AE Non conference scheduling

[reeder]

The conference has reached a pretty critical point. The RPI is pretty high this year primarily because of the success of Vermont and BU. While the formula is pretty complex, some of the key factors are the RPI's of your competitors and their Strength of schedule.

 

Wouldn't expect Vermont to play teams ranked as high this year as they graduate 4 starters. That means that other teams are going to have to "schedule up".

 

Albany has one of the lower out of conference strength of schedules. Although we usually play 2 guarantee games against top notch schools, most of the ooc schedule is against lower rated NEC schools, Patriot League and Ivy League schools (Sacred Heart and Army have RPI's over 300) . By contrast, the lowest ooc RPI game that Northeastern played was Detroit at 226.

 

I think Albany is going to have to play an increased role in helping the conference maintain their overall ranking, the question is how do they do that. I think if the games in the Coaches vs. Cancer pan out and they can get UCLA that will certainly help. I think in addition to that, they should take the two available games (with Northeastern leaving the conference) and schedule teams with RPI's in the 200 range. There are many options - Manhattan, Iona, Marist in the MAAC; Pretty much any Horizon League team if UA wants to continue improving their profile in the Midwest; Several of the A-10 and CAA schools...

 

I am not saying that Albany needs to stop playing the games vs. Sacred Heart, Army... I am proposing that they need to evaluate ways to improve their RPI. At a minimum schedule up with the two newly available games.

 

I believe that this topic should be high on the list of topics at the next conference AD meeting and a key initiative for the new conference commissioner.

Edited February 20, 2005 by reeder

[olddog71]

Isn't it nice that our level of competitiveness allows us to discuss this topic now.

 

One of the most natural schools we can play is UBuffalo. Its RPI has soared this year. I don't know much more about the team this year - for example, how many starters will graduate.

[GreatDanes06]

to me, Albany needs to start talking with Buffalo and Hofstra when it comes to local out of Conference games. Maybe throw in UMass as well.

 

You know they are gonna throw in a game against a Big East school. If they play in the Coaches vs Cancer and UCLA however, i dont think it will be a high rank team like Cuse. Maybe a Seton Hall, Rutgers or even St. John's would be good.

 

But if you are looking at mid major conferences with local aspirations, Hofstra and Buffalo are it.

[AlbanyObserver]

GreatDanes84 -

 

I am in total agreement with you. I think we need to drop the Patriot League opponents we always play -- Army and Lehigh. I think we all want to see new teams on our schedule. Sacred Heart and Dartmouth make us yawn.

 

I agree with your suggestions of Buffalo and Hofstra. These teams would also be willing to come to the RACC, which is important. Also, before Siena beats us to the punch, we need to schedule a game with UMass for the '06-07 season and Rashaun Freeman's homecoming game. Either schedule that game for the RACC or if Lappas has a problem with that, then talk to the Pepsi about playing that game down there. Considering Freeman played several high school sectional games at the RACC, I feel that setting would be a better atmosphere.

 

We should schedule a 2-for-1 with St. John's. First two at their place and the final game in Albany (at a site to be determined). St. John's coach should turn that program around in three years so that would be a marquee opponent (possibly a top 40-50 team when we play them at home).

[Patch]

Its funny I was speaking with someone from the Athletic Dep't. about scheduling and it's funny how it works.

 

I guess we have arrived........

 

Weak teams don't want us anymore (250RPI and higher)

 

solid teams are wary of us and rather not plays us (250 - 200)

 

Good teams like (Hofstra, Buffalo etc. are hesitating)

 

Top 100 teams we can fill at anytime if we always go on the road.

 

Scheduling is going to get very difficult if we are percieved as a team whoo may be very good next year and for years to come.

 

That to me is a nice problem to have!!!!!! Maybe those who really know hoop (the coaches) are starting to respect us.

[GreatDanes06]

your right with that. I want to see us play Hofstra and Buffalo, but if they are scared that they can hurt a type of season that both are having this year, then they may not want to play us.

[Dane Pound]

I agree with some of those teams you guys have mentioned but I really don't want to see our schedule get too difficult. You can overload on tough teams and really shread the confidence of your team. I think Binghamton did that with their tough OOC and it took them a while to recover especially because they started off with the tougher teams in conference play.

