To look sorry. How about the DH tourney and a travel tourney, NMSU home and away, UNM reciprocating, 1 AAC and 1 MWC reciprocating, then a Big 12 or PAC 12 reciprocating game. Then maybe a home gimmie and a road game at another strong mid-major.
How would you like men's BB Pre-conference schedule look?
- Thread starter axingfools1
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The problem is, our current coach will not play single games versus teams unless they are playing here. He's said so many times, but is showing his true hypocrisy by not playing home and home with UIW etc.
In the previous thread, you mentioned that "UTEP is good enough to beat P5 teams on their home court" Um, when was the last time they did that?
DH tourney is trash. Kill it. Fine with NMSU x2, UNM rotating each year is fine. Play any P12 or B12 team anywhere. Home and Home vs AAC and MAC, road game at Ivy, Big East, or A10. Home opener vs SWAC champ. Home game vs Southland Champ. No more D2 or D3 ever on regular schedule.
In the previous thread, you mentioned that "UTEP is good enough to beat P5 teams on their home court" Um, when was the last time they did that?
DH tourney is trash. Kill it. Fine with NMSU x2, UNM rotating each year is fine. Play any P12 or B12 team anywhere. Home and Home vs AAC and MAC, road game at Ivy, Big East, or A10. Home opener vs SWAC champ. Home game vs Southland Champ. No more D2 or D3 ever on regular schedule.
UTEP has beat plenty of power 5 teams on neutral courts and played some good ones at home when they get the chance. Just off the top of my head we have beat Auburn, Tennesee, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Xavier, Oregon and Michigan while playing a top 5 Arizona down to the wire at home. UTEP doesn't get the opportunities at home because big teams won't play here. That's one thing I beleive coming from Floyd's mouth.
Your schedule sounds good too...
Your schedule sounds good too...
Auburn - neutral court
Tennessee - neutral court
Oklahoma - neutral court
Xavier - neutral court
Michigan - neutral court
Oregon - here
Texas Tech - in Lubbock like forever ago.
So Texas Tech is the only P5 team we beat at their place. Again, no school is afraid to play UTEP. Kentucky said UTEP could come to Rupp a few years ago and Floyd nixed it.
Tennessee - neutral court
Oklahoma - neutral court
Xavier - neutral court
Michigan - neutral court
Oregon - here
Texas Tech - in Lubbock like forever ago.
So Texas Tech is the only P5 team we beat at their place. Again, no school is afraid to play UTEP. Kentucky said UTEP could come to Rupp a few years ago and Floyd nixed it.
Yes I said neutral court and you are proving my point. I said we CAN beat them at home. That's why they don't come here because our RPI has been too low and they are afraid to lose. BTW we beat Texas Tech and Oregon State here during Barbees 3rd year I believe.
I think they beat Washington when Rab was here. So beating Memphis while we were in the same conference counts? That's sad. Might as well count Utah, TCU, Arizona, and Arizona St too.
Just reiterates my point, nobody is afraid of UTEP coming to their house and winning. UTEP doesn't play many road games because this dumb coach thinks it's 1980 again.
Just reiterates my point, nobody is afraid of UTEP coming to their house and winning. UTEP doesn't play many road games because this dumb coach thinks it's 1980 again.
So a few neutral court wins means we can beat them in a true road game? Did UTEP win any of those tournaments? Yeah we beat Oregon St and then they came back and won the game that really mattered to win the CBI. Texas Tech and Oregon St?!? What have they EVER done?
Home and homes with teams like these would be a big improvement:
UNM
SFA
ACU
UTA
Tulsa
Houston
SMU
UNM
SFA
ACU
UTA
Tulsa
Houston
SMU
You are misunderstanding my statement. I'm saying they UTEP is good enough to beat power 5 teams at the Don (Their is referring to UTEP). Thats why I'm pointing out neutral court wins and why those teams won't play here. I agree UTEP should play them on the road but not getting some reciprocation is tough.
Because they suck and there's nothing to gain by playing in Abilene. They can come here, but playing at their place is dumb.
So lets replace for example Lamar and Incarnate word with Texas A&M (road) and Houston and also replace our opener with the SWAC champ. That would be a decent pre-conference schedule. The DH tourney needs some better teams.
The DH tourney is only acceptable when a P5ish team is here. Nebraska, Rutgers, etc. I think NDSU is a good opponent, but would be better if say UTEP played Howard and NDSU was playing Tulsa, K St, etc.
We beat Washington St. in Pullman about 5 years ago. A couple of games before the gambling scandal broke, I believe (or was it the year before?). I think it's our last OOC road win.
Then again, as stated above, our coach doesn't believe in playing road games outside the state of New Mexico for some reason. Which is ludicrous.
What part of his question did he say complain about everything? He just sinply asked what would your schedule be... not our current coach
That is an impossible schedule to put together.
It could backfire and the player's would lose confidence if they go into conference play with a terrible record.
Plus, where are you getting all those games? Besides both tournaments and playing NMSU, UTEP is playing 5 non-conference games.
