[Class of 20Something]

These type of games do not prepare us for the tournament, if we make it. Other than Vanderbilt and LSU, our out of conference schedule is way too weak.

The big benefit is some of the depth getting minutes with each other. We have a very deep roster where it's hard for everyone to see the floor. I'm more confident that our depth has enough chemistry with the starters in case of a single or multiple injuries

[A Sea of Red]

Here's our game recap:

https://www.aseaofred.com/liberty-vs-tr ... t-preview/

[adam42381]

Here's our game recap:

https://www.aseaofred.com/liberty-vs-tr ... t-preview/

This link takes me to your game preview.

[A Sea of Red]

Sorry about that, here's the right link

https://www.aseaofred.com/liberty-becom ... h-10-wins/

[olldflame]

These type of games do not prepare us for the tournament, if we make it. Other than Vanderbilt and LSU, our out of conference schedule is way too weak.

It's been posted multiple times by multiple people, but I'll repeat it for those who don't read everything posted here. Ritchie worked his butt off to try to schedule more high major opponents. Right now, nobody wants to play us. They know we are good enough to beat them, but our reputation, while it is on the rise, is not yet at a point where a lot of people would not consider it a bad loss. Beat us, and it's "just Liberty". If we keep trending like we are, that should change soon. Maybe as early as next season.

[sstaedtler]

I hope you are right and I am sure Ritchie is trying hard to improve the schedule. I see other teams who I view as similar teams to us that seem to get better and even P5 opponents. It is a shame we couldn't have been in a tournament early in the year with some better competition, but that is the way it goes I guess. Hopefully next year will be better. I'm very happy to be undefeated, but competition is so weak, I don't know what to make of it. We literally will play 1 game all year where we are not the favorite.

[olldflame]

I hope you are right and I am sure Ritchie is trying hard to improve the schedule. I see other teams who I view as similar teams to us that seem to get better and even P5 opponents. It is a shame we couldn't have been in a tournament early in the year with some better competition, but that is the way it goes I guess. Hopefully next year will be better. I'm very happy to be undefeated, but competition is so weak, I don't know what to make of it. We literally will play 1 game all year where we are not the favorite.

I'd be interested in hearing who the other teams are you referred to.

[sstaedtler]

I hope you are right and I am sure Ritchie is trying hard to improve the schedule. I see other teams who I view as similar teams to us that seem to get better and even P5 opponents. It is a shame we couldn't have been in a tournament early in the year with some better competition, but that is the way it goes I guess. Hopefully next year will be better. I'm very happy to be undefeated, but competition is so weak, I don't know what to make of it. We literally will play 1 game all year where we are not the favorite.

I'd be interested in hearing who the other teams are you referred to.

Tennessee Tech, SE Missouri, Towson, Cleveland State, Vermont, Samford, Coastal Carolina, Lehigh, Bradley, Wright State, Eastern Washington, VMI, Columbia, Eastern Kentucky, Furman, Chattanooga, North Alabama, Kennasaw State, Brown, Utah Valley, Holy Cross, Long Beach State, East Tennessee State, Portland, Cornell, Radford, Drake, Illinois State, Grand Canyon, Santa Clara, Western Carolina, Morehead State, Chicago State, Indiana State, LIPSCOMB, UTA, UNCW, William @Mary, San Francisco, UTRGV, Pacific, just some of the teams who have harder schedules that Liberty. Our schedule ranks 249 out of 353 schools in difficulty.

[ATrain]

Hopefully, in the future, we can schedule some of the in-state A-10 schools (Richmond, VCU, George Mason). We all know Ritchie and Ian are working their hardest to put together great schedules for us year in and year out.

[Jonathan Carone]

Many of those schools listed aren’t good and pose little threat to beat bigger teams.

[olldflame]

I hope you are right and I am sure Ritchie is trying hard to improve the schedule. I see other teams who I view as similar teams to us that seem to get better and even P5 opponents. It is a shame we couldn't have been in a tournament early in the year with some better competition, but that is the way it goes I guess. Hopefully next year will be better. I'm very happy to be undefeated, but competition is so weak, I don't know what to make of it. We literally will play 1 game all year where we are not the favorite.

I'd be interested in hearing who the other teams are you referred to.

Tennessee Tech, SE Missouri, Towson, Cleveland State, Vermont, Samford, Coastal Carolina, Lehigh, Bradley, Wright State, Eastern Washington, VMI, Columbia, Eastern Kentucky, Furman, Chattanooga, North Alabama, Kennasaw State, Brown, Utah Valley, Holy Cross, Long Beach State, East Tennessee State, Portland, Cornell, Radford, Drake, Illinois State, Grand Canyon, Santa Clara, Western Carolina, Morehead State, Chicago State, Indiana State, LIPSCOMB, UTA, UNCW, William @Mary, San Francisco, UTRGV, Pacific, just some of the teams who have harder schedules that Liberty. Our schedule ranks 249 out of 353 schools in difficulty.

That's a long list of mid-majors most of whom have not a lot in common except that their Warren Nolan SOS is better than ours. Where to begin? How about the 3 teams in our conference; KSU N Bama and Lipscomb, and let's throw FGCU in there just for kicks and giggles. Did those teams get their rating by aggressively pursuing a tough schedule? Let's see. Out of those 4 teams, only one, N Bama, plays more teams fom P5 conferences; 3 to our 2. KSU and Lipscomb play 1 each and FGCU plays none. Why is their SOS schedule better? A lot of factors, but here is a big one. THEY ALL PLAY US TWICE, WHILE WE PLAY THEM TWICE. That alone is a significant swing. Throw in the fact that Lipscomb, as always, plays a home and home with local Rival Belmont.

