If you want to see how much the deck is stacked against the non-power programs, go inside the schedules of some high-functioning mid-major teams and some mediocre high-majors. Start with this: UT-Arlington vs. Arkansas.

The Razorbacks are comfortably in on most mock brackets, including as a No. 9 seed on the Yahoo Sports Big Board. The Mavericks quite likely aren’t getting in unless they win the Sun Belt Conference tournament.

Now consider this: they played each other Nov. 18. An Arkansas home game, of course. The Razorbacks won, 71-67, rallying from a 17-point deficit.

Now here’s the rest of the story: UT-Arlington was playing its fourth game in seven days, the last three of them on the road. On Nov. 14, the Mavericks were at Minnesota; on Nov. 16, they were at Florida Gulf Coast; and two days later they were in Bud Walton Arena trying to make an 11-point halftime lead stand up.

Arkansas hadn’t left Fayetteville yet, playing its third straight at home over the course of eight days.

Fair fight? Hardly. And if the outcome had gone the other way, it might be the difference between in the Dance and out for both teams.

UTA coach Scott Cross is offering no excuses, but he offered an explanation. He told The Minutes that his program is tasked with creating $300,000 annually in guarantee-game revenue, which is one reason the Mavericks played nine road games and just four at home during non-conference play. He also said that after upsetting Ohio State and Memphis on the road last year, scheduling games became much more difficult for 2016-17.

One home game against Rice fell through due to a conflict with a volleyball tournament, so UTA picked up the game at FGCU in August, on the only date offered – right in between road games at Minnesota and Arkansas.

UT-Arlington lost all three of those road games, despite having double-digit leads in all three. Minnesota is a tournament team, FGCU leads the Atlantic Sun, and as mentioned Arkansas is in most brackets at present.

UTA? Not getting much at-large love, despite a 21-6 record, an 11-3 league mark and a No. 36 RPI ranking through games Sunday. The Mavericks won at Saint Mary’s and at Texas, but haven’t picked up any quality wins in the Sun Belt because there are none to be had.

But consider one more fact of life on the road as a mid-major: UTA’s only loss since Jan. 14 was by two points at Coastal Carolina. It was the second game of a road trip, coming two days after playing Appalachian State in Boone, N.C. UTA’s trip required a flight to Charlotte, a bus to Boone, then a five-hour bus trip from App State to Myrtle Beach, S.C., for the game against Coastal Carolina. That’s a bad loss that came at the end of a brutal trip.

“That one is on us,” Cross said. “I can’t blame the schedule for that.”

Still, teams like Arkansas don’t make those trips, with bus rides and back-to-back road games commonplace. Teams like Arkansas don’t play UTA’s non-conference schedule. But they get the benefit of the doubt at tourney selection time.

(02-21-2017 09:14 PM)mjs Wrote:  UTA coach Scott Cross is offering no excuses, but he offered an explanation. He told The Minutes that his program is tasked with creating $300,000 annually in guarantee-game revenue, which is one reason the Mavericks played nine road games and just four at home during non-conference play. He also said that after upsetting Ohio State and Memphis on the road last year, scheduling games became much more difficult for 2016-17.

The Trojans shouldn't have any problems scheduling games for '17-'18 season. Any major program will be glad to pay them to come take a loss for the program, and a whole lot of mid-majors might be interested in playing us. And we can give Flannigan all the credit for that. He has made the Trojans mediocre again. Actually we may not even be mediocre. Gotta at least play .500 ball to be considered mediocre.

How's this for a slogan: "Let's Make Little Rock Mediocre Again!"

(02-21-2017 10:48 PM)UALRSuperFan Curtis Wrote:  How's this for a slogan: "Let's Make Little Rock Mediocre Again!"

Flannigan has done it.