Golden: Indiana State's difficulties in scheduling

[SycamoreFanatic]

With the Old Spice Classic being one of the poorest preseason tourney fields I have ever seen, I agree that the schedule leaves a lot to be desired. I don't think the jab at Illinois State looked well coming from an Indiana State beat writer.

You could argue that this is a solid low-major schedule.

So are the vaunted Shockers playing a better schedule this year than last? Last year at home was pretty pathetic. What was the collective rpi of that tough bunch of patsies? Definitely not high enough to swing a ticket to The Dance was it ?

Tue, Nov 16 vsTexas Southern W79-67 1-0 (0-0)
Mon, Nov 29 vsUMKC W71-52 4-1 (0-0)
Wed, Dec 1 vsChicago State W91-51 5-1 (0-0)
Fri, Dec 10 vsNicholls State W68-50 6-2 (0-0)
Mon, Dec 13 vsAlabama A&M W71-49 7-2 (0-0)
Tue, Dec 21 vsTulsa W82-79 9-2 (0-0)

[RoyalShock]

With the Old Spice Classic being one of the poorest preseason tourney fields I have ever seen, I agree that the schedule leaves a lot to be desired. I don't think the jab at Illinois State looked well coming from an Indiana State beat writer.

You could argue that this is a solid low-major schedule.

So are the vaunted Shockers playing a better schedule this year than last? Last year at home was pretty pathetic. What was the collective rpi of that tough bunch of patsies? Definitely not high enough to swing a ticket to The Dance was it ?

Tue, Nov 16 vsTexas Southern W79-67 1-0 (0-0)
Mon, Nov 29 vsUMKC W71-52 4-1 (0-0)
Wed, Dec 1 vsChicago State W91-51 5-1 (0-0)
Fri, Dec 10 vsNicholls State W68-50 6-2 (0-0)
Mon, Dec 13 vsAlabama A&M W71-49 7-2 (0-0)
Tue, Dec 21 vsTulsa W82-79 9-2 (0-0)

At home vs. UAB, UNLV and Utah State. Road game at Tulsa. Tournament in Puerto Rico with Maryland, Purdue, Alabama, Colorado, Temple and a couple of mids.

[SycamorePsycho]

Look I'm not a great fan of Golden and to be perfectly honest I haven't even bothered reading his article... lol With that said, I don't think the Sycamores would have any trouble winning over the selection committee if we were (not saying we will) to win the OSC and beat Vandy - granted you can't really afford "bad" losses and the Sycamores have been known to have one or two of those over the last several seasons.

I agree, I think if Indiana State were to win the Old Spice Classic and beat Vandy I think that could be enough to receive an at large bid....unfortunately like you said there probably couldn't be any losses in the rest of the non-con games

[jayball]

Generally buy games are not a good scheduling strategy. I can understand some coaches using them occaisionally b/c of how ridiculously hard it is to get games, but buy games don't help with next years schedule and have the potential to make it harder to convince lower majors and high mids to do H and Hs.

WSU had a pretty darn good schedule this year and no buy games. The four year series with Tulsa is big and will pay off for three more seasons.

IMO, the ideal scheduling recipie is a quality noncon tourney and several H and H with solid top 100 programs and a few cupcake tuneups. You can sometimes get interesting neutral site mathups that are a bit unorthodox also.

Why would you go for a buy game unless absolutely necessary? Multi-year contracts are essential to getting good schedules over time. While I would love to see some of the possible matchups that can come from buy games, I would prefer not to schedule them. I would rather get our shots at the big boys in neutral site tourneys and in the Big Dance/NIT, while our staff tries to land 4 year contracts with A-10, CUSA, ect.

[Snaggletooth]

So are the vaunted Shockers playing a better schedule this year than last? Last year at home was pretty pathetic. What was the collective rpi of that tough bunch of patsies? Definitely not high enough to swing a ticket to The Dance was it ?

Tue, Nov 16 vsTexas Southern W79-67 1-0 (0-0)
Mon, Nov 29 vsUMKC W71-52 4-1 (0-0)
Wed, Dec 1 vsChicago State W91-51 5-1 (0-0)
Fri, Dec 10 vsNicholls State W68-50 6-2 (0-0)
Mon, Dec 13 vsAlabama A&M W71-49 7-2 (0-0)
Tue, Dec 21 vsTulsa W82-79 9-2 (0-0)

as bad as WSU home schedule was last year, they did make it up by playing on the the road and at tournaments with:

UCONN
VIRGINIA
SD ST
LSU

WSU non-conference schedule was just good enough to have them in the conversation. But WSU didn't take care of business on the court in Bracketbusters against VCU, and had terrible losses to SIU and Indy St in STL.

[SycamoreFanatic]

Generally buy games are not a good scheduling strategy. I can understand some coaches using them occaisionally b/c of how ridiculously hard it is to get games, but buy games don't help with next years schedule and have the potential to make it harder to convince lower majors and high mids to do H and Hs.

WSU had a pretty darn good schedule this year and no buy games. The four year series with Tulsa is big and will pay off for three more seasons.

IMO, the ideal scheduling recipie is a quality noncon tourney and several H and H with solid top 100 programs and a few cupcake tuneups. You can sometimes get interesting neutral site mathups that are a bit unorthodox also.

Why would you go for a buy game unless absolutely necessary? Multi-year contracts are essential to getting good schedules over time. While I would love to see some of the possible matchups that can come from buy games, I would prefer not to schedule them. I would rather get our shots at the big boys in neutral site tourneys and in the Big Dance/NIT, while our staff tries to land 4 year contracts with A-10, CUSA, ect.

