2015 Non-conference Schedule

[wadesworld]

If this were true, schedule all cupcakes at home, stop playing non-conference tournaments, and apply to join the Horizon.

But it's not. Fans want to see a competitive team against the best opposition. Which means scheduling the best teams available in November and December to put us in the position to win in March.

Lol.  If you think attendance was down last season because we were playing Grambling rather than Southern or Hampton then fine.  Personally, I'd say it had much more to do with our team going 13-19.  But everyone is entitled to their opinion.

The fact that we had the 21st highest attendance when we were 13-19 and 9th in the 10 team Big East is a testament to the support Marquette fans give.  If and when they start to win again the attendance will go up, even if Texas Southern isn't on our schedule (gasp!).

[bradley center bat]

Arizona State had a paid crowd of over 12,000 plus. Winning has a lot to do with attendance.

[#UnleashSean]

When is the last time our out of conference schedule kept us out of the NCAA Tournament?

Until it becomes a deciding factor for us, I think we'll be just fine.  Either we'll be good enough and make the Tourney or we won't.  Beating Grambling instead of Lipscomb isn't going to cause us to miss the NCAA Tournament.

It didn't matter in years past because we played Uconn, syracuse, Notre dame, and 10 other good teams during the conference season. Now we play 3 decent teams.

[brewcity77]

Lol.  If you think attendance was down last season because we were playing Grambling rather than Southern or Hampton then fine.  Personally, I'd say it had much more to do with our team going 13-19.  But everyone is entitled to their opinion.

The fact that we had the 21st highest attendance when we were 13-19 and 9th in the 10 team Big East is a testament to the support Marquette fans give.  If and when they start to win again the attendance will go up, even if Texas Southern isn't on our schedule (gasp!).

Attendance was down for myriad reasons. Losing certainly doesn't help. Playing a weaker schedule also doesn't help.

This new league requires a new focus. As theburreffect2 noted, we don't have the likes of UConn, Syracuse, ND, Louisville, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, and West Virginia on the schedule anymore. You need to offset those losses with more home-and-homes and buy games that will attract a little more attention. I never wanted to renew the UWM or UWGB series, but creating local interest could be a positive. Trying to get involved with better mid-majors like UNI, Valpo, or Kent State that regularly win 20+ games are a better look. And bringing in low-major tournament teams and conference contenders will help our RPI, the league's RPI, and draw more interest from fans.

I'd happily sacrifice three home games for a neutral court game and two home-and-homes that ensured we see better quality opponents, even if two more of the games were away from the BC.

[bilsu]

When is the last time our out of conference schedule kept us out of the NCAA Tournament?

We won only four conference games last year, so our conference schedule kept us out of the tournament.

[GooooMarquette]

We played 17 games against NCAA Tournament teams last year.  This season it is looking like a fairly similar schedule.

Except that the BE exceeded the expectations of many by sending 6 teams.  If we send 5 or - gasp! - 4, that's 2-4 fewer games.  Pretty implausible in the old BE, but not so implausible anymore.

And last season, we had UW@Madison, OSU and MSU as our three "best" NC games.  This season, we have UW@Madison, Iowa and NC State.

Fairly similar?  We could easily go from 17 tournament opponents to about 13 or 14.  Adding one or two teams with a decent shot at making it could be the difference.

[brewcity77]

Except that the BE exceeded the expectations of many by sending 6 teams.  If we send 5 or - gasp! - 4, that's 2-4 fewer games.  Pretty implausible in the old BE, but not so implausible anymore.

And last season, we had UW@Madison, OSU and MSU as our three "best" NC games.  This season, we have UW@Madison, Iowa and NC State.

Fairly similar?  We could easily go from 17 tournament opponents to about 13 or 14.  Adding one or two teams with a decent shot at making it could be the difference.

And if the league only sends 4 teams and we hope to be one of them, that's only 6 conference games against tourney teams as opposed to 12 from a year ago.

[mu03eng]

Except that the BE exceeded the expectations of many by sending 6 teams.  If we send 5 or - gasp! - 4, that's 2-4 fewer games.  Pretty implausible in the old BE, but not so implausible anymore.

And last season, we had UW@Madison, OSU and MSU as our three "best" NC games.  This season, we have UW@Madison, Iowa and NC State.

Fairly similar?  We could easily go from 17 tournament opponents to about 13 or 14.  Adding one or two teams with a decent shot at making it could be the difference.

Don't forget the tournament games, like LSU....those count as NC games.  We will have a decent non-conference schedule when it's all said and done....assuming we win the majority.

I really think at the end of the day, if the margin between getting in and not getting is because we played 4 300+ RPI teams versus playing 4 225+ RPI teams, we weren't very good anyway.

