2024 - 2025 Schedule Thread

[Pistol]

49 minutes ago, TheA_Bomb said:

I wonder if they considered in-season home and away? Bradley is close, and that could probably be arranged.

"AD of the Year" level scheduling.

I think the issue there is that they didn't have room for another road game. Otherwise, it's a great idea for a number of reasons.

[Pistol]

We still have an exhibition game or two TBA, right? We're at 17 home dates.

[HoosierPal]

1 hour ago, Pistol said:

I think the issue there is that they didn't have room for another road game. Otherwise, it's a great idea for a number of reasons.

On the video he posted Tuesday, Wardle said he would take home or away games. He needs two. 

[thatskablamo]

2 hours ago, longtimelistenerfirsttimec said:

as the song goes kansas city kansas city here i come they got a pretty girls there but all i want to do is watch B ball (man have I gotten old)

The version Willie did with Susan Tedeschi is freaking awesome. 

[cgeldmacher]

4 hours ago, Pistol said:

Next season's schedule will be much stronger.

This year's schedule certainly isn't going to be a draw for casual fans, and I feel bad for season ticket holders. The draw is going to be the style of play and the players themselves. We will be favored to win every non-conference home game. Not much margin for error this season.

I definitely understand this sentiment, but keep in mind that Jimerson and Swope are out of eligibility.  Avila will be a senior.  If we just miss making the tournament because of our weak schedule, what are the odds that Avila is okay with that happening to him two years in a row?  How likely will he be to come back and "try again" as opposed to cashing in on a bigger NIL deal with school that doesn't have problems with creating a schedule that gives them a chance at the tournament?  Then, if miss the tournament because of a weak schedule and lose Avila, Jimerson and Swope, will it matter if next year's schedule is much stronger?  This schedule is very concerning to me.

[Scoop]

Weakest schedule I’ve seen in my fandom. Just rack up W’s and get some pub for being undefeated.  1st home game is a non D1 game? Come on.

[White Pelican]

I (a long time season ticket holder) am looking forward to this season just because of how different I expect it to be. New coach and an almost completely new team.

As for the home non-con? Well, we ain't a power 5, we ain't a Blue Blood, we ain't exactly known for success. Do you think the big boys are beating down the door to play here?

I think it's a bit like the chicken and the egg.

[RiseOfTheBillikens]

1 hour ago, White Pelican said:

I (a long time season ticket holder) am looking forward to this season just because of how different I expect it to be. New coach and an almost completely new team.

As for the home non-con? Well, we ain't a power 5, we ain't a Blue Blood, we ain't exactly known for success. Do you think the big boys are beating down the door to play here?

I think it's a bit like the chicken and the egg.

I mean I'm not expecting a p5 schedule but I was expecting decent d1 games....

Boise state, Utah state... Who is our best home non con game.... Grand canyon.... This will be fixed if we get a weekend loyal Chicago game but if that's weekday I will be pissed at this schedule. 

 

Edit: nevermind that is an away game.... Fuoking wofford it's kind of just hitting me how brutal this is. All my homies hate Chris may. 

[billiken_roy]

it's my guess the weakness is intentional on behalf of the newness of the roster and really not knowing how good the players will mesh.  wouldnt doubt if a lot of the scheduling was set prior to having a completed roster.   it is important the team gets off to a good start and develop the confidence and right frame of mind by the conference season.   a spot in the ncaa tourney will depend on the conference season.   and unless we would play an incredibly tough pre-conference schedule in november and december and come out with only a loss or two, our results in the pre conference will ultimately mean little.   we have to be very very good in conference and i am thinking schertz wants to go into the conference games undefeated or just a loss or two and the team feeling very good about themselves and hopes that attitude will carry them through March.  that is when the team needs to win and self confidence will go a long way to making that happen.

i give coach schertz a mulligan this first season for his scheduling.

[Pistol]

6 hours ago, cgeldmacher said:

I definitely understand this sentiment, but keep in mind that Jimerson and Swope are out of eligibility.  Avila will be a senior.  If we just miss making the tournament because of our weak schedule, what are the odds that Avila is okay with that happening to him two years in a row?  How likely will he be to come back and "try again" as opposed to cashing in on a bigger NIL deal with school that doesn't have problems with creating a schedule that gives them a chance at the tournament?  Then, if miss the tournament because of a weak schedule and lose Avila, Jimerson and Swope, will it matter if next year's schedule is much stronger?  This schedule is very concerning to me.

