[olldflame]

Regarding schedule:
Possible excuse:The AD was so focused on getting the football schedules together that he forgot completely about basketball until the last 2 weeks and there were no options left?!



Truly awful effort on the home schedule.

For the most part, ADs do not get involved in scheduling sports other than football. Blame for the weak home schedule falls squarely on Ritchie. He intentionally upgraded last year, and then on top of that several teams we played had better years than anticipated, which resulted in a tough go of it pre-conference. This may have been a bit of over-compensation for that.

[Sly Fox]

And for the most part, both the tourneys are stacked with teams that should give us a boost in strength of schedule. It is just disappointing that the better games are away from Lynchburg.

[A Sea of Red]

It's a lot harder for us to schedule good home games when we're a top 200 team and rising compared to where we were just a year ago (300+)

[ballah09]

After this year it should be easier to schedule good teams since the committee made an emphasis on away games being a factor for at larges.

[Purple Haize]

Who cares. No one will show up and they still have to win the Tournament

[Ewglenn]

Who cares. No one will show up and they still have to win the Tournament

Exactly, I doubt y'all would draw a lot more to Morehead State than you would Kentucky Christian. The point is to win the conference tournament and get into the NCAA's.

[TIMSCAR20]

Who cares. No one will show up and they still have to win the Tournament

Exactly, I doubt y'all would draw a lot more to Morehead State than you would Kentucky Christian. The point is to win the conference tournament and get into the NCAA's.

I think the schedule is almost irrelevant at the Big South level. When you consider the criteria of a good schedule at THIS LEVEL I think you look at things like:

* Attractive home games
* Money Games on the road
* SOS that is good enough for an At-Large
* A Schedule that will give your players a confidence boost (A couple of Cupcakes)
* SOS that will test your kids (See above. Second bullet point)

There are no AT-Large bids coming from the Big South period. Middle Tennessee was a Top 25 team in CUSA and won 30 games. Had they lost in the CUSA tournament, they would not have received an at-large. Murray State won 29 games in the OVC in 2014 and put a guy (Camron Payne) in the NBA and went to the NIT's because they were upset by Belmont in the OVC Tournament. So that means you schedule wins, a few attractive games at home to get folks in the seats and if needed, a few games at a Major Conference team's arena (AKA Money Game). Even if you have cash flow like Liberty, you probably take one or two just to get the experience of playing a high level of competition.

[olldflame]

Who cares. No one will show up and they still have to win the Tournament

Exactly, I doubt y'all would draw a lot more to Morehead State than you would Kentucky Christian. The point is to win the conference tournament and get into the NCAA's.

I think the schedule is almost irrelevant at the Big South level. When you consider the criteria of a good schedule at THIS LEVEL I think you look at things like:

* Attractive home games
* Money Games on the road
* SOS that is good enough for an At-Large
* A Schedule that will give your players a confidence boost (A couple of Cupcakes)
* SOS that will test your kids (See above. Second bullet point)

There are no AT-Large bids coming from the Big South period. Middle Tennessee was a Top 25 team in CUSA and won 30 games. Had they lost in the CUSA tournament, they would not have received an at-large. Murray State won 29 games in the OVC in 2014 and put a guy (Camron Payne) in the NBA and went to the NIT's because they were upset by Belmont in the OVC Tournament. So that means you schedule wins, a few attractive games at home to get folks in the seats and if needed, a few games at a Major Conference team's arena (AKA Money Game). Even if you have cash flow like Liberty, you probably take one or two just to get the experience of playing a high level of competition.

It almost sounds like this guy knows what he is talking about.
I'm sure efforts were made to get a more attractive non-conference home game or 2. Didn't happen this year. SOS will only be a factor for NCAA seeding if we win the BSC tourney.

[thepostman]

I'm sure some of the younger guys will find a way to disagree with Scar.

Fools.

[WinthropEagleFan]

I wouldn't bet that an at-large would ever happen with a Big South team, but I don't think it is impossible either...and scheduling plays a role in it...you have to be able to get a couple of victories over highly rated teams, so if you don't have any on the schedule, you eliminate the at-large chances before the season even starts. You also have to not have any bad losses, so you need some help within the league by having your loss in the Big South tournament being against a top-100 type of team, so the committee doesn't see it as a 'bad loss' (the 2007 WU team would have been an amazing at-large test case, but would have been badly damaged by a loss to a bad VMI team in the finals that year...but a situation like last season, where the Big South has multiple top-100 teams, could lend itself to the possibility of an at-large situation, but everything has to go right).

