Billikens pull out of Nebraska MTE, LSU to play at Chaifetz

[brianstl]

 

[brianstl]

No fans

 

[Speyburn]

https://slubillikens.com/news/2020/11/20/mens-basketball-to-host-billiken-classic-next-week.aspx

[Pistol]

Official release for the Billiken Classic.

I guess this means LSU is out of the Lincoln MTE, as well.

[brianstl]

Lot of schedule news breaking.

 

[brianstl]

2 minutes ago, Pistol said:

Official release for the Billiken Classic.

I guess this means LSU is out of the Lincoln MTE, as well.

I like that Danny Brown's team is getting a game out of this.

[ACE]

This is some crazy sh!t. Glad we're keeping LSU (for now).  SIUE is bad, but i don't think playing Nebraska would have helped a great deal. Even though they are B10, they are projected to be really bad.

[MichaelC]

7 minutes ago, brianstl said:

Buckle up! This season is going to be a non-stop roller coaster ride. 

 

[Pistol]

LSU would've had WKU and San Francisco. We started thinking we had 3 games against UNI, Nebraska, and LSU and lost UNI with no replacement. Clearly both schools saw no point in staying in the event without stronger opponents.

[MichaelC]

2 minutes ago, ACE said:

This is some crazy sh!t. Glad we're keeping LSU (for now).  SIUE is bad, but i don't think playing Nebraska would have helped a great deal. Even though they are B10, they are projected to be really bad.

Yeah, still it would have been nice to start the season with 2 power 5s

[Pistol]

8 minutes ago, brianstl said:

Lot of schedule news breaking.

 

I think we can call the final schedule now, with the @ Bonaventure date still pending.

11/25 - vs. SIUE
11/28 - vs. LSU
12/5 - vs. Arkansas-Pine Bluff
12/8 - vs. Central Arkansas
12/12 - vs. Evansville
12/15 - vs. Indiana State
12/20 - @ Minnesota
12/23 - vs. Kansas City
And then the already announced A10 schedule.

[HoosierPal]

WOW.  I go outside for two hours to rake leaves, and the MTE World blows up.  Stu's hidden message this morning of SLU was pissed losing Northern Iowa game has validity.

Ok, so how many changes to the SLU MTE between today and the 25th?  I'm disappointed we aren't playing The Eutectic

To answer the question, SIUC is out with Covid until Nov 27.  So they were not a valid addition.

 

[ACE]

8 minutes ago, Pistol said:

I think we can call the final schedule now, with the @ Bonaventure date still pending.

11/25 - vs. SIUE
11/28 - vs. LSU
12/5 - vs. Arkansas-Pine Bluff
12/8 - vs. Central Arkansas
12/12 - vs. Evansville
12/15 - vs. Indiana State
12/20 - @ Minnesota
12/23 - vs. Kansas City
And then the already announced A10 schedule.

The LSU and MN games will be the two big potential non-con resume builders.

[A10Ref]

The LSU game is going to be funnnnn. They're going to have some recruits, but I am excited to see our cohesive unit unleash some pain.

[HoosierPal]

38 minutes ago, Pistol said:

I think we can call the final schedule now, with the @ Bonaventure date still pending.

11/25 - vs. SIUE
11/28 - vs. LSU
12/5 - vs. Arkansas-Pine Bluff
12/8 - vs. Central Arkansas
12/12 - vs. Evansville
12/15 - vs. Indiana State
12/20 - @ Minnesota
12/23 - vs. Kansas City
And then the already announced A10 schedule.

So as of now, noon on Friday, we have 26 games scheduled.  What is the over and under on actual numbers we will play?  20.5? 

[cgeldmacher]

I don't understand how football games are happening with over a hundred players traveling and standing on the sidlines, but basketball games with 20 something players can't seem to happen.

[Pistol]

40 minutes ago, Pistol said:

I think we can call the final schedule now, with the @ Bonaventure date still pending.

11/25 - vs. SIUE - 340
11/28 - vs. LSU - 37
12/5 - vs. Arkansas-Pine Bluff - 353
12/8 - vs. Central Arkansas - 256 
12/12 - vs. Evansville - 316
12/15 - vs. Indiana State - 134
12/20 - @ Minnesota - 30
12/23 - vs. Kansas City - 277
And then the already announced A10 schedule.

