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Post by Commissioner on Jul 10, 2015 9:51:34 GMT -5
Right now I'm pretty impressed at the Horizon schedule info that is coming out. Of course, a lot of the last games to be announced may be NAIA filler and so on, and we don't have so far any marquee home games on a true home floor, as with Wisconsin at Milwaukee and Green Bay, or Virginia at Green Bay, or Wichita State at Detroit the last couple years. There are, though, two big games on neutral floors with the Horizon team designated as the home squad, Michigan State vs. Oakland (at the Palace at Auburn Hills) and Illinois v. UIC (at the United Center in Chicago).
Oakland has an all-DI schedule. As usual, it's a tough schedule, indeed possibly too tough. Besides MSU, its got a game at Virginia. But there are several games against very good teams but teams that nonetheless seem beatable--Colorado State (won 27 games last year), Washington, Georgia. Toledo and Eastern Michigan give them a couple MAC teams that look to be down a bit but have been good in recent years; Robert Morris is another mid-major that is usually competitive. Then there are some scheduled wins, home games against Binghamton and Chicago State, and some road or neutral games that could boost RPI if Oakland wins against relatively weak competition--Southern Illinois, Troy, Abilene Christian/Florida A&M. Only 4 home games, just 3 in the O'Rena, but it's a good schedule.
The Titans are not playing in an exempt tournament, so they've got just 11 non-con games this year (vs. 15 the last few years), but we still scheduled a couple of non-DI teams. Still, the 9 DI games are darn good -- two good high major guarantee games that fall into that "potentially winnable" category, Pitt and Vandy, and a quantity dose of quality mid-majors. The latter include 20 game winners in Northeastern, Toledo, EMU, Western Kentucky, and Bowling Green, and then Oral Roberts, which won 19 games. The only team with a losing record is Central Florida, from the AAC, a borderline high-major conference.
UIC has few confirmed games, but if I'm a UIC fan I really like what's shaping up: home games with DePaul, Illinois State, and Northern Illinois, plus the home game against Illinois at the United Center. Unconfirmed games with San Francisco and Drake are solid, and Western Illinois is another in-state rival.
Lots of other good mid-majors on our schedules, and sound guarantee games. Wright State got a game at Xavier, a nice guarantee game for them. They'll also go to Kentucky to get pounded, but at least its a short road trip. They've got nice home games against perenniel mid-major powers Georgia State and Murray State, and continue to play local MAC rivals Bowling Green (at home) and Miami (on the road). It's definitely shaping up as a better schedule than they've had in recent years.
Valpo has some winnable road games at Oregon, Oregon State, and Indiana State, a home game against the MVC's Missouri State, and it looks like they get the Belmont home and home series this year.
Green Bay play in-state Big 10 rival Wisconsin in Madison. Cleveland State's schedule is largely complete and looks good.
Youngstown has always had trouble scheduling home games and I expect they'll end up with 3 non-DI games again, but they do have Toledo coming in. They've got some tough road games that will probably leave them pretty beat up - Notre Dame, Purdue, and Michigan - but it's not a lot of travel. They'll play local rival Kent State at nearby Kent.
With most the schedules at least half done, it's a good start. Now the Horizon has to go out and win some games.
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Post by motorcitysam on Jul 10, 2015 14:18:50 GMT -5
Nice breakdown, Commish. And, yes, there are some good opportunities for the HL teams to get some good wins this year.
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Post by Commissioner on Jul 20, 2015 22:02:16 GMT -5
I don't think Titan fans give our leadership enough credit for scheduling. No, it's not like the days when Michigan State and Villanova and Xavier and Marquette and Dayton would come to Calihan, but that's not where we are these days, and mid-major scheduling is just a bitch.
We've got 6 non-con home games this year, 3 against 20 game winners, 1 of them an NCAA participant last season, and a fourth game against an AAC team. That includes a good semi-local rival in Toledo.
Milwaukee looks like they'll have just 4 home games, at least 1 and perhaps 2 against non-DI teams, and the others against SIU-Edwardsville and South Dakota.
Oakland's got just 4 home non-con games, and one of those is Michigan State, which is a great "home" game but isn't really being played at home, but at the Palace. The others are against EMU (cool), and then Binghamton and Chicago State.
YSU has a solid home game with Kent State, and nothing else yet that's appeared. I'll bet they play 3 non-DI teams at home.
We'll have to see how the others do, but we actually get pretty decent competition into Calihan.
