[bigsmooth]

from the roanoke fishwrap:

Tough opponents for Radford, VMI
Radford men's basketball coach Brad Greenberg said his team will visit Georgetown this season.

The Highlanders will open the season at Michigan.

Other nonleague road games include South Carolina, Air Force, Eastern Michigan and James Madison.

Greenberg has finalized plans to host West Virginia; that game will be on Dec. 19.

Radford will also play future Big South members Gardner-Webb and Presbyterian both home and away.

n VMI's 107-69 loss at Ohio State last November didn't scar coach Duggar Baucom. He has scheduled another visit to Ohio State for this season.

The Keydets will open the season against Northern Colorado in a tournament at Air Force. The Falcons will face Dartmouth in the other first-round game.

VMI will host JMU, Army and Howard. The Keydets will visit Richmond, William and Mary, South Carolina State and Mercer.

[JDUB]

good for them. they'll be experienced in losing when they get here, so it won't hurt as bad

[JK37]

The game against WVU is a return for two Radford trips up there. Beilein hated the prospect of going into a small school's gym, but he made the deal so Darris Nichols could play close to home.

And yes, by the looks of things, Greenberg has scheduled himself one HECK of a tough of a year...

[olldflame]

I can't for the life of me think of any reason other than $$ Radford would want to travel to Georgetown, Michigan and South Carolina. If the theory is to get toughened up for conference play, look no further than UNCA to see how well that works.

[Realist]

I can't for the life of me think of any reason other than $$ Radford would want to travel to Georgetown, Michigan and South Carolina. If the theory is to get toughened up for conference play, look no further than UNCA to see how well that works.

I, for one, am glad they have stepped it up. The benefits of playing a tough schedule far outweight any negatives. For one, their RPI, and thus the rest of the conference's rpi, is going to go up, even if they lose the majority, or all, of the games. They probably would be losing most of them anyway this year, no matter who they play. It also sets a tone for his program, that if he can turn RU around, he can sell recruits on the schedule. I just think in the big picture it is beneficial for all the Big South schools to schedule like this. VMI looks like they are going the opposite route, unfortunately.

[LUconn]

I disagree. Money sure is nice. I guess getting killed by these teams will hurt their RPI less than the other teams that they will lose to. But to me this looks like a classic example from the pages of the Ken Karcher handbook for scheduling. This team will have absolutely no confidence in themselves coming into league play.

[TIMSCAR20]

I doubt Greenberg had anything to do with most of this schedule. As a new coach, you have to deal with what your predecessor has done. There is some flexibility but for the most part you have contracts 2 or 3 years in advance for many of the dates...Also Money is the only motivator to play up really unless you are a mid major that might get an automatic bid or are from a multi-bid mid major conference. Selling a recruit that you are playing Michigan is also a factor but not even close to the reason why you would play up. Simple economics. Asheville plays all of those money games each year to subsidize their entire athletic program. At least that is how it was explained to me by Bidenbaugh a few years ago. As far as the affect it has on the psychy of the team? Well that is up for debate and depends on the mental toughness of the team. It can make them really confident once they play teams on par with their talent or it can make them doubt that they are even division 1 basketball players.

[Realist]

So we're advocating playing patsies? How does that help you? Now I agree a Big South team shouldn't play 10-12 games against the ACC, SEC, and Big East, but I think trying to get 4-6 against them, then the others against strong mid-majors with presumed good RPI's would only be beneficial. Beating up on Savannah Sts, William and Mary's, and ETSU's can only get you so far. I think a good OOC SOS would be in the 75-100 range. If everyone does that, it will raise the profile of the league. Of course, winning those games helps that too----but the more you schedule like that, the more chance you have of winning those, instead of just getting two games like that. You keep playing the best, your chances improve, not just from a numbers perspective, but also the team learns how to win against opponents of that caliber.

[TIMSCAR20]

So we're advocating playing patsies? How does that help you? Now I agree a Big South team shouldn't play 10-12 games against the ACC, SEC, and Big East, but I think trying to get 4-6 against them, then the others against strong mid-majors with presumed good RPI's would only be beneficial. Beating up on Savannah Sts, William and Mary's, and ETSU's can only get you so far. I think a good OOC SOS would be in the 75-100 range. If everyone does that, it will raise the profile of the league. Of course, winning those games helps that too----but the more you schedule like that, the more chance you have of winning those, instead of just getting two games like that. You keep playing the best, your chances improve, not just from a numbers perspective, but also the team learns how to win against opponents of that caliber.

I see your point Realist and I am certainly not saying just play patsies. All I am saying is from a coaches perspective, you play money games for money for the most part. All that talk you hear coaches saying about getting their team ready with a tough OOC schedule is just rhetoric most of the time except for when you have a decent mid major team that you think has a chance to make some noise early in the season like WU has for the past decade or so. Of course, no one wants to pay you when you have a chance to beat them so it becomes a catch 22 of sorts. Scheduling is one of the most difficult things to do as a coach and you are not going to please anyone it seems so I say if I am the head coach, I would only consider my program and not what others thought about the schedule. If the program needs confidence like our football team did when Rocco came in, he needed to schedule some wins and he did that. If you have a veteran team that has won a lot like Randy Peele is taking over, then you approach it from a different direction. Truth be told for Liberty all that matters is what happens in the big south. I know WU would like the RPI of the conference to be higher for their own benefit but it doesn't matter that much to the rest of the league that is trying to prepare their teams for a run through the big south Tournament.