2018-19 Schedule

[ACE]

Please add or correct with any info posters may know, but this is what I think we know for sure at this point...

HOME: Butler, Oregon State

AWAY: Houston, SIU-C

 

[wgstl]

4 minutes ago, ACE said:

Please add or correct with any info posters may know, but this is what I think we know for sure at this point...

HOME: Butler, Oregon State

AWAY: Houston, SIU-C

 

ha, I was thinking about starting this threat a few minutes ago. weird. 

[ACE]

Just now, wgstl said:

ha, I was thinking about starting this threat a few minutes ago. weird. 

Great minds, of course 

[wgstl]

we've got to be hearing about our early season tournament soon, right?  

[Box and Won]

Was Detroit a one-and-one?  We played a game in their building when Majerus was coach.

[Quality Is Job 1]

35 minutes ago, Box and Won said:

Was Detroit a one-and-one?  We played a game in their building when Majerus was coach.

Detroit was part of the exempt tourney.

[Pistol]

Looking at last year's schedule, I think you have all four games that would be the back end of a home-and-home deal, without any others carrying over.

Seattle, VT, Providence, and Detroit were all part of an event.

SEMO, Campbell, Murray State, and Western Michigan were all buy games (right?).

I'm going to assume we bring Rockhurst back yet again.

So yeah, Butler and Oregon State (and probably Rockhurst) at home, SIUC and Houston on the road. And that's it until further announcements are made.

[slu72]

It's the off season and right now we have little info on where we stand w/ our final scholarship, ie grad transfer, JUCO, transfer, or FR, so why not use this time to discuss what our ideal OCC schedule should be.

What we know:

Home; OSU and Butler  Away: Houston, SIUC. Not a bad start to as we have a PAC 12, Beast, and AAC school. Don't know about OSU but the other two should be decent resume builders if we win them. Don't know what SIUC's got in store for us, but it's usually not a game to take for granted.

So, who would you like to see fill in the other 13 or so games we'll face in the OOC? Definitely we'll get our usual 3 lower mid buy games. I'd like to see these teams be at least in the top half of their respective conferences. Say somewhere in the 150-200 range. Add in two more w/ mids who are predicted to make the dance would be a nice addition; eg Loyola-CHI, College of Charleston, Horizon top dog. That brings total games to 9.

Hopefully, we get a good tourney w/ a mix of P5's  and top tier mids.  That's 2-3 solid games for the resume. Something like that Anaheim tourney we won back the 11-12 season would be nice invite or a repeat of the MSG classic this past year. A tourney will 2-3, so we're now at 11-12.

Round it out w/ 1 or 2 games vs P5's w/ projected RPI's of below 60 would seem to give us a solid body of OOC work. Preferably a game or two against a team from the Big 10, SEC, or ACC.  A home and home with ND would surely fill the Fetz, same for UK, or an IU. Wonder if we could talk KU into a home and home just to stick it to Mizzery.

[billiken_roy]

all games should be acc, big 10, big 12, sec, or big east teams or else the opponent should be a team that was ranked last year in the top 25.   all games should be a part of a 2 year home and away deal and have equal amounts of home and away games.     thats who i would like to see for our "other games" ooc.   no buy games.  

[gobillsgo]

2 minutes ago, slu72 said:

It's the off season and right now we have little info on where we stand w/ our final scholarship, ie grad transfer, JUCO, transfer, or FR, so why not use this time to discuss what our ideal OCC schedule should be.

What we know:

Home; OSU and Butler  Away: Houston, SIUC. Not a bad start to as we have a PAC 12, Beast, and AAC school. Don't know about OSU but the other two should be decent resume builders if we win them. Don't know what SIUC's got in store for us, but it's usually not a game to take for granted.

So, who would you like to see fill in the other 13 or so games we'll face in the OOC? Definitely we'll get our usual 3 lower mid buy games. I'd like to see these teams be at least in the top half of their respective conferences. Say somewhere in the 150-200 range. Add in two more w/ mids who are predicted to make the dance would be a nice addition; eg Loyola-CHI, College of Charleston, Horizon top dog. That brings total games to 9.

Hopefully, we get a good tourney w/ a mix of P5's  and top tier mids.  That's 2-3 solid games for the resume. Something like that Anaheim tourney we won back the 11-12 season would be nice invite or a repeat of the MSG classic this past year. A tourney will 2-3, so we're now at 11-12.

Round it out w/ 1 or 2 games vs P5's w/ projected RPI's of below 60 would seem to give us a solid body of OOC work. Preferably a game or two against a team from the Big 10, SEC, or ACC.  A home and home with ND would surely fill the Fetz, same for UK, or an IU. Wonder if we could talk KU into a home and home just to stick it to Mizzery.

