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Post by phoenixphan87 on Aug 15, 2016 13:17:15 GMT -5
Rhode Island at Valpo Nov 29th
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Post by phoenixphan87 on Aug 16, 2016 13:40:20 GMT -5
SIUE at Green Bay 12/19
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Post by phoenixphan87 on Aug 18, 2016 10:18:12 GMT -5
Northern Kentucky vs Delaware in Miami OH tournament 11/19
Vs Austin Peay 11/18 @ Miami OH 11/20
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Post by phoenixphan87 on Aug 23, 2016 10:31:40 GMT -5
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Post by Flamesmania on Aug 24, 2016 12:37:49 GMT -5
Now that's a schedule designed to avoid another six win season! Actually it was 5 wins, but who was counting? We needed a schedule like this one to give a still young team, confidence. UIC has the talent now as all of the players are McClain's players. The system should run a bit smoother with true point guards running things in Godwin Boahen and Marcus Ottey. There is much talk, and deservedly so, about Ottey, but the new player to watch out for in my opinion, is K.J. Santos. Santos was a 4-star player until an injury dropped him (in the eyes of ESPN) to a 3-star. I think he's still a 4-star. The guy is 6'8", smooth, has handles, can shoot the 3. He will take a lot of pressure off Dikembe Dixson. Hopefully the wins the team earns will more than offset the perceived low SOS. And that might not be that low depending on how the competition does the rest of the season.
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Post by Commissioner on Aug 24, 2016 13:17:20 GMT -5
Now that's a schedule designed to avoid another six win season! Actually it was 5 wins, but who was counting? We needed a schedule like this one to give a still young team, confidence. UIC has the talent now as all of the players are McClain's players. The system should run a bit smoother with true point guards running things in Godwin Boahen and Marcus Ottey. There is much talk, and deservedly so, about Ottey, but the new player to watch out for in my opinion, is K.J. Santos. Santos was a 4-star player until an injury dropped him (in the eyes of ESPN) to a 3-star. I think he's still a 4-star. The guy is 6'8", smooth, has handles, can shoot the 3. He will take a lot of pressure off Dikembe Dixson. Hopefully the wins the team earns will more than offset the perceived low SOS. And that might not be that low depending on how the competition does the rest of the season. I agree it is the right kind of schedule for UIC this year.
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Post by phoenixphan87 on Aug 30, 2016 14:34:31 GMT -5
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Post by phoenixphan87 on Aug 31, 2016 16:27:15 GMT -5
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Post by phoenixphan87 on Sept 6, 2016 10:47:41 GMT -5
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Post by phoenixphan87 on Sept 6, 2016 10:53:02 GMT -5
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Post by Commissioner on Sept 7, 2016 12:57:57 GMT -5
The Horizon non-conference schedules are complete, and listed in the first post of this thread.
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Post by Commissioner on Sept 8, 2016 21:00:39 GMT -5
Here are the teams ranked by the average RPI of last year's opponents. I only counted the top 11 D-I opponents for Valpo and Oakland, since everyone else plays 11 D-I opponents. For both OU and Valpo, the 12th D-I opponent is a home game with Chicago State--not something that adds a lot to the difficulty of their schedule vs. playing another non-DI team or, like Detroit and Cleveland State, not scheduling a 13th non-conference game.
1. Milwaukee 146.5 2. Detroit 146.7 3. Oakland 150.4 4. Cleveland State 155.6 5. Valparaiso 159.9 6. Wright State 169.3 7. Green Bay 179.9 8. Youngstown 197.6 9. Northern Kentucky 208.4 10. UIC 236.6
Of course, last year's records may not be indicative of the coming season, but it's a rough idea of degree of difficulty.
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Post by Commissioner on Sept 25, 2016 16:30:01 GMT -5
With all the non-conference schedules done, here are what appear to me to be the best and worst looking non-conference games:
Best home games-- It's a particularly bad year for home games for Horizon teams: 1. Georgia @ Oakland - Only Power 5 Team to visit anyone in Horizon this year 2. Rhode Island @ Valparaiso - Rhody is a likely NCAA/NIT team 3. Indiana State @ Valparaiso - Solid Missouri Valley visitor from in-state 4. Loyola @ UIC - City rival from the MVC 5. Eastern Michigan @ Detroit - Longstanding, nearby rivalry; EMU has been pretty good of late 6. Western Michigan @ Oakland - In-state MAC rival -- WMU is usually solid under Steve Hawkins 7. Miami @ Wright State - MAC rival barely an hour away. 8. Akron @ Youngstown State - Another local MAC rival--classic blue collar battle. 9. Belmont @ Green Bay - Belmont is typically at the top of the OVC. 10. Belmont @ Milwaukee - Belmont is typically at the top of the OVC, but Green Bay is a better opponent for them than Milwaukee.
