(01-19-2012 01:34 PM)bearcatmark Wrote:  

(01-19-2012 01:19 PM)Ragpicker Wrote:  

(01-19-2012 12:59 PM)bearcatmark Wrote:  3rd Wise Man- absolutely spot on with your analysis. Our non-conference scheduling in terms of setting us up in the best possible way to make the tournament and earn as high a seed as possible, has been somewhere between God awful and horrendous. Does not take away any of the enjoyment I have watching the Bearcats play right now, but we have not done ourselves any favors. I hope we figure this out, before it comes back to bite us in the ass. It killed Bama last year and they have already made the adjustments to build an out of conference schedule that can get help them if they are on the edge.

I hear the comment all the time that when you play in the Big East you don't want to play a "brutal nonconference schedule." Nobody is suggesting we do that. People are suggesting we schedule with a tiny bit of intelligence and get some teams that are not going to be 20,000 pound anchors on our SOS.

Good news if UC keeps winning 80% of our Big East games, all it may cost us is a seed line or two. We'll still be dancing.

Did Bama defeat a Top 10 RPI team on the road and a Top 20 RPI team on the road?

That is my point and why Bama was a bubble team. Again if we achieve in an incredibly high level in conference play, like we are now, our non-conference schedule is only going to cost us a seed line or two. (which matters as well) I want us to correct how we schedule in the non-conference so that it cannot seriously harm us down the line.

If we continue to win games like we are we'll not only make the tournament but we will be a high seed as well. That does not change the fact that our non-conference schedule puts us at risk, it just means that the team excelled at a level that overcame the risk.

I agree our OOC schedule has been poor. We both know that some of those reasons include the Vegas tournament issue, our broke athletic department, and the Illini's new problem. Let's see how next year's schedule looks under Whit's supervision.