I'm surprised Marietta College is in the middle of the season and is not an exhibition. Does that even count?

It looks like our marquee non-conf home game is St. Bonaventure? Andrew Nicholson is back so they should be a decent team. Hopefully we get revenge for the 4 OT loss from last year. 

Besides that, pretty lackluster. That's fine just as long as we win most of them.

It's true that the home schedule lacks "name" programs, but some of these teams have prospects to be pretty good for the upcoming season.  

Would have liked to have had a Temple or a similar type program in the Convo this year, but it is what it is.  Gotta concentrate on beating some pretty good teams in the Convo, especially after struggling in Athens last year.  

This has to be one on the lightest non-conference schedules in the history of Ohio Basketball. The program has made a decision to buy home games against low major opponents in hopes of pumping up the winning percentage. With the ruling by the MAC office to requiring 7.5 games OOC games a year at home to receive a full share of the NCAA basketball money expect schedules like this to become the trend of the future. There is a boasting on Ohiobobcats.com that the combined winning percentage of these schools is .539 but it what level of conference was that winning percentage achieved?

Which one did you schedule?

Lamar is VERY interesting b/c of Pat Knight. Same w/ Ark State with Brady. Nicholson and St. Bonnie will be nice. We still have home Bracketbuster as well I believe.

Miami on Dad's weekend is HUGE. I like the start of the MAC @ BG, Could really put us off on the right foot.

Oakland, Portland, and Louisville are good away games. I'd like to see one of those returned, and preferably not Oakland again.

I don't love the schedule, but I trust it. There's 21 or 22 reg season wins in there based on my calculations after watching Ohio Basketball the past 17 years.

I was sad about this schedule until I realized Miami was on Dad's weekend.....  Are yOU kidding me!?!?!?!?!???!???!!!  This could be a sellout!!!!!!!!!!    

I circled the Louisville game. My feelings are that part of the OOC schedule should be for show, and the MAC schedule is for dough... 

For show: Play against some big name teams. See how the Ohio squad compares to them. Maybe get a big win that draws national attention and energizes the fan base a bit... 

For dough: Trudge through the always competitive MAC season... (hopefully) improve abilities and jell as a team through the season... and win the MAC tourney (da' dough).

For show and at-large dough: And maybe, just maybe the "show" part can get a significant win leading to an at-large bid if we have a great season but come up short in the MAC tourney. 

That's my scheduling philosophy. You can have your OOC filled with the Lamars, Poindexters or Boogers of D1 (or near D1) hoops - just give Ohio a chance to take down a couple of the Gables and Ogres...

At first glance the natural thing is to say its a soft schedule, but when you breakdown the road games we have play and some tough matchups among the home games and its not a walk in the park as the casual fan might think. 

The five difficult away games include:
Louisville 25-10 last year and a traditional national power and top 25 program.  Future NBA talent on the court and Rick Petino on the bench.  

Marshall 22-12 last year. This is a rivalry game for us. We played twice last season. This game will be a tough road game as always.   

at Oakland 25-10. They beat us in Athens last year. They are the top team in the Summitt most years.  This won't be an easy game. 

at Portland 20-12 last year from the WCC. Finished 4th behind Gonzaga, St Mary's and Santa Clara. Its a west coast game and a team that it on the same level as the top of the MAC.  This will be tough game. 

at Wright State 19-14 from the Horizon League. A rare road game vs a non-MAC in state school. Wright State is a solid Horizon program. This will be a tough game for us.  

Now the home games are games Ohio will be expected to win, but some of these games will be close. These teams are much like teams in the MAC that they could beat you if you don't bring your A game.

St Bonaventure 16-15 from the A-10 they were 8-8 in A-10 last year which is very good. They beat us last year too.

Robert Morris 18-14. They beat us in Athens last year. That tells you they aren't too afraid of us either. 

Arkansas St 17-15 from the Sun Belt.  They got better late last year could be a team on the rise.

Morgan St 17-14 they recently reached the NCAA tournament.  

