2024 - 2025 Schedule Thread

[ACE]

22 minutes ago, brianstl said:

It hasn't just been Gonzaga and St Mary's making the the last 5 NCAA tournaments played out of the WCC.  They have placed four of their 10 programs over that time programs in the NCAA Tournament with Gonzaga, St Mary's, San Francisco and BYU.  

BYU is gone, the WCC was just a temporary stop for them. San Francisco has made one NCAA Tourney appearance in the last 25 years.

[gobillsgo]

On 8/16/2024 at 2:47 PM, thetorch said:

Actually they do. NCAAs are all that matters. Having a bunch of top 100 teams but no top 50 teams is a recipe for mediocrity.

Do you want to be in a conference guaranteed to get 2 teams in the NCAAs and get a share of their credits or play in one that struggles to get 1 or maybe 2 in a given season. I'd take the first one every time.

The A10 is an NIT conference.

My, how it’s fallen from only ten years ago. 

[OkieBilliken]

Fordham in the Daytona tournament.   Not a bad field

[HoosierPal]

On 8/12/2024 at 1:05 PM, Lord Elrond said:

Curiously enough, the Jacksonville Classic website shows only the 2023 games, nothing for 2024. Is this thing not happening, and Rhode Island didn’t get the memo? 

 

[Taj79]

Not going to be much in ticket sales for this one.  Teams were a combined 53 - 71 last year with no post season play.

[OkieBilliken]

5 minutes ago, Taj79 said:

Not going to be much in ticket sales for this one.  Teams were a combined 53 - 71 last year with no post season play.

I attended the first year of the tournament in 2021, with a field that included Mizzou, FSU and SMU and it didn't draw very well    I cant imagine why this field would be very enticing.   I may go check out Rhodey.  Pretty sure I will be able to get a good seat.  

[BLIKNS]

If anyone interested , Myrtle Beach Invitational 

www.espnevents.com

Nov. 21-24

Bradley,Ohio, Portland, Princeton,USF( South Florida)Texas State, Wright State, and Middle Tennessee...

HTC Center on Coastal Carolina campus again

 

[HoosierPal]

 

[WUH]

I know the the basketball night was mentioned elsewhere, but I did not see details.  The event will be held as part of Homecoming and Family Weekend festivities...

Billikens Basketball Night

6:30-8:30 p.m.

Chaifetz Arena

Billikens Basketball Night will feature the SLU men’s and women’s basketball teams with post-event autographs and photo opportunities.

    The event is complimentary to attend and does not require a ticket.

    Concessions will be available for purchase.

    Recommended parking: Olive Compton Garage

https://www.slu.edu/alumni/events/hcfw.php

[Compton]

Surprised there hasn't been more chatter about this year's garbage dump of a schedule. It hurts our chances at an at-large and does nothing to generate fan interest/excitement. Non-D1 games contribute nothing to NET and we're playing two of them. Wichita St, Illinois St, and San Francisco were all under .500 last year (in conference and overall). Loyola Marymount got bumped out of the NIT in the first round. Santa Clara didn't make it to the NIT. The only one of those five we play at home is Loyola Marymount. 

It's the worst non-con this century. You have to go back to '95 - when we played a bad LSU team and no one else - to find anything remotely comparable. 

[White Pelican]

Maybe it's just coach-speak, but Schertz seems fine with it. I assume he's planning on winning the a-10 tourney.

Does the coach make the calls to other teams, or is that the AD's job? I'm seriously asking, I don't know.

[RiseOfTheBillikens]

4 hours ago, Compton said:

Surprised there hasn't been more chatter about this year's garbage dump of a schedule. It hurts our chances at an at-large and does nothing to generate fan interest/excitement. Non-D1 games contribute nothing to NET and we're playing two of them. Wichita St, Illinois St, and San Francisco were all under .500 last year (in conference and overall). Loyola Marymount got bumped out of the NIT in the first round. Santa Clara didn't make it to the NIT. The only one of those five we play at home is Loyola Marymount. 