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Post by Commissioner on Jul 23, 2015 19:54:26 GMT -5
Wright State's non-conference schedule is out, and shown in full at the top of this thread.
It's good. 6 home, 5 road, two neutral games. The home games include two non-DI games, but also games with Murray State and Georgia State, two good mid-major programs, and also Bowling Green, just up I-57 and a 20 game winner last year. They go to Kentucky to get slaughtered, but it's a short trip, and they've got a guarantee game at Xavier, which is, frankly, a great guarantee game for Wright State. They also play local rival Miami on the road, and have three games at Northern Illinois to start the season--all winnable games that, as neutral/road games, can give them a big RPI boost with some victories.
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Post by Commissioner on Jul 27, 2015 20:27:53 GMT -5
A very interesting listen on scheduling with Wright State's AD on the difficulties of mid-major scheduling: www.wingam.com/The-Difficulties-Of-Scheduling-In-CBB-More-w-WSU-A/20455948?pid=497079. Even mid-majors "just don't want to leave home." "Billy and I are talking about scheduling some 10 months of the year." Notes that coaches on hot seat will avoid road games. Much of scheduling is based on relationships, especially getting good home games and any high major conference team. Why play D-II and D-III games? It's $65-$95K for a mid-major to buy a game against low major DI teams "Those teams don't draw well ... and we're not buying a name that our fans will find attractive and they can hurt your RPI rating as well." Attendance for non-DI opponents "is not much less if at all than some sort of lesser Division I game, but we're not writing a $75,000 or $95,000 check." Talks about addition of NKU and its benefits for lowering travel costs and reducing missed class time by having travel partners for all schools. "I'm not sure if we're [Horizon] done adding [members] or not." Voted to move tournament to Detroit. Says athletes wanted the "tournament experience" and didn't get that with local sites decided at last minute. Most interesting on scheduling is about 2- 6 minute marks.
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Post by Commissioner on Aug 5, 2015 11:21:13 GMT -5
UIC announced its schedule today. I would think it's a pretty attractive one for Flames' fans. There's the usual griping about two non-DI schools from those who simply don't grasp the reality of mid-major scheduling anymore, but even those teams--Roosevelt and Purdue-Calumet-- are local.
Without an exempt tournament they've got (like Detroit) just 11 total non-conference games. The big one is Illinois, at the United Center in Chicago. They've also got Illinois State at home. The others include local rivals DePaul and Northern Illinois at home, and Loyola at the Gentile Center, plus another in-state rival, Western Illinois, in Macomb. San Francisco, Drake and Central Florida --all from upper mid-major conferences--round it out. USF is in Chicago and the other two on the road. Counting Illinois, that gives them 7 home games.
Milwaukee's schedule all but finalized with the release of brackets for the Gulf Coast Classic. They'll open down there with Murray State, then get Duquesne or Pepperdine, and another mid-major in the third game. The fourth game of that exempt tournament--which they'll play at home--is almost certainly against a non-DI foe. That leaves one empty spot on their schedule, and since they've got only 3 of 12 known games at home (including that last Gulf Coast game), figure that last one will be at home, almost certainly against a non-DI opponent. They appear to have road games at Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Notre Dame, but their home schedule is pretty bad. But most of those games aren't definite yet, so all this could change.
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Post by Commissioner on Aug 5, 2015 15:38:19 GMT -5
Also today, Robert Morris announced its schedule. In addition to the previously announced game against Oakland, they play at Youngstown State on December 2. That's a good home game for YSU.
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Post by pathfinder on Aug 18, 2015 11:12:02 GMT -5
Green Bay plays ETSU at 6:00 a.m. Novrmber 17 on ESPN 2, and Valparaiso plays at Rhode Island at 10:00 a.m., also on ESPN 2, in the tip-off marathon on ESPN.
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Post by Commissioner on Aug 23, 2015 22:36:53 GMT -5
No surprise -- Green Bay, like most Horizon teams, will have two home games against non-DI foes. They'll face Minnesota-Duluth (D-II) in November. Today we learn they'll play Wisconsin-Superior, a D-III school, in December. They've also got an exhibition at home against Wisconsin-Stout.
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Post by Commissioner on Aug 31, 2015 21:36:04 GMT -5
Before tonight, we knew less about Northern Kentucky's schedule than any other Horizon team. But the Norse released their non-conference schedule today, the 5th Horizon team to do so. There are the now usual two home games against non-DI foes; guarantee games at West Virginia, Michigan, and Xavier, and some mid majors. They wrap up (I think) home & home series with North Carolina A&T, Morehead State and Toledo, and begin them (I think) with Eastern Illinois, SE Missouri State, and Norfolk State. Come to think of it, the West Virginia game may not be a guarantee - NKU actually hosted WVU last year, so this may be a return in a 2 or 3 for 1.
