Lot of talk about our schedule and what MM needs to do. Not too much talk about what he can do. I didn't really know if we were better or worse than other teams in the same situation as us so I looked at how teams similar to UNLV scheduled and if we were much different.
Using the RPI SOS ratings the Mountain West placed 10th this year. The Atlantic 10 was 9th and the Mid America was 11th. For comparison, I chose teams in those conferences with the same conference record as us. The teams for comparison turned out to be Dayton from the A-10 and Miami of Ohio from the Mid America. Hate it if you want, but we're a middling team in a middling conference and so are they.
Dayton's OOC schedule was: Home - Ball State, Hofstra, Ohio, Old Dominion, Akron, Auburn, Tennessee Tech, Penn, Ga. State and Wagner. Away - Mississippi State and St. Mary's. Three normally powerful opponents in Mississippi State, St. Mary's and Auburn.
Miami of Ohio's schedule was: Home - Wright State, LIU - Brooklyn, Hartford, Midway, Fort Payne and Rio Grande. Away - Fordham, Tulane, Austin Peay, Western Illinois, Missouri, Depaul and Ohio State. Two normally powerful opponents in Ohio State and Missouri.
We played three normally powerful opponents. Utah, Arizona and Illinois.
Result - we scheduled just about like a typical mid-major team.
* Also people talk about Reno and how they schedule. They had two power teams ( TCU and Texas Tech) and a top A -10 team ( Rhode Island). They got lucky in that these teams did unusually well in their conference. Also they played Southern Illinois in a tourney and beat them. Southern Illinois had a good year. The real difference between their schedule and ours is some of the teams they scheduled happened to have better than normal years and, better yet, Reno beat them.
I reviewed quite a few teams for this. A few things stand out about our scheduling compared to other middle of the pack teams. (1) Many other teams in middle conferences schedule a couple of away games at power opponents. Works for both schools. The power team gets a win and the lower team gets a better RPI. We didn't do this. (2) Scheduling is a crap shoot in that you don't know how well a team will do when they are scheduled. Dayton scheduled Auburn that is normally a middle to bottom team in the SEC but this year they were very good. We had Illinois that is usually a decent Big 10 team but this year not so much. (3) Middling teams don't usually get power teams for home games. They usually get them as part of a tournament or play them away with no reciprocating game.
Bottom line, last years OOC schedule was much like a typical Mid Major schedule. Lots of cupcakes and a few power teams. The difference was we didn't schedule a couple away games against power opponents. Posters on this board talk about getting big time teams in the Mack. I don't think that is going to happen often or at all. We'll need to get our big games at Tourneys, off campus or away. We'll also need to get used to ten or so cupcake teams at the Mack.
Using the RPI SOS ratings the Mountain West placed 10th this year. The Atlantic 10 was 9th and the Mid America was 11th. For comparison, I chose teams in those conferences with the same conference record as us. The teams for comparison turned out to be Dayton from the A-10 and Miami of Ohio from the Mid America. Hate it if you want, but we're a middling team in a middling conference and so are they.
Dayton's OOC schedule was: Home - Ball State, Hofstra, Ohio, Old Dominion, Akron, Auburn, Tennessee Tech, Penn, Ga. State and Wagner. Away - Mississippi State and St. Mary's. Three normally powerful opponents in Mississippi State, St. Mary's and Auburn.
Miami of Ohio's schedule was: Home - Wright State, LIU - Brooklyn, Hartford, Midway, Fort Payne and Rio Grande. Away - Fordham, Tulane, Austin Peay, Western Illinois, Missouri, Depaul and Ohio State. Two normally powerful opponents in Ohio State and Missouri.
We played three normally powerful opponents. Utah, Arizona and Illinois.
Result - we scheduled just about like a typical mid-major team.
* Also people talk about Reno and how they schedule. They had two power teams ( TCU and Texas Tech) and a top A -10 team ( Rhode Island). They got lucky in that these teams did unusually well in their conference. Also they played Southern Illinois in a tourney and beat them. Southern Illinois had a good year. The real difference between their schedule and ours is some of the teams they scheduled happened to have better than normal years and, better yet, Reno beat them.
I reviewed quite a few teams for this. A few things stand out about our scheduling compared to other middle of the pack teams. (1) Many other teams in middle conferences schedule a couple of away games at power opponents. Works for both schools. The power team gets a win and the lower team gets a better RPI. We didn't do this. (2) Scheduling is a crap shoot in that you don't know how well a team will do when they are scheduled. Dayton scheduled Auburn that is normally a middle to bottom team in the SEC but this year they were very good. We had Illinois that is usually a decent Big 10 team but this year not so much. (3) Middling teams don't usually get power teams for home games. They usually get them as part of a tournament or play them away with no reciprocating game.
Bottom line, last years OOC schedule was much like a typical Mid Major schedule. Lots of cupcakes and a few power teams. The difference was we didn't schedule a couple away games against power opponents. Posters on this board talk about getting big time teams in the Mack. I don't think that is going to happen often or at all. We'll need to get our big games at Tourneys, off campus or away. We'll also need to get used to ten or so cupcake teams at the Mack.
