2014-15 Schedule

[Downtown Shocker Brown]

No, he spent a lot of years as a Winthrop Eagle. He has many friends still there. It is not from a competitive on the court standpoint. It is a PERSONAL thing.

[Kung Wu]

Coach Marshall,

I beg of you if you ever leave WSU for Kentucky or some other blue blood; FEEL FREE to PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE come play us regardless of how much you respect your friends and time here! We won't mind one bit. In fact we will look at it as a compliment even if you kick our asses to oblivion every single time.

Signed,

Every Shocker Fan In Existence

[Cdizzle]

I wouldn't want to play a Marshall-coached team. I like winning too much.

[Kung Wu]

I wouldn't want to play a Marshall-coached team. I like winning too much.

What if we hire Pitino?

[Cdizzle]

What if we hire Pitino?

Too soon.

[AndShock]

Auto-bids that wouldn't have made it on the merits of their entire season don't count in my mind. When we step aside from the technical "who made the tournament" answer, the reality is that we played St. Louis, Tennessee, and BYU. 3 games out of 34 against NCAA Tournament level teams. With all the optimism that this upcoming schedule will be better, I'm just a little concerned that at the end of the day, 3 out of __ may be all we get. Heck, I could see it being as low as 2 depending on who fills out the last few remaining games.

Obviously this last year was amazing despite the problems with the schedule, but that doesn't mean I can't wish for better. I truly believe winning a very high % of games aganist decent competition (RPI 50-150) is a great formula for dancing with a really nice seed, and that is great and all, but a part of me just envies the fanbases who get to play top notch competition prior to March.

I don't think it's a "technical" answer to say NC Central was a tournament level team.

[MadaboutWu]

I don't think it's a "technical" answer to say NC Central was a tournament level team.

And conference champions aren't worthless to have on your schedule even if you would like all of them to be at-large caliber. The committee looks at it and it represents a top 100 win which the committee also looks at it.

Playing 5 NCAA tourney teams in the non-con represents a good schedule. Iirc we were around 40 or about top 10% for non-con SOS. The MVC is what hurt us, not the OOC.

[Jamar Howard 4 President]

AndShock, we will have to agree to disagree. MadaboutWu, I'm not talking about what the Committee does.

I personally don't think NC Central was a tournament level team, by which I mean at-large worthy. They didn't crack the top 75 in either RPI or Pomeroy. As a #14 seed, they lost to a 3 seed by 18 points. They were basically a bottom level NIT team that won at atlarge bid.

Even if you still feel that NC Central was a tournament level team, that only makes 4 out of 34, and it doesn't change my general point about WSU lacking the type of schedule I personally would like to see. I already stated that WSU can do just fine seeding wise playing and beating teams in the 50-150 range, i.e. NC Central. I'm simply talking about the fact that I wish our 4th or 5th strongest opponent out of 34 games wasn't on the level of a #14 seed. The fan in me wants to see more high quality opponents, and last year was fairly weak in that area. I fear the suppossed improvements to next year's schedule still might not remedy this specific area.

[Shockeriffic]

AndShock, we will have to agree to disagree. MadaboutWu, I'm not talking about what the Committee does.

I personally don't think NC Central was a tournament level team, by which I mean at-large worthy. They didn't crack the top 75 in either RPI or Pomeroy. As a #14 seed, they lost to a 3 seed by 18 points. They were basically a bottom level NIT team that won at atlarge bid.

Even if you still feel that NC Central was a tournament level team, that only makes 4 out of 34, and it doesn't change my general point about WSU lacking the type of schedule I personally would like to see. I already stated that WSU can do just fine seeding wise playing and beating teams in the 50-150 range, i.e. NC Central. I'm simply talking about the fact that I wish our 4th or 5th strongest opponent out of 34 games wasn't on the level of a #14 seed. The fan in me wants to see more high quality opponents, and last year was fairly weak in that area. I fear the suppossed improvements to next year's schedule still might not remedy this specific area.

What are your thoughts on Tulsa? They barely cracked the kenpom top 75 but did win the conference regular season and tournament titles in CUSA that included the 34th and 56th ranked team in kenpom.

[WuDrWu]

AndShock, we will have to agree to disagree. MadaboutWu, I'm not talking about what the Committee does.

