NU releases non-con schedule

[NJCat83588]

What seems funny to me are the posters who outwardly dislike the schedule (because it'll hurt our NCAA chances) are the same ones that don't think we're good enough to make the NCAAs anyway.

In the end, you have to win anyway. Let's play the games...if we end up being good enough, we'll probably have won the games needed to get us there. An 18 game B1G schedule is nothing to balk at these days...

This.

The key will be having a winning record in the Big 10. Do this, and win a game in the Big 10 tournament (a 10 win team avoids the first round game), and NU will be IN the NCAA toonament. I think it is possible this season, but not likely. But I am really looking forward to seeing this team play. Looking at the photos on their Facebook page, it just LOOKS like a Big 10 basketball team. Collins continues to make progress.

 

[Gladeskat]

I'll just reiterate that it's WHO you beat in those 20 wins that matters as much as the number. For example, if we got to 20 wins by beating UMass-Lowell, Fairfield, Columbia, Virginia Tech, SIUE, Chicago State, MVSU, DePaul, Sacred Heart, Loyola (MD), Minny, Nebraska and Penn State twice, Rutgers, Iowa, Illinois, Purdue, and Indiana with most of those wins at home, that doesn't look like a strong NCAA tourney resume to me (even though we might be 9-7 in conference play in it.) Add in a first round conference tourney loss and it's even more problematic. However, if we were to get to 19 wins, but those wins included wins over Maryland, Michigan State, Ohio State, Wisconsin, and UNC, we likely have a better shot particularly if we got a couple of impressive road wins and some conference tourney momentum.

But you're describing the difference between a team with a good record that is simply not a good enough team, versus a team that has the quality wins to demonstrate they are worthy of a bid. A good team will win all their easy OOC games and beat some tough teams in the B1G. A weaker team will lose those games against high rated teams. I don't see the problem with our weak OOC schedule except it would be nice to have some tougher opponents to compete against like local teams in the 100-200 range. Blowouts against weaklings just aren't interesting games. I'll admit I don't understand how low ranked opponents affect our RPI. I just know that if you beat Wisconsin, MSU, and OSU, your RPI is going to become much more favorable.

 

[Gladeskat]

All true. Just remember, too, that if we get to 19 wins, and we beat all of those strong teams, the losses still have to come from somewhere.

But if we do beat all those strong teams, we will most likely have beaten almost all of the weaker teams as well. If we've lost too many to those weaker teams, then we don't deserve to be in the NCAA Tournament. There is a trade off with stronger versus weaker schedules. NCAA worthy teams will win enough games regardless of the schedule strength: more against weaker opponents, fewer against a stronger schedule.

It's like lifting 225 lbs at the combine versus lifting a heavier weight. If you lift 225 30 times, it's equivalent to lifting 475 one time. If you're strong enough, you'll succeed at either weight choice.

 

[Styre]

But if we do beat all those strong teams, we will most likely have beaten almost all of the weaker teams as well.

Well sure, but then we'll have more than 19 wins!

If we've lost too many to those weaker teams, then we don't deserve to be in the NCAA Tournament. There is a trade off with stronger versus weaker schedules. NCAA worthy teams will win enough games regardless of the schedule strength: more against weaker opponents, fewer against a stronger schedule.

For the most part this is true, but year in and year out there are teams on the bubble that are left out essentially because they had terrible schedules. If your response to that is "well then they weren't actually good enough," I can't really argue, but that's tautological, isn't it?

 

[Gladeskat]

Well sure, but then we'll have more than 19 wins!



For the most part this is true, but year in and year out there are teams on the bubble that are left out essentially because they had terrible schedules. If your response to that is "well then they weren't actually good enough," I can't really argue, but that's tautological, isn't it?

Of course! You're conjuring up some unlikely scenario whereby we beat the studs of the B1G while losing repeatedly to MVSC and Fairfield. That's not likely to happen.

If they haven't proven themselves in the B1G, then they don't deserve to be in the Tourney. Winning 10 or more games in the B1G against some of the B1G's best teams is hardly a tautological argument for NU being considered a good tournament-worthy team.

 

[hdhntr1]

But if we do beat all those strong teams, we will most likely have beaten almost all of the weaker teams as well. If we've lost too many to those weaker teams, then we don't deserve to be in the NCAA Tournament. There is a trade off with stronger versus weaker schedules. NCAA worthy teams will win enough games regardless of the schedule strength: more against weaker opponents, fewer against a stronger schedule.

It's like lifting 225 lbs at the combine versus lifting a heavier weight. If you lift 225 30 times, it's equivalent to lifting 475 one time. If you're strong enough, you'll succeed at either weight choice.

