2011-2012 Schedule Wish List?

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IndyTreeFan

IndyTreeFan

The Kleuh Level
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Well, since this season is over (and what a season it was), I have started my wish list for next year's schedule. Next year, we will have a pretty veteran team, and should schedule up so that we don't have to win the MVC tournament to get to the Dance. Excluding the stupidity of the Bracketbuster, we have 11 non-con games, or thereabouts. Here's what I'd like to see:

4 or 5 games against BCS schools - Purdue, ND, Michigan State, Illinois, Ohio State, Florida, Kansas, Clemson, Gonzaga (close enough), etc. Some of these I mention because they are currently looking for games or teams for tourneys. We have to schedule these if we want to have any chance of an at-large bid. We've also got to win a couple of them. And I don't care if they are all on the road. Such is life as a mid-major.

3 or 4 Home and home series with Top 100 mid-major schools like (cough) Butler, New Mexico, Xavier, Richmond, Dayton, Rhode Island, Old Dominion, VCU, George Mason, etc.

3 or 4 HOME gimmie-games, but not with anyone whose RPI is likely below 200. Ball State (yes, I know they aren't a gimmie, but they really should be), :imslow: Indiana :imslow: (just had to throw them in this category for fun), Oral Roberts, Buffalo, Western Michigan, etc.

I think that would be a good schedule, and with a few well-placed wins, we could almost guarantee ourselves and at-large as long as we don't stink up the conference. The beautiful thing is that I've heard that we already have a couple of BCS schools on the docket for next season. Let's get a couple more and we'll be on our way.

Thoughts???
 

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well, we already know about these games (RPI's from statsheet.com)

Home
UW-Green Bay (current RPI 172)
Ball State (current RPI 169)

Away
Boise State (MVC-MWC challenge) (current RPI 115)
Buffalo (current RPI 155)
Morehead State (unless we defer to the 2012-2013 season) (current RPI 77)
Bracketbuster game (hopefully a television game for ISU)

ISU's RPI is at 82 today
 
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Does anybody know why we quit playing Eastern Illinois? That seems like it should be a natural every year, especially since it seems we are always struggling to find games.
 
I thought I read once that it was their choice to not play ISU in men's BB any more.

Was it ISU's choice not to play EIU in football any more?

bigsportsfan said:
Does anybody know why we quit playing Eastern Illinois? That seems like it should be a natural every year, especially since it seems we are always struggling to find games.
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bigsportsfan said:
Does anybody know why we quit playing Eastern Illinois? That seems like it should be a natural every year, especially since it seems we are always struggling to find games.
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No, no, no. Their RPI is 314. We cannot schedule teams like that if we really want to build a resume. Oh my gosh, I sound like Butler fans...God help me...
 
IU and Butler wont play us anymore so those are off the table. Would love to go to Purdue or ND if they will play us. Any power conference school that is half way decent would be welcomed even if we have to go there without a return game. Dont we have a return game with Depaul scheduled or was that a one year thing?

We should have a group next year that has experience playing together and would love to get into a early season tourney or schedule up early because I think we can take down some power teams that are going through a transition of players and arent quite as familar with each other. Even if we dont win the big games early it can only help us prepare for the conference schedule and beyond.
 

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Remember...there are no guarantees when it comes to the NCAA and the big tournament. LOL

I like your thoughts regarding the schedule.

I still worry about our recruiting.
 
we played at DePaul a few seasons ago and they returned the game this past season, we are done with that series now.

Southgrad07 said:
IU and Butler wont play us anymore so those are off the table. Would love to go to Purdue or ND if they will play us. Any power conference school that is half way decent would be welcomed even if we have to go there without a return game. Dont we have a return game with Depaul scheduled or was that a one year thing?

We should have a group next year that has experience playing together and would love to get into a early season tourney or schedule up early because I think we can take down some power teams that are going through a transition of players and arent quite as familar with each other. Even if we dont win the big games early it can only help us prepare for the conference schedule and beyond.
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Yes..........the very worst thing we can do next year is pull a Missouri State or Wichita State type schedule, win the conference regular season, get upset in the tourney and end up playing in something except the Big Dance. I like it there and we belong there for a few seasons yet!
 

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I know. But if that game hadn't panned out? We would have been begging someone to play us............we should set up more annual games and keep the begging to a minimum.
 