It's the worst non-con this century. You have to go back to '95 - when we played a bad LSU team and no one else - to find anything remotely comparable. 

Oh it's gonna be chatted about. Just don't know whose to blame. 

[almaman]

10 hours ago, Compton said:

Surprised there hasn't been more chatter about this year's garbage dump of a schedule. It hurts our chances at an at-large and does nothing to generate fan interest/excitement. Non-D1 games contribute nothing to NET and we're playing two of them. Wichita St, Illinois St, and San Francisco were all under .500 last year (in conference and overall). Loyola Marymount got bumped out of the NIT in the first round. Santa Clara didn't make it to the NIT. The only one of those five we play at home is Loyola Marymount. 

It's the worst non-con this century. You have to go back to '95 - when we played a bad LSU team and no one else - to find anything remotely comparable. 

1000%

[gobillsgo]

18 hours ago, Compton said:

Surprised there hasn't been more chatter about this year's garbage dump of a schedule. It hurts our chances at an at-large and does nothing to generate fan interest/excitement. Non-D1 games contribute nothing to NET and we're playing two of them. Wichita St, Illinois St, and San Francisco were all under .500 last year (in conference and overall). Loyola Marymount got bumped out of the NIT in the first round. Santa Clara didn't make it to the NIT. The only one of those five we play at home is Loyola Marymount. 

It's the worst non-con this century. You have to go back to '95 - when we played a bad LSU team and no one else - to find anything remotely comparable. 

Good teams only have so many road game slots available, and as we know, home and homes are sometimes scheduled multiple years in advance.  You also have to keep in mind we were one of the worst teams in the country last season.  Seems like Schertz did what he could on relatively short notice.  I expect next year’s schedule to be significantly better-  we will hopefully be coming off a tourney appearance, will have return games from San Fran and Grand Canyon, and should be able to start a few new decent home and homes. Drake should be a priority, we should play them every year. 

[almaman]

no one bytching about lame schedule blames Coach. NCAA shoulders most of. the. blame.

[NextYearBill]

TFord left hot garage. I think we’re way ahead of schedule all things considered. 

[Taj79]

If Schertz is as good as everyone seems to think he is plus added to a crap schedule, as everyone seems to believe we have coming up, shouldn't we expect to be unbeaten heading into the A10 schedule?????

[willie]

30 minutes ago, Taj79 said:

If Schertz is as good as everyone seems to think he is plus added to a crap schedule, as everyone seems to believe we have coming up, shouldn't we expect to be unbeaten heading into the A10 schedule?????

Yes But it’s hard to win on the road. 

[billiken_roy]

48 minutes ago, NextYearBill said:

TFord left hot garage. I think we’re way ahead of schedule all things considered. 

prior to the current pay the players atmosphere we now are stuck with, ford could get decent players with his schmoozing.   but now the first question the players and their families ask is "how much money will i get."   and if the coach doesnt have a sufficient offer compared to other programs, he is dead in the water.  if we offer the money needed to be competitive, then the schmoozing will win.  thus ford was  exposed for being all recruiting and bad coaching skills.  

now apparently we not only have a coach that knows the game and can appease to players, the program is willing to play the money game.  thus this very good roster we seem to have going into the season.   so step one we got the players.  step two do we have a floor and practice coach?   by all accounts, Schertz is a basketball genius.   a rickma in the making.   so yes we have a coach that can  devise the rotation, schemes and game and practice decisions that will give us a very good chance to win.   

the last step that all of college basketball is faced with and no team has this figured out, getting the roster to play as a team and making the sacrifices on the floor to win.   all the players are basically playing for the next contract so they need to show out in the most positive manner.  what will earn them the most money next year?   scoring or teamwork?   hopefully it can be a mix of both and everyone wins.   time will tell.  

personally the state of college athletes makes me sick.   imo it cannot be sustained as it is and i dont know what fixes this.   but i find it hard to believe our whales will continue to step up year after year with no end in sight paying these players at this level.   i just dont see how it succeeds long term.  

