Next seasons schedule

[shoxtop]

We're getting a lot of good (extremely) early preseason pub... Makes me wonder how it will help/hurt the scheduling process for next year. What does the current OOC schedule look like with the guarantee games already? And please, lets not turn this into another ku/ksu thread.

[WuDrWu]

The schedule is done, just not released.

[GoShockers89]

The schedule is done, just not released.

Wow.

[tropicalshox]

Somebody reported they saw WSU was just advertising for 4 buy games. I'm not encouraged.

[Jamar Howard 4 President]

I'm curious how many on here think Marshall is too stuck in his scheduling ways. Personally, I think he a very stubborn man, and I think that hinders his ability to see what must be done and to do it. He wants us to be a big time program, but he refuses to schedule up (AKA take a hit and play a couple 1 and dones) in order to help us accomplish that. The reality is that we aren't Duke, or KU, or K-State, or Alabama, or Gonzaga, or Butler, or ... If we want to move into that class, we are going to have to give ourselves more than 1 or 2 opportunities a year to prove ourselves. One and dones sound demeaning, but they are an opportunity for a proving ground, a chance to do what the NIT did... show that we can beat the big boys. We have to beat the big boys if we want to become one.

[proshox]

While I would not be opposed to a better schedule, this year's schedule provided ample opportunity to prove the team could play at a high level. Next year, the team is going to need a mix of competition to work through player rotations, variations on defense, etc and at the end of the day WSU needs home games to make the program work.

[WuDrWu]

He's kind of in a catch 22 there Jamar.


He's got to play the home games to keep the money the program needs. 80k for a buy game somewhere just doesn't cut it.

But the home crap games don't make us better and don't give us the attention we deserve.


It is a tough balancing act.

[WuDrWu]

While I would not be opposed to a better schedule, this year's schedule provided ample opportunity to prove the team could play at a high level. Next year, the team is going to need a mix of competition to work through player rotations, variations on defense, etc and at the end of the day WSU needs home games to make the program work.

Yes, but the crappy MVC gave us no chance at an at large. If even 7 (exclude WSU, MSU and UNI) teams scheduled better and performed a little better, chances are our RPI would have been good enough to warrant an at large. 23 wins in any other top 7 conference is a matter of seeding, not whether they are in or not. We have a one car safety margin and we're driving a gray car....there is no margin for error.

[ShockTalk]

Between Trop and Doc, were not sure just where our schedule stands. Nevetheless, I agree with your general position.

I think HCGM is pretty set in his ways regarding the number of what we call cupcakes that he wants to play at home. Hopefully, this will change.

One big problem is one and dones on the opposition's home court. Who should we do this with? Nebraska, Alabama, Virginia Tech, UConn? I think we've already proved that we can play with these teams. The odds would be stacked against us with the cream of the Big 6 crop. We might actually win one once every 4 or 5 years for whatever good that does. Perhaps we should look at the middle group and see if we can get neutral and neutral games. Or get home and home with the bottom end of the Big 6 teams. At least they will generally always have a reasonable RPI. So far, as long as we can get into quality, early season tourneys most years, we may not need to address playing Big 6 teams.

Personally, I'd prefer trying to get home and homes (or neutral courts) with the top end of non-Big 6 teams -- Butler, George Mason, BYU, Xavier. Secondly, home and homes with those non-Big 6 teams that generally will always have descent RPIs should not hurt our RPI if we are truly worthy. These would also be great games to prepare us for Valley play and beyond.

[60Shock]

I understand the dilemma of attempting to balance the schedule with quality teams and the need to bring in the bucks with cream puff home games as well.

It was so obvious, however, last year that being in a weak conference leaves us little to no room to manuever. We can barely afford to lose a game we are supposed to win and we have to win several of our OC games against top 50 and top 100 opponents.

Based on our past history, if it is a choice between having to win the conference tournament versus winning several games against top ranked opponents, we had better strongly consider scheduling up.