KU is interesting.  I don't think there's any way they'd agree to a home and home.  But maybe two for one- two there and one here.  In a couple years the Jacobs brothers would be acing off.

[wgstl]

24 minutes ago, slu72 said:

 

Home; OSU and Butler  Away: Houston, SIUC. Not a bad start to as we have a PAC 12, Beast, and AAC school. Don't know about OSU but the other two should be decent resume builders if we win them. Don't know what SIUC's got in store for us, but it's usually not a game to take for granted.

 

SIU should be pretty good, maybe even compete for the MVC title. They return their 4 top scorer's, and 5 of the top 6. 

[Box and Won]

33 minutes ago, slu72 said:

So, who would you like to see fill in the other 13 or so games we'll face in the OOC?

I'd like to make Memphis a fixture on the schedule, like SIUC is and Dayton was before we joined the A10.

[wgstl]

4 minutes ago, Box and Won said:

I'd like to make Memphis a fixture on the schedule, like SIUC is and Dayton was before we joined the A10.

wish we could have played Memphis of the past few years, not so much next year and on. 

[billiken_roy]

the goal should always be at minimum making the ncaa tourney as an at large team.    if your schedule and performance is good enough for that, you dont have to sweat the conference tourney or rpi, etc.   it will take care of itself.   buy games are counter productive for this.   typically even if you win they bring down your rpi and god forbid you have a bad night or two and lose a buy game or two.   

If you schedule hard with a minimum to no buy games, and you lose, well you probably werent good enough to make the tourney anyway.  

 

if you dont want to do that, you have no choice as a mid major to always win the conference tourney.   a lot of pressure for a 3-5 game tourney in 3-5 days a long way from home with no days off to prepare.  

[JMM28]

1 hour ago, billiken_roy said:

all games should be acc, big 10, big 12, sec, or big east teams or else the opponent should be a team that was ranked last year in the top 25.   all games should be a part of a 2 year home and away deal and have equal amounts of home and away games.     thats who i would like to see for our "other games" ooc.   no buy games.  

Take a dump in one hand and schedule with this philosophy in the other and see which fills up faster. I like this philosophy, it just has zero chance of happening or working. And then you'd have people bitching that season ticket prices are the same even though there are only 13 home games. 

[gobillsgo]

Do we know if Ford expects to be in an early season tournament next year?  I'd hope so... it's one of the best ways to pick up quality OOC games.  But it seems like most have been announced by now, no?

[wgstl]

2 hours ago, gobillsgo said:

Do we know if Ford expects to be in an early season tournament next year?  I'd hope so... it's one of the best ways to pick up quality OOC games.  But it seems like most have been announced by now, no?

There are still a few open spots, I could be wrong but I feel like we didn't know until around this time last year what tournament we would be in maybe  even a little later.

[brianstl]

1 hour ago, wgstl said:

There are still a few open spots, I could be wrong but I feel like we didn't know until around this time last year what tournament we would be in maybe  even a little later.

Only four traditional bracket tournaments have open spots left right now.  Two of those with openings already have A10 teams.  That leaves Hall of Fame Belfast and the Cancun Challenge. Six spots open total in those four tournament with 15 teams total from the P5 + BE without a tournament.

There have been some round robin events announced that have some spots.  There might be hope for another tournament announced with so many bigger programs without a tournament right now.

[slu72]

18 hours ago, billiken_roy said:

the goal should always be at minimum making the ncaa tourney as an at large team.    if your schedule and performance is good enough for that, you dont have to sweat the conference tourney or rpi, etc.   it will take care of itself.   buy games are counter productive for this.   typically even if you win they bring down your rpi and god forbid you have a bad night or two and lose a buy game or two.   

If you schedule hard with a minimum to no buy games, and you lose, well you probably werent good enough to make the tourney anyway.  

 

if you dont want to do that, you have no choice as a mid major to always win the conference tourney.   a lot of pressure for a 3-5 game tourney in 3-5 days a long way from home with no days off to prepare.  

I don't see this as realistic at all. First, I wouldn't think Coach Ford would favor this schedule. He wants some easy games, at least on the surface, to fine tune and learn his team's strengths and weaknesses. Second, he'd be risking a lot of losses that are not going to help the resume come March. Third, unlikely we can stack the deck with all P5, BE, and AAC schools. Even the elites don't do that, although they get their fare share because that's where the money is.