Best home games for teams not included above: Western Michigan @ Cleveland State Eastern Illinois @ Northern Kentucky
Best road/neutral games: 1. Oakland @ Michigan State - OU gave MSU a scare last year. 2. Green Bay @ Wisconsin - Another game against in-state B10 opponent. 3. Valparaiso @ Oregon - Valpo nearly pulled the upset a year ago. 4. Youngstown @ Ohio State - The Penguins get to play in the state capital. 5. Valparaiso v. Alabama in Las Vegas - An opportunity to play a solid Power 5 team on a neutral court. Big chance for the Crusaders. 6. Oakland v. Nevada in Anchorage - Another chance for a Horizon team to beat a good opponent on a neutral floor. 7. Valparaiso v. BYU in Las Vegas -- if this comes off, yet another neutral site game against a good, name opponent. Valpo's alternate opponent in this game would be St. Louis, not as good, but not bad. 8. UIC @ DePaul - In-city rival from Big East, and it's winnable! 9. Detroit @ Illinois - A B10 school that can be beaten 10. Valparaiso @ Kentucky - The Horizon's best sallies out against the national power.
Best road/neutral games for teams not included above: Cleveland State v. Kent State in Youngstown - Nearby schools, playing nearby. CSU also has interesting games at Duquesne and Ohio U., and a chance to get pummeled at Kentucky. Milwaukee @ DePaul - Short trip down the freeway to face Big East bottom feeder. Northern Kentucky @ West Virginia - hillbilly heaven Wright State @ Murray State - good mid-major match-up
Worst home games, non-DI Division: 1. St. Mary's (Mn.) @ Green Bay - if the Phoenix are lucky, some people will think they're hosting the WCC power for California 2. Northland (Wis.) @ Green Bay - A really bad D-III team. 3. Westminster @ Youngstown - A bad D-III team. 4. Earlham @ Northern Kentucky - A bad D-III team, but not too far away. 5. Trinity Christian @ UIC - Yuck 6. Goshen @ Oakland - Yuck 7. Trinity Christian @ Valpo - Yuck 8. Oberlin @ Youngstown - One of the nation's most elite academic institutions vs. YSU's more or less open admissions. 9. Brescia @ Northern Kentucky - Local. 10. Adrian @ Detroit - Local.
Worst games for teams not included above: Milwaukee School of Engineering @ Milwaukee - At least this is an in-city D-III team. Ohio Dominican @ Wright State - D-II Lake Erie @ Cleveland State - D-II, and nearby
Worst home games, D-I Division: 1. Chicago State @ Oakland. It's Chicago State. 'Nuff said. 2. Texas-San Antonio @ UIC. One of the 5 worst in the country last year. 3. Northern Arizona @ UIC - #331 RPI last year. 4. North Carolina Central @ Northern Kentucky. #315 a year ago, out of the MEAC. 5. SIU-Edwardsville @ Green Bay - OVC bottom feeder, #306 RPI last year. 6. Bethune-Cookman @ Cleveland State - Don't think lots of B-C fans will come up from Florida for the game. At least if this is a H&H, CSU will have a nice trip next fall. 7. Chicago State @ Valparaiso - At least it's sorta local. 8. Coppin State @ Valparaiso - Valpo got saddled with this as part of its Vegas tournament. Seems a fair trade for neutral court games with Alabama and BYU or St. Louis. 9. Chicago State @ UIC - At least it's local. 10. Jacksonville @ MIlwaukee - Jax once went to a Final 4. Worst home games for teams not listed above: Manhattan @ Detroit - For your worst D-I home game, you could do a lot worse North Dakota @ Wright State - part of an MTE the Raiders are hosting Niagara @ Youngstown State - YSU only has 3 home D-I opponents.
Worst Road/Neutral games: 1. Northern Kentucky @ SE Missouri State - SEMSU had a #342 RPI last year. 2. Green Bay v. UMKC @ Bowling Green - a bad opponent from far away on a neutral floor of a school that barely averages 2000 for it own games. Getting tickets should be easy. 3. Detroit @ New Hampshire - Brrrrrr. Who wants to go to New Hampshire the week of Thanksgiving? Projected attendance: 483. 4. Cleveland State @ Arkansas State - Not seein' the interest in this game. Ark. St. had a #284 RPI last year. 5. Northern Kentucky @ Norfolk State - That's a bad game. 6. Youngstown State @ American - Trump vs. Clinton. 7. Oakland @ Robert Morris - RMU was really bad last year. If OU faces Drake or UC-Davis is the Great Alaska Shootout, that could be worse. 8. Cleveland State @ Tennessee Martin - Where is Martin? 9. Milwaukee @ Montana State - At least they combined it with a trip to Montana. 10. Green Bay @ Pacific - A long trip for a mediocre foe.
Worst road games for teams not listed above: UIC v. Cal-Poly @ Northern Illinois - UIC doesn't have any really bad road trips -- San Francisco and Grand Canyon are far, but good locales; their other road games are within 90 minutes of campus. Valparaiso @ Missouri State Wright State @ Georgia State
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Post by Commissioner on Oct 13, 2016 9:19:32 GMT -5
Not Horizon related, but I didn't want to start a new thread. Yesterday, Alabama State posted its season schedule. So one school remains to post its season schedule, less than a month before opening night--Savannah State. I presume one could at least figure out all their D-I games!
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