Kevin should be ashamed:

[BornRebelRed]

We play eleven non conference games. According to last years final Kenpom rankings, the 7 lowest ranked teams play in the Thomas & Mack. The other 4 are neutral or away.

Road games: Kenpom # 11 32,34, 41,61
Home games # 217,224,260,290,310,358
A rather embarrassing slap in the face to downstairs donors who have to witness these putrid games. How does UNLV expect to draw ANY crowds with that type scheduling? Thanks Kevin for getting me all fired up about UC Riverside…..Not sure how we coerced Memphis to come here. So we got that going for us…

 

[LocoRebel]

But in a world where NET matters, it basically ensures your potential losses are quad one.

Those home games *should* be wins. Even if they are mostly quad 3 or 4.

 

[rebelwithacause]

We play eleven non conference games. According to last years final Kenpom rankings, the 7 lowest ranked teams play in the Thomas & Mack. The other 4 are neutral or away.

Road games: Kenpom # 11 32,34, 41,61
Home games # 217,224,260,290,310,358
A rather embarrassing slap in the face to downstairs donors who have to witness these putrid games. How does UNLV expect to draw ANY crowds with that type scheduling? Thanks Kevin for getting me all fired up about UC Riverside…..Not sure how we coerced Memphis to come here. So we got that going for us…

This schedule is embarrassing. How do they expect fans to get behind the Rebels when they feed them SHIT ? Year before last I gave KK the benefit of the doubt and thought perhaps it was in an effort to focus on confernce play _ NOPE - its just a self preservation tactic to win close to 20 games. 14 wins gets ya fired - This is very Menzies -ish

 

[j. spilotro]

I think there’s too much overthinking and too much time spent on worrying about formulas to impact NET. Oh, if you aren’t in a power conference, you have to consider it and it is an imperfect science.

I think you can do it old school and just emphasize winning instead of trying to perfectly customize … seems like most of our coaches tend to err towards getting ws only, regardless of quality.

Going back ten years or so, one of the best non con games was a home OT loss vs Arizona. That’s better than beating Truckee College.

The home slate is pretty bad. Overall the schedule is so-so. We’ve had coaches that just don’t want to play tough games. You can say it’s all for NET … but then why haven’t we been close to anything remotely substantial?

 

[Rod_the_Rebel]

I have a feeling we dump him mid season

 

[bcvegaspt2]

I have a feeling we dump him mid season

That set us back gravely the first time around.

 

[Rod_the_Rebel]

That set us back gravely the first time around.

Oh yes. We are still paying for it haha

 

[j. spilotro]

I have a feeling we dump him mid season

Bad idea. We are still in recovery mode 10 years later.

 

[WarthogRebel]

I think there’s too much overthinking and too much time spent on worrying about formulas to impact NET. Oh, if you aren’t in a power conference, you have to consider it and it is an imperfect science.

I think you can do it old school and just emphasize winning instead of trying to perfectly customize … seems like most of our coaches tend to err towards getting ws only, regardless of quality.

Going back ten years or so, one of the best non con games was a home OT loss vs Arizona. That’s better than beating Truckee College.

The home slate is pretty bad. Overall the schedule is so-so. We’ve had coaches that just don’t want to play tough games. You can say it’s all for NET … but then why haven’t we been close to anything remotely substantial?

If we are top 3 mountain West and ZERO Q 4 and Quad 3 losses we are in and nobody will worry about our schedule.

 

[BornRebelRed]

#1. The UNLV department of basketball
revenue should be worry about our

schedule.
#2. Zero quality wins and no Quad 3 or 4
losses will get you jack-shit
#3. We still haven’t recovered from the

Rice mid season firing?? Recover from what? He never led us to any conference titles. Never accomplished much except a few big wins. Underachieved…Didn’t like his demeanor on the sidelines. Etc.. glad he’s gone. PS. We have never recovered from the Maxon mistake. Looks like we never will.

 

[j. spilotro]

If we are top 3 mountain West and ZERO Q 4 and Quad 3 losses we are in and nobody will worry about our schedule.