I personally don't think NC Central was a tournament level team, by which I mean at-large worthy. They didn't crack the top 75 in either RPI or Pomeroy. As a #14 seed, they lost to a 3 seed by 18 points. They were basically a bottom level NIT team that won at atlarge bid.

Even if you still feel that NC Central was a tournament level team, that only makes 4 out of 34, and it doesn't change my general point about WSU lacking the type of schedule I personally would like to see. I already stated that WSU can do just fine seeding wise playing and beating teams in the 50-150 range, i.e. NC Central. I'm simply talking about the fact that I wish our 4th or 5th strongest opponent out of 34 games wasn't on the level of a #14 seed. The fan in me wants to see more high quality opponents, and last year was fairly weak in that area. I fear the suppossed improvements to next year's schedule still might not remedy this specific area.

Okay, well you're an ass.

I just wanted to get that out of the way. We're not joining the Big10 anytime soon Einstein, so why instead of heaping on 21 Valley games that we have no control over, just stick to the merits of the 12-13 games we can schedule?

You use 34 as if we have control over the Valley. That crap is why Fever pounds on you, and why a few others like me, continue to pester you.

You do that just to be an ass. You want to argue that we only scheduled 1 at large team, fine. Stick to that and make that argument.

[ShockTalk]

Okay, well you're an ass.

I just wanted to get that out of the way. We're not joining the Big10 anytime soon Einstein, so why instead of heaping on 21 Valley games that we have no control over, just stick to the merits of the 12-13 games we can schedule?

You use 34 as if we have control over the Valley. That crap is why Fever pounds on you, and why a few others like me, continue to pester you.

You do that just to be an ass. You want to argue that we only scheduled 1 at large team, fine. Stick to that and make that argument.

Even if you cannot control the quality of the Valley games, they are part of the schedule. With CU in the league, we had a higher chance of playing 2 or 3 at-large worthy games in conference, so a few more in the non-con could give you 4-6 total.

That is less likely now. "Stacking" the non-con may be the only way of getting those level of games. Guess I didn't see the heaping on the 21 Valley games.

[Jamar Howard 4 President]

Okay, well you're an ass.

I just wanted to get that out of the way. We're not joining the Big10 anytime soon Einstein, so why instead of heaping on 21 Valley games that we have no control over, just stick to the merits of the 12-13 games we can schedule?

You use 34 as if we have control over the Valley. That crap is why Fever pounds on you, and why a few others like me, continue to pester you.

You do that just to be an ass. You want to argue that we only scheduled 1 at large team, fine. Stick to that and make that argument.

Doc, you are a piece of work.

I once hoped for the media to remember our ’13-’14 season as one of the greatest of all time. I said it would be “icing on the cake”, not the most important thing, but something that would be nice. Not a controversial stance in the slightest, but you railed on me for several posts and actually said you “weep for me” because of my ½ of 1% interest in what the media says.

Now I’m not allowed to be jealous of teams who get to play good schedules? I didn’t accuse WSU of anything. I didn’t criticize anyone for failing to deliver. I acknowledged that WSU can get great seeding in the NCAA Tournament despite the scheduling woes. I am simply a fan who wishes that my favorite basketball team got to play other quality basketball teams on a regular basis. I’m saying out loud what almost everyone on this board is already thinking.

In neither of these cases was I being difficult, trying to cause strife, or saying anything outlandish. Look in the mirror for a second. If someone here is being an ass, its you.

[Heinro]

The Valley was historically horrible last year, though it won't stellar next year, things should be moving in the right direction starting next season.

As for the Duke match up, shame on you. I almost skipped through my house, before I continued reading. Cinderella Darling vs. Blue Blood in a highly anticipated Top 10 match up would be insane. Not to mention that Duke will be young next year and I'd love to have a shot at them early.

[_kai_]

Did we travel back in time to 4 months ago? You guys are still going at it?

[shockmonster]

We had a really good schedule before the year started. It was still good after the year but wasn't as good as it could have been if Tennessee had been as good all year as was expected, if we had played Texas instead of BYU for the CBE Championship, we hadn't had to play Tennessee State and that SWAC team as a part of the CBE, and the Valley was worse than expected.

You can count me in the group that thinks that North Carolina Central was not one of the problem RPI teams that we played. However, I wouldn't mind it if we were able to improve our out of conference RPI from 29. There are a lot of BCS teams who have very poor out of conference schedules and play everything at home.