[olldflame]

Big conference teams are notorious for avoiding potentially competitive out of conference road games. Teams will play us as long as it's in their gym. We could schedule 5 or 6 of these and potentially put 5 loses on our schedule. Plus We'll never get a home date in return. Ian and McKay are smart to get these bigger programs on a neutral court......whenever we can.

Actually, it has been a struggle to get those teams to play us even at their place. The beauty of the in-season tournaments is that the teams really don't have a say about who else is in them.

The solution to our non-conference scheduling issues is the same thing that created the problem. Winning. Do enough of it so that we are no longer perceived as a bad loss and they will be less likely to avoid us. I think we are getting close.

[Just John]

Maybe I've missed this conversation in the past but why do we struggle so much to schedule halfway decent ooc games? It seems like we should be stacking our schedule with sunbelt, a10 and other decent regional schools with the occasional p5. Instead we end up with non d1 or the weakest d1 teams in the country.

Check with UCLA, especially former coach Steve Alford.

[Ill flame]

Few teams want to play us.

Lose to us and it looks bad.

Beat us and nobody cares.

I think this is true for high major teams that don't need a tough ooc schedule. I would think at this point we would be considered good enough by mid majors to potentially give their resume a boost. The only way we are going to be perceived as a good win is to regularly win in the ncaa tourney. Gonzaga made one elite 8 and 2 sweet 16s in a row and it still took some time after that to completely change the perception. C-usa should help us recruit better athletes to get us there though.

[paradox]

Big conference teams are notorious for avoiding potentially competitive out of conference road games. Teams will play us as long as it's in their gym. We could schedule 5 or 6 of these and potentially put 5 loses on our schedule. Plus We'll never get a home date in return. Ian and McKay are smart to get these bigger programs on a neutral court......whenever we can.

Actually, it has been a struggle to get those teams to play us even at their place. The beauty of the in-season tournaments is that the teams really don't have a say about who else is in them.

The solution to our non-conference scheduling issues is the same thing that created the problem. Winning. Do enough of it so that we are no longer perceived as a bad loss and they will be less likely to avoid us. I think we are getting close.

I'll give you that. The goal should always be to rise to the level where scheduling us becomes more attractive. You do that by winning. It's about competition. That's all it is.

I'm not buying the people avoiding us bit though.

[LUOrange]

I don't completely buy the "nobody wants to play us argument, although I don't doubt MBB's scheduling difficulties. It's also possible that being big dog out of the ASUN hurts scheduling too. McKay pretty much stated that being in CUSA 4.0 with a better conference RPI/NET ranking should help with scheduling. My questions with OOC scheduling are: 1) Why aren't we scheduling more regional opponents? 2) Why haven't we scheduled more of our Christian/religious D1 schools like ORU, Abilene Christian, CBU, BYU, etc.? 3) Why haven't we leveraged football scheduling with MBB games with UMass, UConn, ODU & NMSU and others?

[olldflame]

I don't completely buy the "nobody wants to play us argument, although I don't doubt MBB's scheduling difficulties. It's also possible that being big dog out of the ASUN hurts scheduling too. McKay pretty much stated that being in CUSA 4.0 with a better conference RPI/NET ranking should help with scheduling. My questions with OOC scheduling are: 1) Why aren't we scheduling more regional opponents? 2) Why haven't we scheduled more of our Christian/religious D1 schools like ORU, Abilene Christian, CBU, BYU, etc.? 3) Why haven't we leveraged football scheduling with MBB games with UMass, UConn, ODU & NMSU and others?

A lot of "why haven't wes" there. My personal take is that Ritchie McKay has been asked about the schedule on multiple occasions, and "people don't want to play us" is what he is saying. It started when our beating UCLA got Steve Alford fired. The way I look at it, for me to "not completely buy" that argument would basically be calling him a liar.

[SumItUp]

RMK has made more direct scheduling requests in the last two years than any other basketball coach in the history of the NCAA and it's been difficult to get the opponents. That statement is not meant to be hyperbolic.

[ballcoach15]

A couple seasons ago, I heard that Coach McKay, personally called every team in the ACC, in an attempt to schedule games. They all said no.

[paradox]

So, where are we going with this fellas? Isn't there a game at LSU on Monday? Maybe we should wait and see how that goes first, before we start with all the ridiculous trash talk.

[LUOrange]

I don't completely buy the "nobody wants to play us argument, although I don't doubt MBB's scheduling difficulties. It's also possible that being big dog out of the ASUN hurts scheduling too. McKay pretty much stated that being in CUSA 4.0 with a better conference RPI/NET ranking should help with scheduling. My questions with OOC scheduling are: 1) Why aren't we scheduling more regional opponents? 2) Why haven't we scheduled more of our Christian/religious D1 schools like ORU, Abilene Christian, CBU, BYU, etc.? 3) Why haven't we leveraged football scheduling with MBB games with UMass, UConn, ODU & NMSU and others?

A lot of "why haven't wes" there. My personal take is that Ritchie McKay has been asked about the schedule on multiple occasions, and "people don't want to play us" is what he is saying. It started when our beating UCLA got Steve Alford fired. The way I look at it, for me to "not completely buy" that argument would basically be calling him a liar.

Oh good grief.

[jbock13]

I mean, it all comes down to the fact that you more about basketball scheduling than RMK, apparently.