Could be said about any year, really. Then we lose to South Alabama or Loyola and everything becomes about three/four days in March. The way we schedule gives us no wiggle room for a slip up or important injury. Flatten the creampuffs, cross your fingers against a couple high teams.

 

[j. spilotro]

#1. The UNLV department of basketball
revenue should be worry about our

schedule.
#2. Zero quality wins and no Quad 3 or 4
losses will get you jack-shit
#3. We still haven’t recovered from the

Rice mid season firing?? Recover from what? He never led us to any conference titles. Never accomplished much except a few big wins. Underachieved…Didn’t like his demeanor on the sidelines. Etc.. glad he’s gone. PS. We have never recovered from the Maxon mistake. Looks like we never will.

You could be glad he's gone, but it's hard to argue that we aren't far more insignificant now and for the past x amount of years than when he was here. Because we won some big games on national TV against ranked opponents, because we put some in the league, because we actually had a home crowd with some enthusiasm, because we got some national press, because there were high goals and frequent hits with recruiting. I agree, it wasn't enough, but lets not pretend like things are better now with 2K in the stands and so many unbelievable and unacceptable home losses and players heading to the Somalia Junior league.

The home attendance is the actual pulse of where we are at. It's low numbers and it's quiet. Sometimes it gets louder vs bigger teams but numbers are still low. We've been dumbed down to where a near full lower bowl is an incredible, record setting feat.

 

[WarthogRebel]

Could be said about any year, really. Then we lose to South Alabama or Loyola and everything becomes about three/four days in March. The way we schedule gives us no wiggle room for a slip up or important injury. Flatten the creampuffs, cross your fingers against a couple high teams.

NO mid major team has wiggle room if they drop quad 4 games. You have to win.

 

[Rebel1986]

Bad idea. We are still in recovery mode 10 years later.

A decade later and we are still wondering WTF we ever removed Coach Rice. Attendance skyrocketed, played a much better schedule and UNLV was relevant, but go down a little and dump him to hire a dumpster fire of a coach! Please tell me why you would fire a coach who goes 98-54 and then go hire Menzies who goes 48-48. My issue isn't so much with the firing of coach Rice who was on a definite downward trajectory, it was with hiring a replacement coach who had a ceiling that was lower than the basement for Coach Rice. UNLV 2011 13,253 per game last year with coach Kruger. Proven winner but not the excitement everyone wanted in comparison to now playing almost all lower tier home games.

Rice took over
UNLV 2012 14,025
UNLV 2013 15,196
UNLV 2014 13,125
UNLV 2015 11,757
UNLV 2016 11,542
Rice gone

Menzies took over
UNLV 2017 10,120 - New coach and the boost in attendance was negative (1,422) - not a good sign
(this was only six seasons ago when UNLV was still one of the top teams in attendance)

UNLV 2018 10,093
UNLV 2019 8,639 - Funny how everyone called bullshit on his weak 20-13 schedule/record from the season before

TJ was just a total dumpster fire 29-30 record with 12-15 his second season.
UNLV 2020 8,218 - Hard to call with virus
UNLV 2021 not available
A combination of TJ doing nothing and the changes in peoples attendance post virus have destroyed UNLV attendance in a period of two years.

Kruger 58-40 The only other decent coach between him and his dad was Rice, but he went down quickly.
UNLV 2022 4.917 - hard to say anything at all with change on how people attend, but in comparison football is on the rise.
UNLV 2023 6,063 - it is going in the right direction
UNLV 2024 5,859 - it can only be because fans not excited with the schedule.
Record
18-14
19-13
21-13
Going in the right direction, but it is tough when they play a weak schedule, but do we really want to jump ship again and go into another tailspin? How much further down can UNLV go? The telling sign beyond a better record will be if attendance does or doesn't improve over last season.






Kruger took over

 

[Rosegreen1]

The problem I have with CKK is the lack of urgency and fire in the belly to win every ****ing game. He should be setting the tone. His first year was probably his best, yet they blow it vs an extremely weak New Mexico team. Lobos didn’t just eke out a win, they dominated. After the game, zero passion from CKK, there was clearly no reason this team is playing for anything. They were in the NIT hunt but nobody cared.

