Duke playing UConn at Izod

[Bayside44]

Du


UCon's schedule is not defined by games against UAB. Conf USA teams did not play Duke in NYC. UCon will have a good OOC schedule and maintain their visibility. UCon's status is unique. They are not Gonzaga. What has Gonzaga ever won? Last year was critical for UCon's future. As a result, although there are no guarantees, they are likely to continue their success. Their recruiting is going well. Notre Dame in their football heyday is a better comparison than Gonzaga. Whether we play them or not is not going to have a material affect on their program. Do people still think that if we play them we are throwing them a lifeline? Football is another story. Their football team is likely doomed.

College basketball is heading for trouble. The NBA siphons off all the talent and eliminates any internal consistency for college teams. The quality of college teams is decreasing in comparison to the pros. As a result, fan support is increasingly limited to provincial allegiances. Regardless of talent, college bball always had a claim to long-standing traditional rivalries. These rivalries attracted the attention of large geographical based populations in a way not duplicated by the pros. College basketball is making a big mistake by eliminating rivalries like Cuse/UCon, Kansas/Missou, Texas/Texas Tech etc., which were a fundamental strength for the college game.

Like Zaga they are a high profile program in a mid major conference with a high profile coach. Zaga has to go outside their conference to play interesting games like the Huskies will.

I agree that college hoops is a general trainwreck.

 

[Alsacs]

The

Who was central Fl playing? Who did Utah play a few years ago or TCU or UCONN or Boise?



That's just silly. I really think 11-2 with win over a top 3 team is better than 8-5. Really.

That 2006 schedule was a joke Illinois and scrubs in the OOC and they beat Louisville on an epic choke job by Brohm and Petrino and if their idiot gunner isn't offsides Rutgers doesn't get a 2nd FG attempt at the gun and Louisville gets destroyed by Ohio State in NC game and Urban's legend doesn't start then and the SEC streak is delayed 1 year.
They beat mediocre Kansas State in their bowl game we beat mediocre Kansas State in our bowl game. That 2006 schedule was a joke that even when Rutgers was still undefeated after beating Louisville they were only 9th in the country. That season is the golden age of RU football and all they did was beat crap Big East teams and the same bowl opponent we beat in an average 2010 season for SU.

 

[NashvilleOrange]

Who was central Fl playing? Who did Utah play a few years ago or TCU or UCONN or Boise?



That's just silly. I really think 11-2 with win over a top 3 team is better than 8-5. Really.

Different era. The power and non power conferences have been clearly defined with the Power 5. Ask Chris Petersen...

 

[Alsacs]

Point of rules: When 3/8 of your wins in 2010 are against Maine, Akron and Colgate, you forfeit the right to play the cupcake card.

You don't get my point our 2010 was mediocre beyond belief we played 2 BCS non conference games lost both of them BC,Washington and beat 3 scrubs and 4 mediocre Big East teams. We were crap but that wasn't our golden year like Rutgers 2006 supposedly was. If you golden year is beating 1 crap B1G team, 4 scrubs, and 5-2 in the Big East that is mediocre. Congrats to RU for playing 4 tomato fans versus our 3 and not crapping away games like SU did but the seasons are pretty much the same. I could have said 2001 SU and it wouldn't have mattered RU dream season is laughable when you actually look at it.

 

[hallcity]

From Duke's point on view, the rationale for scheduling neutral site games like this is pretty clear. Money. Duke has a VERY expensive basketball program. Coach K's salary is off the charts. Even his assistants make around a million a year. The home team gets the TV revenue from a game but, actually, that revenue goes to the conference. However, when it's a neutral site game, the two schools involved get the revenue. The TV revenue from a game like this is considerable. Probably, Duke will get the lion's share of the revenue. Even though U.Conn just won a national championship, they need this game more than Duke does. Duke can easily schedule a neutral site game with many other schools and get the same revenue. It wouldn't be so easy for U.Conn. Neutral site games like this are how Duke pays the bills.

 

[senorpalmer]

One more time: What does UConn have to do with SU?

SU played a very entertaining group of teams last season and not having UConn on the schedule did not diminish that at all. I can't recall anyone saying "hey we're 25-0 but it's meaningless since we didn't play UConn." And for the love of god who cares if UConn wins 25 more basketball titles or falls off the table...not one of those titles helped to get them to a P5 conference so I hope they enjoy all those electrifying games against Tulsa.

By the way, you can catch UConn-Tulsa on one of the family of ESPN channels since you're such a big booster for that school in Connecticut. Just thought I'd help point you in the right direction to catch one of their games.

I would argue that last year's schedule was the least entertaining we'd seen in maybe a decade. The non-con was somewhat intriguing (though ended up disappointing), but ~2/3 of the ACC was just not good. Don't know about you but I don't get up for games against NIT caliber teams (or worse)--for the record SU played 11 such teams in league play. A game against a team like Ucon, a long-standing rival no less, would have made things more interesting. Louisville will help make things more interesting, but I would never mind an additional good opponent on the non-con slate, regardless of who it is.

 

[Bayside44]

I would argue that last year's schedule was the least entertaining we'd seen in maybe a decade. The non-con was somewhat intriguing (though ended up disappointing), but ~2/3 of the ACC was just not good. Don't know about you but I don't get up for games against NIT caliber teams (or worse)--for the record SU played 11 such teams in league play. A game against a team like Ucon, a long-standing rival no less, would have made things more interesting. Louisville will help make things more interesting, but I would never mind an additional good opponent on the non-con slate, regardless of who it is.

We played at SJU, hosted Indiana and Villanova, and won the Maui Classic. Sure beats a lot of other seasons.

 

[senorpalmer]

We played at SJU, hosted Indiana and Villanova, and won the Maui Classic. Sure beats a lot of other seasons.

I did call it somewhat intriguing, and yes we've seen way worse in the past. However, Indiana proved to be lousy and the field in the Maui Classic was weak compared to most years. Only one of the three teams SU faced ended up in the NCAA tournament.

 

[SUATO92]

I would argue that last year's schedule was the least entertaining we'd seen in maybe a decade. The non-con was somewhat intriguing (though ended up disappointing), but ~2/3 of the ACC was just not good. Don't know about you but I don't get up for games against NIT caliber teams (or worse)--for the record SU played 11 such teams in league play. A game against a team like Ucon, a long-standing rival no less, would have made things more interesting. Louisville will help make things more interesting, but I would never mind an additional good opponent on the non-con slate, regardless of who it is.

As they say we'll just agree to disagree...