SluSignGuy Posted July 10, 2003 Share Posted July 10, 2003 2003-04 SAINT LOUIS MEN'S NON-CONFERENCE SCHEDULE I will update the front page soon. DATE OPPONENT SITE TIME November WED. 5 ATHLETES IN ACTION (Exh.) MON. 17 EA SPORTS ALL-STARS (Exh.) FRI. 21 EASTERN KENTUCKY MON. 24 SAVANNAH STATE SAT. 29 NORTH CAROLINA A&T December Wed. 3 at West Virginia / Charleston, W.V. SAT. 6 ARIZONA Sat. 13 at Georgia Tech / Atlanta, Ga. Wed. 17 GRAMBLING Sat. 20 at SMS / Springfield, Mo. SAT. 27 BUTLER Wed. 31 at Dayton / Dayton, Ohio January SAT. 3 KANSAS STATE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thetorch Posted July 10, 2003 Share Posted July 10, 2003 That Savannah State game looks tough. Did we have this many patsies last year? Still think this is a very strong non con. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeSmetBilliken Posted July 10, 2003 Share Posted July 10, 2003 Looking at this schedule, it looks like SLU has 3 "buy-in" games. I would say that the Savannah State, Eastern Kentucky, and North Carolina A&T are those 3 games. Yes, SLU did have the same number of games like those last year. The difference was that last year they were spread out and also UT-Martin turned out to not be a patsy. Last year's "buy-in" games were UT-Martin, Texas Pan-American, and Grambling State. This season we have those games as our 1st, 2nd, and 3rd games while last year they were our 1st, 5th, and 7th games. Personally, I would rather play the schedule like this season, because I would rather work out the early kinks against easier teams than against better teams. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SluSignGuy Posted July 10, 2003 Author Share Posted July 10, 2003 Here are the RPIs for the teams for the 2002-03 Season: FRI. 21 EASTERN KENTUCKY - 278 MON. 24 SAVANNAH STATE - 326 SAT. 29 NORTH CAROLINA A&T - 322 December Wed. 3 at West Virginia / Charleston, W.V. - 97 SAT. 6 ARIZONA - 1 Sat. 13 at Georgia Tech / Atlanta, Ga. - 67 Wed. 17 GRAMBLING - 275 Sat. 20 at SMS / Springfield, Mo. - 117 SAT. 27 BUTLER - 35 Wed. 31 at Dayton / Dayton, Ohio - 20 January SAT. 3 KANSAS STATE - 118 We better not blow it in November Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted July 10, 2003 Share Posted July 10, 2003 the first three games are a joke, but the rest is a nice non-conf schedule. i refuse to believe that scheduling ANY patsy's is needed. there is no reason that those 3 games cant be neighboring teams such as siu, semo, bradley, eastern illinois, etc. i dont want to hear about "tuneups". that is what the two exhibitions are for. they are nothing but record padders. call it what it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kshoe Posted July 10, 2003 Share Posted July 10, 2003 Grambling on Wed. the 17th. I think we will go 6-5 non conference losing all the road games and losing to Arizona at home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aj_arete Posted July 10, 2003 Share Posted July 10, 2003 However, I think it's important to have a few gimme games. For one, you never know when you'll need that 9th or 10th man in conference season due to injury. These games allow the players to gain confidence and success early on. However, I am disappointed that SIUC was dropped from the schedule. Let's hope that is rectified soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quality Is Job 1 Posted July 10, 2003 Share Posted July 10, 2003 The official athletic website lists the schedule slightly differently, including Grambling: 2003-04 SAINT LOUIS MEN'S NON-CONFERENCE SCHEDULE DATE OPPONENT November FRI. 21 EASTERN KENTUCKY MON. 24 SAVANNAH STATE SAT. 29 NORTH CAROLINA A&T December Wed. 3 at West Virginia / Charleston, W.V. SAT. 6 ARIZONA Sat. 13 at Georgia Tech / Atlanta, Ga. Wed. 17 GRAMBLING Sat. 20 at SMS / Springfield, Mo. SAT. 27 BUTLER Wed. 31 at Dayton / Dayton, Ohio January SAT. 3 KANSAS STATE That would make four guarantee games: the first three and the mid-December game against Grambling. In my opinion, the Billikens would probably have to go 8-3 in those 11 non-conference games to get solid consideration for an at-large NCAA Tournament bid. Right now I see 6-5, though I'm hoping this is the year the Bills get things turned around against SMS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SluSignGuy Posted July 10, 2003 Author Share Posted July 10, 2003 Yep, I just got that e-mail too, I editted my posts. Thanks for the heads up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ACE Posted July 10, 2003 Share Posted July 10, 2003 Every team has record padders. It's a good idea to have a few wins heading into that brutal stretch in early December. Of course we also need to avoid a Tenn-Martin-type meltdown. Ugh!!!! I like the schedule. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SluSignGuy Posted July 10, 2003 Author Share Posted July 10, 2003 I may see if I can hop a train down to the Georgia Tech game. It is on a weekend. And the train ride is overnight, and I will be able to get back by Monday for classes (Actually finals). Just wondering. Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billiken_roy Posted July 10, 2003 Share Posted July 10, 2003 i like the games minus the 4 buy in games a lot. i still fail to see why the buy ins are "needed". if every other team wants to have them, fine, but imo, they do nothing but accomplish false wins. playing the games actually loses rpi points without fail. a close lose in the game with arizona will give us more rpi than the almost for sure blowout of savannah state. and god forbid we actually lose one of the buy in's. imo, the tennessee martin loss probably cost us an ncaa bid last year. substitute a win against a team like bradley or illinois state last year instead of the loss to tennessee martin it probably would have been the bump needed to be in the tourney. