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Date Posted: 00:31:35 06/09/04 Wed
Author: Gate Raider
Subject: It's travel
In reply to:
hchoops
's message, "bucknell's hoops sched" on 11:10:51 06/07/04 Mon
Pitt, Penn, and St. Joe's are all easy travel games for Bucknell. You guys should concentrate on BC, Prov. and Conn. and you would stack up just as well. Gate plays Syracuse away every year - does that really mean anything?
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Re: OOC schedule @HC vs. Bucknell's -- Rick, 09:04:20 06/09/04 Wed
Question #9 from a 2002 Q&A with Ralph Willard....
9. There has been a lot of discussion about scheduling difficulties due to our recent success. What difficulties have you encountered in scheduling games and what can be done to overcome these difficulties?
When I first got here, everyone was calling to play us. Now, no one will play us. Northeastern, Vermont, Hartford, Yale, New Hampshire, UMass, and Providence have all dropped us. The basic reality is that coaches feel they can’t afford to lose to a Patriot League team and our showing in the NCAA’s the past two years has made us a very credible threat. I have friends at the so-called “major” schools and they basically say “if you were in my position, would you play you?” Unfortunately, most of the fans at these schools think of our league as the bottom of the college basketball food chain and a loss would be intolerable. So, no coach wants to play a “no win” game that they might lose. With Providence, UMass, and UConn, I have tried to sell the history of the rivalry, but to no avail. There is virtually nothing that can be done to combat this as long as RPI and a 65-team NCAA field remain in place.
On this point, I have been asked at different Alumni outings what can be done to improve our RPI and possible NCAA seeding. The answer is nothing and it doesn’t matter. The Patriot League will never get higher than a 15 seed until it wins an NCAA tourney game (we are the only league that hasn’t). As a coach at this level, my goal is not RPI (we were 88 in 2001 and received a 15 seed). Any league game will bring down your RPI no matter who you play out of conference, and honestly, the only thing that matters is winning the conference tournament and that means playing your best basketball in March. Everything you do in terms of scheduling, player rotation, etc. must be geared for that to happen. This is the level of our league and we should understand the positives and the limitations that are the reality of its place in college basketball.
What Bucknell has accomplished for it's 2004-05 OOC schedule appears to directly contradict Ralph's views and/or experiences as of 2002 as to what avenues are available to HC.
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Re: OOC schedule @HC vs. Bucknell's -- HC1843, 09:44:33 06/09/04 Wed
Bucknell's men's team has not danced in quite some time and until they do and scare or beat a team in the first round, they will not face the same problems that HC now faces.
This being said, if HC has another off year like last year, we should start getting some more "high quality" games in the OOC.
Then again, I would like to see the coaching staff enter into some short-term contracts (i.e. 3 years) where we go after better teams and agree ideally to a two for one, but if necessary agree to 100% travel.
Does anyone know if Coach W is still looking for a 3rd recruit or if he will save the schollie to reload more players next year?
Cheers.
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Re: OOC schedule @HC vs. Bucknell's -- Fred, 10:14:10 06/09/04 Wed
I am curious about this issue. I am a fan of both HC and Boston U.
BU typically has some big names on their schedule and have acually defeated both Florida State and Michigan. The American East is not much better than the PL.
Why can't Holy Cross do the same?
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Re: OOC schedule @HC vs. Bucknell's - Fred -- Rick, 10:45:22 06/09/04 Wed
Part of the answer is above....
Where has BU played those 'big' games ? On the road....although I suspect that may change when BU's new Agganis Arena is finished.
The Patriot ranked 26TH ( America East 23rd ) out of 32 D-I hoops conferences last season in RPI index.
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Re: OOC schedule @HC vs. Bucknell's - Fred -- pittman, 11:21:31 06/09/04 Wed
If,as you say, the Patriot League is rated #26 out of 32 conferences, how did it get relegated to the PLAY-IN game for yhe NCAA's this year?
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Re: LU & play-in....pitt -- Rick, 13:05:25 06/09/04 Wed
dunno....
In going back and looking at both the conf. & team RPI rankings for NCAA Tourney participants it appears that the play-in game should have been Alabama State ( .4264 RPI and a #16 seed ) instead of Lehigh ( .4666 RPI ) VS. Florida A&M ( .4169 RPI ). Plus, Alabama State played in one of the few conferences ranked below the Patriot ( error in my post to Fred above - 31 conferences not 32 in total )
Can't recall if we discussed this here or if/how the NCAA arrived at this match-up.
anyone ?
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Re: LU & play-in....pitt -- Ray, 17:23:13 06/09/04 Wed
Consensus at the time was that the NCAA has a desire to rotate the PI-game slots among as many conferences/teams as possible, within reason. Lehigh was, IIRC, #3 from the bottom in terms of RPI of the 65-team field, and the PL having never had a PI-game entrant (but the lower two conferences/teams having been relegated previously), the NCAA took the opportunity to send the PL champ, since it was at least a defensible selection.
Also discussed was that there's a subtle element of race involved there, since the bottom-rated conferences that most often end up in the PI game are from the SWAC and MEAC, two conferences strongly populated by "historically black" colleges. I don't know whether any of the SWAC/MEAC people are complaining about this, but now the NCAA can defend themselves by saying that they've had two Northeastern private schools (LU and Siena) in the PI game in the last 4(?) years.
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Re: OOC schedule @HC vs. Bucknell's - Fred -- Fred, 11:53:15 06/09/04 Wed
Rick,
You make some good points above. The schedule should be geared towards winning the league tournament. BU played an ambitious schedule, but were upset in the first game of their tourney.
It's league schedule that hurts HC, not the OOC schedule.
The RPI of 23 of the American East is not appreciably different than that of the PL (26), IMO.
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