Post by ptctitan on Sept 28, 2021 13:39:45 GMT -5
Sept 28, 2021 13:00:58 GMT -5 @hsscout1 said:
"Davis did address scheduling and said he was trying to get a couple of our road commitments this year to get delayed until next year so that we could have more home games. Talked about trying to play some area MAC teams. He also said he was committed to leaving the Horizon League."The above was quoted from upbasketballfan from the May Virtual event with Coach Davis. My question is, if not the MVC, then where? The A10? I'm assuming he's committed to moving up and not down to the Summit or the MAAC (and the MAC, although a move up, isn't a fit with it's focus on football)
Based upon his past comments in virtual roundball events, he sees us as a better fit in the A-10 or Big East. Our institution is closer in size and heritage to more schools in those conferences than to the large publicly-subsidized schools that compromise 83% of the HL. This year's roster is the first step in proving that we can recruit the type of player who can enable us to compete in those leagues. He wanted this type of roster two years ago but the APR ban cost us several good recruits then. He does not want to make a lateral conference move.
Schedule-wise this year, we had to honor some long-term contracts with MAC schools initiated by Bacari and the home and home with Northeastern which was really a favor done for their former AD, Jeff Konya, who had left OU in 2018 for the NE job. He left NE this summer to take the AD job at San Jose State. I believe you will hear Davis say tomorrow that next year, he wants to play 5 or 6 non-conference home games - including local neutral site games. Those commitments hamstrung our ability to schedule more home games because the combination of last year's Covid cancellations plus how the long-term Bacari contracts fell limited our options. We still owe trips to EMU and SIUE next year. Plus we have to return CMU. But this year's schedule clears out most of the Bacari scheduling holdovers and gives us much more flexibility starting next year.