Louisiana Officially Opens Men's Basketball Practice

[Hatch]

The Pepperdine game was nice, and I’m pretty sure it’s something we try to work out every year. But realistically the odds of getting 4 schools (2 of them P5) to coordinate with us is very low. Those two P5 schools don’t care. There’s nothing in it for them. They just pay schools to come in and play.

And again, look at LSU’s OOC schedule this year and tell me which school you’d actually be excited about playing. Which school would be worth the extra day away from class and the added expense of air travel and hotel rooms? UNCW is doing really well, but a school like that won’t generate fan interest and you can never be sure how good they’ll be year to year. Mid major schools tend to peak for a year or two and fall back to the mean. Stephen F Austin had an absolutely killer few years. But last year they were 203 in the RPI.

It was just an idea to help RPI and yeah I think it would be tough to coordinate as well. What you bring up is the point that has been argued on this topic before, bring a school like UNCW to the Cajundome on a random Tuesday in December and your not getting any more people there than what would show up to see Southeastern LA so what is the point of going through all of the trouble.

[CajunRebel]

It was just an idea to help RPI and yeah I think it would be tough to coordinate as well. What you bring up is the point that has been argued on this topic before, bring a school like UNCW to the Cajundome on a random Tuesday in December and your not getting any more people there than what would show up to see Southeastern LA so what is the point of going through all of the trouble.

Sure, and it’s not a bad idea. I was just hashing out the hurdles to it.

I don’t know how often this actually happens in college basketball, but l wish we’d consider playing La Tech home and away every year, especially while we both have good programs. It’s a great rivalry, close drive, and both teams see a nice bump in attendance when they play.

[cajun4life]

Let's look at a couple other close non-P5 schools OOC schedules and the opponent's 2016 final RPI ranking.

LA Tech (since VO and his son love everything that Tech has done lately, except make the NCAA tournament)
vs. UT-Tyler (non D1), SEMO (275), Montana State (255), Miles College (non D1), Stephen F. Austin (206), Jackson State (322), UL (114)
at Alabama (82), Texas (156)
Tournaments- George Mason (123), Evansville(192)/Fresno State (77) (Cancun); Alabama State (342), Liberty (167)/Ft. Wayne (171) (NOLA)

Houston:
vs. McNeese (314), UNLV (239), UNO (161), Arkansas (28), Fairfield (183), Prairie View A&M (306)
at St. Louis (247), LSU (195)
Tournaments- Drexel (309), Mercer (196)/Liberty (167) (Lynchburg, VA); Providence (61) (Uncassville, CT)
They also play an exhibition against Lynn College in Boca Raton on 11/13.

Rice:
vs. Wayland Baptist (non D1), St. Thomas (non D1), UTRGV (315), St. Edwards (non D1), Texas State (172)
at Northwestern State (303), UT-Arlington (40), Stephen F. Austin (206), Texas Tech (122), New Mexico (87)
Tournaments- UNLV (239), Mississippi (68)/Utah (96) (Las Vegas); Eastern Kentucky (252), Georgia State (106) (first round games of Las Vegas tournament to be played at Rice)

This got tiring seeing the crappy schedules that schools similar to us have for OOC games. But that's none of my business now.

Who would you rather be?

TEAM A
2012: 27-7
2013: 29-8
2014: 27-9
2015: 23-10
2016: 23-10

TEAM B
2012: 13-20
2013: 23-13
2014: 22-14
2015: 19-15
2016: 21-12

[GeauxLouisiana]

Who would you rather be?

TEAM A
2012: 27-7
2013: 29-8
2014: 27-9
2015: 23-10
2016: 23-10

TEAM B
2012: 13-20
2013: 23-13
2014: 22-14
2015: 19-15
2016: 21-12

Team B. 1 NCAA tournament appearance and 3-1 vs Team A.

Here are OOC SOS rankings you left out.

Team A
2012: 190
2013: 242
2014: 143
2015: 164
2016: 200

Team B
2012: 179
2013: 70
2014: 81
2015: 84
2016: 264

Looks like Tech is padding that record with a weak schedule OOC.

[VObserver]

Let's look at a couple other close non-P5 schools OOC schedules and the opponent's 2016 final RPI ranking.