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I don't mind the D3 schools and the like the first week or so of the season. Lord knows we need time to get the 6 new guys each season accustomed to our hold over players.
I really don't understand why we can't schedule mid majors more often. Maybe they won't play us because they don't like Floyd? It is realistic to believe some bigger schools won't do home and home with us because there is a CHANCE we could beat them here. Honestly, it's only fair if we are going there. The little schools don't get home and home because we PAY them to come here. It isn't hypocrisy. It's financial.
Beef up the home schedule with a FEW more intriguing games. Don't load up the schedule like we are friggin Carolina.
I really don't understand why we can't schedule mid majors more often. Maybe they won't play us because they don't like Floyd? It is realistic to believe some bigger schools won't do home and home with us because there is a CHANCE we could beat them here. Honestly, it's only fair if we are going there. The little schools don't get home and home because we PAY them to come here. It isn't hypocrisy. It's financial.
Beef up the home schedule with a FEW more intriguing games. Don't load up the schedule like we are friggin Carolina.
Do Wichita St and Gonzaga play games against D3 teams? There's 350 other D1 schools. D2 if you absolutely have no other choice, but D3 is non-scholarship trash. Can you name an NBA player that played at a D3 school? I'll wait......
It's financial on why the bigger schools don't come here as well. Why would Georgetown come play here when they can pay St Francis to play in DC? It's not because they're afraid of losing to UTEP, it's because of money. Just like UTEP makes more money paying UIW to come here, than UTEP would make playing at TAMU-CC. To demand home and homes with bigger schools, but not do them with smaller schools is hypocritical. Finances work both ways.
Since UTEP is in a 1 bid, crap league, the coach and AD will need to come up with better scheduling. UTEP will never be in the mix for an at-large bid with the way they currently schedule. They need to play on the road more and if that means making less money, then so be it. The Don wasn't even at 50% capacity for the home opener and many games last season. Their margins have to be razor thin now.
I agree that we need to beef up our schedule. I also agree that we should be playing more games against MWC and AAC type opponents. Playing games against former conference rivals helps to improve schedule strength and excite the fan base. But, as was said, we can't load the OOC schedule with so many tough games so that every game we play is a against a quality opponent. We would end up with an abysmal record. Cupcake games are a necessity. However, we can't afford to play cupcakes that have an RPI of 250 or worse. You would be amazed at how much playing cupcakes in the 150 - 250 range improves your strength of schedule versus playing cupcakes in the 250-350 range. I guess my ideal schedule would be like this:
- Continue playing in the preseason tournaments, NMSU X 2, and UNM alternating home and home each year.
- Play at least 2 more games against quality opponents, whether they be P5 or quality mid-major.
- Keep the DH Tournament as long as we can bring in at least one quality team. Otherwise (and this saddens me to say) kill it.
- For the remaining games on the schedule, play a better brand of cupcake than we typically play.
- Continue playing in the preseason tournaments, NMSU X 2, and UNM alternating home and home each year.
- Play at least 2 more games against quality opponents, whether they be P5 or quality mid-major.
- Keep the DH Tournament as long as we can bring in at least one quality team. Otherwise (and this saddens me to say) kill it.
- For the remaining games on the schedule, play a better brand of cupcake than we typically play.
Whether you beleive it or not, power 5 teams don't want to play here. Aside from finances, Its a lose lose situation because of UTEPs RPI. There are not literally "afraid" to play here but a loss would hurt them in the eyes of the comittee (Unless UTEP was having a great year and a top 40 RPI). They are expected to win but that would be tough on our home court.
Example: Why would lets say A&M or Texas play here when they can go play at Arizona. A win at Arizona and they are good, a loss and they are ok in the RPI. Financially its no different if not more expensive to go to Arizona. Now if UTEP were a more powerful team, they would play here and play or give a home and homes.
I agree Floyd and UTEP need to start playing more power 5 teams on the road but them not coming here us hurting our program. No fault of theirs.
The schedule could be greatly improved without even adding P5 teams, per my suggestions above.
Spot on, man. Nobody worth a shit is going to come into the Don. We may get "lucky" and draw a decent/good school on very rare occasion. Maybe as a favor to Floyd...which, with reality as proof, aren't coming in all that much any more.
We gotta go on the road and play some one and dones. Hopefully pick up a good win here and there. At the very least it CAN help prepare guys for what they gotta play like to get in the tourney and beyond. Would rather play several perennial 30-50 rpi schools on the road than the 200-350 rpi schools at home.
Agree. There are quite a few mid majors where a win would be considered quality. Most of those strong mid majors develop mid/high RPIs every year, or at least most years. That's why "typical" rpi would be a better gauge than P5. Although playing some middle of the road P5 teams is a damn good idea too. A mid major beating a P5 invokes a certain perception...even in cbb. A perception that would benefit UTEP.
In recent years, the tournament has featured some of the highest ranking teams on the schedule.
Akron won the MAC conference and won 27 games last year.
Irvine won the Big West and won 28 games the year before.
This year UNCW comes in having won 29 games and played in the NCAA tournament. They were 33 in the RPI.
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