Transfer portal.

[The Wiz]

It is way too early to try and grade teams. But it is not too early to grade conferences.   Conferences can change a little from season to season but generally the grades are stable.  Grading a conference gives a sense of the upcoming competition.  Of course,  there are good teams in bad conferences and bad teams in good conferences. Nonetheless, in March, the selection committee looks at who you played AND what conference they are from. With that in mind , let's look at the conference to get a feel for what kind of schedule we have. As usual, teams that are not D1 are N.A.

Non conf games graded by conference strength

SC.......WCC....B-

Avila....NA

LoyM...WCC...B-

WSU...AAC.....B

Quin...MAAC...D

UM-L..Am East..D+

JSU...SWAC.....F-

SF...WCC........B-

Ch St...NE.......F

IL St...MVC.....B

Woff...Sou.....C+

Gr Can...WCC...B-

Will Wood...NA

Not the best schedule...but there are a few things we can do...

Get off to a good start...Win those first 3 D1 games

Win all the B- and above games by double digits. It is not only who you beat but by how much. The Colgate effect. A few years ago Colgate playing in the weak Patriot Conference (F) had won a ton of games by  huge point spreads and received a Dance bid. Of course, they received an auto bid from the NCAA with their  conference championship.  The interesting thing, though, was the NET had Colgate rated as 9th ITN. Nobody would confuse  Colgate with Kansas or UConn except maybe  the NET computer. It was that season that exposed a weakness in the NET...win big (scoring margin is an important factor in the NET) and get a good ranking. Fortunately, for the the Selection Committee, they avoided the embarrassment of having to decide what to do with Colgate.

Finally ...Just win...we should be favored in almost all these games.

A weaker schedule doesn't mean we will be excluded from The Dance...It just means it will take a little more effort.

Win 2 Dance

[Old guy]

@The Wiz Looking at the prior year's very poor SLU record, it would be natural to assume that the NCAA might not be inclined to be very favorable to us. Therefore, I think our primary goal this year should be to win at the A10 tournament and get the automatic entry to the NCAA tournament. I think we have a reasonable chance this season to do just that. Once we are in the Dance we will find out how good we really are. 

One of the glaring flaws of our teams under Ford was that we never really tried to win games by as large a margin as possible. I think that under Schertz we are more likely to go for the high margins of victory. If we have to play teams that are really not very good, we should try to get high margin wins, and we should never let a 15 pt. lead evaporate in the last 10 minutes of a game and become a 2 point win or a loss. 

Let us not just win a game, let us win by really high margins every single game we play this season against a lower opponent. The Colgate story you mentioned should be our model this season.

[slu72]

We’re either going to have to 30-1 of win the A10 tourney for a shot at the dance. The latter result may be doable the former result damn near impossible. 

[cgeldmacher]

Just did a bit of research to see what other A-10 schools are doing in their non-conference:

St. Joe - Villanova, College of Charleston, Virginia Tech

Dayton - Xavier, Northwestern, New Mexico State, Marquette, UNLV, Cincinnati, and the Maui Invitational (Good lord)

VCU - Boston College, Colorado State, New Mexico and the Shriners Hospital Charleston Classic

Loyola Chicago - Princeton, Tulane, San Francisco, South Florida (probably about as good/bad a schedule as ours)

Fordham - not fully announced, but they have confirmed St. Johns and Sunshine Slam (Clemson, Penn St., & USF)

George Washington - not fully announced, but have confirmed Marquette and Duke, wow

LaSalle - Temple and North Carolina along with Big 5 Classic

St. Bonaventure - Providence and ESPN NIT Tip Off

The other schools did not have schedule info out yet.  I cannot imagine SLU has a harder time scheduling than any of these other schools other than Dayton.  On top of the bad schedule, not getting in a non-con tournament was a big fail, regardless of whether there was one that fell through.  This schedule is a massive fail.

BTW, last year Indiana State played Alabama and Michigan St. in their non-con schedule.

 

[brianstl]

As season ticket holder I would have gladly paid the same amount for a game or two less at home for an extra quality opponent or two on the road this season.  This schedule leaves no margin for error.