Comparing this to what we knew of the original schedule (with Pomeroy's preseason ratings for both lists):

San Diego State - 44
Boston College - 91
Siena - 138
@ Memphis - 39
@ Minnesota - 30
Northern Illinois - 213
SIUC - 188
SEMO - 337
Orlando Invitational - 3 games with some combo of Auburn (66), Siena (138), Xavier (65), Gonzaga (2), Boise State (105), Michigan State (11), Belmont (96)

(We likely had 2 more games I'm either forgetting or weren't announced yet.)

Original average Pomeroy rating: 135 before Orlando (69 average rating)
Original median Pomeroy rating: 114.5 before Orlando (66 median rating)

New average Pomeroy rating: 218
New median Pomeroy rating: 266.5

Yes, I know every team feels this way and it's true for all of them, but man, we got screwed.

[bauman]

I really miss not being able to get SIU-C on the schedule.  They are the only school you could make a case for as rivals (OOC).  I don't know the number, but it seems like we have played them annually for many, many years.

[Pistol]

7 minutes ago, cgeldmacher said:

I don't understand how football games are happening with over a hundred players traveling and standing on the sidlines, but basketball games with 20 something players can't seem to happen.

Except a lot of football games aren't happening. 16 are already cancelled for this upcoming weekend. Over 80 have been cancelled this season. Dozens of teams have played three or fewer games. Even in games that have been played, tons of players have had to sit. It's been a disaster of a season.

[HoosierPal]

19 minutes ago, bauman said:

I really miss not being able to get SIU-C on the schedule.  They are the only school you could make a case for as rivals (OOC).  I don't know the number, but it seems like we have played them annually for many, many years.

SIUC is currently 'paused' until Nov 27.  We will never know if they would have been a viable candidate for the now new Billiken Classic.  I obviously have no idea on the conversations about a stand alone game.  But our schedule will not be 100% set until our last game has been played.  You never know what changes will occur on the fly.  It would be easy to schedule SIUC on a 24 to 48 hour notice.

[slu72]

I'm beginning to think this season will be a play by the seat of your pants deal. The Covid is a raging wildfire right now and will likely get worse until the vaccine thing kicks in. I've no idea when that will happen, but have a feeling it will drag into late summer 2021. The one thing about this plague is no one knows where or who you can get it from. I guess that's due to the asymptomatic carriers. I'll leave that to Old Guy to explain. 

Back to the schedule; no game is guaranteed even conference affairs. For example, as someone asked, what is the rule on the Bills travelling to Olean. Is Cuomo going to say they have to be in lockdown for 14 days before taking the court. Will they be allowed in at all if Missouri is determined to be a hot zone? Do we want to go to the North Pole if it's a hot zone? I really think the only certainty for this season is that it will come down to tourney or regular season winners who are guaranteed spots in the dance. Tourneys may get cancelled and so the league champ would be picked. Bottom line: Don't count on the current schedule to be the same come March. 

[Fan Guy]

At least only one team in the A10 looks to have a better noncon. Too bad its the one team we don't want having a better schedule than us.  

[3star_recruit]

41 minutes ago, cgeldmacher said:

I don't understand how football games are happening with over a hundred players traveling and standing on the sidlines, but basketball games with 20 something players can't seem to happen.

College football is more militaristic, life and death type stuff.  College basketball is more player friendly.  Different culture.

[Old guy]

10 minutes ago, Fan Guy said:

At least only one team in the A10 looks to have a better noncon. Too bad its the one team we don't want having a better schedule than us.  

You forget that if anyone in any of the teams scheduled to play in a given day turns positive, the game may well be off. Sure, the schedule looks stronger than ours now, but nothing counts until the game is over and you can figure out who the winner is. In the current situation it is very difficult to say any game at all will be played as scheduled.

[ARon]

For maybe the first time, someone on this board saying “anything more than 1 loss on the non-con schedule is underachieving” is not hyperbole.