I think a strong schedule is to play a minimum of 5 P5 + Beast and AAC schools that are above the middle of the pack in their conferences, see Butler and Houston for examples. We get another two in a tourney like the MSG Coaches Classic. What we we've been missing recently were games against strong mid major programs like Loyola and CofC that made the tourney. Others that come to mind; Marshall, St.Mary's, Nevada, BYU, NM, you get the idea. We should shoot for 4- 5 teams in this group. Then slip in 3 buy games for evaluation. Not Savannah St types but teams that are projected in the top tier of the lower mids.

While the A10 appears to be trending down we will likely see 2-3 teams dancing and, for the most part, the 18 game conf sched is a good resume builder. But just to be safe let's win the tourney and erase any doubt come selection Sunday. This board will blow up if we find ourselves on the bubble and get turned down.

 

[billiken_roy]

the elites dont do it because the ncaa tourney folk think the elites are above that since their conferences are so much tougher.  (b.s. imo).   

[ACE]

You can schedule some good buy games. The staff just has to make sure they do their homework. Last year, Murray State was a good example. They had an RPI of 51, and we wound up getting the win.

[kshoe]

The elites don't play schools like SLU because those conferences all play 18 or 20 game conference schedules. Teams only get 31 games total and want 17 or 18 of them to be at home.

This is how it shakes out:

18 conference games - 9 at home

4 tournament games - 2 at home

1 conference challenge game - 0.5 at home

1 rivalry game - 0.5 at home (For these games think about UW/Marq, Louisville/UK, Villnova vs. Philly 5, Purdue, Butler, Indiana, ND round robin, RI vs. Providence, etc. Obviously our natural game for that is chicken so it won't happen) 

So now you have accounted for 24 games with 12 at home. That leaves 7 games, 5 of which need to be at home if you want 17 home games. That allows for 4 HH series if you want 17 home games and only 2 HH if you want 18 home games.

Schools like SLU don't currently excite local fan bases so unless they have a player from the St. Louis area you are looking for a minor miracle to get these P5 schools to agree to a HH with you. 

[cgeldmacher]

I think that a reasonable option for a home and home is Loyola Chicago.  They would essentially replace what we have had the past two seasons with Wichita State.  They will be top 25 to start the season, which is a huge plus.

As far as Loyola Chicago wanting to play us, I have a feeling that they will have the same problem that we have in that no one will want to come to their gym to play them.  If no top conference school will go there, they need to look to conferences such as the A-10 for decent competition in their non-conference schedule.  SLU or Dayton or both make the most sense since we would be willing to go there and the road game will be close enough for some of Loyola's fans to attend.  Also, if Moser is actually planning on staying at Loyola through his new 8 year contract, I'm sure he wouldn't mind building inroads into St. Louis recruiting.

[Scoop]

We should sign a long term deal with Memphis.  We would travel well there.

[Matty Light]

On 4/25/2018 at 2:56 PM, slu72 said:

It's the off season and right now we have little info on where we stand w/ our final scholarship, ie grad transfer, JUCO, transfer, or FR, so why not use this time to discuss what our ideal OCC schedule should be.

What we know:

Home; OSU and Butler  Away: Houston, SIUC. Not a bad start to as we have a PAC 12, Beast, and AAC school. Don't know about OSU but the other two should be decent resume builders if we win them. Don't know what SIUC's got in store for us, but it's usually not a game to take for granted.

So, who would you like to see fill in the other 13 or so games we'll face in the OOC? Definitely we'll get our usual 3 lower mid buy games. I'd like to see these teams be at least in the top half of their respective conferences. Say somewhere in the 150-200 range. Add in two more w/ mids who are predicted to make the dance would be a nice addition; eg Loyola-CHI, College of Charleston, Horizon top dog. That brings total games to 9.

Hopefully, we get a good tourney w/ a mix of P5's  and top tier mids.  That's 2-3 solid games for the resume. Something like that Anaheim tourney we won back the 11-12 season would be nice invite or a repeat of the MSG classic this past year. A tourney will 2-3, so we're now at 11-12.

Round it out w/ 1 or 2 games vs P5's w/ projected RPI's of below 60 would seem to give us a solid body of OOC work. Preferably a game or two against a team from the Big 10, SEC, or ACC.  A home and home with ND would surely fill the Fetz, same for UK, or an IU. Wonder if we could talk KU into a home and home just to stick it to Mizzery.

If Tyler Cook eventually pulls out of the NBA Draft, I would love to see a home-and-home with the Iowa Hawkeyes.  The first game would have to be at the Fetz so Cook gets a chance to play in his hometown.