 

At this stage of UA development I really just want them to win and I don't care that much who it's against. For the last few years our identity has been losing and the way to reverse that is with winning seasons. Most casual fans-who we're trying to get to the RACC-don't know a good mid-major team from a bad one. If it's not Syracuse, Duke, Kansas they haven't heard of them and don't know if they have an RPI of 50 or 250. For the past few years I've heard casual $iena fans complain after they've lost to some really good teams (Northern Iowa, Toledo when they were having good years) that they lost to crappy teams. Most people don't know the difference, they just know you're winning or losing.

 

I'd prefer a winning record to a .500 one or below with the explanation that they played a tough schedule. Before we throw Army off the schedule we should remember that we really needed that game after losing at Lehigh(237) and Wagner (290). Our best win this year was over Bing with an RPI of 187.

 

With NU gone I think we should 11 OOC games. I'd like to see

2 against "power" conference opponents (Looks like UCLA, and Florida)

2 against better midmajor conferences (The suggestions of Hofstra-CAA and Buffalo-MAC sound good to me)

Siena

6 against teams we traditionally play. Patriot League, Ivy League and Northeast Conference.

 

If we win 20 games nobody is going to ask who we played against.

[Patch]

DP - I'm with you 100% my comments were just that I was told it's getting harder to get Army, Darthmouth and the like to schedule us.

 

Please remember this is all hearsay and insinuation I picked up in casual conversation at the RACC.

[UA66]

It sure looks like we have arrived at the hinterland, caught in between the big guys and the ne'er do wells, and we can't get a break from either end of the spectrum. While we may not get the lower tier teams to place us any longer, I don't think we should sell the farm to the big boys. I agree with DP on the significance of having a winning record going into conference play. As a case in point, look what happened to the football team last fall. By time conference play came along they were already behind the eight ball in terms of having a winning sesaon and according to some comments I heard, their confidence took a hit from all those OOC losses. Let's not set back the progress made by the BB team this year. We are still neophytes in D-1. It's one step at a time.

[Oldtimer]

DPs' analysis of OOC opponents is very good and UA66 is right on line with realistic progress. My question is why the obsession with playing Hofstra? I know Long Islanders had a choice--live at home and go to Hofstra or go upstate to a Suny school. For those of us who live Upstate, Hofstra has no more prestige than playing LIU, NYU or Booklyn Poly(if it still exists). Colgate, Cornell, Army or Marist will be much bigger draws at the RACC. I love playing the big boys but let's walk before we run.

[Urban Barrister]

Its funny I was speaking with someone from the Athletic Dep't. about scheduling and it's funny how it works.

 

I guess we have arrived........

 

Weak teams don't want us anymore (250RPI and higher)

 

solid teams are wary of us and rather not plays us (250 - 200)

 

Good teams like (Hofstra, Buffalo etc. are hesitating)

 

Top 100 teams we can fill at anytime if we always go on the road.

 

Scheduling is going to get very difficult if we are percieved as a team whoo may be very good next year and for years to come.

 

That to me is a nice problem to have!!!!!! Maybe those who really know hoop (the coaches) are starting to respect us.

Patch: Your comments are completely consistent with what I've heard from the Binghamton staff. I'm afraid the only realistic option for Albany is going to be what Binghamton has done over the past couple of years, and that's to go on the road. It's definitely tough on the team (to play so many tough games on the road), but it will help your RPI. The good news is that both Albany and Binghamton can count on a relatively short drive to Syracuse every year for at least one decent OOC game, which certainly helps our RPI and our reputations in our respective local communities.

 

That said, I agree that improving our collective RPIs should be a big priority for our programs. Only by imroving the quality of our competition will we improve the league's stature and that of our individual programs. Not to take anything away from the success of Vermont, BU and NU this season, but I'd argue that the collective improvement in the league's OOC SOS has had as much to do with the league's improved standing this season as anything. If you look at the RPI for the league, you'll see that no team has an RPI below 300 this year (for the first time since the SUNYs joined), half the league's teams have RPIs below 200, and 7 out of the 10 have SOSs below 200. Those numbers are why Vermont, BU and NU can maintain RPIs in the top 100 even after playing their conference schedules.

 

As for Buffalo, I know from having asked folks at Binghamton about them that they have zero interest in playing the other SUNY Centers, primarily because they feel they are superior to us and, thus, have nothing to gain from playing us. It's too bad, because, as a bunch of us discussed on the AE board a while back, it'd be great for the State of New York if we could set up some sort of tournament involving the four University Centers.

 

Lastly, I'm with you Oldtimer -- I don't get the obsession with Hofstra. I'd just as soon see Bing play UMass or URI, or one of the more competitive Ivy League programs like Penn or Princeton before Hofstra, but I'm not sure how realistic it would be to schedule any of those teams.