Every season there’s a stretch of games where it’s like the team just does not care about winning ANYTHING. There’s no goal to achieve, these guys are out there just playing 24 hour fitness basketball, chucking it around.

I’m expecting a great season, starting fast right out of the gate. Go 9-2 or 8-3 and roll into conference play and winning 13-14 games there. There’s no reason why this team shouldn’t contend for MW title, win 24-25 games and go to the Dance.

This is it for CKK, show some urgency, some passion to win. IDC about scheduling Alabama st, destroy them, destroy UC Riverside etc. The team needs to have the mentality that they are going to win every game. Tired of the ho hum attitude of the past few years, time to start kicking and screaming.

 

[j. spilotro]

The problem I have with CKK is the lack of urgency and fire in the belly to win every ****ing game. He should be setting the tone. His first year was probably his best, yet they blow it vs an extremely weak New Mexico team. Lobos didn’t just eke out a win, they dominated. After the game, zero passion from CKK, there was clearly no reason this team is playing for anything. They were in the NIT hunt but nobody cared.

Every season there’s a stretch of games where it’s like the team just does not care about winning ANYTHING. There’s no goal to achieve, these guys are out there just playing 24 hour fitness basketball, chucking it around.

I’m expecting a great season, starting fast right out of the gate. Go 9-2 or 8-3 and roll into conference play and winning 13-14 games there. There’s no reason why this team shouldn’t contend for MW title, win 24-25 games and go to the Dance.

This is it for CKK, show some urgency, some passion to win. IDC about scheduling Alabama st, destroy them, destroy UC Riverside etc. The team needs to have the mentality that they are going to win every game. Tired of the ho hum attitude of the past few years, time to start kicking and screaming.

I’m not a demeanor type of guy. I’ve seen calm, cool and collected win and I’ve seen Tasmanian devil win.

As a player, Kevin was fiery. As a coach, not so much, but because he was ultra competitive as a player, I suspect he keeps it in his belly as a coach and I don’t have a problem with that. But you gotta win. And we haven’t been. Not close to enough.

I never thought he would be canned after year two even if we didn’t have the “hot” stretch against mostly mediocre teams towards the end of the season. Sure, there were December rumblings after the very poor start but not going to put stock into it in year two.

I do think if we are short and NCAAT this season, he will be ousted. And I wouldn’t have a problem with that, especially because it’s insanely easy to completely flip a roster nowadays, I mean seriously, you can bring in 13 guys with D1 experience. When there was the 3/5, 5/7 rule, much, much harder to turn things around (though Bayno did in his second year).

The thing is we’ve fallen so far, you I don’t believe we will gain people back regularly without some sustained substance, not talking a few game stretch either. It took a very long time for fans to drop off, I think it’ll take awhile to gain them back to where you are seeing 12K plus regularly.

I’d love to have a surprisingly great year and build upon it instead of suffering through a mediocre year and waiting for the inevitable doom. That’s an awful feeling.

 

[Rebel1986]

I’m not a demeanor type of guy. I’ve seen calm, cool and collected win and I’ve seen Tasmanian devil win.

As a player, Kevin was fiery. As a coach, not so much, but because he was ultra competitive as a player, I suspect he keeps it in his belly as a coach and I don’t have a problem with that. But you gotta win. And we haven’t been. Not close to enough.

I never thought he would be canned after year two even if we didn’t have the “hot” stretch against mostly mediocre teams towards the end of the season. Sure, there were December rumblings after the very poor start but not going to put stock into it in year two.

I do think if we are short and NCAAT this season, he will be ousted. And I wouldn’t have a problem with that, especially because it’s insanely easy to completely flip a roster nowadays, I mean seriously, you can bring in 13 guys with D1 experience. When there was the 3/5, 5/7 rule, much, much harder to turn things around (though Bayno did in his second year).

The thing is we’ve fallen so far, you I don’t believe we will gain people back regularly without some sustained substance, not talking a few game stretch either. It took a very long time for fans to drop off, I think it’ll take awhile to gain them back to where you are seeing 12K plus regularly.

