it, playing these better schools has the potential to improve your team as you become battle tested. Beating a bunch of cupcakes obviously hasn’t helped us over the past 20 years.

I just don’t see how playing a non-conference schedule like this is now considered defense.
 

Winasota Gopher said:
You think a recruiting pitch we are making talks about our non con schedule?
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Probably not. But potential recruits do consider the schedules of their prospective colleges. I’ve heard both Jay Bills and Jaylen Rose over the past few years comment on that. Not that their word is gospel. But if you’re a huge basketball fan having the opportunity to play the likes of the blue bloods or against some of the better programs outside the conference is a nice perk.
 

Blitzkrieg said:
But if you want to compete with the big boys you need more than Okla St and Utah. Even Wisconsin plays Xavier and Marquette, not including the competition they’ll see in the Battle 4 Atlantis.
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Utah has had three first round NBA draft picks in the past four years. Ok State hasn't been that great lately but they've still managed to make the NCAA tournament 13 times in this century (compared to the Gophers' 5 appearances). Of course, we also have Texas A&M who was a regional semifinalist last year. I have to chuckle when people characterize the Gophers scheduling of opponents like this as "slumming."

The quality of opponents is determined at the end of the season, not at the beginning. No one can be sure that both Xavier and Marquette will be better than these teams this season.

And we're not competing with the "big boys." We're likely competing for an at large pick in the 7 to 11 range. As another poster mentioned, if they take care of business (21 or 22 wins out of 30 games) this schedule is plenty good enough. I think it's one of the more challenging non-conference schedules in recent years.
 

Thomasthetank said:
This means to get into ncaas, gophers must win at least 10-11 b1g games against good NCAA tourney b1g teams.

Maybe Coyle is setting Pitino up to fail???
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With 20 Big Ten games, that would be the case anyway regardless of nonconference schedule. They're not going to the tournament with a sub-.500 conference record.
 

GophersInIowa said:
Four BTN Plus appearances (3 games, 1 exhibition).
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Where are you getting the broadcast information? I didn't see the broadcast details with the posted schedule. Did you get the BTN+ info from the BTN site?
 

Blitzkrieg said:
Probably not. But potential recruits do consider the schedules of their prospective colleges. I’ve heard both Jay Bills and Jaylen Rose over the past few years comment on that. Not that their word is gospel. But if you’re a huge basketball fan having the opportunity to play the likes of the blue bloods or against some of the better programs outside the conference is a nice perk.
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And we have that as good as anyone. We are the B1G 10, we also play in the acc big 10 challenge and the Big east challenge. There is about a 0 percent chance we schedule a blue blood as a random non con. This scheduling hand wringing effects one or two things. Being on the bubble and season ticket holders. Both won’t be a problem if you just win a couple road games with consistency.
 

Winasota Gopher said:
And we have that as good as anyone. We are the B1G 10, we also play in the acc big 10 challenge and the Big east challenge. There is about a 0 percent chance we schedule a blue blood as a random non con. This scheduling hand wringing effects one or two things. Being on the bubble and season ticket holders. Both won’t be a problem if you just win a couple road games with consistency.
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And a victory or two in the tourney once every decade wouldn’t hurt either.
 

I thought Delaney said they weren't going to do with the b.s. conference games in the beginning of December again.

Were these dates already set prior to last season?
 

LongLiveMilesTarver said:
I thought Delaney said they weren't going to do with the b.s. conference games in the beginning of December again.

Were these dates already set prior to last season?
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Nevermind, after second thought Delaney said he wasn't going to have the Big Ten tournament two weeks prior to the NCAAs.

I don't care for the early conference games either.
 

Winasota Gopher said:
And we have that as good as anyone. We are the B1G 10, we also play in the acc big 10 challenge and the Big east challenge. There is about a 0 percent chance we schedule a blue blood as a random non con. This scheduling hand wringing effects one or two things. Being on the bubble and season ticket holders. Both won’t be a problem if you just win a couple road games with consistency.
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We do not have that as well as anyone. We rarely sell out and regularly have a non conference schedule way below the average for a power 5 program. Often we have a non con worse than 250 ! I agree that it would not be a blue blood but there is nothing wrong with getting a top 25 in a home and home.
 

builtbadgers said:
We do not have that as well as anyone. We rarely sell out and regularly have a non conference schedule way below the average for a power 5 program. Often we have a non con worse than 250 ! I agree that it would not be a blue blood but there is nothing wrong with getting a top 25 in a home and home.
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You refuted nothing I was saying. Our scheduling is not a determinant to recruiting.
 

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