Really Rutgers?

[damuts222]

 So I usually look over the NCAA Basketball scoreboard every morning just to see the scores from the previous nights games and I came across Rutgers playing......Caldwell?

Can anyone explain to me why Rutgers is playing a Division II school this late in the season?? The sadder thing is that at home Rutgers won by seven and apparently had trouble closing it out. When Rosario leaves they are going to be in an even bigger world of hurt.

[StillAWarrior]

It's obviously not nearly as bad as a DII school, but I was surprised to see Pitt playing Robert Morris the other night.  It's late in the season for those games -- although I see they played late in the season last year too.

[reinko]

Short memory.

MU vs. Florida Gulf Coast March 4th, 2008.

[MR.HAYWARD]

our previous coach thought playing a patsy OOC late in the season was ingenious as well

[dsfire]

I don't have any info on this particular instance but this sort of thing usually happens when one of the planned non-conference opponents falls through and they have to find another opponent at the last minute.

[radome]

Maybe it was scheduled when the committee was weighing the last games more heavily.  I think scheduling Fl Gulf Coast, based on the committee at the time, was smart.

[StillAWarrior]

Short memory.

MU vs. Florida Gulf Coast March 4th, 2008.

Yes, I do have a short memory.  But, that was odd too.  I assume you're not disagreeing that it is unusual to be playing buy games this late in the year.  Not unprecedented, but unusual.

[damuts222]

I don't have any info on this particular instance but this sort of thing usually happens when one of the planned non-conference opponents falls through and they have to find another opponent at the last minute.

That makes sense, what does that do to your RPI?

[dsfire]

In this case, nothing, I think.  Games against non-D1 opponents are exhibitions and don't count towards your season won-loss record or anything else meaningful (maybe career stats?).

[reinko]

Yes, I do have a short memory.  But, that was odd too.  I assume you're not disagreeing that it is unusual to be playing buy games this late in the year.  Not unprecedented, but unusual.

Exactly not disagreeing at all.  Very weird, but I loved the baby blues that day.

[damuts222]

Story on why Rutgers played Caldwell

http://www.nj.com/rutgersbasketball/index.ssf/2010/02/rutgers_men_fend_off_d-2_caldw.html

"Rutgers coach Fred Hill said that he originally scheduled the game as a way to give his regulars a break in the middle of the Big East season and give his bench valuable game minutes." (Per above story)

[StillWarriors]

Yes, I do have a short memory.  But, that was odd too.  I assume you're not disagreeing that it is unusual to be playing buy games this late in the year.  Not unprecedented, but unusual.

If I recall correctly, that game came about b/c we kept getting a rough final stretch of games, and our seed was hurt as a result. I thought the idea was to throw one more win in their late.

[TallTitan34]

I believe Detroit fell through that year so Florida Gulf Coast was added.  I believe it was placed where it was for two reasons.  One reason was to add a win at the end of the season.  The other was because we had an entire week off leading to the final game against Syracuse and it was meant to keep the team fresh.  Personally, I think a week of rest at the beginning of March would be benifical but that's not my call.

[The Man in Gold]

I'm sure that was part of it.  The big reason we scheduled that game was because Maine backed out of the Blue and Gold classic, and the Tan one could not fill the tournament.  As a result they canceled the whole thing late in the summer, but we still wanted to play FGCU and that was one of the days that fit.

[mikeDEANmeminger]

Teams often schedule games like this cause, like Marquette this week, they have bye weeks in their conference schedule. A lot of coaches don't like a week off this late after playing twice a week for almost two months now...teams have their schedules and routines mapped out for them, and a lot of coaches don't like an off week throwing that off. So they schedule a team that they can beat but its still a game day so you go through the same routine and stay on schedule.
Often its a D2 team (or a team like Robert Morris) because other D1 teams you may want to schedule a non conference with don't have the same off weeks making scheduling impossible. D2 schools, on the other hand, love a game like this for the huge pay day they will receive, so they don't mind 3 games in a week when it brings in as much money as they will get

[77ncaachamps]

Story on why Rutgers played Caldwell

http://www.nj.com/rutgersbasketball/index.ssf/2010/02/rutgers_men_fend_off_d-2_caldw.html

"Rutgers coach Fred Hill said that he originally scheduled the game as a way to give his regulars a break in the middle of the Big East season and give his bench valuable game minutes." (Per above story)

looking at how his season is going, "Great idea, Fred!"

[Goatherder]

I believe Detroit fell through that year so Florida Gulf Coast was added.  I believe it was placed where it was for two reasons.  One reason was to add a win at the end of the season.  The other was because we had an entire week off leading to the final game against Syracuse and it was meant to keep the team fresh.  Personally, I think a week of rest at the beginning of March would be benifical but that's not my call.

That was about it.  FGC was supposed to be one of the teams in the Milwaukee Classic or whatever it was called that year and had already signed the contract.  Then Maine pulled out, which meant no Classic.  But still a contract with FGC.  So they got fit into the schedule where it was convenient.  I think whoever the other team in the Classic was got to play in the pre-conference season.  Then we wore the baby blues so that we would actually win a game when wearing them, even if it was against an awful team.  Trouble is, FGC had blue road uniforms, so it looked rather ridiculous.  The refs didn't have a problem telling the teams apart, but it looked like a grade school game. 

[wojosdojo]

Just thought id add Florida Golf Coast is our only victory in the baby blue jerseys... I'm supersticious