I’d love to have a surprisingly great year and build upon it instead of suffering through a mediocre year and waiting for the inevitable doom. That’s an awful feeling.

It didn't take long at all for the fans to go away. In 2018 still had over 10K per game by 2022 it was under 5K. The vast majority of the attendance that was lost is due to the China virus (COVID) which cut the attendance quickly. The attendance did go up about 1K, but with the changes in peoples lifestyles, other sports options, UNLV football becoming king, etc... they must put out a better product to get fans to return. Winning is the most important, but having marquee home games is also very important. By doing both of those things, people will come back. Exhibit 1 that UNLV can draw crowds is how quickly football attendance has increased from 16,823 in 2018 to 24,777 in 2023, with expectations that they will be closing in on 30K this next season.

 

[j. spilotro]

It didn't take long at all for the fans to go away. In 2018 still had over 10K per game by 2022 it was under 5K. The vast majority of the attendance that was lost is due to the China virus (COVID) which cut the attendance quickly. The attendance did go up about 1K, but with the changes in peoples lifestyles, other sports options, UNLV football becoming king, etc... they must put out a better product to get fans to return. Winning is the most important, but having marquee home games is also very important. By doing both of those things, people will come back. Exhibit 1 that UNLV can draw crowds is how quickly football attendance has increased from 16,823 in 2018 to 24,777 in 2023, with expectations that they will be closing in on 30K this next season.

Fans remained through meager Spoon years, through Mass Grg and early Bayno … through early Lon … and even for Rices last three seasons … that’s a pretty loyal fanbase for 3 NCAAT wins over 25 years. Then the bottom fell out drastically.

 

[bcvegaspt2]

Fans remained through meager Spoon years, through Mass Grg and early Bayno … through early Lon … and even for Rices last three seasons … that’s a pretty loyal fanbase for 3 NCAAT wins over 25 years. Then the bottom fell out drastically.

Not to beat a dead horse but Menzies really did damage to fans' desire to attend. The drop in talent was immediate and drastic. We became the St Kat's teams that we were destroying. Any team with a pulse was beating us.

 

[TheMatrix31]

#1. The UNLV department of basketball
revenue should be worry about our

schedule.
#2. Zero quality wins and no Quad 3 or 4
losses will get you jack-shit
#3. We still haven’t recovered from the

Rice mid season firing?? Recover from what? He never led us to any conference titles. Never accomplished much except a few big wins. Underachieved…Didn’t like his demeanor on the sidelines. Etc.. glad he’s gone. PS. We have never recovered from the Maxon mistake. Looks like we never will.

You are right about never recovered from Maxon, but if you think we are a shell of the program or even recognized nationally before Rice mid-season firing You sir are in straight denial. Everyone here recognizes his shortcomings, but spare Mae with that nonsense. All you have to do is show up to a game at the T&M to notice the drastic difference. Mid season firings should never happen unless it’s egregious. It won’t happen this time either.

 

[j. spilotro]

Not to beat a dead horse but Menzies really did damage to fans' desire to attend. The drop in talent was immediate and drastic. We became the St Kat's teams that we were destroying. Any team with a pulse was beating us.

For sure. Even with the terrible decision of a mid season firing, a good hire means you can get back on some sort of track in lesser time and not hemorrhage fans. But we hired a used car salesman politician type that was more interested in creating a false narrative (look at the 20 wins, I’m so valuable ucla might come calling) than actually coaching basketball.

Eventually fans saw through the smokescreen and they started to bolt heavily. It took awhile for some fans to see it, I thought it was very obvious early. The hiring of Menzies really sped up the death spiral that we are still dealing with.

 

[Rebel1986]

For sure. Even with the terrible decision of a mid season firing, a good hire means you can get back on some sort of track in lesser time and not hemorrhage fans. But we hired a used car salesman politician type that was more interested in creating a false narrative (look at the 20 wins, I’m so valuable ucla might come calling) than actually coaching basketball.

Eventually fans saw through the smokescreen and they started to bolt heavily. It took awhile for some fans to see it, I thought it was very obvious early. The hiring of Menzies really sped up the death spiral that we are still dealing with.