WVU, UM, and Xavier are all likely to be more than the Norse can handle. But the mid-major games include a couple they ought to win (NCA&T) and what could be good RPI games in teams like Norfolk and Morehead, which usually do pretty well in their conferences. Five home games, 6 road games, without too much travel--NC A&T, about 7.5 hours away, is the only trip more than 4 hours by bus.
Full schedule for NKU and other Horizon teams are at the top of this thread.
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Post by Commissioner on Sept 2, 2015 22:49:38 GMT -5
Green Bay becomes the 6th Horizon school to release its full non-conference schedule: udtitanbasketball.freeforums.net/post/3977Just 5 home games, 8 road games, not much inspiring at home. A pair of MAC teams, Akron and Toledo, are on the home schedule, along with perennial low-major power Sam Houston State and a couple non-DI opponents. They have pre-season NIT games at Stanford and Georgia Tech, and the final game of their 8A-2H series with Wisconsin, but no apparent guarantee games (I assume they get something for those games, though). They do have a chance to win some road games, playing at SIU-Edwardsville, Chicago State, Morehead State, Eastern Illinois.
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Post by Commissioner on Sept 3, 2015 10:33:47 GMT -5
Full conference schedule should come out today.
On non-conference, with Green Bay releasing its schedule yesterday, we have 4 teams yet to officially release. But we know most of those games from other schools' releases. What's missing:
Milwaukee - The Panthers get 13 games and have 12 booked. They have just 3 home games in those 12, so presumably they will all but insist on game 13 being in Milwaukee. As of 3 weeks ago they were advertising on Basketball Travelers for a game. If they can't get it, I assume they will schedule a non-DI team at home. Currently they have one non-DI team, Trinity International, on their schedule, a home game that is part of the Gulf Coast Classic.
Valparaiso - The Crusaders don't appear booked for an exempt tournament, so they get just 11 non-conference games. Assuming a home & home this year with Belmont, which several sources have indicated is the case, they've got just 1 opening left. Valpo has just 4 home games on the non-con schedule, so they'll probably insist on this last game being at the ARC. A non-DI team seems likely (currently, all their games are D-I).
Clevland State - There have been some reports that CSU will visit Belmont this year. Belmont is supposed to play 5 more Horizon teams in H&H series in the next 3 years, so it is quite possible they will face both Valpo and CSU. If CSU is playing Belmont twice, they'll have two openings left. So it's two to four spots they've got. Assuming they play Belmont twice and have just two openings, they'll almost certainly want at least one at home, as they have just 4 home games now of 11. Reports from Cleveland are that they hope to have an all-DI schedule. We'll see.
Youngstown State - YSU has always had the most trouble scheduling non-conference. They have no money to buy games, but also seem to have more trouble lining up good home & home series. Right now we know 11 of their 13 games, including two at home vs. non-DI opponents. In recent years they've scheduled 3 non-DI teams and likely will again. With only 4 of the 11 at home, they'll want at least one more home game. Anyway, two openings there.
So we're looking at 6-8 games left to schedule, depending on where CSU is with Belmont. My guess is that at least 3 will be non-DI teams.
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Post by Commissioner on Sept 3, 2015 12:43:14 GMT -5
YSU's schedule is now out, with a road game at Niagara and a home game against American filling it out. So YSU only has two non-DI teams for the first time in a while. This is actually the toughest non-con schedule they've faced in some time, with road games at Notre Dame, Purdue, and Michigan. Except for a trip to Florida for 3 games in the Gulf Coast tournament, there are no long road trips.
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Post by Commissioner on Sept 15, 2015 8:15:57 GMT -5
Supposedly Belmont will release its schedule today, which should clarify some of the remaining games of two of the three HL schools that have yet to announce their schedules, CSU and Valpo.
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Post by Commissioner on Sept 15, 2015 11:31:55 GMT -5
Supposedly Belmont will release its schedule today, which should clarify some of the remaining games of two of the three HL schools that have yet to announce their schedules, CSU and Valpo. They are indeed playing home and home v. Valparaiso, and playing a single game at Cleveland State. One game each for Milwaukee and Valparaiso, 2 for CSU, and we'll know the complete slate of Horizon non-conference games.
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