How many of you think you will have a basketball team that's capable of playing a quality non-conference schedule and winning 20+ games next year?

You probably know where I'm going with this.

My initial gut says UAB, Middle Tennessee, Old Dominion, and Louisiana Tech are the most likely contenders.

Not sure what to expect with Marshall and Charlotte.

If you are one of those initial four mentioned avoid the SWACs and MEACs, schedule as many projected top 100 teams as possible and put yourselves in a position for an at large.

If you are the other eight programs not mentioned above schedule as many Division I games that you can win as possible. It will help the league and may even help build confidence in your program.

As a Tech fan I can tell you we have struggled to get P5 programs to play us over the years. WE end up scheduling SWAC teams just to fill out the schedule.

Rice could pull it off if their injured guys come back in full force.

What does UTEP have next year? Will Southern Miss be off of probation?

I had hopes for WKU next year, but that's looking pretty ugly now.

(03-21-2016 09:29 AM)pilot172000 Wrote:  As a Tech fan I can tell you we have struggled to get P5 programs to play us over the years. WE end up scheduling SWAC teams just to fill out the schedule.

We have that same problem.

You got Ohio State and Ole Miss this past year. That's enough.

You have to go look for it in other places. That's why we went out and got a home and home with VCU. Not a traditional non-conference opponent we would play.

You can't put Grambling and Prairie View on there. Trust me. No one knows as much as I do how hard it is for those of us not on the east coast to schedule. You would be better off playing a home and home with the Cajuns in the same year than playing four SWAC schools. We have done this some with Belmont. They are always good, so rather than playing a crappy team just play 'em twice.

As far as our schedule, ODU has a nice field in the Battle for Atlantis Tournament.

http://www.atlantisbahamas.com/b4a

Michigan State
Louisville
Wichita State
Baylor
LSU
VCewageU
St. John's

In addition, we should have VCU, Richmond, and W&M at home. Maybe Georgia State as well.

We need to replace Uchebo with 2 or 3 other quality bigs. We're not going to replace a guy that was #1 in rebounding per 40 minutes (not sure if he finished the season there or not, but he was definitely top 10), so we're going to need to replace him by committee.

If we get better production from the post, I think we could be very good next year. Our young guards this year were clearly very good, but the lack of post options prevented us from playing defense very well. A rim defender could do wonders for this team.

I'm not really sure what kind of OOC schedule we have yet. Hopefully something quality, but not quite as tough as this year. Playing Cuse, Washington, Michigan, and Miami in a week long stretch was a little too tough for us this year, but we didn't really have much say in that since we were invited to the Atlantic tournament.

I know next year we have Wake Forest on the road, Oregon State at home, and Davidson on the road. I think we also play ECU and App State, but I don't know about the rest of the schedule.

(03-21-2016 09:32 AM)ODUBB35 Wrote:  Rice could pull it off if their injured guys come back in full force.

What does UTEP have next year? Will Southern Miss be off of probation?

I had hopes for WKU next year, but that's looking pretty ugly now.

I have a hard time believing that a 10-win Rice team that was under .500 against teams with 200+ RPI is going to flip the script and win 20 next year playing a quality non-conference schedule - even with people returning.

Rice needs a soft schedule. Let's just get them to .500 in the non-conference portion of the schedule. That would be a huge benefit to the league as opposed to the 3-8 they produced this year.

(03-21-2016 09:46 AM)ThreeifbyLightning Wrote:  

(03-21-2016 09:32 AM)ODUBB35 Wrote:  Rice could pull it off if their injured guys come back in full force.

What does UTEP have next year? Will Southern Miss be off of probation?

I had hopes for WKU next year, but that's looking pretty ugly now.

I have a hard time believing that a 10-win Rice team that was under .500 against teams with 200+ RPI is going to flip the script and win 20 next year playing a quality non-conference schedule - even with people returning.

Rice needs a soft schedule. Let's just get them to .500 in the non-conference portion of the schedule. That would be a huge benefit to the league as opposed to the 3-8 they produced this year.

Perhaps. But like Marshall, they were a different team when conference play started. Just missing a few pieces to the puzzle that might have been on their bench.