Both of these fit the Menzies area. Covid was the death blow that finished off what the Menzies virus did to the program!

 

[j. spilotro]

Both of these fit the Menzies area. Covid was the death blow that finished off what the Menzies virus did to the program!

Yeah, definitely had an impact but it impacted every school in the same manner.

Jessup, a freaking gutless President, throwing his hands in the air and saying just to hire whoever is available (essentially) because of the nationally embarrassing eventual dumpster fire process of the coaching hire … that shows poor leadership. But what did he care? He wasn’t staying, he knew it, just get it off your plate, it won’t follow him around, he won’t take any hits for his incompetence.

I DO think TMK could have done better and wanted to do better, she didn’t want to settle on Marv, nobody wanted him, Jessup just wanted the process to end.

 

[Rebel_Luv]

Nothing short or close to it of a Will Wade as the next HC we might as well as stick with CKK! I mean look at the people in charge. They are inept as the whole Biden administration ! Hired 2 great coaches that had the first foot out the door as soon as they landed. Look who they have hired after Bayno! CLK was lucky and other than those 2 years pedestrian results. CKK has his network already established in recruiting circles . Not going to be great HC hopefully decent to above average. Nobody is going to lure him away . Unless his dad gets involved AGAIN IMO!

 

[Rosegreen1]

Yeah, definitely had an impact but it impacted every school in the same manner.

Jessup, a freaking gutless President, throwing his hands in the air and saying just to hire whoever is available (essentially) because of the nationally embarrassing eventual dumpster fire process of the coaching hire … that shows poor leadership. But what did he care? He wasn’t staying, he knew it, just get it off your plate, it won’t follow him around, he won’t take any hits for his incompetence.

I DO think TMK could have done better and wanted to do better, she didn’t want to settle on Marv, nobody wanted him, Jessup just wanted the process to end.

TKM was a disaster of epic proportions. It’s not so much the midseason firing as it is her incompetence. She had a problem and it showed in her decisions, the waffling, the statements to the press. She had no business being AD. Zero.

She did not understand the business, did not think things through. She didn’t know how to close a deal, communicate contract details with the trustees/board. Her biggest mistake was how emotional she got when Texas Tech called that they were hiring Beard. Instead of being offended and telling them no way, you CANNOT DO THAT! WE JUST HIRED HIM! She couldn’t negotiate for time/couple days before they announced it, schedule a home game with TT, maybe even football too.

 

[BornRebelRed]

I agree: mid season firings should never happen. I don’t agree that the firing caused us to be crappy for the next decade. An after season firing coupled with who they hired would yield our same results.

 

[j. spilotro]

I agree: mid season firings should never happen. I don’t agree that the firing caused us to be crappy for the next decade. An after season firing coupled with who they hired would yield our same results.

More than likely. But the midseason firing also cost any potential opportunity to retaining some talented players instead of heading into a difficult schedule with a depleted roster. It also painted UNLV admin with a thicker coat of they don’t know how to do anything, I know that continuance alone caused loss of season tickets/donors in my small group of people I know.

So, I do think midseason vs end of season had an adverse impact

 

[Rosegreen1]

I agree: mid season firings should never happen. I don’t agree that the firing caused us to be crappy for the next decade. An after season firing coupled with who they hired would yield our same results.

Absolutely did have an impact and affect on the years after the firing. First the coaches fraternity respected CDR, the way he was treated was awful. Second, the way the administration handled contracts and negotiating was absolutely a joke. Remember the Cronin thing, it was supposed to be a deal involving Reebok or Under Armour that would help pay for Cronin on top of a substantial deal for the merch rights.

It was all BS and unlv was being used as leverage. Cronin had zero respect for TKM. Nobody took unlv seriously. It was a clown operation.

 

[BornRebelRed]

The coaches fraternity respects Rice so much he never landed another head coaching job anywhere. Decent record at UNLV but no one else wanted him. Weird but true.

 

[Rosegreen1]

The coaches fraternity respects Rice so much he never landed another head coaching job anywhere. Decent record at UNLV but no one else wanted him. Weird but true.