But back to scheduling, even if you don't think an at-large is a possibility, the same mechanics that help you get that at-large (having good wins, limiting/eliminating bad losses) can help your seeding...so I think any team that has realistic NCAA aspirations (like Liberty has this year) should keep that in mind, and give themselves quite a few chances at getting some good wins on the resume. Of course, sometimes you don't even know where a good win may come from. Last year, WU beat Furman, and the Paladins ended up being a top-100 RPI team, which was one of the good wins that likely helped WU get to a 13-seed last season.

[Purple Haize]

I'm sure some of the younger guys will find a way to disagree with Scar.

Fools.

Especially when you consider SCAR was agreeing with me!

[thepostman]

I find you and I agreeing a lot lately. I'm not sure how I feel about this.

[Purple Haize]

I find you and I agreeing a lot lately. I'm not sure how I feel about this.

Smarter
Wiser
More intelligent
Sexier

[olldflame]

I just noticed that Caleb Homesly is listed as a R-Soph on the roster, indicating his request for a medical redshirt was granted. This was not a given because having played in 10 of our 31 games, he technically was over the 30% maximum to qualify. I am thinking he was granted an exception because one of the games he played in (the opener against Cairn) is a contest we could have played as an exhibition had we chosen to, which would have put him at 9 of 30, or an even 30%. Great to know we will have him for 3 more years!

[Cider Jim]

Good news for Caleb, but didn't Dawson lose a whole year of eligibility because he played ONE game at Marquette?

[flamehunter]

Good news for Caleb, but didn't Dawson lose a whole year of eligibility because he played ONE game at Marquette?

That was a non-injury situation. I guess medical red-shirts are easier to come by.

[Cider Jim]

On the LU basketball website, three of our new players--Jay Barber, Keegan McDowell, and Brendan Newton--are interviewed. It was interesting to hear that Keegan's sister is on our LU track team and that factored into his decision to play for Coach McKay (similar to how Brock Gardner's sister was an assistant coach on our LU volleyball team last year).

http://www.liberty.edu/flames/index.cfm ... 4&TeamID=6

[R i]

ASOR just tweeted that Brock Gardner is transferring. That hurts.

[A Sea of Red]

Gardner to transfer

http://www.aseaofred.com/brock-gardner- ... m-liberty/

[olldflame]

The player who would seem to benefit most from Brock's departure would be Ezra Talbert. I think he has an excellent chance to start as a stretch 4. We could also see more of Myo at the 4, with Scotty James and Isaiah Williams also in the rotation at the 4/5.

[ballcoach15]

WE should upgrade our schedule in every sport. Play as many SEC, ACC, AAC and Big 12 schools as we can get on the schedule.

[olldflame]

The updated roster confirms what sumitup told us over a year ago. Caleb Homesley is now 6'6" (and with those plastic man arms plays even taller.)

http://www.liberty.edu/flames/index.cfm ... erID=11479

For the record, I am still not convinced that Brendan Newton is "only" 7'2".

[A Sea of Red]

Flames looking to build off 20 win season

http://www.aseaofred.com/flames-looking ... in-season/

[R i]

Losing Brock sucked some out of the wind out of my sails. If you are a glutton for punishment and have payed any attention to post I have made in this thread, I thought very highly of Brock and where he could take this team. not to the same level as TBGBG for you old-schoolers, but it just sucks that he transferred. I still haven't heard any reason, and would not be surprised if he ended up at Arizona State with his sister next season.

This team is still going to be in contention, but I just do not know if we have the top end talent to win the title, and make noise nationally like we had with BG. Also , I am still on a St Francis HangoverRager.

[olldflame]

Losing Brock sucked some out of the wind out of my sails. If you are a glutton for punishment and have payed any attention to post I have made in this thread, I thought very highly of Brock and where he could take this team. not to the same level as TBGBG for you old-schoolers, but it just sucks that he transferred. I still haven't heard any reason, and would not be surprised if he ended up at Arizona State with his sister next season.

This team is still going to be in contention, but I just do not know if we have the top end talent to win the title, and make noise nationally like we had with BG. Also , I am still on a St Francis HangoverRager.

Not sure what you meant by "ends up", but Brock will be playing for The Master's University (NAIA) this year, where he will join Hansel Atencia. As far as his reasons for leaving are concerned, I fell pretty confident in saying it was mainly the role he was projected to play here. Brock see's himself as a swing player who can take on secondary ball handling responsibilities and make plays. That is Caleb Homesly's role with us, and with Caleb getting his medical redshirt, it was going to likely be that way for the rest of Brock's career if he stayed. I suspect in Santa Clara he will be a true BMOC and get to do pretty much what he wants out there.