Not playing them next year would really look like we were "ducking" them. They may well be better than us, but I would like to settle it on the court. I think with Corliss at UCA and UAPB an NCAA team, a 4 team Christmas tournament with us and ASU at Verizon could work. Getting ASU here might be the biggest challenge. It would obviously need some corporate backing to cover the necessary guarantees. I do think that if it is promoted right we could get 5000-6000 people a night which would make it a relatively "big" event for downtown LR/NLR.

If that doesn't fly, I'd like us to invite UAPB to open the season at Stephens. They have thousands of alumni in Little Rock and with a little promotion (ex. The Arkansas Challenge) we'd fill the Stephens Center. I'd also like to get UCA in for a game. I think they would bring in a good crowd as well. I think it is essential for us to put together a home schedule next season that will get people excited. We already have excellent nonconference games against Ole Miss, LaTech, and Tulsa. Bringing in UAPB and UCA would just add excitement to the schedule. They may hurt our RPI a little, but after this season I'm not that concerned about that.

Ain't gonna happen. No way we play UAPB nor UCA.

(03-16-2010 10:55 PM)Scotto Wrote:  Ain't gonna happen. No way we play UAPB nor UCA.

Do you believe it's become our "policy" to not play these teams?. Do you think we are scared? Or that we don't want to give them more credibility? (I think an NCAA win already did that for UAPB). Seems like our administration would want to bring in teams that would create excitement and bring in fans/dollars.

I'd love to see it. Would definitely boost our attendance. If there's an issue with potentially playing ASU a third time in a season, then invite a fourth team (Arkansas Tech, maybe? Or an old TAAC rival like Georgia Southern or Mercer) to fill it out. Like the old TCBY Tournament but with some more meaning to it.

Hey, maybe we can invite the Hogs to be the fourth team...!

(03-16-2010 11:42 PM)eh9198 Wrote:  I'd love to see it. Would definitely boost our attendance. If there's an issue with potentially playing ASU a third time in a season, then invite a fourth team (Arkansas Tech, maybe? Or an old TAAC rival like Georgia Southern or Mercer) to fill it out. Like the old TCBY Tournament but with some more meaning to it.

Hey, maybe we can invite the Hogs to be the fourth team...!

What I was envisioning was not an actual "tournament". ASU vs. UAPB and UALR vs. UCA one night- then we'd switch opponents the next night.

It would be hard to schedule from a money perspective because UAPB needs guarantees for those games. and then its hard to convince ASU and UALR that they ought to play neutral site games against 2 schools both of us believe we are better then

Then you have this issue of what would you do on Day 3 when UAPB would play UCA. we obviously cant pklay you guys in a nonconference game...it just wouldnt be the same

Now unless you could work it out with the Sun Belt where we could play maybe 2 days before the tournament our conference game at Stephens and let UCA play UAPB there before our game in a double header, then take a day off and play the set up at Verizon. that might work out. Maybe use the off day in between and let the teams visit Childerens Hospital together or something... have a big banquet that night honoring everyone and celebrating the non cowardly D1 teams in this state

I just dont see ASU wanting to play a setup like that unless we agreed to put our conference LR game somewhere around that date. We're not going to want to play doubleheaders on back to back days and give each other free scouting chances

Until we play any of them it sure looks like we're all cowardly.

Poultryjam and Woofwings.

(03-16-2010 11:03 PM)mjs Wrote:  Do you think we are scared?

Yes, and it irritates me. Don't be scared; just be honest.

Someone throws enough money on the table and anything can happen.

(03-16-2010 11:55 PM)mjs Wrote:  

(03-16-2010 11:42 PM)eh9198 Wrote:  I'd love to see it. Would definitely boost our attendance. If there's an issue with potentially playing ASU a third time in a season, then invite a fourth team (Arkansas Tech, maybe? Or an old TAAC rival like Georgia Southern or Mercer) to fill it out. Like the old TCBY Tournament but with some more meaning to it.

Hey, maybe we can invite the Hogs to be the fourth team...!

What I was envisioning was not an actual "tournament". ASU vs. UAPB and UALR vs. UCA one night- then we'd switch opponents the next night.

I believe everyone would like to see that.

(03-17-2010 10:44 AM)LRTrojan Wrote:  

(03-16-2010 11:55 PM)mjs Wrote:  

(03-16-2010 11:42 PM)eh9198 Wrote:  I'd love to see it. Would definitely boost our attendance. If there's an issue with potentially playing ASU a third time in a season, then invite a fourth team (Arkansas Tech, maybe? Or an old TAAC rival like Georgia Southern or Mercer) to fill it out. Like the old TCBY Tournament but with some more meaning to it.

