MBB Final: Louisiana 113, Louisiana College 58

[Cajunsmike]

What not schedule two worthless games and replace it with one that actually helps build a team. Lots of schools have many more road games than home games.

Regardless these two games serve zero value.

Note Savannah State is a D1 team that shoots lots of threes. They are a HBCU which you may equate to Southern in our state. There are SBC teams that play the same way so it may have some benefit. While a game against a higher quality opponent on the road would likely help the team, it would impact class time which is a factor. Playing on the road late this week would have meant 6 straight days of classes missed which is way too many by most people's standards. Also, not playing at home Friday or any non D1 games would mean 12 home games and 19 road games. Yes there are schools that do that but our staff is not willing to for the reasons of too much travel and too much class time missed. That won't change anytime soon in my view. Who knows what the view of the next staff will be on that front but the current staff will be here until at least 2020 unless something completely unforeseen happens.

[Cajun90]

Kentucky played Kansas. Duke played Michigan State. Those brick walls are tearing those programs down. I got to tell you.

Not exactly the same topic but did you notice both games were neutral site? Its gotten so bad that it is rare for the big boys to play a true road game outside of conference. It seems the only thing they are willing to do is play neutral site against schools that are perennial contenders.

[VObserver]

Not exactly the same topic but did you notice both games were neutral site? Its gotten so bad that it is rare for the big boys to play a true road game outside of conference. It seems the only thing they are willing to do is play neutral site against schools that are perennial contenders.

Northern Iowa has home games this year with Iowa State and Xavier, two high majors. They also finish a home and home with North Carolina, but that is on the road this year. I don't want to hear excuses, I want to see results.

They also have games at neutral sites with SMU, a PAC 12 team and an ACC team, a road game vs Wisconsin and a home game with UTA (RPI 44 last year).

[Cajun90]

Northern Iowa has home games this year with Iowa State and Xavier, two high majors. They also finish a home and home with North Carolina, but that is on the road this year. I don't want to hear excuses, I want to see results.

I didn't say it NEVER happens but it doesn't take much looking around to figure out it has become much rarer than in years past.

Add to that the fact that Northern Iowa has made 7 NCAA tournament appearances since 2004. They defeated Texas in the first round of the 2016 NCAA Tournament before falling to Texas A&M in double overtime in the second round. During the 2015-16 regular season, UNI defeated then-No. 1 North Carolina, then-No. 5 Iowa State and Washington State in their non-conference season and won at then-No. 25 Wichita State in conference play. That is a fairly strong run and thus teams like Iowa State & Xavier don't see them as being as big of a risk to schedule.

[VObserver]

I didn't say it NEVER happens but it doesn't take much looking around to figure out it has become much rarer than in years past.

Add to that the fact that Northern Iowa has made 7 NCAA tournament appearances since 2004. They defeated Texas in the first round of the 2016 NCAA Tournament before falling to Texas A&M in double overtime in the second round. During the 2015-16 regular season, UNI defeated then-No. 1 North Carolina, then-No. 5 Iowa State and Washington State in their non-conference season and won at then-No. 25 Wichita State in conference play. That is a fairly strong run and thus teams like Iowa State & Xavier don't see them as being as big of a risk to schedule.

And how did they get to "not be a risk"? By playing challenging schedules ooc, thereby making their team more attractive to both recruits and future opponents. It ain't chicken and egg. Clearly you have to play a tougher schedule both to be perceived as better and to actually get better.

If you want to be perceived as a risk to better programs, you schedule Nichols and McNeese and Savannah State. You also don't get better by playing those kinds of teams.

[zephyr]

You’re missing the point. I’d have not scheduled either La College or Savanna State. We’d do better practicing instead of La College, and AGAIN try to get a top 150 RPI game in Florida instead. Benefits us with rest and respect. I’d definitely not feel cheated not seeing either of those games in the dome.

You do need to try to field a home court schedule do you not?

[zephyr]

Not exactly the same topic but did you notice both games were neutral site? Its gotten so bad that it is rare for the big boys to play a true road game outside of conference. It seems the only thing they are willing to do is play neutral site against schools that are perennial contenders.

Duke is absolutely the worst about this. They have done this for some time. This tournament style thing has caught on and more teams do it. UNC and Kentucky have played home and home in the past as well as UNC and Texas. Some of the big teams still play tough away games though but its just a less common occurrence now.

[VObserver]

You do need to try to field a home court schedule do you not?

Not with my money, if Bigfish is going to schedule D2-3 teams or D1 teams with RPIs over 200. We have enough of those in conference. I would rather not have a single home game ooc than play the home schedule we have this year.

[CajunJeaux]

Not with my money, if Bigfish is going to schedule D2-3 teams or D1 teams with RPIs over 200. We have enough of those in conference. I would rather not have a single home game ooc than play the home schedule we have this year.

I'm sure recruits would love that... hey come play here...millions were just dumped into your "home"...but we'll only play there when we're forced to.

[VObserver]

I'm sure recruits would love that... hey come play here...millions were just dumped into your "home"...but we'll only play there when we're forced to.

Better than .. hey, come play here... I promise to schedule only crappy teams at home; you'll never get to play a quality ooc opponent in front of a home crowd.