Unfortunately, until fans get off their ass and start filling Hulman Center, scheduling is going to be very tough for us. We're going to have to take more guarantee games against high major opponents to pay for the table scraps we get to come to Hulman Center -- like Oakland City.

When you combine the money issue with the fact that we've been a poor team in the past, our name doesn't allow us to schedule well, either. Hopefully with back-to-back winning seasons and now the MVC Title and NCAA appearance, it will carry a little more cachet.

We had a pretty nice schedule this year, so I have no issues sticking to something similar next.
 
Jason Svoboda said:
Unfortunately, until fans get off their ass and start filling Hulman Center, scheduling is going to be very tough for us. We're going to have to take more guarantee games against high major opponents to pay for the table scraps we get to come to Hulman Center -- like Oakland City.

When you combine the money issue with the fact that we've been a poor team in the past, our name doesn't allow us to schedule well, either. Hopefully with back-to-back winning seasons and now the MVC Title and NCAA appearance, it will carry a little more cachet.

We had a pretty nice schedule this year, so I have no issues sticking to something similar next.
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A schedule similar to this year's and a Valley tourney upset will leave us playing in the NIT or some other post season tourney just like MO St & Wichita this year. Admittedly, only an upgrade of two or three games on that schedule would give us an at-large shot, but must trade the 200+ rpi teams for under 100 rpi types.
 
How much money do we get for making the tournament? I know it gets dispursed among the conference schools, but don't we get a much larger cut?
 
It used to be that the team involved received an equivalent of two (2) shares of the pot. One for every other team and one for the MVC coffer, totalling twelve (12)? Not enough to get rich on but every little bit helps. Naturally each game you win adds more to the pot so the incentive to advance is tremendous. Maybe next year we can raise the bar.
 

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Teamwork said:
A schedule similar to this year's and a Valley tourney upset will leave us playing in the NIT or some other post season tourney just like MO St & Wichita this year. Admittedly, only an upgrade of two or three games on that schedule would give us an at-large shot, but must trade the 200+ rpi teams for under 100 rpi types.
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If it were as easy to do as this board makes it sound don't you think coach would do it? I thought our schedule this year was very competitive. Michigan State has an advertisement for a early season tourney in which they say they have commitments from teams in the MVC, MAC, OVC and are looking for more teams to participate, preferably located in the midwest. It will be interesting to find out who the team is from the MVC.
 
We also need to keep in mind that non-conference strength of schedule is also the tie breaker for seeding in the MVC tournament after head-to-head matchup.

With that being said...I believe we had the strongest non-conference SOS this year in the MVC. It's very hard for MVC teams to schedule BCS opponents, and I think we did a pretty good job of it this year. It may mean more road games in the non-conference, but it was obviously worth it this year.
 
I'm not saying it's easy. I'm sure it's a nightmare. That's my entire point. Except for Ball State, we don't have any long-standing relationships left for non-conference games. If it's possible (and maybe it's not), we should try to enter into some long-term home-and-home agreements with Valpo, IUPUI, Wright State, Western Kentucky, Morehead State, etc. so we don't have to beg and plead for games every year. There have to be other schools like us in this situation. This year's schedule did work out well...........thank goodness for the Bracketbuster and Mountain West deals. Is hosting a tournament a possibility, or do you lose your shirt on those? I don't know.
 
What I posted was simply a wish list. I realize very well how difficult it is to schedule at ISU. That said, we are going to have our best team in years next season, and we should, at the very least, attempt to schedule up. This year's schedule was nice, but we weren't going to get an at large bid from it. If we want to take a step forward, we're going to have to play better teams, more of them, and most importantly, we must win some of those games. We do not want to leave our tourney fate to three games in three days in St. Louis.

I would venture to guess that the coaches know all this, and are working very hard to make sure we have good resume for next year.

You've got to strike while the iron is hot. ISU traditionally lets these types of opportunities pass right on by. If we want to start being treated like the "big boys," we've got to start acting like them. I like Prettyman's statement about our scheduling. He said we'd play anyone, anywhere, anytime. He was talking about the BCS schools, not IUPUI.

Aw heck, it's all just for fun anyway. I do hope that coach sees that our fans will appreciate a rigorous schedule, though.
 
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