A team with heart no matter how many turnovers they will prevail. This always isn't the case but going with the trend of our team... We may have the talent, but not the heart. I still believe our out of conference schedule is too weak. Play away... It can't hurt recruiting. On my high school team I had four D1 players on my team. One went to Toledo based on the fact they played at Duke freshman year over BG or Eastern. A CSU buddy saying he'd play for Gary with games against big time teams rather than go to a mid major playing small time teams in small time towns...we need to schedule better out of conference. What all do you think of our out of conference schedule and recruiting? I want opinions not people yelling at my opinion (and opinion of my buddies) if we play out of conference maybe it pulls us together for conference play. Have pride in what you do...

I'll give my opinion - and the first is that stating our team doesn't have heart is a very unfair thing to say unless you're at practice, in the locker room, and know the team. Sorry if that's "yelling" at your opinion, but it's the first thing I saw in your post.

I wouldn't mind seeing 1-2 more challenges, but I do think sometimes to assume we should just go play everyone on the road is a little silly. I don't think that kind of schedule is good for anyone. For those of us who live close enough buy tickets, we wouldn't be pleased if there were only 3-4 home games before MAC play starts. As for the quality of the schedule, I think the schedule last year, and next year, in terms of "big name" opponents was pretty good to be honest. I'd have like to have seen one more challenge for this team scattered in somewhere this year. And you know what? They were working on it, and it fell through.

As for recruiting, I am of the opinion that Saul & staff have done and are doing a fine job. They've brought the following to Athens since their arrival:

Jaaron Simmons - the floor general and a top 25 PG in the country by some measures.
Kenny Kaminski - 4* recruit transfer from Michigan State. He could have gone a lot of places higher profile than Athens
Jordan Dartis - freshman starter who will be one of the top 3-point shooters in school history by the time he graduates.
Ryan Taylor - obviously departed, but he started and played well as a frosh here, and is scoring 15ppg at an MVC school.
Gavin Block, Doug Taylor, Jason Carter, Rodney Culver -- all show promise for being good players when they get the time on the floor.
Gollon, Dozier - still TBD

I can't speak to the incoming players, but I'm really, really excited for Zach Butler's arrival. He looks super athletic from the little that has been shared in his recruiting thread. The two incoming bigs both look capable as well, but only time will tell.

We're focused on home games because of the conference telling teams to get a certain amount of home games. However, given our attendance in December, we should probably reduce that number a bit and get some buy games on the road. we'll make more money that way anyway. and our attendance average will probably be higher.

You make really good points. I'd forgotten the conference mandate as a factor.

To me, at least one of the the last 2-3 non-conf games of December could be great opportunities to play a buy game.

The game at WKU (c-USA) wouldn't have been such a bad idea except for getting screwed by the refs. What conference were they from anyway?

I agree our schedule out of conference is overall pretty ho-hum. While I do like that were up sizing the level of mid majors programs we play (SHSU, WKU, CSU, Iona)...ot would be nice to have a few more P5 games along with GT.

I've never understood why we don't do more home and homes with some traditionally good mid-majors like WKU.

Belmont, Murray St, Morehead St, EKU, VCU, Richmond, Mason come to mind.

Rather theyd go up a notch even if it's not home and home with some teams like...

Pitt, WVU, Geo Wash, UD, Xavier, UK, UofL, UT, UVa, VaTech, Maryland, Gtown, Temple, URI, Providence...

A few of those type games each year would prepare us much better than Urbana.

We're almost there from a schedule standpoint...was just disappointed to not see it pumped considering what we thought this team was.

Maybe that was a good thing it wasnt....or maybe Saul knew something we didnt.

Would like to go back and see how Saul scheduled at NDSU...a place a lot harder to get to than Athens I imagine.

2014 = 3 non DI schools, most years 2 or more???