He was hired by Muss and then to Washington. So yes, they did hire him. The other thing is, nobody has put together a better staff than CDR since then.

 

[j. spilotro]

Absolutely did have an impact and affect on the years after the firing. First the coaches fraternity respected CDR, the way he was treated was awful. Second, the way the administration handled contracts and negotiating was absolutely a joke. Remember the Cronin thing, it was supposed to be a deal involving Reebok or Under Armour that would help pay for Cronin on top of a substantial deal for the merch rights.

It was all BS and unlv was being used as leverage. Cronin had zero respect for TKM. Nobody took unlv seriously. It was a clown operation.

UNLV has always been used as leverage. The burnout, has been, half assed coach at Mississippi State used UNLV on a couple of occasions by himself.

It’s an easy school to take advantage of.

When Mick left with a handshake deal but no signature, you knew we were played.

 

[rebelzzz]

We have a coach that put together a schedule hoping it will save his job. What we have is a guy who will have us competing for 4-6 in the MWC. With an NIT invite once every 3-4 years. Bad part is that it seems like Harper is okay with that.

 

[RebelScrub]

TKM was a disaster of epic proportions. It’s not so much the midseason firing as it is her incompetence. She had a problem and it showed in her decisions, the waffling, the statements to the press. She had no business being AD. Zero.

She did not understand the business, did not think things through. She didn’t know how to close a deal, communicate contract details with the trustees/board. Her biggest mistake was how emotional she got when Texas Tech called that they were hiring Beard. Instead of being offended and telling them no way, you CANNOT DO THAT! WE JUST HIRED HIM! She couldn’t negotiate for time/couple days before they announced it, schedule a home game with TT, maybe even football too.

We hired someone from the cheerleading team as athletic director..true story

someone should do an in depth documentary of UNLV: The rise and fall of incompetent athletic programs

 

[rebswin2]

We hired someone from the cheerleading team as athletic director..true story

someone should do an in depth documentary of UNLV: The rise and fall of incompetent athletic programs

The problem is the rise and fall was so long ago that no one outside of the UNLV community cares. Maybe you show it at an alumni association meeting? UNLV's athletic department has been completely incompetent and irrelevant for 30 plus years.

 

[dcut03]

Back to the OP.

I do think that the NET needs to be a huge consideration when putting together a schedule. It has been a huge factor for other mid major teams, and definitely in the MW in general.

Those 5 road games will ALL be quad 1 if the rankings hold up ( unlikely, but it is still a very good start). That would be top 25 easy in the country in terms on OOC quad 1, probably better. That is very good.

The flipside of that is you want to take advantage of NET to entice some of those games to be at home. It gives you a better chance to win, and with the new rules, teams should not be as afraid to schedule UNLV as a true road game since there is a very good chance it would be quad 1 for the opposition. Also of course for a struggling fan base and attendance, you need games that will get butts in the seats.

Also flipping some of those lower 200's level teams to a road game will make those games quad 3 instead of quad 4.

So a perfect world, you flip all of the top 30 games for home, and you keep the 50-70 for the road. Also flip the lower Now realistically you cannot expect that to happen, but it could be better.

Bottom line there will be a lot of Quad 1 games next season, and that is a good thing. As we learned last year, we absolutely cannot drop any of those home games. At least no more than one. But bottom line this is a good schedule that easily has the potential to get us in the NCAAT.

 

[j. spilotro]

Back to the OP.

I do think that the NET needs to be a huge consideration when putting together a schedule. It has been a huge factor for other mid major teams, and definitely in the MW in general.

Those 5 road games will ALL be quad 1 if the rankings hold up ( unlikely, but it is still a very good start). That would be top 25 easy in the country in terms on OOC quad 1, probably better. That is very good.

The flipside of that is you want to take advantage of NET to entice some of those games to be at home. It gives you a better chance to win, and with the new rules, teams should not be as afraid to schedule UNLV as a true road game since there is a very good chance it would be quad 1 for the opposition. Also of course for a struggling fan base and attendance, you need games that will get butts in the seats.

