"Notable" NC Home Games Wrap-Up (U home schedule dubious on national scale)

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SelectionSunday

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Of the 75 Power 6 (ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big XII, Pac 12, SEC) schools, the Gophers were one of seven that failed to schedule a notable non-conference home game. Please note, I was generous with what I considered notable, as "notable" included every Power 6 school as well as others outside the Power 6 who figure to be legitimate, RPI top 50-60ish-type opponents.

The 7 schools are Illinois, Michigan State, the Gophers, Pitt, USC, Virginia Tech, and Washington State. It's a surprise to see Sparty on this list (Izzo usually schedules a quality home-and-home), contrarily, it's not unusual to see Pitt (Jamie Dixon is a notorious soft scheduler) and to a lesser extent the Gophers on this list.

For comparison's sake, here's a look at what figure to be each of those schools' most difficult non-league home opponent, with last season's RPI in parentheses.

1. Pitt -- Manhattan (#60, NCAA qualifier)
2. Michigan State -- Eastern Michigan (#86)
3. USC -- Utah State (#116)
4. Illinois -- American (#118, NCAA qualifier)
5. Gophers -- Western Kentucky (#125)
6. Virginia Tech -- VMI (#211)
7. Washington State -- Idaho (#238)

I'll give Illinois what amounts to a pass, as every season the Illini play a quality opponent at the United Center, their home away from home. This year the Illini play Oregon at the UC.
 

Not sure about Dutcher, but the soft scheduling goes back to at least the Haskins coaching years. I'm optimistic that Patino sees the value of having a nationaly televised game early in the season with real decision making value when it comes around to the Tourni selection time; not to mention the weight an ESPN would put on a high stakes game early in the season and value to recruiting. First you need the talent, it seems we're making progress, then you schedule some bigger games. Is a home & home now scheduled with Lousiville after this season? The game against Louisville this year is ingenious move, everyone that cares about college basketball will be aware of it.
 

Clem

watertown 1987 guy n said:
Not sure about Dutcher, but the soft scheduling goes back to at least the Haskins coaching years. I'm optimistic that Patino sees the value of having a nationaly televised game early in the season with real decision making value when it comes around to the Tourni selection time; not to mention the weight an ESPN would put on a high stakes game early in the season and value to recruiting. First you need the talent, it seems we're making progress, then you schedule some bigger games. Is a home & home now scheduled with Lousiville after this season? The game against Louisville this year is ingenious move, everyone that cares about college basketball will be aware of it.
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Clem had his fair share of cupcakes come into the Barn, but he threw the fans several noteworthy bones. These teams came to Mpls in his last 6 years:

Villanova (TC)
Oregon
Seton Hall
Cincinnati
St John's
Cal (HHH)
Clemson
Alabama
Nebraska
Fresno St
 

Ope3 said:
Clem had his fair share of cupcakes come into the Barn, but he threw the fans several noteworthy bones. These teams came to Mpls in his last 6 years:

Villanova (TC)
Oregon
Seton Hall
Cincinnati
St John's
Cal (HHH)
Clemson
Alabama
Nebraska
Fresno St
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Excellent list. I'd add West Virginia (Target Center, Final 4 season) as well.
 




For a program that's often been on the bubble, I can see some motivation for scheduling the marquee non-conference games at neutral or road sites rather than home.

Not sure whether that plays into the thinking, but it might.
 

Anybody know how our NC road schedule compares to these other schools? because I would imagine ours grades as pretty difficult and I'm guessing coach would like to make sure there are some "easier" games to make sure everything is clicking and we get the necessary wins to be in contention for the post-season
 

upnorthkid said:
Anybody know how our NC road schedule compares to these other schools? because I would imagine ours grades as pretty difficult and I'm guessing coach would like to make sure there are some "easier" games to make sure everything is clicking and we get the necessary wins to be in contention for the post-season
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How are you defining road games? True road games, or true road games + neutral-siters? I'm assuming you want to include the neutral-siters. I'll look that up and post it later tonight.

Nevertheless, the point I'm trying to emphasize is that the Gophers' November-December home schedule once again sticks it up the rear end of season-ticket holders. Hopefully that changes in Year 3 (2015-16) with the Dave Gavitt Tipoff Games (Big Ten vs. Big East) added to the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.
 



SS, are you giving credit to teams playing at home in a rotating conference series like the ACC/B1G?
 

Yes, but reluctantly. I'd bet the farm we'll get Louisville at home in the ACC Challenge next year, and again that'll be the only decent non Big 10 home game. It's what we do.
 

The road & neutral games of the 7

Illinois: Indiana State, Miami-Florida, Mizzou, Oregon, Villanova, Baylor/Memphis.

Michigan State: Duke, Navy, Notre Dame, Rider, Georgia Tech/Marquette, Kansas/Rhode Island/Santa Clara/Tennessee.

Gophers: Louisville, Wake Forest, Saint John's, Georgia/Gonzaga.

Pitt: Chaminade, Duquesne, Hawaii, Indiana, BYU/San Diego State, Arizona/Kansas State/Missouri/Purdue.

