Pathetic Schedule

Donate To GopherHole
The weak schedule is to insure that the Gophers have enough wins to get into post season play. Historically, 20 wins gets you into post season. We are half way there but where are the other 9 wins coming from? The lack of Away games so far will bite them in the butt. The seeding committee will recognize the weak schedule and treat them accordingly. When the Gophers made out the schedule, they probably knew it was soft but maybe not as pitifully weak as it has turned out. A few years from now, the number of wins will look nice on the Gopher's record and will strengthen Coach P's overall record. The WNIT will probably love to have them back.
 

FWIW from a Purdue writer today:

PRESSING QUESTION
​

Would you prefer Gearlds assemble a non-conference schedule similar to Minnesota's? The Gophers went 12-0 against the 357th-ranked non-conference schedule in the country, including 10 [really 8] home games. They won 12 non-conference games for the first time in program history. Will Minnesota get punished by the selection committee if it’s on the bubble because of the weak schedule? That’s the risk. Purdue’s out-of-conference games this season included Notre Dame, South Carolina, and Kentucky, but the challenging opponents didn’t pay off against Big Ten teams. Once the conference season began, the competition increased, and the Boilermakers were buried throughout January. Purdue’s overall strength of schedule ranks No. 8 in the nation, a commendable number, but only if it helps win enough games and play competitive basketball. One goal is to challenge your team to prepare for league play, but winning games may take priority going into next season. If the program is headed toward a hard reset, finding as many wins as possible should be part of the plan, along with improving the overall talent on the roster.


Purdue women's basketball report: Minnesota preview, running out of time and more

Only two home games remain for the Boilermakers, who need a strong finish to qualify for the Big Ten tournament
mikecarmin.substack.com
 


Strength of schedule (SOS) numbers updated through Big Ten tourney. Teams that played USC & UCLA late in the year got a schedule boost, otherwise not much change. On a NET basis, the Gophers had the 69th hardest overall schedule. There are 68 power 4 conference teams, only 1 of which (Okie State at 70) finished ranked lower than Minnesota. The 12 BIG teams that appear poised to make the Big Dance all had top 40 schedules (10 had top 30 schedules).

On a NET basis, the Gophers finished with the 357th hardest non-conference schedule (out of 362), the worst of all 68 power 4 conference teams.

1741720531966.png
 

Weird how the this-nonconference-schedule-is-what-the-Gophers-need people seem to have vanished now that what many of us were saying all along has proved true: The awful non-con did not prepare the Gophers for conference play, provide an opportunity to give new players more time on the court or assure the Gophers of the NCAA berth we're now all but certain they will not get.
 


thatjanelpick said:
Weird how the this-nonconference-schedule-is-what-the-Gophers-need people seem to have vanished now that what many of us were saying all along has proved true: The awful non-con did not prepare the Gophers for conference play, provide an opportunity to give new players more time on the court or assure the Gophers of the NCAA berth we're now all but certain they will not get.
Click to expand...
I was just always of the mind that when you're in a demanding conference already, the extra bit that prepares you to compete happens in practice (or completely off the court) and the rest will follow as you get into conference play. Maybe that was wrong, maybe they weren't doing the right things in practice to be able to compete, and maybe the challenges were just insurmountable without Braun. We'll never know for sure.

But I bet the non-conference schedule will be tougher next season now that many of the key players will have had two years of experience under Coach P's system and now that they showed they could keep games against ranked opponents relatively close even without Braun.
 

That nonconference schedule was ridiculous. I hope we never see anything even resembling that again. Can't imagine any serious team and player development happened in those games that you couldn't get from your own practice squad. And it put us in a spot where we would have needed a very good conference record to get us into the tourney.

But hey, at least someone can feel better that that schedule helped inflate our overall win total.
 

bleedsmaroonandgold said:
That nonconference schedule was ridiculous. I hope we never see anything even resembling that again. Can't imagine any serious team and player development happened in those games that you couldn't get from your own practice squad. And it put us in a spot where we would have needed a very good conference record to get us into the tourney.

But hey, at least someone can feel better that that schedule helped inflate our overall win total.
Click to expand...

And casual fans don't know how good a team actually is until they actually start playing better teams so it's hard to know how excited or what expectations to have for a team.

Obviously, just in terms of just wins and loses and not what you get out of the games, if you play good teams non-conference, you still have to beat them, otherwise it makes not much of, if any difference for making the tournament. So if the Gophers played good teams non-conference and didn't beat any of them, they still would've fallen just short of making the tournament, but if they beat a good team they would've made it in.

I know every team seems to be required to have propagandists but the thing that drives me more nuts than those who brag about how many wins they got against lousy teams are the teams that think they are tournament teams because they played and got blown out by teams like UConn, South Carolina, and every other top team they played, when every bubble team and worse is perfectly capable of losing to those teams as well.
 
Last edited:

It won’t change much. With 11-14 teams going from power conferences, there isn’t much incentive. We only had two quality wins in conference play. We put a strong line between us and the rest of the league by getting swept by Washington.
 



MaxyJR1 said:
It won’t change much. With 11-14 teams going from power conferences, there isn’t much incentive. We only had two quality wins in conference play. We put a strong line between us and the rest of the league by getting swept by Washington.
Click to expand...

You want to be able to separate yourself from similar teams in other conferences though. They might not have had it in them, but if the Gophers could've beaten one good team non-conference, without any poor losses (if Northwestern could beat Utah, anything should be possible, but Northwestern lost to much lesser teams non-conference as well) that would've given them the edge over the teams from other conferences fighting for the final spot that have been unimpressive or don't have any more than a couple quality wins themselves.
 

It will be interesting to see what kind of non conference schedule we come up with next year. It will be disappointing if next year's schedule is the same as this year and weaker non-conference schedule.

Top players and recruits want to play the best and be competitive. Fans want to watch competitive games. I understand the aspect of trying to get into the NCAA and padding the W's, but you have to at least mix in 3-5 games where you are showing the NCAA committee what you are made of even before conference play. It also helps the team understand where we are against tougher opponents as big 10 has a lots of them.
 

drewhaus7 said:
It will be interesting to see what kind of non conference schedule we come up with next year. It will be disappointing if next year's schedule is the same as this year and weaker non-conference schedule.

Top players and recruits want to play the best and be competitive. Fans want to watch competitive games. I understand the aspect of trying to get into the NCAA and padding the W's, but you have to at least mix in 3-5 games where you are showing the NCAA committee what you are made of even before conference play. It also helps the team understand where we are against tougher opponents as big 10 has a lots of them.
Click to expand...
I agree. As a fan, having to pay for this year's weak non-conference games is pretty much the same as being charged to watch them practice. I can't remember a softer schedule than we had this year, and I've been a season ticket holder for more than 20 years.
 

Yes, we know it was a weak non-conference schedule. A couple of those teams were very successful in the 2023-2024 season when the games were likely scheduled. And, if we had won a couple more Big Ten games this season, it would all be a moot point. All agree that we don't want this weak a non-conference schedule next year!
 



You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom