I'm sure this was talked about when the Big East schedule first came out...but who did Buzz piss off to get the schedule MU was given. To start @ #6 West VA, vs. #8 NOVA, vs. #12 G'Town and @ #8 NOVA is hell to start conference play. Not to mention still having to go to Storrs and the Carrier Dome to play a couple top 15 teams in January. 6 of the first 9 against Top 15 teams and four of those top 15 games on the road. DAMN!
Guess I see it just the opposite...if you look at the end of year schedule, I would say The Big East (ESPN) did MU a favor. With record in final 12 being a key NCAA criteria, I think the schedule sets up rather nicely. I'd much rather be playing these games now as opposed to Feb/Mar.
Quote from: NavinRJohnson on January 07, 2010, 11:08:11 AM
Guess I see it just the opposite...if you look at the end of year schedule, I would say The Big East (ESPN) did MU a favor. With record in final 12 being a key NCAA criteria, I think the schedule sets up rather nicely. I'd much rather be playing these games now as opposed to Feb/Mar.
+1. Here's the last twelve on the schedule:
@Cuse
Rutgers
@UCONN
DePaul
@Providence
S Florida
Pitt
@Cincy
@StJ
@Seton Hall
Louisville
ND
Given how they've played so far, going 8-4 over that stretch isn't that far fetched. Regardless if they go 1-1 or 0-1 in the BE tourney, they'll still be 8-4 in the last twelve. Put that next to an 11-7 or 10-8 conference record in the BE, and you may have a pretty good case come SS.
That is a pretty good point. Its tough starting out 1-3 in conference though (I don't see them going on the road and beating NOVA, but I guess that is why you play the games. I think this is an NCAA tourney team if they take care of business. Saying that though, I only see 3 guarentee W's on the schedule with Rutgers, DePaul and South Florida at home and possibly St. John's on the road. The rest of those games, especially ones one the road like @ Seton Hall and @ Cincy could be very scary games
I believe the NCAA committee has mentioned that games in November/December will be just as important as the last 12 games. Mainly due to all of the great pre-season tourny matchups that have developed over the years.
It looks like the committee will be more interested in how well you do against the good teams be it early or late in the year than what you did over the last 12. So this Georgetown win is huge as is any other big wins we can get against Villanova, Louisville, UConn and Syracuse. Racking up wins against the bottom 8 with good wins won't get us anywhere even if we have a 8-4 record the last 12 games. But, the good news is that our wins over Xavier and Michigan while not looking great real right now, could play a huge role if all 3 are on the bubble fighting for a final spot.
And... It is the Big East. They could try to book DePaul every other game for every team, but that wouldn't work out so well. G-Town was down last year, and I'm sure it looked when scheduling that we were getting a little breather, but not so.
Regardless, the logistics of making a schedule for all teams in the BE balanced has to be near impossible.
Quote from: T-Bone on January 08, 2010, 11:37:30 AM
And... It is the Big East. They could try to book DePaul every other game for every team, but that wouldn't work out so well. G-Town was down last year, and I'm sure it looked when scheduling that we were getting a little breather, but not so.
Regardless, the logistics of making a schedule for all teams in the BE balanced has to be near impossible.
I understand that. And I haven't look at every team's conference schedule... But 6 of the first 9 against top 15 teams and 4 of those 6 on the road is brutal.
I watched Buzz' show and he made mention that going back to last year the last 8 BEAST games they've played have all been against teams in the top 15...it's a tough conference, even on a "down" year.
Too bad we can't play Indiana every year...