NC A&T 15-17 Very up tempo team. They played us tough two years ago and also out west under O'Shea.

Kennesaw State 8-23 but Ga Tech managed to lose to them last year. We should still win this one.

Tenn-Martin 12-21. Regular season opener we better win that one. 

Lamar 13-17 Another game you better win at home,but Southland is a decent league so can't take them to easy.

Marietta College this game comes after a tough road trip and Bobcats will need a W. To regain some momentum. Marietta is a excellent team in their division, but Bobcats have superior talent and that will be on display.

Record likely 9-5 non-conference. The MAC schedule would likely yield 11-5 and put us 20-10.  This isn't at-large worthy and will be perhaps CBI worthy.  If we show that we can win a couple of those road games and sweep at home non-conference then I would feel better going into January and up those projections.  Bobcats first must prove to its fans that they can take care of business at home. They need to do that to install confidence that we are a contender to win the MAC regular season. Ohio needs to beat Miami and Kent State and Buffalo those first three MAC home games and get off to a decent start in the MAC for once. This team has some experience led by a talented junior class. We should expect a better start to the MAC than what we have done the last two years.  I think we will be in contention in the east and in fact lead it most of the way until three tough road games at UB, at Kent St and at Miami in the last two weeks on the schedule. If  we win all the home games we should have a very good season. I'd expect 12,000 plus for Miami from the fans and students on a Saturday. That's the game every Bobcat should have circled and free up time on the calander to attend.          




     

Isn't CBI worthy basically having $50,000 to blow and a record above .500?

I realize what Groce was trying to do.  But this schedule isn't going to help the RPI much.  The Cats could win the MAC, have a 25-win season and still wind up a 14 or 15 seed.  The schedules over the past few years show a tendency to shy away from playing more than one Big 6 school per year.  The last time OU had more than one Big 6 on the schedule was 07-08: Maryland, Kansas and St. John's all on the road (one true neutral site) in a 7-day span -- and won 2 of three (MD and StJ).  Granted, that team was highly talented and senior laden (Leon, Tillman, Bubba, Justin Orr), but you never know how good your team is unless they play Big 6 a little more often.  There should be two per year at least.

As for fan interest, it's hard to get excited about the names on the home schedule.  Yes, they may be competitive, but no one's heard of Kennesaw, and most of the others -- although somewhat known -- are from conferences that have even less respect than the MAC.  Robt Morris and Marietta should get some regional interest and St. Bonnie at least is A10.  But getting fans to show up for others, especially those during the break, will be tough. 

I see 7-2 on the OOC home schedule (Bonnie & Robt the most likely losses) and maybe as bad as 1-4 on the road (I wonder if someone thought that Oakland U is in California, so they scheduled Portland too) for 8-6 OOC.  Maybe 11-5 in the wacky MAC for 19-11, maybe 20 with the bracketbuster.

Bottom line: if we win, I doubt many of us will be bemoaning the schedule come January. Barring a minor miracle, the MAC is not getting 2 bids...there's nothing wrong with racking up some wins and some confidence along the way.

Would we all enjoy some "marquee" opponents in the Convo? Sure! But I know most of us will be there in the stands for every game regardless of opponent.

I was a little underwhelmed at first, but the more I look at the schedule the more I think it'll suit this team well. Not a lot of sexy matchups on there, but a lot of teams that are roughly at our level.

Ever since Groce took over there has been a lot of instability with roster turnover and way too many early departures (a lot which were not necessarily JG's fault). It seems like every year we're looking at a young, inexperienced, but talented squad that needs a softer schedule to gel together for MAC play.

Hopefully this is year one of some stability in the program, and we can start to schedule some bigger names in a year or two.

Got to love the MAC going back to Wednesday and Saturday games - you can set your schedule by it.  Not only is Miami on Dad's weekend but Akron, the last home game of the year, is also on a Saturday.  At  least from a local fan's perspective, this is great scheduling.  Will have to miss the exhibition though - same night as Young Frankenstein in Mem Aud.