So how much did last year's terrific home schedule contribute to this year's sked ? Did it allow for home/home with Alabama St., Northern Arizona, LA-Lafayette, Kennesaw State, Western Illinois or maybe even Samford or did it cost approx. 1/2 mil or more to get the easy "W's" ?

Fri, Nov 12 vsAlabama State W71-57 1-0 (0-0)
Sun, Nov 14 vsNorthern Arizona W74-70 2-0 (0-0)
Wed, Nov 17 vsLouisiana-Lafayette W63-58 3-0 (0-0)
Fri, Nov 26 vsKennesaw State W75-57 4-1 (0-0)
Wed, Dec 1 vs#25 Brigham Young L77-65 4-3 (0-0)
Sat, Dec 11 vsSaint Joseph's W82-75 5-4 (0-0)
Sat, Dec 18 vsIdaho State W66-60 6-4 (0-0)
Mon, Dec 20 vsWestern Illinois W60-47 7-4 (0-0)
Wed, Dec 22 vsSamford W58-40 8-4 (0-0)

[Red]

I understand why Indiana State scheduled the game, but I don't like that the MVC tournament champ and one of the favorites to start the season can be bought for a game. It makes the MVC look small time in my opinion.

[BirdmanBB]

I have mentioned this before on our team site, but this is what I would ideally like to see every year. It would be balanced with a decent enough RPI and SOS to get you in if you win. A normal MVC non-con schedule is usually 12 games. The games you shcedule should be mid to upper teams of those conferences. so.....

3-4 game MTE (This should take care of 1-2 BCS teams at a neutral site and 1-2 scrubs in many cases)
1 MWC (Already completed with challenge)
1 CUSA
1 A10
1 CAA
1 Horizon
1 MAC
1 Return Bracketbuster
1 Bracketbuster (If you win during your season then this is usually a solid game for 2 years running)

so for example, I will take mid finishing teams out of each of these conferences and plug them in....

Cancun Challenge MTE (SIUe (328), Lipscomb (132), Rutgers (121), Illinois (48) or Richmond (41))
New Mexico (66)
Tulsa (81)
Dayton (70)
James Madison (88)
Wright State (124)
Ohio (163)
...bb return
bracketbuster

so.....you have a chance to win 1-2 games over the top 50 (BB or BB return could be top 50). 4-5 games against top 100 (BB or BB return). 3 games against top 150. 1 game against a 163 and a 328. The valley is usually a top 10 conference so you will get your chance again vs a few top 100's and sometimes top 50's. I would say picking out a decent MTE and playing games against the middle of the pack of some good mid-major conferences has potential to be a bid winning schedule every time and land you in a good SOS.

[WSUbballer]

[quote="RoyalShock"][quote="SycamoreFanatic"][quote="WSUbballer"]With the Old Spice Classic being one of the poorest preseason tourney fields I have ever seen, I agree that the schedule leaves a lot to be desired. I don't think the jab at Illinois State looked well coming from an Indiana State beat writer.

You could argue that this is a solid low-major schedule.[/quote]

So are the vaunted Shockers playing a better schedule this year than last? Last year at home was pretty pathetic. What was the collective rpi of that tough bunch of patsies? Definitely not high enough to swing a ticket to The Dance was it ?

Tue, Nov 16 vsTexas Southern W79-67 1-0 (0-0)
Mon, Nov 29 vsUMKC W71-52 4-1 (0-0)
Wed, Dec 1 vsChicago State W91-51 5-1 (0-0)
Fri, Dec 10 vsNicholls State W68-50 6-2 (0-0)
Mon, Dec 13 vsAlabama A&M W71-49 7-2 (0-0)
Tue, Dec 21 vsTulsa W82-79 9-2 (0-0)

[/quote]

At home vs. UAB, UNLV and Utah State. Road game at Tulsa. Tournament in Puerto Rico with Maryland, Purdue, Alabama, Colorado, Temple and a couple of mids.[/quote]

Does that answer your question Fanatic? I hope you liked that serving.

I don't understand the need to deflect. This is a thread about Indiana State scheduling and people bring up valid points about it and instead of addressing your problems, you deflect them with issues that have already been brought up here. I'm pretty sure no Shocker fan would argue how bad our home schedule sucked last year. What I'm trying to understand is what does it have to do with Indiana State's poor scheduling and why can't you answer to your program's shortcomings? Sorry, but it looks weak.

[jayball]

So how much did last year's terrific home schedule contribute to this year's sked ? Did it allow for home/home with Alabama St., Northern Arizona, LA-Lafayette, Kennesaw State, Western Illinois or maybe even Samford or did it cost approx. 1/2 mil or more to get the easy "W's" ?

Fri, Nov 12 vsAlabama State W71-57 1-0 (0-0)
Sun, Nov 14 vsNorthern Arizona W74-70 2-0 (0-0)
Wed, Nov 17 vsLouisiana-Lafayette W63-58 3-0 (0-0)
Fri, Nov 26 vsKennesaw State W75-57 4-1 (0-0)
Wed, Dec 1 vs#25 Brigham Young L77-65 4-3 (0-0)
Sat, Dec 11 vsSaint Joseph's W82-75 5-4 (0-0)
Sat, Dec 18 vsIdaho State W66-60 6-4 (0-0)
Mon, Dec 20 vsWestern Illinois W60-47 7-4 (0-0)
Wed, Dec 22 vsSamford W58-40 8-4 (0-0)

Are you asking me to explain/justify their schedule last year? I can't.

But so far Marshall and Co. are doing lots of things things to make a good schedule for this year and making the following years schedule a bit easier to complete. The 4 year deal with Tulsa is exactly the type of contracts that MVC teams should be trying to land....multiyear deals with Top 100 type programs.

Is that controversial? Did I miss something?