Billiken Law Posted August 6, 2004 Share Posted August 6, 2004 Damn impressive non-conference slate: Perhaps the motto needs an update. Don't mess with Texas . . . unless ESPN gets involved. In that case, mess with Texas in early January, even if it makes your basketball schedule more difficult than the most ambitious fan might want. "I just think we have to take advantage of every challenge that's thrown at us and every opportunity we get to be on national television," said University of Memphis coach John Calipari. "So that's why we're doing it." Thus, Memphis will begin a home-and-home series with Texas this season, playing at the Erwin Center in Austin on either Jan. 5 or 6. Consequently, the Tigers' 2004-05 schedule appears to be the toughest of the Calipari era, a slate of games that should help boost excitement heading into the first season at FedExForum. "Top to bottom this will be the best schedule we've played," Calipari said. "And the home schedule, it'll be the best by far." The official schedule is still several weeks from being finalized, but opponents for 26 of the 27 regular-season contests and both exhibitions are set. It breaks down like this: Exhibition games will be against Christian Brothers University and LeMoyne-Owen College. Home Conference USA games will be against Louisville, Cincinnati, Marquette, DePaul, Southern Miss, Tulane, TCU and East Carolina. Nonconference foes visiting FedExForum are Providence, Ole Miss, Arkansas State, East Tennessee State, Louisiana Tech, Austin Peay and one, yet-to-be-determined, mid-major school. Road games will be at Louisville, TCU, Southern Miss, Charlotte, Houston, South Florida, Saint Louis, UAB, Purdue and Texas. Neutral-site games will be against Maryland in the Hall of Fame Classic in Springfield, Mass., and against Pittsburgh in the Jimmy V Classic at New York's Madison Square Garden. Add it all up, reference the Internet, and the numbers are impressive. Of the Tigers' 27 games, 11 will be against teams that played in the NCAA Tournament last season. Nine of the opponents appear in ESPN.com's Andy Katz's preseason Top 50 rankings, with Louisville (13th), Maryland (14) Pittsburgh (18) and Texas (21) in the upper half. Katz listed Memphis at No. 19. "Playing against competition like this is just going to get me better," said Tiger freshman Richard Dorsey. "It'll get me better, get me ready for the next season." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3star_recruit Posted August 6, 2004 Share Posted August 6, 2004 What's so impressive about this non-conference schedule? There's only two ranked teams on it just like ours -- Providence and Texas. Edit: My bad, didn't see the Maryland and Pitt references at the bottom. P.S. Does anyone here really believe that Louisvlle will be the 13th best team in the country? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted August 6, 2004 Share Posted August 6, 2004 with the state of the "future" cusa, memphis has to have a killer non-conference schedule to be considered for at large bids in the rare case they dont walk through the cusa tourney each year after sweeping the conference regular season each year. cusa will become a one or two bid conference on par with the mvc after this season. my guess is they wont even be a top 10 conference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted August 6, 2004 Share Posted August 6, 2004 i believe louisville will be extremely strong. just having all the guards back is impressive. garcia should be a contender for the best player in the country. and even without telfair, their recruiting class is still probably a top 10 recruiting class with 3 extremely touted inside players and hargrave's shooting guard from last year, lorenzo wade. no i think 13 is conservative actually. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kshoe Posted August 6, 2004 Share Posted August 6, 2004 UAB and Memphis are strong programs and Tulsa has a very strong basketball history. I think they will get 2 every year and supsect they'll have a bunch of 3 team years. I agree memphis has to improve their non-conference schedule if they want to remain a national program and they appear to be doing so. I wish our non-conference schedule was this difficult. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted August 6, 2004 Share Posted August 6, 2004 uab is on the upswing with the fine work anderson has done, but i would hardly call them an annual given. tulsa might be going somewhat in the other direction and it is my guess they hope this conference move helps stave that off. now add in the fact that the other new additions are horrible, and i stand by the mvc comparison. the mvc has had a couple of three team years, but most years are a one or two team league. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kshoe Posted August 6, 2004 Share Posted August 6, 2004 because in a year I'll care about it as much as I care about the WAC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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