[wadesworld]

Except that the BE exceeded the expectations of many by sending 6 teams.  If we send 5 or - gasp! - 4, that's 2-4 fewer games.  Pretty implausible in the old BE, but not so implausible anymore.

And last season, we had UW@Madison, OSU and MSU as our three "best" NC games.  This season, we have UW@Madison, Iowa and NC State.

Fairly similar?  We could easily go from 17 tournament opponents to about 13 or 14.  Adding one or two teams with a decent shot at making it could be the difference.

LSU will be far and away better than UW@Madison and Iowa this season, and will have a better regular season this season than OSU and MSU had last season (yes, I know MSU went to the Final Four, but they weren't great in the regular season).  NC State will also be better than those 2 were in the regular season.  Neither of them will be as good as Wisconsin was.  At least 3 of Iowa, Wisconsin, LSU, and NC State will be NCAA Tournament teams, just like 3 non-conference teams we played last year were in the NCAA Tournament (I think my original numbers accidentally included Tennessee, so 16 NCAA Tournament teams is the right number rather than the 17 I previously said).  All 4 of them could get into the Tournament.

The Big East will get at least 5 teams in the tournament.

Our schedule will be plenty tough enough to give us an opportunity to get into the NCAA Tournament.  It will come down to whether we win games against quality opponents (which we have more than enough opportunity to do so) or not.

[brewcity77]

LSU will be far and away better than UW@Madison and Iowa this season, and will have a better regular season this season than OSU and MSU had last season (yes, I know MSU went to the Final Four, but they weren't great in the regular season).  NC State will also be better than those 2 were in the regular season.  Neither of them will be as good as Wisconsin was.  At least 3 of Iowa, Wisconsin, LSU, and NC State will be NCAA Tournament teams, just like 3 non-conference teams we played last year were in the NCAA Tournament (I think my original numbers accidentally included Tennessee, so 16 NCAA Tournament teams is the right number rather than the 17 I previously said).  All 4 of them could get into the Tournament.

The Big East will get at least 5 teams in the tournament.

Our schedule will be plenty tough enough to give us an opportunity to get into the NCAA Tournament.  It will come down to whether we win games against quality opponents (which we have more than enough opportunity to do so) or not.

I agree with you on LSU. They should be the best team on the schedule, and it looks like we'll see them opening night of the LC. I think Iowa is also very good. Aaron White is a huge loss but they return a lot of experienced senior talent.

As far as the rest of the non-con, it depends. I'd put UW and Belmont in the maybe category. Both could get in, both could just as easily miss the tournament (I know, blasphemy to say that about a Bo Ryan team). Our second game in the LC will also depend. If we get NC State, I think they look like a tourney team (though Lacey leaves some big shoes to fill) but Arizona State probably not.

Say we get 3 in the non-conference and the Big East gets 5 in. If we are one of those 5, that's 11 total games against tourney teams. If we're on the bubble, our record against those teams, our RPI, and our overall SOS will be very important come Selection Sunday. Playing 5+ sub-300 teams could very well come into play.

I admit, I haven't dug deep into all our sub-300 teams just yet. I do think Jackson State has a decent chance to be much improved. They were very young and added a solid JUCO guard that should at least have them in the top half of the SWAC. Maine might also be improved, they started two freshmen in the backcourt for a rookie coach. With luck, those two might get into the 250-300 range. Still a small help if you end up with 5 sub-250 teams.

[JamilJaeJamailJrJuan]

Pretty disappointing schedule so far.  There is really no reason to schedule so many horrible teams with the likes of Grambling, Maine, Chicago State and Jackson State.  San Jose State is bad but they play in MWC so I can live with that.  It has been covered in depth in this thread, but scheduling matters.  Grambling, Maine, Chicago State and Jackson State are going to kill MU's RPI.  Yeah, I agree this team needs to rack up wins in the early going, but lets do it again teams in the 200's versus some of the worst college basketball has to offer. Grambling is the most puzzling - you 100% know what you're getting there - it is sort of mind boggling to me. 

[Galway Eagle]

I agree with you on LSU. They should be the best team on the schedule, and it looks like we'll see them opening night of the LC. I think Iowa is also very good. Aaron White is a huge loss but they return a lot of experienced senior talent.

As far as the rest of the non-con, it depends. I'd put UW and Belmont in the maybe category. Both could get in, both could just as easily miss the tournament (I know, blasphemy to say that about a Bo Ryan team). Our second game in the LC will also depend. If we get NC State, I think they look like a tourney team (though Lacey leaves some big shoes to fill) but Arizona State probably not.

