Upgrade the Out of Conference Schedule

[pete]

I think this is were the new commissioner can make a difference. It would be great to see him/her reach out to a solid mid major conference ( Missouri Valley perhaps) and propose home and home match ups across the board

[maplehurst]

Somehow the Bonas Womens' team has lured Maryland, Pitt and Michigan to thr RC. How did they do that?

[Roger Dorn]

maplehurst said:

Somehow the Bonas Womens' team has lured Maryland, Pitt and Michigan to thr RC. How did they do that?

Dollar signs.

The problem is that these teams make too much money on home games to do too many home and homes. Thats the difference between mens and womens hoops.

[triple302]

I believe that playing bigger namer in our OOC schedule has little to do with RPI. I think exposure and recognition is much more important at this time. Though I don't think we should be playing 4 or 5 games against BCS schools at this point, it in no way hurts to play 1 or 2. I totally agree with the tournament in Buffalo every year with UB, Canisius, and Niagara. On top of that, going to a Big East school like Pittsburgh where they get actual media coverage would do worlds for recruiting and validation in the college basketball community. At this point, I am not sure that the effect of this on our RPI should be our #1 idea.

[az63]

Pete - while I agree that games against MVC would be great I would like to see OC games played in places we are most likely to recruit.

Philly/Villanova; NJ/Seton Hall(their AD is from Olean & is Bona91's cousin)/or Rutgers: NYC/St. John's: DC/Maryland/Georgetown; Ohio/OSU.

When Calapari took over UMass he went anywhere. I was the UMass team host when they came to Denver for a Christmas tournament in 1989 and spent 5 days with them including many meals. He spoke about playing anybody, anywhere, even if it meant a butt kicking, just to get UMAss on the map.

SBU is on the map, but also still reeling from Scandal & Sol, so we need to first start being competitive, then start winning and then start looking to get back into NIT & NCAA. Best way in my opinion is to play mostly winnable OC games, preferably at home, and go on the road for a couple of almost sure L's against above named teams to strengthen our recruiting base.

[bigdobber]

az63 is 100% correct with the way the OC needs to be structured going forward. Temple and UMass used out of conference to get some national exposure and to build the RPI. I can often remember Temple entering league play 1 or 2 games over .500 and then going 14-2 in league and ending up a 7 seed in the NCAA's. UMass copied that and ended up in the Final 4. I know for a fact that when you go into a recruits living room and show him your upcoming schedule which includes national powers, it can tip the scales your way. The blueprint worked for other A10 programs and can work at Bonas. Take them on the road 3 to 4 times per year in big markets and play the tough teams. We did it with VBK at Connecticut and got good press for that. Playing Bingo, Albany, Hampton, Wright St. and the like is doing nothing but hurting the program. If all you want is a great record, go join the American East. Then you can have Albany twice a year. I think Watson and Schmidt will move in this direction.

[jmp]

Totally agree that we need to upgrade the OOC schedule. When I spoke with Coach soon
after he was here the first thing he said was "what are you guys doing playing schools in
places we dont recruit from?" I think you will see games with schools from Philly area,
Ohio , etc.. Schmidt is a big believer in playing games where kids can see you play. Once the
program gets the double-digit wins to 14 or 15 you will see him venture out to bigger
places. The Hofstra's , Drexel's and Holy Crosses of the world would be a good starting
point. Good Luck tonight against Hampton!!

[phillybona]

You do realize that we were stuck with the teams that Sol made a deal to play Home and Away last year or years prior as you can see. Schmidt told us this from his open press conference in the HOF. Look who HE scheduled and tell me that he did anything wrong.

New Mexico tourney was a plus..Marymount was a name within the last few years contending with Gonzaga in their conf tourney every year, Bucknell (just like a Hofstra or Drexel name of late), and if you win both games against Binghamton...I don't see the problem at all.

[sbu79]

St. Bonaventure 79 / Presbyterian 72 - Ohio St. 87 / Presbyterian 43
Ohio 77 / St. Bonaventure 58 - Kansas 87 - Ohio 43

(Imgine ******Vermeil) Upgrade?

Like he said: patience

[Eagle]

Why not a revived Kodak Classic in Roch every Thanksgiving at the Blue Cross Arena?

SBU, Canisius, NU and a marquee team.

Friday
Canisius v Marquee team
Bona v NU

Saturday
Loser v Loser
Winner v Winner

The tourney will draw.
It would be an inexpensive mini tourney for Kodak.
It would appeal to alums from all of the schools in an important market for traditional recruiting.
One of the three local teams would always be in the final against a well known team.

[jmct]

1. Doubtful NU wants to possibly have a 3rd game w/ canisius

2. Doubtful any marquee team would be interested. Most never leave home in November except for TV games or events like Coaches vs Cancer. It would take a massive guarantee that the event couldn't afford.

[sbu83]

Big Dobber wrote 'I look at this hapless bunch of teams we have scheduled and can't see how this is getting us ready for league play.' Nobody took him to task for that, like they did me when I made similar posts earlier in the season.

Here are the latest facts:

Bonnies 5 wins are against teams with a combined 12-38 record.

Those 5 teams (12 wins) are against teams with a combined 45-72 record (18 of those wins coming from Mr. Brown's opponents).

Thank goodness (?) for the home and home with Binghamton.

[bigdobber]

sbu83-what is your point? We have a weak out of conference schedule. Everyone knows that and our SOS shows that. This team will take it's lumps for alot of reasons, none that have anything to do with the present regime. The benefits of upgrading our schedule will be a stronger SOS, better recruiting and better play in the A10. It will not mean a better record. When Umass and Temple played a tough out of conference schedule, they had bad losses but in the end it gave them recognition. Albany and Binghamton were percieved as winnable games by you know who to pad the record. That's how bad things were. Schmidt and Watson will be upgrading all aspects of the program including the schedule. Schmidt during some interviews has hinted at that. It makes no sense for him to comment on last year. Unlike Sol during his interview with the Dayton paper in October, Schmidt won 18 games last year. He'll win 18 games here too in a few years.