Then we would have more than 9 BIG wins and we would not be having the discussion. And if you had those wins but only had 8 wins in conference, since it is likely that no more than two of the Big 4 would be played twice (and maybe only one) because we only play 5 of 13 twice, winning against those 4 teams would mean that we would have at worst, a 4-2 record against them and maybe 4-1 and it is also likely that at least one and possibly two of those wins would have to be on the road. . That would mean that against the rest of the league we would have to go 4-8 (and likely a couple bad losses). If we had 9 conference wins, it would mean we went 5-7 with the other teams. If you only had 8 wins in conference, would only have 1 loss OOC if you expected to make it (which would give 20 wins)

Just saying that as long as the BIG is as strong as it is, getting to 9 wins, regardless of who it is against, gives us a reasonable shot. Any less and we could only have one loss OOC to have any shot regardless of who we beat.

 

[Deeringfish]

Amen! There are certain people on twitter that are so negative towards our team that I cringe at most of their posts. These are so called "NU fans". I am fine with this schedule as we have a very young team and this will help us get some wins, while developing chemistry.

Twitter is for bragging and bitching.

 

[Gladeskat]

Then we would have more than 9 BIG wins and we would not be having the discussion. And if you had those wins but only had 8 wins in conference, since it is likely that no more than two of the Big 4 would be played twice (and maybe only one) because we only play 5 of 13 twice, winning against those 4 teams would mean that we would have at worst, a 4-2 record against them and maybe 4-1 and it is also likely that at least one and possibly two of those wins would have to be on the road. . That would mean that against the rest of the league we would have to go 4-8 (and likely a couple bad losses). If we had 9 conference wins, it would mean we went 5-7 with the other teams. If you only had 8 wins in conference, would only have 1 loss OOC if you expected to make it (which would give 20 wins)

Just saying that as long as the BIG is as strong as it is, getting to 9 wins, regardless of who it is against, gives us a reasonable shot. Any less and we could only have one loss OOC to have any shot regardless of who we beat.

Yes. If we go 4-8 against the rest of the conference, then we shouldn't go to the tournament. We need at least 9 wins to go to the tournament. I personally don't think we should go unless we have 10 wins. I think when we do go, we will kick down the doors with >10 wins much like we did to get to a bowl game in 1995.

I still would like to see better local teams on our OOC schedule to better prepare the team for conference play and to generate more fan interest in our schedule.

 

[Gladeskat]

Twitter is for bragging and bitching.

Twitter is for twats!

I'll bet the people whining about our easy schedule are the same folks who wish we played more girl's schools in football. The "play 4 cupcakes and beat 2 weak B1G teams" formula for going to a bowl game makes me puke. These guys point to our high water mark being after 2012....well...we played 3 BCS schools OOC and won 5 B1G games that year.

 

[Dugan15]

Styre, I generally agree with your direction. It somewhat goes back to my theory that if you can't beat certain programs in a certain low RPI range, you're not going anywhere anyhow.

So my question is what's that low RPI range? I want to say no team below 200 should be scheduled EVER. But even that may be too low.

Gang: I have to say that this Fall / Early Winter's schedule seems particulary putrid. I have lined up 6 teams: Nebraska '15, Minnesota '15, Penn State '15, Illinois '15, Northwestern '15 and Northwestern '16. I will rank those teams by their worst opponents per Kenpom.com ('15 season).

#1 Worst team on Schedule -

# Unrated - Franklin Pierce (Minnesota)
#348 - Central Arkansas (Nebraska) - Where is Scottie Pippen when you need him?
#347 - Miss. Valley State (NU '15)
#347 - MVSU (NU '16)
#343 - Kennesaw State (Illinois)
#337 - Morgan State (Penn State)

OK, hard to draw many conclusions from this sad sack bunch.

#2 Worst team on Schedule

#344 - UMD - Baltimore County (Minn)
#333 - Chicago State (NU '16)
#322 - Coppin State (Illinois)
#314 - Houston Baptist (NU '15)
#291 - Loyola Marymount (Nebraska)
#272 - Marshall (Penn State)

#3 Worst Team on the Schedule

#318 - Austin Peay (Illinois)
#317 - North Dakota (Minnesota)
#311 - UMass - Lowell (NU '16)
#273 - UIC (NU '15)
#248 - Nebraska - Omaha (Nebraska)
#247 - Drexel (Penn State)

#4 Worst Team on Schedule -

#310 - Loyola, MD (NU '16)
#305 - Furman (Minnesota)
#261 - Brown (NU '15)
#261 - Brown (Illinois)
#243 - Northern Kentucky (Nebraska)
#213 - Fordham (Penn State)

#5 Worst Team on Schedule -

#309 - New Orleans (NU '16)
#269 - Southern (Minnesota)
#259 - Elon (NU '15)
#239 - Hampton (Illinois)
#235 - Ohio (Nebraska)
#207 - Duquesne (Penn State)

#6 Worst Team on Schedule -

#293 - Fairfield (NU '16)
#244 - Seattle (Minnesota)
#243 - Northern Kentucky (NU '15)
#228 - Incarnate Word (Nebraska) - We know how that turned out.
#214 - Missouri (Illinois)
#205 - Cornell (Penn State)

And, for good measure on the NU '16 schedule:

#233 - SIU - Edwardsville
#231 - Sacred Heart
#214 - Missouri
#175 - Columbia.