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillikenButch Posted July 10, 2003 Share Posted July 10, 2003 It's kind of hard to get jazzed about 2 decent home games during the first two months of the season. Local flavor would have been better for some of the dog games. It will be hard to get a real feel for the team until December. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwyjibo Posted July 10, 2003 Share Posted July 10, 2003 I agree 100% with Roy here. This is a bad schedule and does not show much RPI savvy. 4 games against 250+ teams will kill the RPI. There are plenty of 150-250 teams to play and "gain confidence on". In fact, the schedule shows a lack of confidence in the team (let's go for wins instead of building a good post-season profile). This is really "old-school" thinking that has been out of date for at least 10 years. And do not forgot that SLU will play a much weaker C-USA schedule this year (Cincy may have a good team this year but we only play them ONCE --the only teams we play twice are Charlotte, Marquette and DePaul). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBand Posted July 10, 2003 Share Posted July 10, 2003 "hard to get jazzed" Boy, thats for sure. The other bad thing about this schedule is the lack of incoming teams that would generate excitement around the program. With both the Rams and Blues as competition for the sports fans interest, a schedule with more name recognition would sure help get more butts in the seats. An aside, rumor has it that Woolard is a finalist (0f five) for the AD job at Vegas. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ACE Posted July 10, 2003 Share Posted July 10, 2003 The team couldn't even beat Tenn-Martin at that point, what makes you think they would've beat Bradley or Illinois State last Nov? They have a lot of new faces. Having a few games where Brad can experiment with rotations and the guys can gain a little confidence seems like a good idea, because it gets real tough as soon as December hits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjray Posted July 10, 2003 Share Posted July 10, 2003 >The team couldn't even beat Tenn-Martin at that point, what >makes you think they would've beat Bradley or Illinois State >last Nov? The deal is, if can't beat the Tenn-Martins of the world, why bother padding the record with cupcake wins as we have no chance of an at-large NCAA bid in any event? It just waters down the RPI to rely on cupcakes to pad the record--RPI in king, wins against 200+ RPI teams means nothing (even a win against a team like this damages your overall RPI). I'm with BRoy, I don't like the weak end of our schedule. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3star_recruit Posted July 10, 2003 Share Posted July 10, 2003 Pull yourself together man. There's only one more patsy than there was on last year's schedule. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3star_recruit Posted July 11, 2003 Share Posted July 11, 2003 The Bills have been to 4 NCAAs the last 10 years. Three of those years the non-conference schedule was no better than this one. Just thought I'd point that out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwyjibo Posted July 11, 2003 Share Posted July 11, 2003 But all "patsies" are not created equal. You seem to include Tenn-Martin as a patsie (I would not) but they finished 100 RPI points ahead of NC A&T and Savannah St. 4 250+ RPI teams is a mistake, but the rest of the non-conference schedule is fine RPI wise. SLU needed to strengthen its non-conf schedule to counteract the weakening of its conference schedule. This schedule means adding an unnecessary burden to SLU's post-season chances. I think we all would agree we want SLU to overcome that burden. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gister Posted July 11, 2003 Share Posted July 11, 2003 Take Mizzery for example. Last year they scheduled: American U Austin Peay Sacramento State Centenary Or look at Syracuse: Colgate Cornell NC Greensboro Albany NY Canisius Binghamton with an average RPI of 252 Rather than old school this is very common. I do agree that it would have been nice to have SIU on the schedule. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StLouBlue Posted July 11, 2003 Share Posted July 11, 2003 I would rather have games against SIU, Bradley, SEMO, etc than those 4 "record padders" but SIU, Bradley, etc would want us to travel to their home the next year. These 4 games are record padders, but also and probably more importantly, they will always be home games. Home games where SLU will make money on the game even if it is a bad team. Every team needs these type of games to help out their budget--a kind of neccessary evil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3star_recruit Posted July 11, 2003 Share Posted July 11, 2003 >But all "patsies" are not created equal. You seem to >include Tenn-Martin as a patsie (I would not) Why not? They finished with an RPI of 229. If Eastern Kentucky wins two more games than they did last year, I'm sure they could accomplish a similar RPI. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3star_recruit Posted July 11, 2003 Share Posted July 11, 2003 Pitt's non-conference Duquesne St. Francis (PA) Ark Pine Bluff Norfolk St. SE Louisiana Robert Morris UConn's non-conference Quinnipiac Sacred Heart George Washington UNC Ashville Central Conn St. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
former_d1 Posted July 11, 2003 Share Posted July 11, 2003 If you are going to do buy in games schedule semo or other local schools. I think this year three buy games up front will help this team gel but will not help at tourny time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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