I do not like the out of conference schedule anymore than the next guy but after a year of covid and no money coming in a very young team that needs to build confidence I can understand the reasons behind the current situation that being said with this team being a year away I would expect better teams on the schedule next year just my 2 cents
I do not like the out of conference schedule anymore than the next guy but after a year of covid and no money coming in a very young team that needs to build confidence I can understand the reasons behind the current situation that being said with this team being a year away I would expect better teams on the schedule next year just my 2 cents
So the Salukis have Marcus Domask, Lance Jones and Trent Brown, all of whom have played major minutes, in their third years in the program. You have Ben Coupet and Anthony D'Avanzo as post-grad seniors. You have a key JUCO transfer in JD Muila. You have a couple sophomores who gained some valuable D-I experience last year in Banks and Filewich, and other returning rotation pieces in Harvey (fourth year in a D-I program) and Verplancken.
Can't agree that this is "a very young team." On paper, should they be even better next year (if key guys return), yes, but I don't think you can rationalize this home non-conference schedule by chalking it up to "well, they're young, maybe next year ... "
Depth would be where youth would be a problem we can all complain and have opinions but at this point I think it would be best to support the team in these trying times
If Barry Hinson had made this schedule this board would be furious. And rightfully so.
But even Hinson never had a non conference schedule this embarrassingly bad.
As someone else said, it is borderline insulting to the fanbase.
You've got to hope now that the Valley is on the rise again and adding Belmont that they'll talk with the Mountain West or Atlantic 10 about doing a cross-conference challenge. It's really nice to get good mid-majors playing each other. Losing Bracketbusters and the MVC-Mountain West challenge really hurt scheduling.
What’s the old saying, winning solves everything. A few conference championships/tournament invitations and all our scheduling problems will disappear.
I'm not sayin' -- I'm just sayin'!
What’s the old saying, winning solves everything. A few conference championships/tournament invitations and all our scheduling problems will disappear.
Hinson took a lot of shit for scheduling here and he took over a much more dire situation. I was fine with weak scheduling the first two years with a brand new team and COVID in year 2 but this team brought back nearly everyone and should be competing with everyone in the Valley.
I really hope this team gets off to a good start because if they head into Valley play with 5 or so losses, we’re looking at a disastrous season and it would be time to start questioning the direction.
I don’t want to be negative because I'm pumped for this season and the direction the program is headed but the kid gloves are off and it’s time to win and compete.
I loathed Barry Hinson. He was an-at best-mediocre in game coach, horrid recruiter, and refused to put together anything remotely resembling a decent schedule to the point that two different schools-first Missouri State and then SIU-took the privilege of scheduling away from him.
His poor schedules were one of the main gripes against him.
Even Barry Hinson never put together a schedule this embarrassingly bad.
The rundown, home/road/neutral and last seasons NET.
Home:
Austin Peay(248)
Alcorn State(329)
Southeast Missouri(276)
Southern Mississippi(265)
Maryville(Division III)
Missouri Baptist(NAIA)Road:
Arkansas-Little Rock(221)
San Francisco(104)
Tulsa(127)Neutral:
Colorado(9)
Duquesne (139) or Northeastern(146)
Creighton(27), Colorado State(63), Bradley(173, same conference), or Brown(N/A)There is literally one quality game guaranteed to be played and that's against Colorado. But even if they win that there's a mediocre mid major waiting in round two of that tournament. And there is not a not small chance SIU ends up playing conference mate Bradley in that same tournament. And it also features a team who didn't even play last year.
The home slate features D3 Maryville and NAIA Missouri Baptist. These teams should never be on a D1 teams regular season schedule under any circumstance to begin with and to have not one but both is genuinely insulting. When Austin Peay is the best team your home slate features you have issues.
Your best road game is against the team that finished 8th in the WCC.
I understand it is a COVID year but this SIU team is returning, for all intents and purposes, 5 starters(while one, D'Avanzo, is likely going to be a sub), the rest of it's guard rotation(Harvey, Verplancken, Banks), adding back JUCO transfer Muila, grad transfer Ben Coupet who was a 2 year starter at Arkansas-Little Rock and averaged 11 PPG not to mention it's prep recruiting class.
This schedule is embarrassing for the team that is coming back.
I love Mullins and support him whole heartedly but this is straight unacceptable.
I loathed Barry Hinson. He was an-at best-mediocre in game coach, horrid recruiter, and refused to put together anything remotely resembling a decent schedule to the point that two different schools-first Missouri State and then SIU-took the privilege of scheduling away from him.
His poor schedules were one of the main gripes against him.
Even Barry Hinson never put together a schedule this embarrassingly bad.
The rundown, home/road/neutral and last seasons NET.
Home:
Austin Peay(248)
Alcorn State(329)
Southeast Missouri(276)
Southern Mississippi(265)
Maryville(Division III)
Missouri Baptist(NAIA)Road:
Arkansas-Little Rock(221)
San Francisco(104)
Tulsa(127)Neutral:
Colorado(9)
Duquesne (139) or Northeastern(146)
Creighton(27), Colorado State(63), Bradley(173, same conference), or Brown(N/A)There is literally one quality game guaranteed to be played and that's against Colorado. But even if they win that there's a mediocre mid major waiting in round two of that tournament. And there is not a not small chance SIU ends up playing conference mate Bradley in that same tournament. And it also features a team who didn't even play last year.
The home slate features D3 Maryville and NAIA Missouri Baptist. These teams should never be on a D1 teams regular season schedule under any circumstance to begin with and to have not one but both is genuinely insulting. When Austin Peay is the best team your home slate features you have issues.