Also flipping some of those lower 200's level teams to a road game will make those games quad 3 instead of quad 4.

So a perfect world, you flip all of the top 30 games for home, and you keep the 50-70 for the road. Also flip the lower Now realistically you cannot expect that to happen, but it could be better.

Bottom line there will be a lot of Quad 1 games next season, and that is a good thing. As we learned last year, we absolutely cannot drop any of those home games. At least no more than one. But bottom line this is a good schedule that easily has the potential to get us in the NCAAT.

There is something to be said about the “F it, any place, any opponent, any time, we aren’t afraid” attitude.

Overthinking and trying to thread the needle can be catastrophic.

Not dismissing the importance of proper scheduling. But when you’re overthinking it too much, you’re trying to back door your way in instead of doing an Odom, not giving a crap and doing all you can with what is on your plate and actually kicking the door in instead of politely waiting for an invitation.

 

[WarthogRebel]

Back to the OP.

I do think that the NET needs to be a huge consideration when putting together a schedule. It has been a huge factor for other mid major teams, and definitely in the MW in general.

Those 5 road games will ALL be quad 1 if the rankings hold up ( unlikely, but it is still a very good start). That would be top 25 easy in the country in terms on OOC quad 1, probably better. That is very good.

The flipside of that is you want to take advantage of NET to entice some of those games to be at home. It gives you a better chance to win, and with the new rules, teams should not be as afraid to schedule UNLV as a true road game since there is a very good chance it would be quad 1 for the opposition. Also of course for a struggling fan base and attendance, you need games that will get butts in the seats.

Also flipping some of those lower 200's level teams to a road game will make those games quad 3 instead of quad 4.

So a perfect world, you flip all of the top 30 games for home, and you keep the 50-70 for the road. Also flip the lower Now realistically you cannot expect that to happen, but it could be better.

Bottom line there will be a lot of Quad 1 games next season, and that is a good thing. As we learned last year, we absolutely cannot drop any of those home games. At least no more than one. But bottom line this is a good schedule that easily has the potential to get us in the NCAAT.

You say NET doesn't need to be a huge consideration and then the rest of your post talks almost exclusively about NET.

 

[dcut03]

You say NET doesn't need to be a huge consideration and then the rest of your post talks almost exclusively about NET.

Look at it again, I start by saying it does need to be a huge consideration.

 

[dcut03]

There is something to be said about the “F it, any place, any opponent, any time, we aren’t afraid” attitude.

Overthinking and trying to thread the needle can be catastrophic.

Not dismissing the importance of proper scheduling. But when you’re overthinking it too much, you’re trying to back door your way in instead of doing an Odom, not giving a crap and doing all you can with what is on your plate and actually kicking the door in instead of politely waiting for an invitation.

That's exactly what could have happened. All of the top teams possibly were only willing to play us on their home turf.

I like in general the anyone anywhere attitude, but that just isn't practical.

You have to use the NET strategically. Plain and simple, if you don't you can be screwed out of a tourney berth.

The good news there is now incentive for top teams to play in the T&M over a neutral site or even a home game, since it would be likely be a quad 1 game for them ( we just have to be top 70). We need to use that to our advantage. It will help build a nice home schedule for fans, and be a strong schedule as well.

We are going to have to play against lower level teams. There is no way around it these days. If you can play some of those games on the road, improving the quad ranking, you should.

Bottom line, the new NET rules can be very good for a school like UNLV since it will demphasize neutral site games.


The only thing that we should stand strong is avoiding "neutral" games in Las Vegas since they count as home game. If we do, it better be a game/team that is truly worth it.

 

[j. spilotro]

Look at it again, I start by saying it does need to be a huge consideration.

Win league outright and you don’t have to worry about NET, not heavily anyway. And we are among peers in conference. So primarily focus on being as good as you can be, winning league. That has sufficed every other season.

Do an Odom, bust through without excuses, without an invitation, without searching for quirkiness, don’t use a slow growth crutch, don’t use the we don’t have enough talent, we had too many injuries, we thought Pawtucket state might win their league excuse … make a program, build a foundation, field a team that has a clue.