Say we get 3 in the non-conference and the Big East gets 5 in. If we are one of those 5, that's 11 total games against tourney teams. If we're on the bubble, our record against those teams, our RPI, and our overall SOS will be very important come Selection Sunday. Playing 5+ sub-300 teams could very well come into play.

I admit, I haven't dug deep into all our sub-300 teams just yet. I do think Jackson State has a decent chance to be much improved. They were very young and added a solid JUCO guard that should at least have them in the top half of the SWAC. Maine might also be improved, they started two freshmen in the backcourt for a rookie coach. With luck, those two might get into the 250-300 range. Still a small help if you end up with 5 sub-250 teams.

I know Simmons is good but lets not forget that LSU lost Jarrell Martin and Jordan Mickey. 

Robertson has far from lived up to his ranking with only .5ppg and 1.5rpg so it's either start him at C where Luke will demolish him or they'll swing Simmons over to C where Henry will walk over their backup PF. 

Patterson and Gray are serviceable PGs and will do good against us unless Traci Carter, or whomever runs point, does incredible out of the gate at least on D. 

Quarterman returns a decent 11ppg, 5rpg, 4apg at 3. So I'm nervous there hopefully JJJ or Sandy really put in some work this off season, I will say we're deeper here than them in terms of talent. 

The only returning player I can say I think is really good is Hornsby who'll start at 2 over Blackeney.  But I'm not sure he's much better than Duane. 

I think it'll be a closer game than expected. 

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

I'm expecting the announcement of at least one high major team in tomorrow's tweet.

[brewcity77]

I'm expecting the announcement of at least one high major team in tomorrow's tweet.

I sure hope so. Also wouldn't be surprised by a January non-conference game.

[GGGG]

I sure hope so. Also wouldn't be surprised by a January non-conference game.

At this point, you almost have to right?  If the Chicago State game is 12/22, then break for Christmas, you really only have time for one more game before a 12/31 start.

[#UnleashSean]

Except that the BE exceeded the expectations of many by sending 6 teams.  If we send 5 or - gasp! - 4, that's 2-4 fewer games.  Pretty implausible in the old BE, but not so implausible anymore.

And last season, we had UW@Madison, OSU and MSU as our three "best" NC games.  This season, we have UW@Madison, Iowa and NC State.

Fairly similar?  We could easily go from 17 tournament opponents to about 13 or 14.  Adding one or two teams with a decent shot at making it could be the difference.

Though we probably shouldn't have played MSU last year. Wake Forest hands down outplayed us, but Carlino refused to lose.

[bradley center bat]

You mean Georgia Tech?

[brewcity77]

At this point, you almost have to right?  If the Chicago State game is 12/22, then break for Christmas, you really only have time for one more game before a 12/31 start.

The only alternative is if they aren't really announcing two tomorrow. There's time between UW and CSU, but if they're going in order, definitely January or February seem like a must. My money is on another cupcake game December 28th -- since 2002, our last game before the conference schedule was a cupcake 12/14 times with the exception being the ill-fated Vandy series in 2010 & 2011. Then maybe a high or mid-major, most likely starting on the road (not ideal, but otherwise looking at a 20 game home slate with VCSU). My dream addition would be Notre Dame. They haven't announced their full schedule yet, though I think it's unlikely. Gonzaga, Cincy, and Louisville, three other seemingly good fits, have all finalized their schedules already, so no dice there.

[MUfan12]

Presbyterian on 12/27, Stetson on 1/27.

Woooooo.

[GGGG]

Seriously, my heart goes out to you season ticket holders.  A load of crap this year.

Belmont, Iowa, and a handful of decent conference opponents.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

I think this is the easiest conference schedule we have had in recent memory. I count four teams who I think are in the top 25 teams in the nation this year (Villanova, Butler, Georgetown, and LSU). The only other teams that I think are at large tournament teams are Xavier and Wisconsin. That's 10 games against probable at large tournament teams. Throw in NC State (who we may not play), Providence, and Creighton and you have 5 more games against teams that have a prayer of making the tournament.

[The Lens]

Seriously, my heart goes out to you season ticket holders.  A load of crap this year.

Belmont, Iowa, and a handful of decent conference opponents.

I hope MU appreciate's my blind loyalty.  This sked blows.  As a STH I can even handle season's like 2013-2014 where we are playing a bunch of good away games and cupcakes at home.  I understand the greater good.  This  is clearly not that.

[JamilJaeJamailJrJuan]

Embarrassing schedule.

[MUfan12]

I hope MU appreciate's my blind loyalty.

MU has been banking on our blind loyalty for years now.

[Galway Eagle]

Only way to fix this with the season ticket holders is to have a yearly ND scheduled opposite of the Madison game so that no matter what you're guaranteed a game against one of those two every year.