Here is my .02 on the recent OOC schedule.
Road game at Marshall. Nothing really to be gained from it.
>>Road game at Georgia Tech. Potentially huge value. Tons of h.s.stud athletes in the Atlanta area. Could have been a good chance to visit potential recruits except that too many schollies already taken up by end of the bench scrubs.<<
Game at Iona. Was not a blip on the radar screen of NY sports. Not much value.
At WKU. Not much value in it. The nearest real media was Nashville who was busy covering Vandy and UT going to bowl games, the Titans trying to nail down an NFL playoff spot, the Preds trying to get in the NHL playoff hunt, etc. As a matter of fact the home cooking refs stole what should have been a decent win. So that didn't even happen. The Bobcats could have driven 90 miles more and played MTSU who beat Michigan State in the NCAA tourney last season.
Home games vs. Southern, Sam Houston, etc. A way to get some guys feet wet and build some chemistry while getting wins to boost confidence.
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Who to play OOC that could have benefits for publicity, recruiting?
DePaul (Chicago)... obviously.
University of Memphis (OKC Thunder guard Cameron Payne went to Murray State...Golden State Warriors guard Ian Clark went to Belmont...yes, mid-majors get players out of Memphis who end up in the NBA)
Tulane and/or LSU (Louisiana)... and by extension after Hurricane Katrina, Rice and/or Houston (Houston). Louisiana has been full of great athletes forever and many families did move to Houston during and after Katrina, increasing the already large number of athletes in Houston. LSU might not agree to a home & home but the others might. And the jocks at Tulane and Rice can all read and write... not a bunch of semi-pro juco transfers.
Schools in the DC/Baltimore area. Benefit like Chicago. But try to stay away from the really obscure schools.
St. Johns and Villanova. But not games vs small schools in NYC/Philly that will be ignored by the media and lost in the shuffle.
My $0.03 to go with your two cents. Used to be that nickel meant something! ;)
*You're thinking media attention in much of this post. Coaching staff most likely is not thinking in that way. Whether they should be, or not, I can't say. They're thinking about decent road games and getting in the mandated home games that the MAC and maybe the University want. I'd agree with anyone that says we could ditch one or two home games against the scrubs of the world to play a road game at a bigger conference school. Not Carolina, Villanova, or Kansas, mind you, but the middle third to bottom third of those conferences.
EDIT: Like others, I think the mandated home game thing is silly. More value could be had in 1-2 fewer home games being turned into winnable quality opponent road games. 2017-18 with the tournament in Charleston is the exception to this rule, in my opinion.
*WKU/Iona will be great games to continue. WKU could be a tournament team next year and is a rising program. It was a bad loss this year, but it's not a bad game IMO.
*Marshall, despite your opinion, is a series that I think should be continued annually until the end of time. It's a local rivalry that matters, and they are getting better.
*I like the idea of Depaul, and Memphis. Not Nova - we'd get run by 30+ and it would just be a buy game loss.
*If home and home were possible with Tulane, Houston, Rice - I'm all for it. I'm against a one-off road game at any of them.
*Before we complain about scheduling, consider that next year's schedule is going to be a lot bigger and better than this year's: Three games in Charleston against solid opponents, home games against Marshall, Iona, WKU. That makes up roughly half of the schedule before MAC play.
http://espnevents.com/charleston-classic/wp-content/uploa...
Last Edited: 2/16/2017 10:23:29 AM by OU_Country