Your best road game is against the team that finished 8th in the WCC.
I understand it is a COVID year but this SIU team is returning, for all intents and purposes, 5 starters(while one, D'Avanzo, is likely going to be a sub), the rest of it's guard rotation(Harvey, Verplancken, Banks), adding back JUCO transfer Muila, grad transfer Ben Coupet who was a 2 year starter at Arkansas-Little Rock and averaged 11 PPG not to mention it's prep recruiting class.
This schedule is embarrassing for the team that is coming back.
I love Mullins and support him whole heartedly but this is straight unacceptable.
So you're basically saying you don't like it, right?
March on triumphantly!
I loathed Barry Hinson. He was an-at best-mediocre in game coach, horrid recruiter, and refused to put together anything remotely resembling a decent schedule to the point that two different schools-first Missouri State and then SIU-took the privilege of scheduling away from him.
His poor schedules were one of the main gripes against him.
Even Barry Hinson never put together a schedule this embarrassingly bad.
The rundown, home/road/neutral and last seasons NET.
Home:
Austin Peay(248)
Alcorn State(329)
Southeast Missouri(276)
Southern Mississippi(265)
Maryville(Division III)
Missouri Baptist(NAIA)Road:
Arkansas-Little Rock(221)
San Francisco(104)
Tulsa(127)Neutral:
Colorado(9)
Duquesne (139) or Northeastern(146)
Creighton(27), Colorado State(63), Bradley(173, same conference), or Brown(N/A)There is literally one quality game guaranteed to be played and that's against Colorado. But even if they win that there's a mediocre mid major waiting in round two of that tournament. And there is not a not small chance SIU ends up playing conference mate Bradley in that same tournament. And it also features a team who didn't even play last year.
The home slate features D3 Maryville and NAIA Missouri Baptist. These teams should never be on a D1 teams regular season schedule under any circumstance to begin with and to have not one but both is genuinely insulting. When Austin Peay is the best team your home slate features you have issues.
Your best road game is against the team that finished 8th in the WCC.
I understand it is a COVID year but this SIU team is returning, for all intents and purposes, 5 starters(while one, D'Avanzo, is likely going to be a sub), the rest of it's guard rotation(Harvey, Verplancken, Banks), adding back JUCO transfer Muila, grad transfer Ben Coupet who was a 2 year starter at Arkansas-Little Rock and averaged 11 PPG not to mention it's prep recruiting class.
This schedule is embarrassing for the team that is coming back.
I love Mullins and support him whole heartedly but this is straight unacceptable.
FYI - Maryville is D2 and play in the GLVC. Still a horrible schedule, but thought I would just point that out.
The MVC released their ESPN/CBS Sports/MVC-TV (Bally Sports) schedule this week.
ESPN:
Friday, November 19th vs Colorado (ESPN2/ESPNU/ESPN3)
Saturday, November 20th vs Northeastern/Duquesne (ESPN2/ESPNU/ESPN3)
Monday, November 22nd vs Bradley/Colorado State/Brown/Creighton (ESPN2/ESPNU/ESPN3)
Sunday, January 2nd Loyola @ Southern Illinois (ESPNU)
Wednesday, January 5th Drake @ Southern Illinois (ESPN3 or ESPN+)
Saturday, January 22nd Southern Illinois @ Bradley (ESPN3 or ESPN+)
Wednesday, February 9th Southern Illinois @ Northern Iowa (ESPN3 or ESPN+)
CBS:
Saturday, February 26th Southern Illinois @ Drake (CBS Sports Network)
Bally Sports (Formerly Fox Sports Midwest or NBC Sports Chicago):
Tuesday, January 25th Southern Illinois @ Loyola Chicago
Wednesday, February 2nd Missouri State @ Southern Illinois
Seems like the San Fran game can be a good win if SIU can somehow find a way to take the Dons down.
San Francisco has Golden opportunity behind Jamaree Bouyea - Mid-Major Madness (midmajormadness.com)
https://twitter.com/GoodmanHoops
Looks like the Salukis and Mastadons will convene for a pre-Halloween stampede ... I mean scrimmage.
Playing the #280 KenPom team will get this team well prepared for Alcorn State and Missouri Baptist.
KenPom has their preseason rankings up. I'm not sure how much stock I put into preseason projections because it's hard to project college basketball year to year without data coming in from that team and how they gel. Here's where the schedule stacks up:
@ #298 Little Rock (We know they lose Coupet but this looks like a much worse game than expected. They finished #239 last year)
vs #308 Austin Peay (Again, a much worse game than expected. Austin Peay lost Terry Taylor last year and finished #215)
vs #35 Colorado (neutral site) (Colorado finished #8 in KenPom last year so a slight drop-off)
vs #341 Alcorn State (About where you'd expect, a bad team in the SWAC. Alcorn State finished #342 last year)
vs #191 Southern Miss (Finally a better game than expected. Southern Miss finished #256 last year so KenPom expects some improvement)
@ #133 Tulsa (Probably a slightly worse game than expected. Tulsa finished #121 last year. FWIW, SIU is #134 in KenPom so this is basically an even game according to them with the edge going to Tulsa at home)
#268 SEMO (About what you'd expect here. I'm personally fine playing SEMO every year as long as the schedule around it is better. Good rivalry that brings fans to the Arena)
NR Maryville
@ #34 San Francisco (Much better game than expected and actually the best team we play in non-conference according to KenPom. San Francisco finished #93 last year)
NR Missouri Baptist