Hey, maybe we can invite the Hogs to be the fourth team...!

What I was envisioning was not an actual "tournament". ASU vs. UAPB and UALR vs. UCA one night- then we'd switch opponents the next night.

I believe everyone would like to see that.

I guess I'll be the contrarian. I see no point in playing ASU, since we already play them twice when it counts. I would enjoy an annual game or even a home and home with UCA, and an annual home game with UAPB, if they would agree. But the tournament idea? Not for me. Wouldn't mean as much as a regular season game that counted in the overall D1 record. And as far as RPI, that's silly anyway. We're never (probably) going to have an RPI high enough to qualify for an at large bid, so it's still win a lot of games, get to the tournament finals or win the tournament and that's our best chance for postseason. I don't ever want to do what UAPB did this year and play all those games on the road against top opponents. Worked for them this year, but I'm not sure it would be acceptable for us.

(03-17-2010 11:09 AM)outsideualr Wrote:  I guess I'll be the contrarian. I see no point in playing ASU, since we already play them twice when it counts.

I don't think we should play ASU again, either, and the league probably would not let us. I would like to see a little annual mini-tournament, however in which the two SBC teams switched off playing the two other teams. Hold it the same day on a Saturday, rotating the arenas.

#1. The only way you will never have a sufficient RPI for an at-large is by choosing to do so. USA made it at-large two years ago, WKU would have been at-large last year. If you don't think you can effectively compete at that level, I'll send over some Summit and Southland membership brochures. The league was down this year but ASU, FAU, USA, FIU, and ULM were all heavily dependent on newcomers this year (freshmen and jucos) the RPI overall is going to bounce up and UNO will be gone as well.

#2. I've no problem with the two day doubleheaders and makes reasonable sense during the Christmas break when drawing home crowds is an issue for most everyone. If the money is there, why not?

#3 My issue is this... Playing UCA/UAPB is that really big enough thinking? MTSU and WKU play the Sun Belt Classic in Nashville, a one day event. This season was MT vs. UT and WKU vs. Vandy. The time before it was MT vs. Memphis and WKU vs. UT. To me it would make better sense to put effort into finding sponsors for an Arkansas version of the Sun Belt Classic and try for a single day event that pits ASU and UALR against teams like Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Missouri, Memphis, Tennessee, Ole Miss, Miss.St., LSU, Texas, TAMU, Baylor as part of a doubleheader on a Friday or Saturday immediately after finals. Playing in Verizon, one can make a good argument that it's not a home court for UALR. If we are going to think smaller and do something that is local, isn't high profile and not an RPI booster, then let's just rent Summit Arena for the weekend and play our all-Arkansas event there where the tickets are harder to get and TV doesn't pan across so many empty seats.

I like that idea. A lot.

I think what WKU and MT are doing is using the event to get home and "home" deals with these schools. If a school will come play in the event, they will play a return game at that school.

(03-17-2010 11:09 AM)outsideualr Wrote:  

(03-17-2010 10:44 AM)LRTrojan Wrote:  

(03-16-2010 11:55 PM)mjs Wrote:  

(03-16-2010 11:42 PM)eh9198 Wrote:  I'd love to see it. Would definitely boost our attendance. If there's an issue with potentially playing ASU a third time in a season, then invite a fourth team (Arkansas Tech, maybe? Or an old TAAC rival like Georgia Southern or Mercer) to fill it out. Like the old TCBY Tournament but with some more meaning to it.

Hey, maybe we can invite the Hogs to be the fourth team...!

What I was envisioning was not an actual "tournament". ASU vs. UAPB and UALR vs. UCA one night- then we'd switch opponents the next night.

I believe everyone would like to see that.

I guess I'll be the contrarian. I see no point in playing ASU, since we already play them twice when it counts. I would enjoy an annual game or even a home and home with UCA, and an annual home game with UAPB, if they would agree. But the tournament idea? Not for me. Wouldn't mean as much as a regular season game that counted in the overall D1 record. And as far as RPI, that's silly anyway. We're never (probably) going to have an RPI high enough to qualify for an at large bid, so it's still win a lot of games, get to the tournament finals or win the tournament and that's our best chance for postseason. I don't ever want to do what UAPB did this year and play all those games on the road against top opponents. Worked for them this year, but I'm not sure it would be acceptable for us.

That's my whole point. We would not play ASU. We would play UAPB and UCA and so would they. I think it could be a fun annual event that folks from all the schools could look forward to.