[HoosierPal]

2 hours ago, Taj79 said:

If Schertz is as good as everyone seems to think he is plus added to a crap schedule, as everyone seems to believe we have coming up, shouldn't we expect to be unbeaten heading into the A10 schedule?????

If you put any faith in algorithms, T-Rank has us losing against Santa Clara, Wichita State, San Fran and Grand Canyon.  Pre-season algorithms are suspect, as they rely on historical data.  Those four games are our only chance at OOC Q1 games.  One or two might fall into Q1 by the end of the year.  So we need at least two W's there.  Our home OOC, no chance at Q1. 

Our marquee home OOC game is ?  Wofford?  UMass Lowell? Quinnipiac?  None of the above?

[Dr. Holly Hills]

I’m not really worried about our OOC schedule (this year).  I would like to start winning games again first.  Gotta walk before you can run.  8 years of TFord brought us very few Q1 wins and 0 wins against top 25 rank.  Among many other disappointing stats…
 

step 1: start winning

step 2: sustain the winning

step 3: nitpick who we play against in the first 2 months of the season

[joe_davola]

3 hours ago, HoosierPal said:

If you put any faith in algorithms, T-Rank has us losing against Santa Clara, Wichita State, San Fran and Grand Canyon.  Pre-season algorithms are suspect, as they rely on historical data.  Those four games are our only chance at OOC Q1 games.  One or two might fall into Q1 by the end of the year.  So we need at least two W's there.  Our home OOC, no chance at Q1. 

Our marquee home OOC game is ?  Wofford?  UMass Lowell? Quinnipiac?  None of the above?

You can throw those out the window.  The only person I listen to on Wins and Losses is 'THE WIZ'

[Compton]

On 10/4/2024 at 5:13 PM, White Pelican said:

Maybe it's just coach-speak, but Schertz seems fine with it.

I'm excited about the Schertz hire, but, if true, that's disappointing. I'd like to have a coach who wants to play the best and fire up the fans (which I believe Schertz did in Terre Haute). I'm sure there are political/personnel reasons that he might acquiesce to the schedule, so I suppose he gets a bit of a pass. But being okay with this year's schedule is not okay. It'd be better to have someone say "Yeah, the schedule isn't where we'd like it to be, for the players or the fans, but we're going to make the most of it." 

I'm not really interested in excuses like being bad last year or Ford leaving - Romar, Soderberg, Majerus, Crews, and Ford all had better first season schedules in a variety of circumstances. And there's really no use in finger pointing at anyone individually (Ford, May, Schertz, an Assistant Coach, etc...). Billikens basketball is first and foremost a marketing tool for SLU. The Athletic Department and basketball program have collectively undermined that purpose by putting together a garbage schedule. There will be fewer butts in seats, eyeballs on games, and general awareness and excitement around SLU and the Billikens because of it. They let the fans and school down. Hopefully this schedule is a one-off anomaly. But it's also a failure and should be called out. 

[Pistol]

MTE was shaping up nicely and then fell apart.

Neutral site game against a power conference school fell through when the opponent backed out.

Those things don't swing the wrong way and this conversation isn't happening.

There are no headliners. It sucks, but Schertz has actually been pretty candid about the process and why his hands have been tied. Big time programs look at this matchup as all downside - either we're a program with a first year coach who hasn't gotten the program in great form yet and therefore doesn't add NET value, or we're ahead of schedule and just a trap whose NET rating isn't higher because the rest of our schedule isn't strong enough.

If you think the staff is happy about this, you don't understand the first thing about D-I CBB scheduling in 2024.

[SLUMedBilliken15]

Whiners gunna whine. 

I'm a glass half full guy. Id rather focus on all the positives. There will always be something that can be done different or better. If we were at Duke's level of success, there would be individuals on this board whining about losing a recruit to Kansas or Gonzaga or whining about the SOS. Ignore the whiners. They will never be satisfied.