USC: Akron, Boston College, New Mexico, Drexel/Miami-Florida, Charlotte/Cornell/Penn State/South Carolina.

Virginia Tech: Northern Iowa, Penn State, West Virginia, Miami-Ohio/Northwestern.

Washington State: Gonzaga, Santa Clara, TCU, UCSB, UTEP, Mercer/Rice, Alaska-Anchorage/Colorado State/Missouri State/Pacific.
 

WKU is usually a pretty competitive team, but I agree, other than that, the non-conference home schedule is pretty pathetic. The following are last year's final Sagarin ratings for the other hosted teams: UMBC (325), North Dakota (261), NC Wilmington (275), Furman (341), Southern (183-not so bad I guess), Seattle (256), Western Carolina (229). In recent years, the Gophers have managed to schedule a number of respectable, but beatable, mid-majors at home (like SDSU, NDSU, Richmond, Nebraska-Omaha) and that has helped their RPI. With this group, they better win at least 3 of Louisville, St. John's, Gonzaga/Georgia, and Wake Forest as well as having a decent conference season (.500 or hopefully better). However, I guess a couple of those mid-majors listed above could be better than expected this year like Nebraska-Omaha was last year.
 



cjbfbp said:
WKU is usually a pretty competitive team, but I agree, other than that, the non-conference home schedule is pretty pathetic. ... With this group, they better win at least 3 of Louisville, St. John's, Gonzaga/Georgia, and Wake Forest as well as having a decent conference season (.500 or hopefully better).
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Agree about WKU, it's the one game on the home schedule that carries a hint of of intrigue. You pretty much hit the nail right on the head. It's imperative the Gophers beat Louisville and/or Gonzaga, otherwise the non-conference resume is likely to look similar to last season. ... a couple solid RPI top-75 wins over non-NCAA qualifiers (FSU & Richmond) but not much else. Could be the same this season if all the Gophers get in November-December is wins over Georgia/Saint John's and Wake Forest.

I'm more leery about the small number of non-league "quality win" opportunities (4) this season compared to 2013-14 because, on paper, the Gophers' conference schedule appears softer this season. We play Illinois, Michigan, Michigan State, and Ohio State only once each. That's not a huge deal if you're a perennial power like MSU, Wisconsin, or Ohio State, but it could be if you're a perennial bubble team like the Gophers.

Getting that first one to open the season (Louisville) certainly would be a great way to start building a NCAA-worthy resume.
 

I think we'll be 11-7 or 12-6 in conference, and talking about seeding, not the bubble in March.

I may be in the minority here, but I just don't think our 7 or 8 home non-conference games are that big a deal. We have 18 games in the best conference in the nation, 9 of them at home, we play the B1G-ACC challenge every year, have a preseason tournament many years, etc. Building the program is the most important thing. When we have a good team, people buy tickets.
 


WanderingGopher said:
I may be in the minority here, but I just don't think our 7 or 8 home non-conference games are that big a deal.
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It's quite apparent the administration agrees with you. Obviously they don't think it's a big deal to provide their season-ticket holders with minimal substance for most of 9 November-December evenings.
 

SelectionSunday said:
Illinois: Indiana State, Miami-Florida, Mizzou, Oregon, Villanova, Baylor/Memphis.

Michigan State: Duke, Navy, Notre Dame, Rider, Georgia Tech/Marquette, Kansas/Rhode Island/Santa Clara/Tennessee.

Gophers: Louisville, Wake Forest, Saint John's, Georgia/Gonzaga.

Pitt: Chaminade, Duquesne, Hawaii, Indiana, BYU/San Diego State, Arizona/Kansas State/Missouri/Purdue.

USC: Akron, Boston College, New Mexico, Drexel/Miami-Florida, Charlotte/Cornell/Penn State/South Carolina.

Virginia Tech: Northern Iowa, Penn State, West Virginia, Miami-Ohio/Northwestern.

Washington State: Gonzaga, Santa Clara, TCU, UCSB, UTEP, Mercer/Rice, Alaska-Anchorage/Colorado State/Missouri State/Pacific.
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Interesting and yes you were right in me meaning road/neutral site games since that seems to be one of the metrics used by the selection committee (right?). V Tech's schedule looks pathetic, as does USC's and Pitt's could be brutally weak based on who they draw in their optional games. I'll agree with earlier posts that now it becomes imperative that we have some highlight wins since there's far fewer chances to get them this year. We could definitely rack up a big win total but have no real substance to the wins and find ourselves on the bubble all over again.
 

SelectionSunday said:
Yes, but reluctantly. I'd bet the farm we'll get Louisville at home in the ACC Challenge next year, and again that'll be the only decent non Big 10 home game. It's what we do.
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Hmmm ... I wouldn't bet the farm on that. OSU is going to be in line for a home game, and one with Louisville might be what they go for since they play this year, often they have rematched teams in successive years (especially with OSU, as 6 of their last 8 have been pseudo-home & homes), and it would still be a big game next year. Maybe they will come up with UL versus the Gophers but I certainly wouldn't bet the farm on it at this point.
 

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