People act like scheduling good teams is a ticket to the dance. It's not. Ask Monmouth how their aggressive scheduling paid off for them on Selection Sunday a few years back. Wins over USC, UCLA, Georgetown, Rutgers, and Notre Dame. Add in respectable losses against Dayton and that same USC team (played them twice). They follow that up with 17-3 in conference play and a loss in their tourney final. All those big pre-season wins, what did they get Monmouth? Welcome to the NIT, boys! Which they were guaranteed anyway since they were their conference #1 seed and lost in the final. It didn't get them s__t, so why is it going to somehow work for us?
Monmouth got hosed that year .... and their league was baaaaad.
I'm guessing if Monmouth scheduled like that every year .... had similar results every year .... that they would eventually break thru.
Nobody had heard of Monmouth...so that probably didn't help.
But it wasn't that long ago that a lot people had never heard of Gonzaga or Wichita State or Butler for that matter.
Those teams didn't grow into really strong, national college basketball programs by playing Alabama A&M, Prairie View, Coppin State and NW Ohio every year.
I'm not saying Ohio is going to turn into a Top 25 program by scheduling better. But they sure as hell would pump some excitement into the program if they scheduled some teams our causal fans may have heard of ... or that some of our more hardcore fans actually respected.
And heavens forbid....if the stars aligned and they actually ripped off a 11-1 non-conference season .... maybe.....JUST MAYBE....they'd be in line for to join the at-large discussion with a good MAC season.
It will NEVER happen with the way they schedule now.
So your solution is to just quit trying? Ok...let's just schedule the entire SWAC and MEAC and play one road game at DePaul each year and get excited!
Our league, it isn't great. So I'm asking, what would Ohio scheduling "tough" really do for us? I'm not advocating don't try, I feel like I'm asking a realistic question with what I think is an obvious answer: it won't help us get to the big dance. When was the last time a MAC team got an at-large? And when was the last time Ohio got one? Winning in Cleveland is the only sure way in. How about we get in that way for a while and become "known" then?
When was the last time a MAC team was at-large worthy? Or put together an at-large worthy resume? Or scheduled like they were trying to earn an at-large? Ohio 2013....they at least scheduled like one that year.
My point is ... why not schedule tough, like you're trying to earn an at-large. There are more positives from playing better competition, isn't there?
Gets you prepared for MAC season, doesn't it? And again, if you happen to have a pretty good team it gives you a chance to be in the at-large conversation.
Perfect example.....what if Ohio was really, really damn good last year. Ran off wins over GT, Iona, Marshall and WKU.....put together an 11-1 non-conference season and AC doesn't get hurt. They roll thru MAC at 15-3....and lost in MAC title game. At 27-5 would Ohio had even gotten a sniff of an at-large bid? Probably not. Why? Horrible schedule.
Why put yourself in that position? Makes no sense?
Would you rather be 27-5 and left out of the NCAA conversation all together .....
I see no benefits of playing 3 SWAC schools and a non D1 in the same season. None. Other than piling up worthless wins in front of empty stands. You think our freshman guards will get better by beating up on those teams? They're better off running a scrimmage in practice.
It would be nice if Ohio could just snap their fingers and win the MAC tourney each year ... but it doesn't happen like that. Those three nights in Cleveland are unpredictable and leave too much to chance. It's tough as hell to win three games in three nights.
My point is, if Ohio wanted to build their program and take it to the next level (not saying jump to the freakin' B1G) ... but become an at-large contender every few years, this isn't how they do it.
If the goal is to get to the NCAA tourney, then why not put yourself in the best position to do that? Find me any mid-major in the history of planet earth that has gotten an at-large bid playing three SWAC schools and a non D1?
"Worthless" wins in front of small crowds at least happen at home. Schedule tough, and how many of those games will come in Athens? Any, do you think? More than likely not.
I'm sorry if this is completely off base, but does anyone else not step back and look at the teams who get in the tourney and realize that the conference you come from matters. It seems to matter more than your record, more than how tough you scheduled, more than anything else. Look at the field from last year, and which Mid Major type conferences got more than one bid. A lot of leagues I think of as a slight step up from the MAC were still one bid leagues. The Colonial, CUSA, Mountain West, The Missouri Valley for crying out loud got ONE bid. I believe the West Coast Conf was the only multi-bid mid-major league. St Mary's was the one team. Their murderers row non-conference schedule consisted of one team from a power conference: Stanford. So do you think they got in because of that win, alone? Did their games against Prairie View A&M, UT Arlington, Texas A&M Corpus Christi, and South Carolina State keep them out? Did going 0-3 against Gonzaga get them in? I'm not sure why more folks don't feel like the obvious reason why mid-majors don't get a lot of at-large bids is because the committee doesn't want them there. If there weren't auto-bids, a lot of conferences wouldn't get a team in, period. Do you remember Davidson (can't remember the exact year) one year going undefeated in their conference and I believe nearly 30 wins was still listed as a bubble team before their conference tourney final.
I feel like all this talk about at-large bids and strength of schedule is a complete waste of time. We're in the MAC. It's a 1-bid league. Win the dang tournament or we're not in. End of story.
St. Mary's got in because the WCC is a helluva lot better league than the MAC (9th compared to 14th)... that's why St. Mary's got in. They had good games built-in to their league schedule.
Four Top-100 teams....
https://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/standings/con... Unlike the MAC...who had just 1 Top 100 team
https://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/standings/con... St. Mary's was a Top 20 RPI team that was 5-4 in RPI Top 100 games .... including a road win at Dayton and a home win vs. MWC champ Nevada.
They've also built up some name recognition over the years and are a pretty well respected program.
Name me a MAC school that was snubbed with 28 wins? That's because no MAC team ever wins 28 games and not the MAC title game. And if they did .... they probably had an AWFUL schedule (I'm looking at you Akron)
Illinois State got snubbed last year cause their out of league schedule was garbage.
Murray State got snubbed that one year because their out of league schedule was awful.
Sense a theme?
Mid-majors get snubbed generally for playing terrible out of conference schedules.
And yes... this is primarily because P6 teams won't play them. That sucks. It totally does. But that's the deck that's been dealt, so they need to find a way around it.
Whether that's becoming a road warrior and just hitting the road to play them....or finding different options.
But to just wave the towel and deem it "impossible" is such a defeatist attitude.
If Ohio was in the MEAC, that's one thing. But Ohio isn't.
I strongly believe that Ohio could build themselves into the elite MAC program and one that can consistently be in the running for not just the MAC title, but at-large consideration. They just need to make that commitment. Scheduling the way they do won't get them there.
There was a time not too long ago that Butler, Wichita State, Gonzaga, St. Mary's, Northern Iowa, Davidson, etc. .... all those schools were on the outside looking in. I'm not suggesting Ohio will grow into that and join a major conference. But all those teams started building up their basketball programs by playing better schedules ... parlaying that with NCAA success....and suddenly they were on the national radar. Ohio has had decent NCAA success...but they've failed to follow it up those two years. That sucks because I thought in 2013 they were ready to break thru and it didn't work out.
Maybe I'm just a wide-eyed optimist, but I don't think it's too crazy to think this program can excel and strive for more. They put a lot of money into basketball ... why that can't be coupled with more aggressive scheduling is beyond me. Maybe it's because of that MAC referendum on home games? I don't know. But to me, scheduling three SWAC sisters of the poor AND non-D1s is a joke. Let EMU and NIU do that. You're Ohio. Carry yourself like the best program in the MAC....don't play down to the MAC's level.
Last Edited: 8/16/2017 4:24:26 PM by bshot44