St.Mary's will play a series with St. John's

[jellybean]

Per Jon Rothetein tweet, St. Mary's comes East to play at St. John's on 12/20 with a return game in '15-16. Who are we playing? Towson. Interesting. Why would St. John's want to play a West Coast team when there are so many comparable teams on the East Coast?

[theneumann64]

Honestly, I'm not sure what this has to do with us. Are you saying that since St. John's is playing St. Mary's, and we're playing Towson, that's somehow a failure on La Salle's part? Not sure I get the connection.

[jellybean]

Questioning scheduling philosophy especially since more than a few posters bring up (a) a series with St. Mary's another Christian Brother University and (b) the diet of the "good teams in weaker conferences". Maybe it would be nice sometime to take the program to another part of the country. Since G has been coach, he has scheduled non-conference games with Kansas and Baylor (one time national TV games)and a series with Oklahoma State and Miami FL outside the region ( consider Penn State in the region).

We have this schedule: Colgate, Drexel, Hofstra and Towson with two more unannounced similar programs. Include Penn, St. Peter's and St. Francis NY and it's no wonder the school ran a promotion for season ticket holders to renew early.

[goexplorers]

Our RPI was 98 last year with a 15-16 record. Our SoS was 44 and our non-Con SoS was 68...in a year where G struggled to schedule quality big name opponents because we were coming off of the sweet 16. Playing teams like Manhattan and Quinnipiac may not look sexy but it sure as heck helps in the numbers game (assuming you win). I don't think that we have much room to criticize G's scheduling philosophy.

[luhoopsfan]

I can only imagine what a 19-12 record would've looked like RPI-wise this past season, especially if 3 of those wins were against SLU, VCU and Manhattan (all games they should have won given the late game scenarios presented)

I would love to see some more "name" programs, absolutely, but given our facility and recent NCAA success, what does one of those name programs have to gain by playing us on the road? Playing a top 20 team at their place would likely give us about a 10% chance of winning, which basically does nothing for you either.

I can't imagine how hard it is to get people to play you.

[a10champion15]

I was one who hated G schedule last year because I thought there wasn't enough high quality games. However, I didn't think the A10 would do as well as it did. In the non conference Providence surprised me with how good they actually were as well did Manhattan.

This years schedule I really like. I like the balance it has. A number of easy games but also some games that should give quality opportunities such as the Big 5 schedule with Nova at home and Temple at the Palestra(we all know Temple won't be down for long), Miami at the Palestra plus the Barclays classic. We should beat Rutgers, there isn't much of an excuse if we lose to them. Having the opportunity to play UVA at Barclays will be really cool. So in the non conference while we have a number of mediocre and decent non conference opponents we also play two top 10-15 opponents either home or on neutral court plus Miami and Temple who will battle for bids. Our A10 schedule is a little tougher then most playing Dayton twice and URI. Also have to play VCU on the road. So I be pretty pleased with the schedule. It offers gquality opportunities as well as "gimme" wins.

Oh and Luhoopsfan go to rpiforecast.com click the RPI wizard and prepare for pain. A 19-12 record with wins over GM, VCU, SLU and Manhattan would have brought us to an RPI of 49 and SOS of 45. Painful I know.

[luhoopsfan]

Jun 9, 2014 11:28:22 GMT -5 a10champion15 said:

Oh and Luhoopsfan go to rpiforecast.com click the RPI wizard and prepare for pain. A 19-12 record with wins over GM, VCU, SLU and Manhattan would have brought us to an RPI of 49 and SOS of 45. Painful I know.

I forgot about the George Mason debacle....Jeez. What a missed opportunity last year was!

Just to torture myself a bit...that game @ St Bonnies after the snowstorm and Zack getting 2 cheap, quick fouls was another win that was there for the taking. Add that one to the mix and the RPI jumps to 39!

20 wins and a top 40 RPI = NCAA tournament

[ck]

As for scheduling, perception has a lot to do with interest in a team. And
St. Joseph's and Temple seem to schedule some big name schools, and on occasion
beat them, every year. La Salle's usual out of conference schedule (like in
2014-2015) is generally barren of name schools. Perception matters.

[MisterD]

But less than our numbers do. Our non-conference SoS last year 83rd to Temple's 105 and St. Joseph's (of PA's) 176.

[jetstorm]

Jun 8, 2014 11:52:11 GMT -5 jellybean said:

Per Jon Rothetein tweet, St. Mary's comes East to play at St. John's on 12/20 with a return game in '15-16. Who are we playing? Towson. Interesting. Why would St. John's want to play a West Coast team when there are so many comparable teams on the East Coast?

St. John's under Lavin have tried to play a game or two on the coast each year. I believe they have played St. Mary's two of the past three years. I have heard that St. John's will play St. Joe's in the preseason NIT @ St. John's !

[Deleted]

As long as we all have wishlists, I'd like us to play some games in Boston or the Carolinas (Charleston was one of our best tournaments from a fan's perspective). However, that is just more wishful thinking. Anyone who questions G's philosophy is totally missing it. G does the best he can under limited circumstances. He has made public the fact that Dukes of the world will only play us in a bought game down there, some of these teams even ask for 3-1's or 2-0's and we just can't operate that way. Or, they don't return our calls. We can't even schedule Xavier now, probably, and they're only borderline good.

[coachd]

Why not try to schedule Kansas State? Or Mississippi State or South Carolina? We can get more recruits from these areas. We need to schedule Georgia Tech or Georgia. G can't fall asleep after the mess that last season became.

[theneumann64]

What an oddly specific list of teams.

[jellybean]

Jun 10, 2014 8:38:09 GMT -5 coachd said:

Why not try to schedule Kansas State? Or Mississippi State or South Carolina? We can get more recruits from these areas. We need to schedule Georgia Tech or Georgia. G can't fall asleep after the mess that last season became.

An EXCELLENT contribution to the discussion by coachd. He correctly pointed out the fact that we need to schedule in GA (large La Salle alumni location). In case, anyone hasn't noticed G has been recruiting more extensively in the South. He also posted on the basketball travelers website that he was looking for a game in either Atlanta (or two hours from airport) or FL. It helps with recruiting too.

[jellybean]

Looks like SJU (Pa) fans are having the same discussions and concerns.

mbd.scout.com/mb.aspx?s=439&f=4542&t=12944941

A few points.

I was strictly addressing the OCC schedule minus Big 5 and tournament games.

I was addressing the lack of exposure to teams outside the Northeast and Middle Atlantic area.

As for missing the point, I totally see what manipulating the numbers is all about.

Facilities. All the "name" games were played at the Palestra. Not an issue.

Last season, we had at least 3 schools in the serious discussion stage back out at the last minute due to television or contract snag. So teams are interested in playing us. They don't want to play us when we are a drag on their RPI.

As for 2-0's and 3-1's, what is wrong with a guarantee game somewhere? Or a 2-1 like Miami? Hykos mentioned Duke. So let's stick with them. We would not benefit to play one game there where we would tested? Get National media and TV exposure? Be able to tell recruits they will get a chance to play at Duke?

FYI, Drexel is going to California this season to play two games around the end of the year. Wouldn't that be better for a lot of reasons than playing two home games at Gola in front of 1100 to 1400 people.

As for Xavier, as far as I know, we aren't evening talking to them. Why would they want to play us when they have Villanova and when they were leading the charge to kick us out of the A10? So in this case, I am missing the point.