(In fact, that's one of the problems the conference had this past year.)

(03-21-2016 09:32 AM)ODUBB35 Wrote:  Rice could pull it off if their injured guys come back in full force.

What does UTEP have next year? Will Southern Miss be off of probation?
I had hopes for WKU next year, but that's looking pretty ugly now.

That question alone will determine our fate next year IMO. I'm not saying it's NCAA or bust but if the NCAA puts us on another year's probation I don't see us being in the top 250. OTOH, if we are finally off I can see us being a possible top 200 or better team.

As for the team, ODU will miss Freeman for sure, as well as Bacote (we missed him sometimes this year, Ha!) and Biberaj. However, we have a lot of talent coming in, that, on paper, looks pretty good.

Incoming Recruits
Alassane Kah – 6’10” Center. ESPN 3* http://www.verbalcommits.com/players/alassane-kah
Randy Haynes – 6’4” Juco Scoring Guard http://www.verbalcommits.com/players/randy-haynes
Xavier Green – 6’5” Combo Guard http://www.verbalcommits.com/players/xavier-green
Travis Fields – 5’10” Point Guard http://www.verbalcommits.com/players/travis-fields

In addition to this year’s redshirts:
B.J. Stith – 6’5” Scoring Guard. ESPN 3*, Rivals 4* http://www.verbalcommits.com/players/b-j-stith
Austin Colbert – 6’8” Power Forward. ESPN 4*, Rivals 4* http://www.verbalcommits.com/players/austin-colbert
Trey Porter – 6’10” Power Forward http://www.verbalcommits.com/players/trey-porter

We should be a different looking team next year with much more depth, particularly in the front court. We have question marks at PG with Freeman gone. Caver looked OK in spots, but playing behind Freeman limited his opportunities. We’re still hoping for a transfer to upgrade there.

(03-21-2016 09:52 AM)usm99 Wrote:  

(03-21-2016 09:32 AM)ODUBB35 Wrote:  Rice could pull it off if their injured guys come back in full force.

What does UTEP have next year? Will Southern Miss be off of probation?
I had hopes for WKU next year, but that's looking pretty ugly now.

That question alone will determine our fate next year IMO. I'm not saying it's NCAA or bust but if the NCAA puts us on another year's probation I don't see us being in the top 250. OTOH, if we are finally off I can see us being a possible top 200 or better team.

I would hope that one year should be plenty (not sure exactly what happened). It can't help your recruiting any. CUSA needs a strong USM.

(03-21-2016 10:06 AM)ODUBB35 Wrote:  

(03-21-2016 09:52 AM)usm99 Wrote:  

(03-21-2016 09:32 AM)ODUBB35 Wrote:  Rice could pull it off if their injured guys come back in full force.

What does UTEP have next year? Will Southern Miss be off of probation?
I had hopes for WKU next year, but that's looking pretty ugly now.

That question alone will determine our fate next year IMO. I'm not saying it's NCAA or bust but if the NCAA puts us on another year's probation I don't see us being in the top 250. OTOH, if we are finally off I can see us being a possible top 200 or better team.

I would hope that one year should be plenty (not sure exactly what happened). It can't help your recruiting any. CUSA needs a strong USM.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketba...violations

We self imposed a post season ban 2 years ago and a 2nd year was added which was this past season.

(03-21-2016 10:10 AM)usm99 Wrote:  

(03-21-2016 10:06 AM)ODUBB35 Wrote:  

(03-21-2016 09:52 AM)usm99 Wrote:  

(03-21-2016 09:32 AM)ODUBB35 Wrote:  Rice could pull it off if their injured guys come back in full force.

What does UTEP have next year? Will Southern Miss be off of probation?
I had hopes for WKU next year, but that's looking pretty ugly now.

That question alone will determine our fate next year IMO. I'm not saying it's NCAA or bust but if the NCAA puts us on another year's probation I don't see us being in the top 250. OTOH, if we are finally off I can see us being a possible top 200 or better team.

I would hope that one year should be plenty (not sure exactly what happened). It can't help your recruiting any. CUSA needs a strong USM.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketba...violations

We self imposed a post season ban 2 years ago and a 2nd year was added which was this past season.

