Home and Home with Richmond

[Gopher+RamFan]

UofR Athletic Director announced today on radio, that Minnesota and the University of Richmond have signed a Home and Home agreement to start in the fall, and that the Gophers will visit Richmond in 2013-2014.

Sorry if it's been posted before.

 

[SelectionSunday]

Thanks for the info. First we've heard that, I think.

A decent home and home for the Gophers, but if Richmond is the best home game Tubby can come up with for the Gophers in 2012-13 -- especially in this the 1st year of the reseating -- I gotta' classify that as highly disappointing. Not surprised, though.

Raise your hand if you think we'll schedule a bigger "name" than Richmond (being picked to finish anywhere from 4th to 7th in the A-10) at The Barn in 2012-13. (my hand is down)

For what it's worth, bracket guru Joe Lunardi's current offseason Bracketology has 4 teams making the tournament from the A-10 (Saint Joseph's, Saint Louis, Temple, Xavier), with 1 (UMass) among his "first 4 out" and another (LaSalle) among his "next 4 out".

 

[Jim V2]

Thanks for the info. First we've heard that, I think.

A decent home and home for the Gophers, but if Richmond is the best home game Tubby can come up with for the Gophers in 2012-13 -- especially in this the 1st year of the reseating -- I gotta' classify that as highly disappointing. Not surprised, though.

Raise your hand if you think we'll schedule a "name" better than Richmond (roughly projected to finish anywhere between 4th-7th in the A-10) at The Barn in 2012-13. (my hand is down)

I'll raise my hand. I think Tubby knows he has a good team this year that needs a little bit better nonconf competition than usual to reach it's potential. In fact, I'm so sure that I'll bet 10 cents I'm right.

 

[SelectionSunday]

I hope you are right, Jim.

 

[matt]

nm

 

[Rouser]

I would raise my hand if we were not scheduled in the Atlantis tourny. I think Tubby will look at the schedule as a whole which should be pretty dang tough mainly because of the stacked Atlantis field..which could impact scheduling a big name school.

I sure hope I'm wrong.

 

[SelectionSunday]

Agree Rouser that with the Atlantis tourney overrall nonconference SOS shouldn't be a problem for the Gophers this season. But I'd prefer they not use that as an excuse to soften things futher at The Barn, especially this season.

I was encouraged last year when for the first time in his 5 seasons Tubby scheduled a home BCS opponent (USC) outside of the required ACC Challenge game. I am/was hopeful that will continue this season.

 

[Monty519]

What about that rumor of them working on a "big local draw" or whatever? Is that dead or are we just assuming it was hype?

 

[SelectionSunday]

What about that rumor of them working on a "big local draw" or whatever? Is that dead or are we just assuming it was hype?

No disrespect to Richmond -- it's a good program that was in the Sweet 16 just a season ago -- but I'd assume the Spiders are not the "big local draw" we've been hearing about, at least I hope that's not the case. As Bleed said in a post about a month or so ago, (paraphrasing) with the new preferred seating in place this season we need to "move the needle" with a truly notable nonconference home game.

Our most notable home games (read: name recognition) in each of Tubby's five seasons have been Colorado State (2007-08), Virginia twice (2008-09, 2010-11), Saint Joseph's (2009-10) and USC (2011-12). Three of those were required (ACC Challenge) by conference contract (not Tubby's doing).

The question I always ask is, do Gopher fans have a right to expect better than that? My answer in 4 of Tubby's first 5 seasons is yes, excepting USC (notable school, we caught a bad break that the Trojans sucked after being decimated by injuries).