The fact is, all but a few of those teams really have almost nothing in common with Liberty when it comes to the factors that affect whether teams want to play you. A lot of them are flat AWFUL. Zero "fear factor". Some of them play in much better conferences than the ASUN, which gives them a huge automatic boost in SOS. A few are good enough to give attractive opponents pause for thought. E Tennessee St., Furman and Vermont for starters. 2 of them play in the Southern, which it right now one of the best MM conferences in the country. Vermont plays UVA and St Johns, but also played Gallaudett (the school for the deaf) and won by 50.

As someone else mentioned, in addition to the fact that opponents know we are good, the system we play works against us. Playing against the pack line is neither easy or fun. It requires extra prep, or you will be embarrassed (and you might be anyway).

[Geraldos Mustache]

The good news for Liberty playing in the ASUN is the automatic NCAA bid for winning the conference tournament. LU is clearly the top team in the ASUN and should likely win the conference tournament barring a "bad night" - which can happen.

If Liberty stays in the ASUN for the next few years and makes back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances, LU will begin to garner national attention. Last's year's #12 over #5 upset was massive for LU's exposure, plus playing #4 VT very tough.

If LU gets to the big dance 3-4 years in a row, imagine what that does for our recruiting? It's already beginning to show positive returns.

NCAA appearances will legitimize the program, then "better games" will be scheduled, then SOS will improve. It's all good. I just want to get past this season having to play teams like KY Christian and Trinity Baptist. I understand WHY it happened. I hope that never happens again.

[olldflame]

The good news for Liberty playing in the ASUN is the automatic NCAA bid for winning the conference tournament. LU is clearly the top team in the ASUN and should likely win the conference tournament barring a "bad night" - which can happen.

If Liberty stays in the ASUN for the next few years and makes back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances, LU will begin to garner national attention. Last's year's #12 over #5 upset was massive for LU's exposure, plus playing #4 VT very tough.

If LU gets to the big dance 3-4 years in a row, imagine what that does for our recruiting? It's already beginning to show positive returns.

NCAA appearances will legitimize the program, then "better games" will be scheduled, then SOS will improve. It's all good. I just want to get past this season having to play teams like KY Christian and Trinity Baptist. I understand WHY it happened. I hope that never happens again.

Hate to disappoint you, but we will almost certainly continue to play 1 or 2 games like that every year for the foreseeable future.

[cruzan_flame13]

The good news for Liberty playing in the ASUN is the automatic NCAA bid for winning the conference tournament. LU is clearly the top team in the ASUN and should likely win the conference tournament barring a "bad night" - which can happen.

If Liberty stays in the ASUN for the next few years and makes back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances, LU will begin to garner national attention. Last's year's #12 over #5 upset was massive for LU's exposure, plus playing #4 VT very tough.

If LU gets to the big dance 3-4 years in a row, imagine what that does for our recruiting? It's already beginning to show positive returns.

NCAA appearances will legitimize the program, then "better games" will be scheduled, then SOS will improve. It's all good. I just want to get past this season having to play teams like KY Christian and Trinity Baptist. I understand WHY it happened. I hope that never happens again.

Hate to disappoint you, but we will almost certainly continue to play 1 or 2 games like that every year for the foreseeable future.

Serious question; how do you know that? Have we made it official in contract form for a specific number of seasons?

[olldflame]

The good news for Liberty playing in the ASUN is the automatic NCAA bid for winning the conference tournament. LU is clearly the top team in the ASUN and should likely win the conference tournament barring a "bad night" - which can happen.

If Liberty stays in the ASUN for the next few years and makes back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances, LU will begin to garner national attention. Last's year's #12 over #5 upset was massive for LU's exposure, plus playing #4 VT very tough.

If LU gets to the big dance 3-4 years in a row, imagine what that does for our recruiting? It's already beginning to show positive returns.

NCAA appearances will legitimize the program, then "better games" will be scheduled, then SOS will improve. It's all good. I just want to get past this season having to play teams like KY Christian and Trinity Baptist. I understand WHY it happened. I hope that never happens again.

Hate to disappoint you, but we will almost certainly continue to play 1 or 2 games like that every year for the foreseeable future.

Serious question; how do you know that? Have we made it official in contract form for a specific number of seasons?

Of course not. Notice I said "almost certainly". No guarantee, but it's a pretty sure thing. Why? There are multiple reasons why 1) we have always done it and 2) virtually every other mid-major program does it.

1. Opportunity early in the season to try things out without risking a loss.
2. Do #1 without negatively affecting your SOS as would happen with a bottom-feeder D1 Team.
3. While the rating services don't count them, they still count as a W, and all the stats count too.
4. Because of the almost 100% refusal of power conference teams (including A-10, AAC and Big East) to play away games against any mid- major, the pool of teams to pick from to make a full home schedule is greatly reduced.
5. In our case, we are providing an opportunity for like-minded schools who have not been blessed as we have.

Are there better teams (solid mid-majors) who would schedule us? Sure there are some. All we have to do is play them at their place. No return game. Do you think there is one team in the ASUN who would even schedule home-and-home with us if they didn't have to?

[olldflame]