That is 10 games outside the Top 174. Yuchh.

** How about Penn State's schedule, not just for quality, but some measure of regional interest. Yes, I know. I have seen how empty the Bryce-Jordan Center is, but I like the effort.

 

[Katatonic]

They avoid the forum these days because it's easy to talk in your little circle of anti-fans and not have to worry about being challenged. I find their tweets hilarious. You can practically see some of them chomping at the bit to see NU sports teams fail. A few of them hate, HATE Phillips, Fitz, and Collins. It'll make it all the sweeter when we see success. Go NU!

Praytell who are the ones who hate Collins?

Or Fitz (for that matter) - some, including me, may grumble about being too loyal and retaining a certain assistant or 2, but aside from one (maybe 2) poster (who has long been banned), can't really think of any haters.

 

[VirginiaWildcat]

Praytell who are the ones who hate Collins?

Or Fitz (for that matter) - some, including me, may grumble about being too loyal and retaining a certain assistant or 2.

Pulled this one out from over a year ago, eh? You've got too much time on your hands, Kat...

 

[Katatonic]

Starting w/ the personal insults (despite all your whining about it) already? lol

Yeah, I have so much time on my hands that I've hardly posted since after the BB season was over (unlike a certain someone).

Geeze, even your attacks are weaksauce (and for someone who is whining about someone else's posting habits, you were awfully quick to respond).

And try answering the question (for once) instead of trying to change the topic w/ inane insults.

So praytell who are all these haters? (Hypocrisy at its finest.)

 

[VirginiaWildcat]

Starting w/ the personal insults (despite all your whining about it) already? lol

Yeah, I have so much time on my hands that I've hardly posted since after the BB season was over (unlike a certain someone).

Geeze, even your attacks are weaksauce.

Ummm....why exactly are you pulling up a thread from over a year ago?

 

[Katatonic]

Still can't answer the question (typical).

 

[VirginiaWildcat]

Still can't answer the question (typical).

If you haven't noticed that there are some "fans" that legit hate Collins, you aren't paying attention. I could link to their twitter pages, but some people don't like it. I once called out Styre for something nasty he wrote about Fitzgerald on twitter, and he got all defensive because I linked to it. Hope that's a good enough answer for you, because it's the best you're getting.

Also, I hope you felt it was worth it digging up this old thread. lol Time to bump forward a year...

 

[Gladeskat]

Ummm....why exactly are you pulling up a thread from over a year ago?

Who cares how old a post is? Sheesh! But start in with the lies and badgering.

Starting w/ the personal insults (despite all your whining about it) already? lol
Yeah, I have so much time on my hands that I've hardly posted since after the BB season was over (unlike a certain someone).
Geeze, even your attacks are weaksauce (and for someone who is whining about someone else's posting habits, you were awfully quick to respond).
And try answering the question (for once) instead of trying to change the topic w/ inane insults.
So praytell who are all these haters? (Hypocrisy at its finest.)

BOOM!, roasted.

 

[VirginiaWildcat]

Who cares how old a post is? Sheesh! But start in with the lies and badgering.

Lies and badgering? lol

Anytime you have to follow me over from the rant board, I know I've struck a cord.

 

[Gladeskat]

Lies and badgering? lol

Anytime you have to follow me over from the rant board, I know I've struck a cord.

LOL! OK Spiderman, but did you ever think that I just might read the basketball and football boards as well? I guess not. Nope. I'm just 100% consumed with finding out what you're up to all the time! And when I finally track you down on the always-difficult-to-find basketball board, but really not hard to do because you leave badger stink trail wherever you post, what do I find? Well...L & B and Spidey ta boot.

What race are you today? Are you a red man now?

 

[VirginiaWildcat]

Definitely struck a chord. Lol

 

[Gladeskat]

Definitely struck a chord. Lol

Dutch boy, If I bother you this much, maybe you should put me on ignore so you don't neglect your job trying to come up with a "better hand". You won't.

Owned.

 

[VirginiaWildcat]

Dutch boy, If I bother you this much, maybe you should put me on ignore so you don't neglect your job trying to come up with a "better hand". You won't.

Owned.

Lol...going off the rails again...