[ACE]

42 minutes ago, cgeldmacher said:

Just did a bit of research to see what other A-10 schools are doing in their non-conference:

St. Joe - Villanova, College of Charleston, Virginia Tech

Dayton - Xavier, Northwestern, New Mexico State, Marquette, UNLV, Cincinnati, and the Maui Invitational (Good lord)

VCU - Boston College, Colorado State, New Mexico and the Shriners Hospital Charleston Classic

Loyola Chicago - Princeton, Tulane, San Francisco, South Florida (probably about as good/bad a schedule as ours)

Fordham - not fully announced, but they have confirmed St. Johns and Sunshine Slam (Clemson, Penn St., & USF)

George Washington - not fully announced, but have confirmed Marquette and Duke, wow

LaSalle - Temple and North Carolina along with Big 5 Classic

St. Bonaventure - Providence and ESPN NIT Tip Off

The other schools did not have schedule info out yet.  I cannot imagine SLU has a harder time scheduling than any of these other schools other than Dayton.  On top of the bad schedule, not getting in a non-con tournament was a big fail, regardless of whether there was one that fell through.  This schedule is a massive fail.

BTW, last year Indiana State played Alabama and Michigan St. in their non-con schedule.

 

How many of these are home games for A-10 teams - IMO, that's the key question. ISU played Bama and MSU last year, but they were both road games.

[BrettJollyComedyHour]

Comparing to the rest of the A10 has me worried I don't have the patience to wait multiple years for a bid when the hype is this high.

[OkieBilliken]

So Rhode Island took our place in the Jacksonville Classic.  May have to do some scouting.  Not exactly a powerhouse schedule either.  

[SLUMS81]

Who has primary responsibility for creating the schedule - the coach or the AD?   

[thatskablamo]

4 minutes ago, SLUMS81 said:

Who has primary responsibility for creating the schedule - the coach or the AD?   

I’d say this is delegated, in part, to the DBO who is working in tandem with the HC. 

[cgeldmacher]

2 hours ago, OkieBilliken said:

So Rhode Island took our place in the Jacksonville Classic.  May have to do some scouting.  Not exactly a powerhouse schedule either.  

It's concerning that Rhode Island can bump us from a tournament we thought we were in, that we didn't have any sort of backup plan, and that we we not already have something solid if the Jacksonville thing was a question mark.

[cgeldmacher]

On 8/9/2024 at 1:39 PM, ACE said:

How many of these are home games for A-10 teams - IMO, that's the key question. ISU played Bama and MSU last year, but they were both road games.

I would take two road games at quality opponents over no quality opponents at home or on the road.

[HoosierPal]

4 minutes ago, cgeldmacher said:

It's concerning that Rhode Island can bump us from a tournament we thought we were in, that we didn't have any sort of backup plan, and that we we not already have something solid if the Jacksonville thing was a question mark.

I use this website as my Go To on MTE.  Look up the Jacksonville MTE (about 1/3 way down), and you see Rhode Island with 3 TBD.  Scroll to the end and you'll see those teams not yet in a MTE.  Not a whole of of teams on there that are enticing.  Our MTE, for now, appears to be a much more favorable event.

https://www.bloggingthebracket.com/2024/5/13/24140186/2024-25-mens-college-basketball-exempt-multi-team-events-mte-thanksgiving-early-season-tournaments

[Lord Elrond]

5 minutes ago, HoosierPal said:

I use this website as my Go To on MTE.  Look up the Jacksonville MTE (about 1/3 way down), and you see Rhode Island with 3 TBD.  Scroll to the end and you'll see those teams not yet in a MTE.  Not a whole of of teams on there that are enticing.

https://www.bloggingthebracket.com/2024/5/13/24140186/2024-25-mens-college-basketball-exempt-multi-team-events-mte-thanksgiving-early-season-tournaments

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? 

[HoosierPal]

29 minutes ago, thatskablamo said:

I’d say this is delegated, in part, to the DBO who is working in tandem with the HC. 

Do we have a DBO?  Thomas Dziagwa was DBO under Ford, but he wasn't retained.  There is no DBO listed on the roster page. Schertz added a new position, Recruting Coordinator. 

Whatever, the staff is the driver on the schedule.  Schertz has commented as such on at least two occasions.  The MTE and long range MTE's (2027 Maui) probably have input from the Athletic Department.  I'm guessing the AD signs contracts, such as buy games, etc.