LA Tech (since VO and his son love everything that Tech has done lately, except make the NCAA tournament)
vs. UT-Tyler (non D1), SEMO (275), Montana State (255), Miles College (non D1), Stephen F. Austin (206), Jackson State (322), UL (114)
at Alabama (82), Texas (156)
Tournaments- George Mason (123), Evansville(192)/Fresno State (77) (Cancun); Alabama State (342), Liberty (167)/Ft. Wayne (171) (NOLA)

Houston:
vs. McNeese (314), UNLV (239), UNO (161), Arkansas (28), Fairfield (183), Prairie View A&M (306)
at St. Louis (247), LSU (195)
Tournaments- Drexel (309), Mercer (196)/Liberty (167) (Lynchburg, VA); Providence (61) (Uncassville, CT)
They also play an exhibition against Lynn College in Boca Raton on 11/13.

Rice:
vs. Wayland Baptist (non D1), St. Thomas (non D1), UTRGV (315), St. Edwards (non D1), Texas State (172)
at Northwestern State (303), UT-Arlington (40), Stephen F. Austin (206), Texas Tech (122), New Mexico (87)
Tournaments- UNLV (239), Mississippi (68)/Utah (96) (Las Vegas); Eastern Kentucky (252), Georgia State (106) (first round games of Las Vegas tournament to be played at Rice)

This got tiring seeing the crappy schedules that schools similar to us have for OOC games. But that's none of my business now.

What you seem to be missing here is that I have absolutely zero interest in what teams any other school schedules unless it gives me ideas on how to improve my school's scheduling practices.

[VObserver]

The Pepperdine game was nice, and I’m pretty sure it’s something we try to work out every year. But realistically the odds of getting 4 schools (2 of them P5) to coordinate with us is very low. Those two P5 schools don’t care. There’s nothing in it for them. They just pay schools to come in and play.

And again, look at LSU’s OOC schedule this year and tell me which school you’d actually be excited about playing. Which school would be worth the extra day away from class and the added expense of air travel and hotel rooms? UNCW is doing really well, but a school like that won’t generate fan interest and you can never be sure how good they’ll be year to year. Mid major schools tend to peak for a year or two and fall back to the mean. Stephen F Austin had an absolutely killer few years. But last year they were 203 in the RPI.

I don't buy Jay Walker's company line that having good teams play here won't improve attendance; but even if it doesn't, that isn't why I want to schedule good teams anyway.

[RaginDave]

We recently signed home/home with La Tech and Pepperdine. Unfortunately both home games vs. these teams were last year. This year we are on the road vs Tech and the year before we were on the road vs Pepperdine. I don't disagree with you, we all want better home schedules. But we are not the only mid major struggling to do this.

I think our road/neutral schedule is very good this year:

Ole Miss
Iowa
Wyoming/South Dakota State
Another game in the Cayman Island Classic
La Tech
Clemson
Also Nicholls

At home:

McNeese will be much better this year than last, not saying alot, but they will be better
Savannah State beat Oregon State last year, don't know how good the will be
Loyola/La College These games suck on our schedule, wish we would replace them with anyone
SLU has improved from 9-23 in 2014/15, to 12-21 in 2015/2016 and last year 16-16. They are bound to be improved this year again.

This might be putting lipstick on a pig, but I think if you ask any mid major basketball coach they will say the same thing. Scheduling is the hardest thing they do.

[GeauxLouisiana]

What you seem to be missing here is that I have absolutely zero interest in what teams any other school schedules unless it gives me ideas on how to improve my school's scheduling practices.

But it helps correlate that non-P5 schools have difficulty in scheduling good home games in basketball. Look at what 2 CUSA schools, one of which has a ton of money to spend and is located in a city with a major aiport, and an AAC school with a rich basketball history have scheduled for 2017.

[GeauxLouisiana]

I don't buy Jay Walker's company line that having good teams play here won't improve attendance; but even if it doesn't, that isn't why I want to schedule good teams anyway.

You don't have to buy the company line. You just have to look at the attendance numbers of when teams like Tennessee, Houston, LA Tech, Nevada have played here. The biggest attendance game of the last decade was against flippin Denver. Why did fans go to that game? It was the 10th game of the 11 game winning streak at the end of the 2011 season.

[ManAboutTown]

You don't have to buy the company line. You just have to look at the attendance numbers of when teams like Tennessee, Houston, LA Tech, Nevada have played here. The biggest attendance game of the last decade was against flippin Denver. Why did fans go to that game? It was the 10th game of the 11 game winning streak at the end of the 2011 season.

That's because we weren't good then.
You people think having "good" teams coming in should equal attendance, which is imbecilic.
You think people are showing up to see us get wrecked?
No. People show up when they believe their team has a reasonable shot a victory.

This is a tired argument.