ToledoRambler wrote:
The Question is, if you want an at-large, (which I personally believe is an impossibility next year regardless, but for arguments sake), what do you want the pundits saying about our team in the beginning of March? I think you have to play winning teams from as many conferences as possible.
You’ve got 9 games to fill that you have control over. I’d want:
Game 1 - FURMAN - Home
- these guys should continue to be in the top half of their conference, and despite our problems with them, it’s not a bad game to have on the schedule. It is not a throw-away game (like Coppin State should’ve been), and a win helps us. Plus it’s one more home game we don’t have to try to fill.
Game 2 - Murray State (or Belmont)
- these guys are chomping at the bitt (no pun intended) to get into the valley and they seem like they’re willing to play as many valley teams as they can to prove they should be there. This should be a priority to get on our schedule. They are gonna win their league and go to the tourney next year. Make it happen - Preferably at home.
Game 3 - A Top 3 MAC team - Buffalo is coming off another 20 win season, and maybe Whitesell might be interested in some redemption. Both porter and Jim worked for Majaris. Maybe Porter can get this game on the schedule. If not, shoot for somebody in the conference with a high probability of a winning record.
Game 4 - Northern Kentucky (or Wright State)
- grab top tier horizon league team and hope they finish in the top 100-120.
Game 5 - Iona (at home)
- This game would be PR only. Try to schedule this game early and get Pitino into Gentile. Local media will come for it and hopefully it gets us some early press buzz. Pitch it to Rick as a chance to recruit Chicago and play in a sold-out arena (which it would be).
Game 6 - DePaul (or Northwestern)
- Porter needs to get public and vocal about getting one of these games.
Game 7 - ACC buy game.
- whatever we can get.
game 8 - VCU
- we should be a 20+ win team and maybe they would want us to try and build a resume. They are up and coming.
Game 9 - UIC
- I miss this game. I want it to come back.
My schedule would be:
Furman (home)
Murray State (home)
Buffalo (home)
Iona (home)
Bowling Green (home)
VCU (away)
North Carolina (away)
UIC (“away”)
DePaul/NW (away)
Dayton - MTE
Charlotte - MTE
Missouri - MTE
(MTE teams I don’t want -Pitt, penn, Utah State)
I could see us going 10-2 or 8-5 with that schedule, but either way, I think it would give us a decent NET and prepare us for the Valley. It’s probably pretty ambitious.
All in all this is a good schedule.
You're forgetting our return game at Davidson; you can probably swap that out with VCU.
The MTE opponents you would want could very well change. Dayton will NOT have a NET ranking of 3. Just a quick perusal of the NET of our MTE opponents, but I think Nebraska is the worst opponent in that tournament based on 2019-20 NET. They're going to have a ton of transfers eligible next year. I don't think they win the Big 10, but I bet they're not nearly as much of a drag as they would have been this year.
Speaking of the difficulty of projecting NET, I mentioned this on the MVC Fans: I think Pitino will not coach a game for them. It's too bad of a look for the NCAA not to hammer him with a massive suspension. But Iona still wouldn't be a terrible buy opponent. And scheduling Murray State, an above average Horizon League and MAC school wouldn't be bad either.
I still don't see any of the Chicago area teams playing us next year (as an aside, can you believe DePaul is giving Leitao an extension?! What a complete waste of money in what's probably going to be a major recession).
I love the P5 buy game. I still don't think you see Porter schedule it unless it's a neutral court game against a school like Vanderbilt.
One more thing: don't we have a game at the United Center next year? Hopefully it's a really quality opponent.