Any feel as to what next year will bring? I would think that would be enough.

Obviously, lots of questions going around WKU, but as far as our schedule goes we have a Tourny in Vegas around Thanksgiving with UNLV, Washington, TCU and 4 more teams TBD. We also have Belmont and at Detroit on the schedule.

No clue at WKU. Too many questions to be answered. Obviously everything hinges on maintaining roster and recruits, and getting a good coach.

I'd say we are in for a rebuild.

(03-21-2016 09:29 AM)pilot172000 Wrote:  As a Tech fan I can tell you we have struggled to get P5 programs to play us over the years. WE end up scheduling SWAC teams just to fill out the schedule.

I do not mean to sidetrack us here, but I have heard this a lot from a number of C-USA teams. I do not feel that Charlotte has a particular problem with this. In fact, considering the RPI hit our visitors have taken the last five years maybe it is amazing they still show up, but hopefully we are righting that ship. Why do you think our experience is different?

(03-21-2016 10:34 AM)Nugget49er Wrote:  

(03-21-2016 09:29 AM)pilot172000 Wrote:  As a Tech fan I can tell you we have struggled to get P5 programs to play us over the years. WE end up scheduling SWAC teams just to fill out the schedule.

I do not mean to sidetrack us here, but I have heard this a lot from a number of C-USA teams. I do not feel that Charlotte has a particular problem with this. In fact, considering the RPI hit our visitors have taken the last five years maybe it is amazing they still show up, but hopefully we are righting that ship. Why do you think our experience is different?

We're an easy trip since we're 20 minutes from the airport. Also, Charlotte has basketball talent. Some schools that visit can invite local guys to the game to watch them play, meet with coaches, players, etc.

We provide more potential value than just a basketball game. I doubt places like Ruston, Bowling Green, and Hattiesburg have much basketball talent other schools want to get in front of.

I think perception is part of it too. We've been a good team in a major conference before, so we probably have a perception that we no longer deserve. The other urban schools in this conference have always been in mid major or low major conferences.

(03-21-2016 10:15 AM)ODUBB35 Wrote:  

(03-21-2016 10:10 AM)usm99 Wrote:  

(03-21-2016 10:06 AM)ODUBB35 Wrote:  

(03-21-2016 09:52 AM)usm99 Wrote:  

(03-21-2016 09:32 AM)ODUBB35 Wrote:  Rice could pull it off if their injured guys come back in full force.

What does UTEP have next year? Will Southern Miss be off of probation?
I had hopes for WKU next year, but that's looking pretty ugly now.

That question alone will determine our fate next year IMO. I'm not saying it's NCAA or bust but if the NCAA puts us on another year's probation I don't see us being in the top 250. OTOH, if we are finally off I can see us being a possible top 200 or better team.

I would hope that one year should be plenty (not sure exactly what happened). It can't help your recruiting any. CUSA needs a strong USM.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketba...violations

We self imposed a post season ban 2 years ago and a 2nd year was added which was this past season.

Any feel as to what next year will bring? I would think that would be enough.

Supposedly a final decision is to be announced sometime in April. Hopefully it will be a loss of a scholarship or 2 and some other minor restrictions. We've played the last 2 seasons with around 10 or so scholarship players so I don't feel like that should hinder us as much as postseason ban. We had 3 players redshirt this past year in hopes of trying to make the postseason before they graduate. 1 of the 3 was a true bench player and mainly saw reserve or emergency action (like the time we finished a game with 4 players)

Considering we have won 18 games or more 12 out of the last 14 years and our definition of a losing season is 15-17 I think we should always be in the conversation as one of the top teams.

We have the entire team returning except Mooris. With the addition of Willms who returns from injury and Mcswiggan who wasn't allowed to played this year we will definitely be contending for a title.

It's not as if I have some strong influence on who we schedule. We just roll with it buy our season tickets and attend the games.

We only lose Kelly but thats a large chunk to replace. Dantoni will only play all D1 teams in the future. I doubt we get to 20 wins next year. Likely record will be about the same as this year. jmo.